The 2014 Spring Plugfest in Lincoln just wrapped up last week. I did not see the final numbers, but would guess there were 180-210 total attendees and participants. The Plugfest had 16 VT stations and 13 TC stations, plus each participant went to the AEF Database station and the AEF Conformance Test station. A total of 34 different implement ECUs were being tested: 24 were testing a TC client while the others were only testing the VT client. DISTek had 2 of these ECUs for testing our VIRTEC VT-Client and TC-Client sample applications. The Plugfest also had 4 FMIS systems available and a few TECUs. In addition to these ISOBUS components formally listed at Plugfest, we also saw at least 3 File Servers active on CAN buses and a variety of Aux Inputs located at many stations.
DISTek has been to more than a half dozen Plugfests now, but this trip we placed some emphasis on gathering deeper metrics for the various devices that were being used and tested. At this point, we are only testing implement-side (client-side) communications, so we were only able to gather significant data from the Virtual Terminal (VT) and Task Controller (TC) servers.
While we gathered more than the following information about the VTs, here is a high-level summary of what was available at Plugfest:
| Company | Device | VT Version | Data Mask Pixels | SoftKey Pixels | # of Softkeys |
| CLAAS | Communicator II |
2 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
10 |
| CNH | Pro 700 |
3 |
480×480 |
60×60 |
6 |
| CNH | Pro 300 |
3 |
234×234 |
60×32 |
6 |
| Deere | 4600 |
3 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
10 |
| Hansenhof | Farm Display |
4 |
480×480 |
98×72 |
12 |
| Raven | Viper4 |
4 |
480×480 |
132×72 |
12 |
| Topcon | X30 |
4 |
480×480 |
72×52 |
16 |
| Wachendorff | Opus A3 |
3 |
272×272 |
96×60 |
8 |
| Ag Leader | Integra |
3 |
600×600 |
72×72 |
10 |
| TeeJet | Aeros 9040 |
2 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
10 |
| AGCO | C1000 |
3 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
6 |
| AgJunction | Outback MAX |
3 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
10 |
| Anedo | CCI200 |
4 |
480×480 |
72×72 |
12 |
| Protonic | Holland Pro |
3 |
480×480 |
92×92 |
10 |
| CLAAS | S10 |
2 |
480×480 |
74×74 |
10 |
As you can see from the table, the most common VT metrics include a version 3 VT with a 480×480 data mask and 72×72 soft keys. These sizes probably came about at a time that VGA (640×480) LCDs were prevalent. Obviously it can prove to be a challenge to implement an object pool that looks good on a 234×234 CNH Pro 300 as well as a 600×600 Ag Leader Integra, but the standard still allows for VTs down to 200×200 (and up to 65535×65535!). It is also interesting to see two new version 4 VTs in Raven and Anedo. The Raven Viper4 is a brand new display, but the Anedo CCI200 has been around for quite some time and is just now moving to v4. Not everything on these v4 VTs is fully implemented, but it is nice to see the move toward some more advanced features.
