Hi,
I am interested if someone tried building the ISOBUS Virtual terminal. Simply connect ISOBUS equipment with older tractors that do not have built-in ISOBUS.
Best Regards.
A few years ago a company was advertising a bluetooth CAN plug that worked in conjunction with an iPad app to provide a virtual terminal. Sadly they never made it to market.
The open source IsoAgLib library does enable one to create virtual terminal clients, but does not implement a virtual terminal itself. Also the isobus standards documents are very expensive to obtain, and the standard itself is quite complex. So sadly until now we have not seen any open source virtual terminal. Even a low-cost proprietary one would be quite useful. An app on a tablet would be ideal.
Actually I did find this for iPad: ‎Vireo on the App Store. Only works with one CAN plug called a JCA thrasher. Not sure how much that costs but since the app is free I imagine they charge a significant price for the module.
Yes… this will be expensive
The only way that an open source isobus VT would be created is if someone invested large amounts of time and money into developing one. I am sorry but it is also way beyond what most people would be able to diy. Maybe if enough people could get together and invest in it, but at the end of the day it isn’t really worth it. But I do imagine that there will be some low-ish cost, plug in proprietary modules available which would be much better suited.
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I understand that it requires large amount of time and knowledge. I am hoping that together we can make something awesome. It is a big community with a low of smart people, I think that if we work together we can build something.
Is someone interested in this topic?
We can create a git repo where everyone can contribude with the knowledge, which is very much appreciated.
Best regards
You can use a terminal from Muller-elektronik like Basic-terminal, Track-guide II or the newest terminals. I think it is affordable. You can check it on the website from Muller.
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To create an open sourced isobus is going to take a large financial investment to buy the standards documentation. So unless there are some people on here looking to blow tens of thousands of dollars it probably won’t happen.
edit: Maybe tens of thousands was a bit of an overstatement but for example there are 14 standards that make up ISO 11783 each of them costing ~$300 CAD and 60-80 pages long. So at least about $4200 just for the basic documentation of 840-1000 pages in length. Plus it appears that their are several other standards pertaining to safety and other parts. Plus I am not to sure what intellectual property rights ISO holds on its standards and might go after someone trying to freely publish them in open source software.
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Although IsoAgLib is available, i have seen no diy implementation of a isobus compatible implement at all. Is there a diy implementation already?
Would be great to control our old implements with the terminal of the new tractor…
None that I’m aware of. I can’t even find good working examples of using isoaglib to talk to a virtual terminal which could be very useful for open source farm projects.
Checkout isobus++ on github. I think you just need to build it on your machine and use usb to can device to get the basic setup.
I was looking at ISOBUS++ a little bit earlier. It appears that it is still in its infancy and doesn’t have full functionality yet. It still seems to not have very many examples where it interacts with a virtual terminal though. Their is an tutorial site but I can’t get it to load so I can’t say how much is there.
Not sure how helpful it is but in the ISOaglib there is a couple links to a wiki that appear to walk you through setting up a Virtual terminal client. Haven’t taken a deep look but it appears that it is part of some course. Might be worth taking a better look at.
I found this it seems there is also VT :
GitHub - Meisterschulen-am-Ostbahnhof-Munchen/ISOAgLib at 41b270b1c16aee7f04c63fbc95de572a1074d870
Having helped building a Iso-Bus program for a planter (including section control and some other functions over Iso-Bus) I do think Iso-bus is the way to go forward. For this project I managed to get the 14 ISO standards via my mechanical engineering course. So if anyone has got some specefic questions about the standards feel free to send a message.
Also I can’t agree more that there is a need to have cheaper and more accessible VT screens, but also cheaper software to create the Isobus applications.
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How hard would it be in your opinion to make an open source VT? I would assume that it would be quite a task as unlike for a client you would not be able to only partially implement the standard. But wouldn’t you essentially have to have complete isobus functionality for an open source VT to work properly with any client. Also how comprehensive are the 14 isobus documents? I noticed that their appeared to be quite a few other standards that pertain to isobus.
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Must say that I only read the parts useful for our project, but downloaded al standards just to have it complete for possible later projects.
As for other standards, I am still a student, so I can still access more standards if needed.
This morning I skimmed trough the VT standard, and must say that most things are quite detailed.
The most difficult would be time and recourses I think, which touch screen to use etc. I think it would get expensive quite fast.
Also I was only helping a colleague with this section control project, I was mainly there because of my experience with GPS (SBG, Raven, Deere and Trimble) and my interests in the subject, to learn some things that might could turn out to be handy in the future. I could ask my colleague about this matter, maybe he could come up with a more useful answer.
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About hardware, I think that it is possible to use can-peak (with usb) to get the data to a windows pc. I am working with can peaks at my workplace to get the can data. It just needs to be parsed by the software and displayed.
ISO Designer is free, anyone tried that?
Oh yes they do have a free, limited license. I downloaded the app but was unable to determine how to register it to the limited license. It’s in demo mode right now.