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DATE:
AUTHOR:
Nedap Livestock Management
COWS COWS975 COWS234

Velos 2024.3 Dairy Farming

DATE:
AUTHOR: Nedap Livestock Management

This Nedap Velos software version contains new and improved functionalities that provide new solutions, add valuable options to existing solutions and further increase the ease of use of Velos.

Nedap FarmControl

Identification

  • Fixed an issue affecting rotary parlour identification, where the system failed to function properly if the number of the first milk place was not equal to 1. This problem was primarily observed on farms operating multiple parlours, where subsequent parlours do not start with number 1 by default, given that milk place numbers must be unique across the system.

Traffic

  • From this version onward, Nedap Now can create separation rules in Velos. This means that users that are using Nedap Now can now separate animals based on the comprehensive insights provided by Nedap Now.

  • Separation templates can be added to Velos via the Velos .NET interface, allowing start and end times to be specified to the minute. With the addition of the Separation feature via Nedap Now, a change was implemented requiring the start and end times of separation templates to be specified to the nearest quarter-hour. This made adding templates via the .NET interface impossible. This issue has now been resolved. Start and end times of templates added via the .NET interface are now rounded to the nearest quarter-hour.

Nedap MilkingControl

  • In the past, if animals were recognized while the InTouch was still in standby mode, these animals were not known to the InTouch once it was activated. This has now been changed. Animals recognized before the InTouch is activated are now immediately known to the InTouch once it is turned on.

  • The functionality of the main button on the InTouch has been simplified. Previously, there were options to press short, medium, and long, which was very difficult for users to follow. Now, the options are only short (less than 2 seconds) and long (more than 2 seconds). Additionally, for a long press, the action is executed after 2 seconds without needing to lift your finger off the button. At that moment, you will see an indication change on the large attention LED at the top of the InTouch (the color changes and/or it switches between blinking and constantly on).

  • On the page Settings > InTouch settings some detach settings have been renamed.

    • "Cluster up delay" has been renamed to "Cluster venting time".

    • "Milksweep after" en "Milksweep delay" have been modified to a "Milk sweep" on/off setting in combination with a "Start after" and "Time" setting.

    • "Automatic cluster down" has been renamed to "Cluster down after detach".

    • "Number of seconds after end milking" has been renamed to "Start after".

      Previously the "Cluster up delay" and the "Milksweep after" and "Number of seconds after end milking" all started counting at the same time after the button on the InTouch was pressed to start detaching. In the example in the picture the milk sweep would start 4 seconds after the button was pressed on the InTouch and the cluster down after 5 seconds.

      This has been modified and te sequence is now:

      • Button is pressed on the InTouch to detach

      • Vacuum is switched off

      • Pulsation stops

      • Cluster venting time starts

      • Cluster venting time passes

      • Cluster is moved up

      • If milk sweep is enabled:

        • Milk sweep start after time starts

        • Milk sweep start after time passes

        • Vacuum is switched on

        • Milk sweep time starts

        • Milk sweep time passes

        • Vacuum is switched off

      • If cluster down after detach is enabled

        • Cluster down after detach start after time starts

        • Cluster down after detach start after time passes

        • Cluster moves down

      All is visualised in this picture:

  • When the "Cluster down after detach" setting is enabled, the "Cluster up before attach" setting becomes visible. If this setting is enabled, additional settings become visible that allow you to configure when the cluster goes up at a milking station. This ensures that the cluster is always in the correct position during the pre-treatment of animals and during attachment.

    You can divide the milking places into banks. The size of a bank is at least 1 and at most the number of milking places in one row of the parlour. This is called the bank size. Additionally, you can specify whether the clusters in a bank should go up one by one or all at once. For the first milking place in a bank, the cluster will always be down initially. You can use the "Cluster up time first of bank" setting to indicate how long it moves up before going back down to attach. These settings allow you to fully customize the operation of the milking parlour to your preferences. A few examples:

    Example 1: Suppose the row has 20 milking places, and there are 2 milkers: one for pre-treatment and one for attaching clusters. Bank size is set to 20, banks up to one by one and cluster up time first of bank to 1.5 seconds. Initially, all clusters are down, allowing the first milker to pre-treat the animals without obstruction. The second milker follows to attach the clusters. When starting milking at the first place, the cluster first moves up for 1.5 seconds and then immediately goes back down. The milker can grab the cluster and attach it. Simultaneously, the cluster at the second place also moves up. The milker starts the milking at the second place. The cluster comes down for attachment, and simultaneously, the cluster at the third place goes up. This process repeats until the end of the row.

