Instruction Book ALPRO ver 6.60/DeLaval activitymeter system 2006-11-08 - 0605 - 94118201.
Table of contents ALPRO Activitymeter with RF interface .................................................................................................. 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 1 ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system.................................................................................................. 3 FCC and IC Compliance Statement .....................................
To update the cow calendar ................................................................... 32 To adapt the system ................................................................................................ 33 To increase or lower the number of cows on the activity list ............. 33 To make the system more attentive the days before and after expected heat........................................................................................... 34 To avoid undesired alarms ......................
:1:7:6 ACTIVITY ALARM LIST ................................................................ 50 6:1:6 ACTIVITY ......................................................................................... 50 6:1:6:1 GENERAL ..................................................................................... 50 6:1:6:2 TAG ON/OFF................................................................................. 51 6:1:6:3 LAST SENDING ............................................................................
2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO Activitymeter with RF interface ALPRO Activitymeter with RF interface EC Declaration of Conformity Name of product: ALPRO activity meter with RF interface Type: 90650080 90651080 Other identifying data: The product complies with requirements of the following directives: 89 / 336 / EEC Harmonized standards which have been used: EN 50081-2 EN 50082-2 References: SP Report No: 97F51867A (MA 9806-011) Date: 1998-05-01 Signed: Name: Position: Business Unit: Jan Ove Nilsson General Manager Milki
ALPRO Activitymeter with RF interface 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system FCC and IC Compliance Statement This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules and RSS-210 of the IC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description Introduction The activity meter is a part of the ALPRO system. ALPRO is an integrated, computerized management system for feeding and milk yield recording, in a loose housing. Also breeding control is made easy as the system includes a cow calendar. The system is built up by modules and so are the Instruction books. ALPRO ver 6.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description specific for each particular module. In this instruction book "Activity meter system", there will be references to the books "General" and "Program description". ALPRO Windows is a PC program for ALPRO and its applications. Most functions are presented more clear at a PC monitor than in the processor display and it is also possible to build reports which considers several factors at a time.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description following questions: • Is the cow pregnant? • Are there other reasons for an increased activity? • Is the time from the last observed heat right? • Is the current milk yield lower just now? • Is the feed consumption reduced? If the answers indicate an approaching heat, it's time to take a look at the cow, to find out if she is in heat.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description The daily activity - and high activity Number of movements High activity active resting The picture shows a cow's daily activity for ten days. The cow alternates between activity and rest in a similar way day after day. But then, on the 20/10 her motion pattern differs. She doesn't rest as usual,she is active for 18 hours through. This lack of resting hours is typical for the high active periods.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description Connection between high activity and heat Start time interval Heat Ovulation Postheat Preheat Postheat hours Standing heat Activity start time Optimum insemination time The graph shows how the activity starts and increases during the pre-heat period. The actual activity start time is shown. If the increase in activity is less obvious than in this specific case, the activity meter will need some time to establish the increased activity.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system General description 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function The activity meter system The main components in the activity meter system are: • an activity tag (1) placed on a band around the cow's neck 1 • a receiver(2) with an antenna (3) 3 • a processor (4) The processor can be connected to a computer in order to run the program ALPRO Windows. The activity tag contains a sensor which detects movements.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function How the activitymeter works Step1, Watching the cow The first five days the activity meter is in use, the processor records the cow's movements to learn how she usually moves. During these days high activity attentions are reported, but only after 5 days such a report should be considered reliable. Each bar in the diagram represents the number of movements the cow has made during one hour.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function Actual movements compared to the predictions of the motion pattern Step 3, The activity meter in work From now on, the cow's daily movements are put side by side to the motion pattern's estimation. Evaluations are made every hour and include comparisons for the last 6 hours. Any increases in activity are noticed. The increase must, however, be certain (statistically significant) before the processor reports high activity.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function The statistic calculation Note! This discussion refers only to high activity. Always remember that high activity is not the same as heat, it is only an indicator for heat. O O OO O O O OOO O The processor makes a statistic calculation based on a normal distribution to find the high active cows. The figure illustrates how it is done. The line curve represents the normal distibution and the crosses and circles represent cows.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function Acivity level 1 + Cows between 50 and 60 will be marked + This group contains both circles and crosses, meaning that there is a mixture of cows showing genuine high activity and cows being false active in this group. Also to the left of the limit 50 there are some circles. These cows are genuine active but the activity meter will not find them with the default settings.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Function 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up Start up the Activity meter system A general start up including the following four steps should be done before the Activity meter system start up begins. - Processor start up, as described in ALPRO/General, chapter Start up. - Introduction of cows to the system, as described in ALPRO/General, chapter Routine. - Checking breeding parameters as described in the Program description, menu 6:1:3.