Farmers Struggling With High-Tech Farm Equipment

[hutchman]

A friend sent me this link so I thought I'd share. The 'Farm Hack' site looks interesting.

It got slashdotted:
Farmers Struggling With High-Tech Farm Equipment - Slashdot

"The cost and hassle of repairing modern tractors has soured a lot of farmers on computerized systems altogether. In a September issue of Farm Journal, farm auction expert Greg Peterson noted that demand for newer tractors was falling. Tellingly, the price of and demand for older tractors (without all the digital bells and whistles) has picked up. “As for the simplicity, you’ve all heard the chatter,” Machinery Pete wrote. “There’s an increasing number of farmers placing greater value on acquiring older simpler machines that don’t require a computer to fix.”

Link to full article on Wired Magazine:
New High-Tech Farm Equipment Is a Nightmare for Farmers | WIRED

 

[CobyRupert]

"Dave asked me if there was some way to bypass a bum sensor while waiting for the repairman to show up. .... I was unable to breach the wall of proprietary defenses that protected the tECU like a fortress. I couldn't even connect to the computer. Because John Deere says I can't."

Like when you spend hundreds or thousands or dollars for a computer, especially Apple, you don't really own it or have control of it. In this case it's $100,000 of thousands for equipment, that you don't really "own".

When he said he was trying to bypass a bum sensor, I was thinking "Well why doesn't he just zip-tie the seat sensor like everyone else does?" :laughing: