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For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

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Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#431

Post by pjc50 »

combatentropy wrote: post #365
NicoJuicy wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that break are electrical, not mechanical. The mechanics of reliable machines are taught in school and are widely available + relatively easy to repair. And I'm speaking from growing up in a village with the highest agricultural % of population in Belgium. Which my family is also pretty involved with ( my dad is a veterinarian for farm animals, my uncle has ~40 tractors) Also: a cousin with a garage, some…

> I'd actually buy a mechanical environmental-friendly car. I agree. In fact an electric car could be simple. Just because it has an electric motor doesn't mean it has to have a computer too.

Realistically it does have to have a computer, but not necessarily a visible one. Power motor control is tricky - it requires monitoring the phase angle between the drive currents and the motor position, as well as things like overcurrent protection and the ability to switch to regenerative braking. Oh and you'll want traction control in there because the torque is highest at zero RPM, unlike petrol motors.

Even electric scooter size motors will have smart controllers. They're a big market for microcontrollers, e.g. TI: http://www.ti.com/solution/dc-input-bldc-motor-drive

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#432

Post by imtringued »

killjoywashere wrote: post #352
unapologetic wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They all want to get to the point of being Tesla. Hiding features only in software, pushing out updates, and trying to bake in a living (recurring revenue) model. It's a problem for a lot of reasons. First off it's the complete death of ownership. I can't fix things. At some point they will probably just lock stuff back down if I want to sell, assuming I can even sell without them getting a cut. Second, repairability…

> I don't want a car where someone can push safety critical changes the way we push shitty software updates now. I don't trust them to get it right. I don't want to be sold a car that tries to kill me after a mandatory software update. It's not needed, and it's a bad idea. I don't want a bridge where someone can make repairs the way we make shitty pothole repairs now. I don't trust them to get it right. I don't want…

This is a strawman. Why are you talking about public infrastructure in a submission about privately owned vehicles that are exclusively used on privately owned land that has no paved roads or any significant traffic?

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#433

Post by dsfyu404ed »

melling wrote: post #15
privateSFacct wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All good ideas, but repairing surface mount / integrated / dust and vibration glued parts is not as easy EVEN IF they were open standards as a 40 year old tractor is to repair. I spent way to long repairing an old gas engine, it was super simple in terms of operating approach. Opening the hood on my new car - the fixes are not as obvious.

I couldn’t even swap out a headlight in my girlfriend’s car, because of the tight space. Instead she has to pay a garage to do it. That’s not it used to be.

This is pretty common for modern cars, I'd say post 2008ish or so. Headlights just don't go out as often as they used to so OEMs feel more comfortable making that a bumper cover off, pay a mechanic, type job.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#434

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

pjc50 wrote: post #430
modo_mario wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify the money for use of certain seeds bit? I'm quite interested in EU affairs and hadn't heard of this. I'd expect something that wouldn't give money for certain seeds but this seems like that turned around.

Yeah, EU farm subsidies are problematic but they're also notoriously mis-reported, so this needs proper citation.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=pl&tl=en&u=htt...

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#435

Post by dsfyu404ed »

viator wrote: post #26
xtian wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vote with your vote. As far as I know only two candidates in the presidential primary race support right-to-repair: Sanders and Warren.

Because the shortest path to fixing anything is always electing a politician who knows nothing about that thing, in order to have them approve legislation written by other people who know nothing about that thing, that demands that companies do a thing. That always works great.

I agree with you in the general case but Warren does have a long history of consumer advocacy.

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#436

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

modo_mario wrote: post #420
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share your sentiment. In the case of farming is not so much progress as regress, at least in many cases. For example, in Europe farmers can get the money from the EU, but only if they use certain seeds. So basically there are a couple of crops to choose from that get repeated year by year. What happens to the soil is a great disaseter. Obviusly nobody can use more natural kinds of fertilizers these days and the foo…

Can you clarify the money for use of certain seeds bit? I'm quite interested in EU affairs and hadn't heard of this. I'd expect something that wouldn't give money for certain seeds but this seems like that turned around.

Frankly, I was very suprised to hear this, too. I visited a rural family last year and we had a short chat about this. I had expected the subsidies are for machines etc., but influencing the choice of crops in this way seems really misguided. Whoever created this had good intentions, but the results are lamentable. (The family in question still have a large portion of land they cultivate in a more natural way, alternating the crops properly etc.)

Re: For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity

#440

Post by ossworkerrights »

macinjosh wrote: post #98

My grandfather, rest his soul, was a 3rd generation rancher and farmer. He bought 2 John Deere tractors in the '80s and used them for 35 years. They are still being used to this day on the ranch. Growing up, I visited the ranch regularly. Farming and ranching is very hard on equipment so the tractors often needed repair. My father and grandfather could seemingly fix anything on the tractor without even needing to go…

"The family farmer is going extinct." This is a pretty sad state of affairs. I feel like this is true for other industries as well, including tech. Corporate socialism appears to be eating all forms of free enterprise and while it has some benefits such as scale products, it has far too many drawbacks such as less freedom.
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