Now in the spotlight

JCB has held for its dealers a practical training on the new LiveLink software. Among others, the event was attended by specialists of AgroCentre. The JCB experts came up with a newly developed product that keeps agricultural equipment always in the spotlight.

“LiveLink is unique software enabling us to remotely monitor agricultural equipment”, says Oleg Zabluda, JCB product manager. “All the farmer needs to use it is a PC connected to the Internet”.

How it works

The LiveLink electronic unit is integrated with the machine and gathers the information from various sensors. This is subsequently sent via mobile communication network to the JCB protected information centre. Using the LiveLink website, the user displays the machine control information and distributes it via either e-mail or mobile phone.

The system components

The system consists of two different types of tracking devices: LiveLinkLite (LLL) and LiveLink 2 (LL-EBU). They keep track of the number of the machine's operating hours and determine its whereabouts.

LiveLink Lite (LLL) is a telemetric block which is installed during after-sale maintenance of the machine for supplying basic information about it. It can be installed on any model of equipment, not only that from JCB.

LiveLink 2 is functionally more efficient compared to LiveLink Lite. It conveys the information via a satellite communication system similarly to GPRS, controlling such parameters as cooled liquid and transmission oil temperature, oil pressure in the engine and presence of water in the fuel, among others. The system is connected to the CAN bus which reads off the machine-related info. The obtained data are gathered and transmitted to the server every 15 minutes. The GPS satellites enable the system to determine its location on earth. The system operates on the same principle as satellite navigation for cars. The data gathered by the system (related both to the CAN bus and the GPS navigation) are conveyed via GPRS (2G) to the servers. The data are stored and processed by the JCB servers and are available through the Internet.

“The LiveLink system optimises the engineers' planning of servicing and maintenance”, says Lyudmila Meshcheryakova, AgroCentreZakharovo maintenance manager. “In case of an urgent maintenance call, the system quickly determines the machine's exact whereabouts and detects the defect”.