Spring 2018 AEF ISOBUS Plugfest Preview

Another ISOBUS Plugfest week is almost here. From May 14-18, the AEF will once again host engineers from around the world for ISOBUS testing and some related events in Lincoln, NE. I have previously explained the mechanics of a Plugfest, so go take a look at some of my old blog posts if you want more info on that. The initial schedule I saw for this year showed 66 different pieces of equipment that will be tested during the three days of the Plugfest. DISTek will be participating with our VIRTEC stack and with our VT Server application. In total, DISTek expects to have 5-7 people attending Plugfest.

2018 Commodity Classic Recap

Prior to the annual planting/growing season, the ag industry holds an annual trade show and convention called the Commodity Classic. This year the event was held in Anaheim, California from Feb. 27th-Mar. 1st with the theme “Grow Beyond!” The Commodity Classic is the largest farmer-led, farmer-focused trade show held in the U.S.

Better Late than Never – Year in Review/The Future

Indeed I am a little tardy in my year-in-review blog entry. But, without further ado, here is my one-and-a-half-month-late DISTek Year-in-Review, coupled with a look toward the future to finish the DISTek: Past, Present (parts 1 & 2), and Future series of blog posts.

Alternative Tools Lead to Creative Solutions

Here at the DISTek products department, we’re always looking for ways to make our user’s lives easier. As engineers that use our own products, this is doubly important to us! We’ve identified that open source tools can be one possible solution to alleviate potential issues down the road.

We spend a lot of time designing user interfaces for ISOBUS VT clients. There are a few tools currently on the market, and while these tools get the job done, we’ve found a few shortcomings…

Where in the World is DISTek Integration?

DISTek is on the move again after what may seem like a quiet few months since AGRITECHNICA. Of course we have been busy internally, and we did visit the Indiana-Illinois Farm and Outdoor Power Equipment Show and the Iowa Power Farming Show back in December. But our heavier show-season is getting ready to kick off in earnest starting with…

Automated UI Testing for VT Clients

Much of the software engineering industry uses testing techniques that aren’t often available to those of us in the embedded industry. In my experience, this has definitely been true of automated UI testing while working on ISOBUS VT clients. In a previous position, I spent much of my time creating test frameworks, including those for testing web applications through the UI.

Regular DISTek blog readers will have noticed that we took a VT server implementation to AEF PlugFest in spring 2017. Part of our motivation from the start of this project has been to give VT client developers the ability to automate functional testing of their applications.

ISOBUS Plugfest – Fall 2017 Wrap-up

As I write this, we are less than two weeks removed from the most recent ISOBUS Plugfest, held at the Maritim Hotel in Stuttgart the week of 16 October 2017. As in past years, the Plugfest itself was held Tuesday-Thursday while several other AEF meetings were scheduled Monday-Friday. The Plugfest this year was either the biggest ever, or at least quite close……

DISTek to Attend Fall 2017 ISOBUS Plugfest

The ISOBUS Plugfest is nearly upon us once again. Each spring in Lincoln, NE, and each fall in Europe, the AEF (Ag Electronics Foundation) coordinates a Plugfest during which ag electronics from different manufacturers are tested for interoperability. This fall, Plugfest is October 17-19 and engineers from around the world will be meeting in Stuttgart, Germany. I counted quickly so my numbers may be off, but I think there will be 74 Ag implement systems (“Clients”) and 42 Ag displays (“Servers”).

Spring 2017 ISOBUS Plugfest Recap

Once again, the AEF put on another successful ISOBUS Plugfest last month. Approximately 130 individuals associated with electronics for Ag equipment spent the week of May 8th at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln, NE. The key attraction is the Plugfest itself, during which nearly 1000 combinations of implement ECUs and displays were tested.

Spring 2017 ISOBUS Plugfest Preview

Once again, another ISOBUS Plugfest is upon us. On May 9th, dozens of Ag electronics engineers from around the globe will descend upon the Embassy Suites in Lincoln, NE, for three days of testing. ISOBUS exists to provide a standardized method of communicating between Ag vehicles and Ag implements, and Plugfest exists to do a quick spot-check on different types of equipment in one location. I strongly recommend attending a Plugfest for anyone involved in engineering networked electronics for heavy equipment, especially if that equipment supports third-party additions.

2016: A Year in Review

Here at DISTek we just competed our 24th full calendar year as a company, which means our 25th anniversary happens in 2017. We are excited to think about our future as we pass this milestone, but it is also healthy to step back and review what we did in 2016. We took some bumps and bruises along the way – as did many in the industries we serve – but we also had some exciting successes.

Fall 2016 ISOBUS Plugfest Review

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Another successful AEF ISOBUS Plugfest is in the bag. You can check out some of my prior blog posts if you want more detail on what a Plugfest entails, but in short, it is a meetup of Ag electronics manufacturers to test their own equipment with other manufacturers’ equipment. This was a record-breaking Plugfest in terms of participation and it made for some challenges in getting enough time for all participants to test with other manufacturer’s products.