Astronaut software updates 1.8 & 7.6
Within the last few weeks, software versions for the Astronaut have been released (version 1.8 for the A5 and version 7.6 for A3 and A4). Your farm may or may not be already updated. You can easily verify which version your robots are on by going to Configuration->Devices->and click on one of your robot:
We have highlighted some of the new features and improvements below:
Astronaut A5
Improved blood detection – The MQC2 can now better detect high amounts of blood, even greater than 2%. Previously, milk with high concentrations of blood were often classified as abnormal or watery. As is the case after installation of a new MQC2 or when a sensor is swapped, classifications will begin after the first 16 milkings are complete and a herd baseline is established.
Separation – Separation advice for milk classified as bloody by the MQC2 is based on the setting set on the E-link. The default setting for blood separation via the E-link is ‘T4C Setting’ which could be set for the bulk tank. This could result in bloody milk getting in the tank. To make sure bloody milk is separated properly, West Coast Robotics standardized the default setting to either 'M4USE' or 'Sewer'.
T4C compatibility change - The option to do a local rinse with hot water after specific medications can now be controlled via T4C. Previously this was only possible on the E-link. However, it is strongly recommended to use a ‘hot rinse’ after milking a treated cow. There is no change for Astronauts that are set to perform hot water cleanings or USA cleanings.
Other improvements
Improved robot arm behavior – Changes were made to limit the chance that the robot arm/TDS cover touches the front teats during the period of time the front quarters have completed milking but the rear quarters are still milking. Additionally improvements have been made to positioning of the rear teat cups after milking so that in the event that the front quarters are still being milked, the rear teat cups will not push against the front teat cups and cause attachment issues.
Shared robot information for future developments – This change makes the robot transmit a small amount of information from each milking to Lely for use in future developments. This is only robot generated information, there is no privacy infringement.
Better specific alarm – With previous software versions, if the milk pump was blocked, you’d get the alarm “Unavailable functionality: Milk pump 0.0”. With the 1.8 software, one of the following alarms will be generated:
“Unexpected warning: Milk pump blocked or overloaded, if this persists contact your service organization”
“Unexpected warning: Milk pump PFC Error, if this persists contact your service organization”
General bug fixing –
The ability to cancel rinses in combination with the holding area functionality was corrected, but note that the cancel rinse state is not shared between other robots in the holding area.
Fixed an issue that now results in not being able to stop the milk sampling process. When the button to stop sampling is pressed, a popup is displayed that says the action is not allowed. The only way to stop milk sampling is by power cycling the robot.
IMPORTANT: Some powerboxes are not able to support the 1.8 software.
Astronaut A4
Improved blood detection by the MQC2, T4C functionality to have a hot local rinse after specific treatments, and specific information from milkings is shared with Lely to further optimize robot performance – Same as for the A5 described above.
Local rinses with hot water (“local rinse hot water’ and ‘USA cleaning’) now correctly uses the CU line volume. This results in a slightly longer hot water phase but avoids mixing acid and alkaline during the next cluster cleaning with acid.
Astronaut A3
Improved blood detection by the MQC2 – same as described for the A5 above.
Comments