Today it was time again. A friend's computer went on strike. It is urgent, as always when this computer denies its services, which happens about once a year.
The needed equipment does not only include the common tools.
No, today the most important things are:
- rubber boots
- a baseball cap
- an old work sweater
- an old work trousers
- a handful of 3.5 inch floppy disks
- an USB stick
The special equipment is needed because this computer is located in the next room of a cowshed. From this PC, the feeding system for about 150 cows is controlled. If it strikes, the cattle must be fed by hand and that is a considerable extra effort for the farmer.
Technical specifications
| CPU | 486DX2-66 (66 MHz) |
| RAM | 8 MB |
| Hard disk drive | 220 MB |
| External data carriers | 3.5 inch floppy disk drive (~ 1.4 MB) |
| Operating system | MS-DOS 6.22 + Windows 3.1 |
| Audio | PC Speaker |
Functionality
The PC is connected to the feeding station via modem. The cows wear a collar with different coded transponders. So each animal can be assigned an individual feed quantity and type of feed. Of course a query of the individual animals in relation to the already issued amount of feed is possible.
The controlling software works purely on MS-DOS and has a size of ~ 400 kB.
Fortunately, today it was just a broken keyboard and the rubber boots were not necessary. The following pictures show the computer and the system. The photos are from previous repairs but nothing has changed technically until today. As long as there are spare parts for it, the owner does not want to do any major conversions in this stable.
Picture Gallery
The computer with the controlling software "ID2000" has a faulty motherboard
The laptop as a temporary solution until a new, old computer is found
This is how the interface looks with an error message
Before starting the program I should plug in the modem :-D
This is where the fodder is coming out
The feeding station and the control electronics
Control electronics with a little fly droppings around - delicious!
The control electronics here had a broken solder joint on the board. Probably caused by the vibrations that some animals produce when they want to have more concentrated fodder than is programmed.