OUR HISTORY

The story of DIGITROLL dates back in the 80’s when Imre Kőrösi, working as service manager for the largest Hungarian agricultural machinery distribution company (KITE Zrt.), came to know the first seed monitoring systems. Dust buildup on sensors caused recurring problems and remained unsolved by manufacturers despite the many complaints season to season. He decided to address this problem himself and develop a new seed sensor which works reliably in dust conditions. Following a long research and development period he found the solution and the idea was patented. In 1992 he founded Digitroll Kft in his family house, the little workshop was established on the second floor, furnished with a second hand purchased writing desk. Little later came the first man employed. In the next years, not much to the family member’s delight, the company further expanded within the house: a storage room, a developer room, a meeting room… and further colleagues joined Digitroll. In 1998 Imre Kőrösi’s wife, Erika left her job as teacher and helped manage the company. Digitroll started as a one man venture and has grown to a prosperous family company. Today Erika and all three children (Péter, Erika, Gergő) work at the company in different areas. Digitroll moved to the neighbour house where management, development, prototyping and small series production takes place. Larger production series are outsourced under strict quality control.

Initial product development and production was hard, moreover, creation of the world’s first dust compensating seed sensor was only the first step. Imre did not find a suitable monitor on the market, as they did not show seeding performance, solely seeding – not seeding status was shown to operators. He decided, utilizing the most advanced technology of the 90’s, to evaluate seed sensors data by a microprocessor and display seeding performance with bar graphs on a new LCD display. The Farmer Monitor was introduced to Hungarian farmers in 1996.

Though farmers were satisfied with Digitroll products, feedbacks made Imre Kőrösi realize that most defects root in the use of large cable harnesses and multiple cable connectors. He found a solution to reduce cabling, and a single cable connects sensors to the monitor. To do this, a brand new communication protocol had to be elaborated, where each sensor – through built-in micro controllers – send its data to console. ‘String System’ with the promise of easy installation and low defect rate was introduced in 1999, and an enhanced version of this protocol still works in Digitroll products of today.

By the end of the 90’s Digitroll seed monitoring systems became most widely used in Hungary and more and more were sold in the neighboring countries. Millennium was greeted with the first air drill blockage monitoring system. In 2008 our most popular and successful Seed Master Integra system appeared on the renowned Väderstad Rapid air drills.

Today, all attention of Digitroll is turning into the development of new technologies, R&D projects are accomplished by excellent creative engineers. All efforts are made to meet demands of our customers and keep the promise: ‘We make seeding visible’.

Imre Kőrösi
1954-2010