Farmers jailbreaking John Deere tractors to repair them - video

[Jon]

Farmers jailbreaking modern John Deere tractors so that they can repair them themselves. 11:30 video:

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electr...ight_to_repair

Previously:

John Deere tactical tractor
John Deere tractor vs. train - GIF
Custom John Deere tailgate - photos
John Deere combine lawnmower made from Simplicity mower

[Frank S]

This in now only limited to agg. but the mining and construction industry as well. And not just the green goblins but Yellow red orange Blue and every other color of machine manufactures. A few years ago I was doing some welding repairs on a friend's excavator when he asked me to take a look at a fuel leak it had. I told him what parts we needed Cat sold him the parts then after installing them the machine refused run he and I messed with it and messed with it He knew that I used to rebuild the older versions very part we had just replaced. I called a guy in the service depart to find out what I may had done wrong. The first words out of his mouth were you have to bring the machine in so it can be reprogramed to accept the new fuel system parts.
Things are no longer plug an play for just about everything.
I asked him if I could connect my laptop to it and get a disk and do the programing myself. OH sure you can all you need to do is buy the interface module and cables and a $10,000.00 user license then your laptop can be used to do MINOR programing but the machine still wont function properly until it is interconnected with Caterpillar's data system. But you didn't hear this from me he said if you just need to get it started to track it onto a trailer do this and this and this that will let the machine start and have enough power to track itself on the trailer this is what our field tech have to do to bring machines in for repairs.
we got it running but in my opinion every computer in every construction machine that controls the engine and running functions should be wrapped in thermite and torched

[CharlesWaugh]

Nerf just came out with DRM protected darts for their guns. No joke.
Their guns won't work with third-party darts.
Same issue applies.

[madokie]

another reason to DVD !!!!!!! (dont vote dem)..the republicans and trump recently has to get all over the EPA,, because the epa was trying to stop junkyards from selling cars to racers to make race cars out of because they might not have all the emision control equipment on them !!! and the EPA thought that the racers would build a race car without all the proper emission control equipment on it.!!!!!

[CharlesWaugh]

Madokie,
That's a different issue altogether: emission controls, enforced solely by the Feds.
Right To Repair is driven by the corporations who want to control every single bit and byte of the market and our lives and spend zillions lobbying the gov't to block regular folks.
It's not a DEM vs. GOP issue, it's the stupidious DRM and CMCA laws.
Gotta change 'em!

[Frank S]

It all can be boiled down to the folks who wear neckties and suits If neckties were banned then their brains could get oxygen. if suits were banned then the rest of their body could move more freely then they could actually do something besides just sit on their butts and make up things that are useless to the real world.
get out and get dirt under their fingernails or leave everyone alone

[MeJasonT]

I know i bang on about skills shortages - a lot.
If you don't have young kids fixing cars they don't grow up to be rocket engineers.
Academics cant fix bugger all, they lack practical skills - am i alone in thinking this.
Point being kids cant fix cars anymore because of the computer blocking the possibilities of them making repairs

Unfortunately the suits are not listening, the politicians are not listening and industry is not listening. we need a spark of energy fed into the suits preferably connected to the grid, the proverbial rocket up the arse.

Cars have gone down the same route even to the extent that the light bulbs are CAN Bus enabled, seriously.
A printer for your PC, you pay a fair price for it then pay the same every month just for ink (which happens to be nothing more than vegetable dye and priced at £30 for 7 grams), A set of cartridges for my current printer is £54 - the printer cost £150.
Its cheaper to throw the printer away every few months just to get the free start up cartridges, but wait if i dispose of the old one what am i doing to the planet.
Printers never used to cost much more than they do now. The cherry on the cake has to be the printer ink agreements where they monitor your printer on your behalf and send you new ink every month on a contract. If you happen to be hard up one month and haven't used the printer much you end up paying a direct debit charge for bloody ink you don't want or need.

Its all about making money, unfortunately we are made to need their products. Take computers for example, if you don't have one in the UK you can no longer (or find it extremely difficult) to access services, pay bills or ask for customer support. It has got to the stupidity that yesterday we received a census questionnaire from the government which said if we had difficulty using the internet to fill out the census form or would like a paper copy we could apply for one online ? Thank god we have gun laws or the UK would be like the wild west.

I am a great fan of open source and freeware, this movement has given us (the people) the ability to build our own 3D printers and Drones. it has taken less than five years for the government to start legislating against the freedom and creativity of the people. With 3D printers its the concern over plastic waste and with drones its the flying along side jumbo jets doing in excess of 200mph? Cause everyone owns a military drone capable of such flight. Seen one of their drones its the size of a cesna.

I must be careful what i'm saying as big brother will be watching - why don't you just chip me and install a tracker already like a dog.

Brexit has proven that democracy is a myth and the suits demand control or change the rule book so they get what they want, are they really acting on our behalf or the dollar sign.

I support the guys in Nebraska, Its getting to a point where we can no longer earn a living we are simply working to keep others in the life they are accustomed to and just to make sure we are not making a little on the side they simply create a need and then make the product unavoidable. This is not capitalism its piracy, theft, slavery.