    Example 2: Suppose the row has 20 milking places, and there is 1 milker that does both pre-treatment and attaching of the clusters. Bank size is set to 5, banks up to all at once and cluster up time first of bank to 1.5 seconds. Initially, all clusters are down, allowing the milker to pre-treat the animals on the first 5 places without obstruction. After that the milker starts milking at the first place, the cluster first moves up for 1.5 seconds and then immediately goes back down. The milker can grab the cluster and attach it. Simultaneously, the clusters at place 2, 3, 4 and 5 also move up. Reaching the milk place with the cluster down is the sign for the milker that he must pre-treat the next 5 animals. This process repeats 4times until the end of the row.

  • The setting "Wash program duration" has been removed. Previously, it was possible to set the InTouch devices into wash mode with a button press on the InTouch. After the wash program duration the InTouch devices would go back to standby mode. From this version onward the InTouch button press will no longer work anymore and it is required that a wash controller behaviour component is deployed. This behaviour component listens to a signal from the wash control system. The InTouch devices will follow the state of the wash control system. This means for example that if an InTouch is still milking when the wash control system is switched on, the milking will stop immediately and the InTouch will go into wash mode.

  • If the yield of a milking is lower than the expected yield, the attention light on the InTouch blinks red and white alternately after the cluster is detached. If, after a reattachment of the same animal, the yield is still lower than the expected yield, the light again blinks red and white alternately after the milking unit is removed. However, this was not happening, as the light remained continuously white. This issue has now been resolved.

  • Loading the Milking tab on the farm page took a long time if there were many milking sessions recorded and stored on the VPU. This issue has been resolved.

  • The results of milkings where no animal was detected were not sent to Nedap Now. This has been corrected.

  • The SmartFlows report was not visible when Velos is in Nedap Now mode. This issue has been resolved.

  • When configuring a side-by-side or herringbone milking parlour on the page Settings > Parlour configuration, there was no validation to ensure both rows were of equal length. Incorrect entries resulted in odd behaviour. The validation of input values is now stricter. Both rows must be of equal length, the numbers must be sequential, and the left row must have the lowest numbers.

  • When configuring a swing-over milking parlour on the page Settings > Parlour configuration, the validation to ensure both rows have the same number of milk places was incorrect. This issue has been resolved. The message indicating the number of InTouch devices being configured was also incorrect. The correct number of InTouch devices is displayed now.

General

  • When transferring a standalone Velos installation to a Nedap Now Velos installation, it was previously only possible to start from scratch. All existing data was deleted during the transition process. Consequently, existing heat and health alerts for animals were removed, and a new data history had to be built before these alerts could be displayed again in Nedap Now. From now on, it is possible to export all data from Velos to Nedap Now during the transition process, making the system transition seamless for users. Because Nedap wants to introduce this gradually, it is initially only possible to perform the transition including data export with Nedap's guidance.

  • When adding a Nedap Now user to Velos in the past, a selection box was displayed containing all Nedap Now users who were allowed access to the respective Velos installation. Because Nedap Now has user groups, this could result in a long list of users, which is not desirable for privacy reasons. Therefore, the user's email address must now be entered manually.

  • The Velos setup wizard now shows the option to connect to Nedap Now to all users, except on installations from our business partners who have indicated they do not want this yet.

  • The process of importing tag information from Nedap Now into Velos has been improved, making it significantly faster.

  • When Velos received a capabilities message from a tag and the known capabilities for that tag were different, Velos did not always send the modified tag capabilities to Nedap Now. This has been fixed.

  • On the page Settings > Network, a green checkmark was sometimes incorrectly not displayed for the internet connection and VPU-online connection. Instead, a loading icon remained. This issue has been resolved.

Firmware

  • VP5001: v2.03.05

    • Modified the InTouch firmware so it supports the modified MilkingControl implementation, e.g. the new behaviour of pressing buttons on the InTouch.

System requirements

Velos version

  • An installation needs to run on version 2024.1.SR2 or newer to be able to update to this version. Make sure to update to version 2024.1.SR2 first before installing this version.

Taurus

  • This version is compatible with Taurus 2020.1 (5.101.7.0) or higher.

Mobile device versions:

  • iOS 15 or later

  • Android 5.0 or later

Supported browsers:

  • Google Chrome

  • Microsoft Edge

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