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ELECTRONICS: A growing problem area in farm equipment
ELECTRONICS: A growing problem area in farm equipment
INTRO
Electronic controls have been around for some time. Long enough for them to become unreliable. Farmers are faced with huge bills for their repair. Or, as is often the case, electronic failure signals to them that it's time to change the machine.Electronic systems and tractors and farm equipment was summed up by a contractor in Cumbria who told me the two don't go together.
"Printed circuit boards in household equipment will fail in 4 or 5 years. Put them in farm machinery and the combination of vibration, rainwater, corrosive slurry, fertiliser and other materials, heat and cold, gives them a much tougher time."
This comes from a man in his thirties (just in case you imagine him to be be too old to cope) whose business involves providing a wide range of services for the mainly livestock area, but also doing arable work as well.
CASE 595 LOADER goes haywire on the road
He loads spreaders with a Case 595. The 4WD, four wheel steer machine is now 6 - 7 years old. The steering mode is controlled by a selector switch on the joy stick control, which provides a choice of locked back axle, four wheel steer, crab steer and maybe even locked front axle. The mode selected is locked while the joy stick is used to control the loader.
At first, just for a fraction of a second, the loader would do something unexpected, and then work normally. Sometimes it might jerk up an inch or two, almost as if the lever had been accidentally nudged. It was easy to live with.
The Case 595 (which is really a Massey) is a great loader with good ground clearance and four equal size front wheels.
The problem then spread to the steering system. Going along the busy A66 the Case suddenly started went into all wheel steer mode. The rear axle was steering and the digger swerved alarmingly and narrowly missed a truck coming in the opposite direction. It was a dangerous incident which should never have happened.
The control box is located underneath the cab and has "a million wires going into it", and like all control boxes was going to cost more to replace than the value of the machine. The answer was to replace the electronic system with a simpler one based on relays rather than micro circuits. The replacement box took some hours to build, the circuit being designed on paper. The switches remained almost unchanged, but instead of the wires disappearing into a box with a printed circuit and micro chips they went to replaceable relays. The cost was affordable.
The case now works exactly as before, but the back axle is isolated from the control settings. To get four wheel steer you now have to throw a special switch that is locked off.
FENDT VARIO does things without being asked to
Similar problems occured with his Fendt Vario tractor. The tractor started to do things without being asked to. Much time was spent trying to discover the cause of the problem, to isolate the control box which was playing up, but there was no conclusive answer.
The problem was solved with nothing more than a pen knife. Under the cab there is a 'U' shaped plastic conduit which carries a huge quantity of wires. The advice was to vary carefully cut a hole in the bottom so any water that might be in it can drain out. Sure enough, there was some.
The low voltage electronic control system is so sensitive that the insulation on the control wires breaks down under water. So the tractor's brains became scrambled. Unfortunately the story didn't have a happy end, as the Fendt's problems were not all going to be solved with a pen knife - most needed a hefty cheque book. The verdict was that the tractor was a superb piece of engineering, when it was working as intended. But keeping it functioning was an expensive and frustrating nightmare, and the conclusion was to get simpler, and far cheaper machinery to do the job.
JF 'FC' MODEL PRECISION CHOP FORAGE HARVESTER has over-priced control box
Another young farmer sorted a similar kind of problem on his JF forager. The control box has a joy stick which operates the spout and also the pick up hitch. After fewer years than he would have wanted, four to be accurate, the controls stopped working properly, and getting grass into the trailer was a hit and miss affair. The dealer's response was a replacement box at £750 or so.
It coincided with the weather turning wet, so he had a window of bad weather to get the problem sorted. He thought the price unreasonable and decided to get rid of the box and make something up for himself. He contacted RS Electronics who helped solve some of the design problems over the phone, and sent all the parts, including two four way switches, relays, the frame on which to mount everything, and a strong plastic box in which everything fitted, for £50. The components were fitted together in less than two hours, and the forager has all the functions it had before.
Original box - replacement £750 approx
Home built replacement - £50 approx
The dealers missed a sale because the weather changed - and the farmer had the confidence to tackle the alternative. More often than not the farmer will see no alternative to spending the £750, apart, that is, from weighing up the cost of replacing the control box against the price of a brand new machine, a decision which any dealer would want to point out. Interest free, maybe, delivered next day, guaranteed, and a good part exchange on the old one. Instead of £50 they would be looking at £5,000.
The latest issue of Practical Farm Ideas is on sale, and I strongly suggest you get hold of a copy. Take a preview on www.farmideas.co.uk and see the full contents of what is covered this issue. Then click on subscriptions and get the next issues as they come out in February, May, August.
Best wishes
Mike Donovan, editor
PS Please take a look at the Special Offers and Xmas Gifts
PPS If you have a Farm Electronics story - good or bad - please let me know
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