I have also noticed that everything has a basic starting price (this will be in sterling, sorry)
Broadband £30 ish a month
Landline telephone £30 ish a month
Mobile phone contract £30 ish/ avg a month
Sky Television - package starting from - you guessed it £30 a month

Some clever little Sht has decided that our disposable income per week is £30 ish per week and figures we will use at least some if not all of the listed services.
There are only so many bites of the apple you can take until its all gone. But wait one of the companies challenging right to repair Microsoft is now wanting you and i to use our computer via a subscription service, can you guess how much they want.
The idea of everything on subscription is not a bad thing if you consider what its supposed to provide, customer service, instant repair or renewal, unfortunately the benefits don't happen. John Deere tractors are basically giving you a subscription to tractors, the alternative to ownership of your tractor is leasing of course.
That's it in a nutshell

[MeJasonT]

Just watch what happens with electric cars they are already tying you into a lease with batteries. they predict that every tri-annual service will require a complete battery replacement costing in the region of £1500 to £2000. Add that to the cars depreciation value of £1200 per year. That's 5 grand, currently what i spend every 10 years on a second hand car. i would have to save up for 40 years to afford a cheap electric car and after 3 years wouldn't be able to afford it.
i'm sure the production of sulphuric acid for the batteries and plastics to manufacture the batteries will be good for the atmosphere not to mention the waste they will produce is good for the planet
if i buy a second hand electric gar will i get new batteries included or will i end up with a huge bill to get it on the road.
which prat thought that was a good idea.
why not retrofit old cars with electric engines and associated systems
whats happens in major accidents when the whole of the belly pan of your car is one massive sulphuric acid bath ? (where they are locating the battery packs on some cars)

[baja]

This in now only limited to agg. but the mining and construction industry as well. And not just the green goblins but Yellow red orange Blue and every other color of machine manufactures. A few years ago I was doing some welding repairs on a friend's excavator when he asked me to take a look at a fuel leak it had. I told him what parts we needed Cat sold him the parts then after installing them the machine refused run he and I messed with it and messed with it He knew that I used to rebuild the older versions very part we had just replaced. I called a guy in the service depart to find out what I may had done wrong. The first words out of his mouth were you have to bring the machine in so it can be reprogramed to accept the new fuel system parts.
Things are no longer plug an play for just about everything.
I asked him if I could connect my laptop to it and get a disk and do the programing myself. OH sure you can all you need to do is buy the interface module and cables and a $10,000.00 user license then your laptop can be used to do MINOR programing but the machine still wont function properly until it is interconnected with Caterpillar's data system. But you didn't hear this from me he said if you just need to get it started to track it onto a trailer do this and this and this that will let the machine start and have enough power to track itself on the trailer this is what our field tech have to do to bring machines in for repairs.
we got it running but in my opinion every computer in every construction machine that controls the engine and running functions should be wrapped in thermite and torched

Add International to that list

[Frank S]

Back when the average truck farms had fields in the range of 80 acres each. Equipment also averaged in the 100 to 200 drawbar horsepower range you didn't need GPS to tell you where you were in the field or satellite imagery to spot low yield spots. the equipment was in general repairable by folks who had a good mechanical aptitude IE the farmer or his sons & daughters. the thought of entering into a contract where they needed to pay $$$$$$ each year to maintain their equipment was unheard of. the smarter farmers knew about crop rotation to preserve the productivity of the land without the need of some agronomist coming out and taking soil samples to what nutrients and minerals were lacking in their soils.
But as we say the world moved on. Demands for higher and higher yields stressing the soil to the point of no return without the interjection of more and more artificial means, Equipment began to increase in size requiring the fields to be combined into ever larger tracts of land because it was not feasible economically to even turn the huge equipment around in smaller fields due to the amount of end row land required. I have a friend in Minnesota whose family farms now have fields in the 1000's of acre range which are miles and miles long and wide some of their equipment might cost upwards of 2 to 5 million dollars per piece and only get used 2 months at a time once or twice a year the rest of the time it is parked inside of a climate controlled building not just a shed with a roof and wind walls to prevent exposure to snow and the ultraviolet rays of the summer sun. They don't own just 1 or 2 of anything they own or rather they pay yearly for the privilege of using and storing whole fleets of equipment. During planting or harvesting seasons breakdowns are not an option. He or rather his family out of shear necessity must employ a staff of certified well qualified repair persons since taking their equipment back to a dealer would be not only cost prohibitive completely impossible in some cases as some of the equipment would require a tear down into several smaller assemblies just to transport it then be hauled to a port and shipped to places like Sweden where it was made.
He is the exception in the go big or go home class of farmers. Folks like my cousins family farms up in Colorado where they only have 12,000 acres can't afford to lease or own large fleets of every type of equipment for their operation so Where Chris's family may own 10, 20 or more of one type machine Gary might only have 3 or 4 or possibly only 1 and have to hire a lot of their tillage and harvesting done. When 1 of Gary's combines breaks down he is at the mercy of you guessed it John deere which in itself wouldn't be all that bad providing his was the only equipment to ever need repairs.
Even if a large dealership has a sizeable staff of repair persons those 2 times a year which are the most critical to not only the farmers but every person who depends on produce of food stuffs being readily available on the supermarket shelves depend on the dealerships ability to preform the repairs quickly, but what happens when they are overwhelmed with simple breakdowns? Things that the farmers could diagnose themselves then determine if the equipment should be sent in or a mobile repairman be called out. This is what would make the most sense to me. The same should go for cars trucks and household appliances in my opinion.