He has had to purchase those code readers for years and his last software update cost him 250 bucks. Over all he has spent thousands on code readers and software. But having him around is a life saver and a wallet saver.

He says the code equipment and software are his largest tool expense. He would work on more foreign and exotic cars but the equipment is just not worth it. For those few foreign jobs he gets he calls in a few favors and borrows the needed equipment.

Those just aren’t available for tractors, as they don’t follow a standard, and the computer systems are proprietary to the manufacturer.

As for Calvin Dodge’s post, I remember seeing a website as well where someone made a free program to read CAT codes using your laptop so you do not have to pay a lot of money to some tech.

The right to repair not only is for farm equipment, but also your cars and electronics. I do most of my own car repairs. It is something I can do to save money and I also enjoy it. There is a satisfaction when you do the work yourself.

You can do the same with a USB dongle and code reader software for your cell phone.

The reality of OBD-II is that once you’re used to working with the diagnostic codes, it’s very easy to work with.

European cars use EOBD, Australians have their own version as well, and they all use the same diagnostic port.

The difference with the tractors is that Deere John and others, having no SAE equivalent standardization have created their own packages which lock the owners out of the repair loop completely. The lawyers will eventually win, either through legislation or the courts, as the concept of someone owning a piece of equipment but not being able to repair it themselves is utter lunacy.

There are extremely high end cars which factory only service and repair requirements, but the way the manufacturers work around that is they don’t truly sell you the car, it’s essentially an open ended lease.

https://opensourceecology.dozuki.com/c/LifeTrac

Part of the problem with that option is that many of the bells and whistles are needed to comply with today’s emissions requirements. Farm equipment used to be exempt from those regulations, but not so much anymore. For better or worse, complying with those emissions regs means new equipment must have a fair amount of electronics involved to operate.

However, major manufacturers like John Deere, or Apple in the consumer electronics sector, fight tooth-and-nail to keep consumers from having the ability to hire someone to troubleshoot and repair their equipment. This major manufacturers will not supply schematics or technical information, and in some cases they actually take independent repair technicians to court claiming the right to repair the equipment is exclusively the manufacturers’. See https://repair.org/agriculture

Independent repair techs can replace a faulty cap, IC, or power transistor on a board for $200-$300, parts and labor. The manufacturers like Deere will have their techs replace the entire board, with the total service call ending up over $4,000, plus a backlog waiting for the repair to take place.

There is currently evolving a nationwide movement for “Right to Repair” that will hopefully expand to all products and markets.

My bee tractor is a John Deer 4310 (32Hp) bought in 2002. Hydrostactic is about all the bells and whistle besides the mid mount mower.

Sure wish I had it down in NM right now.

Sad in a way.

He started out rebuilding really old stuff for himself and the small collector market. It just expanded from there to working equipment.

I have heard of a few farmers who have gotten together and hacked their farm equipment computers because it was cheaper then calling out the maintenance crew who often times just updated the software and charged them thousands.