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up ———————————————————— System alarm for activity is by default set to YES. It means that the system alarm will be triggered - with sound and light - for activity alarms. Set to NO means that the activity alarms will not be shown by sound or light. Still they can be seen in menu 8. Set NO only for large herds where other system alarms might be drown among a great number of activity alarms. Start up activity tags A new activity tag is in status OFF when delivered.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up unknown tag list, from where it can be allocated to a cow. ———————————————————— Note! Maximum 200 unknown tags can be stored in the memory as "UNKNOWN TAGS". ———————————————————— 1 To allocate unknown tags to cows 1. Print out the unknown tag list, address 5:1:7:2 UNKNOWN TAG LIST. There you will find all activity tags not allocated to a cow number. 2 2. Put the activity tag on the inside of the neck band with the thicker part downwards.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up • Press enter for the tag number to allocate it. • Choose another cow to go on allocating activity tags. REPLACE TAG NUMBER COW NO: 21 REPLACE TAG NO: 91924 WITH TAG NO: 25631 ✽ If a cow already has a tag no, you will be asked to confirm or reject the change. NO • Toggle between NO and YES with any numeral key. Press ENTER to confirm.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up - A time period after insemination. Setting range: 1 and 99 days. By setting for example >12 days, the system will start to look for high activity when 12 days has passed since insemination. - The hours shortly after the high activity start. This time period is set on the two rows HOURS SINCE HIGH ACT. For the first row the value < 20 means that the reporting time will end 20 hours since high actvity started. Settings between 10 and 48 are possible.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up BREEDING ATTENTION ON MPC NO RF SENDING HOURS SINCE SENDING > 8 DAYS FROM HEAT > DAYS IN MILK < 40 DAYS SINCE INSEM > PREGNANT EXCLUDE CULL EXCLUDE + / + + / +++/ EXCLUDE ✽ 6:1:6:6:2 NO RF SENDING No RF sending is defined by the numbers of hours since last sending. Setting range: 4 48, default is 8. - Reporting can be set to start close to expected heat, setting range is 0-4. - Days in milk > 40 means that reporting will start 40 days after calving.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up High active (+ / ++/ +++) cows can be excluded (default), included or mandatory. Recommended settings The relative activity is in the first place designed for identifying cows with low activity. The recommendation is to include all cows in the selection; also pregnant, cull and high active cows.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Start-up 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation The program overview and how to handle the processor is described in detail in the Program description book. The activity meter will assist you when looking for cows in heat, but to get a good result you have to update the system and notice the alarms the system gives you. The system is set to function with default settings, but to make it suit your way of working, you can adapt it by making some own settings.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation To work with the activity meter system To detect cows in heat among the high active cows The activity list is the main tool when working with the activity system. It lists the high active cows and tells when the high activity started. The activity list also includes valuable information from the cow calendar. The activity list is found among the printouts, 5:1:7:1 ACTIVITY LIST.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation when they are in heat, will not be on the list • Note also that the number of plus signs tells only the level of certainty according to high activity. It does not tell you how likely the cow will be in heat. Check activity twice a day! As the optimum insemination time is 10-28 hours after the activity start time, we recommend you to print out and go through the activity list twice a day. To study activity data and graphs R ACT.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation stops when a key is pressed. If no beep is wanted it can be turned off in the general setup, address 6:1:1 The activity alarms inform you about cows with tags which messages have not been received for a certain time period or they have sent a zero data, meaning that no movements have been recorded. The activity alarms can be seen in display 1:2:4 ACTIVITY ALARMS.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation ALARM TYPE CAN´T BE CLEARED CAN ONLY BE CLEARED BY A NEW ACTTAG SENDING PRESS AND TRY AGAIN Note! The 24 HOURS NO RF SENDING and 48 HOURS NO RF SENDING alarms are used in Activity graph, function 1:2:1 and Activity data, function 1:2:2. Therefore it is not possible to clear these alarms. They will be cleared only by a new sending from the activity tag on that cow.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation 1:2:2 ACTIVITY DATA ACTIVITY DATA COW NO: 285 TAG NO: 5123 LAST SENDING: 18 STATUS: ON 12 4 65 4 10 8 72 4 B 12 9 60 6 14 10 62 12 ✽ 9 12 10 – 8 7 12 10 This function shows the activity for the last 24 hours in numbers and the last transferred activity reading. This is the same information as in 1:2:1 but with digits. The digit can be between 0 and 255. (A) Current time sending ("–" = no sending). If there has been a sending, a time is shown.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation ✽ GROUP SELECTION ENTER GROUP: 0 PRESS “0” FOR ALL GROUPS COMBINATION: NO GROUP SELECTION GROUP SELECTION ENTER GROUP: 0 PRESS “0” FOR ALL ENTER GROUP: 0 GROUPS COMBINATION: NO PRESS “0” FOR ALL GROUPS COMBINATION: B 2 NO In function 7: GROUP SELECTION (found in the main menu), a specific group (or a combination of groups) can be selected so it will comprise only this group (or groups) of cows.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation To keep the system updated To update the cow calendar BREEDING CALVING–>HEAT COW NO: 607 04.08.10 04.10.11 ✽CHANGE✽ (+++) DR GROUP NO: 3 ✽M✽ ➘ LAST HEAT: 04.09.20 CULL: NO 10.6 ! ✽ To get the most out of the Activity meter system you have to update the cow calendar with information of heat, insemination, pregnancy check, calving etc. This is done in display 1:3 Breeding. See also ALPRO ver 6.60, Program description. 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation To adapt the system To increase or lower the number of cows on the activity list To set sensitivity level ✽ FILTER SETTINGS HOURS: SENSITIVITY 1 The sensitivity level is by default set to 1. It means that the system requires only one hour of significant, high activity before it sets an alarm. For sensivity level 2, the system requires two consecutive hours of high activity. Sensitivity 3 requires 3 consecutive hours etc.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation Lowering the accuracy will present more cows, but also more false positive ones. This will however give opportunity to check these cows for visual heat signs. In most cases these false positive cows can be easily filtered out based on cow calendar and visual heat signs. Optimizing accuracy is dependant on conditions of each individual farm.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation CONTINOUS should be used only for cows with a low, normal level of the activity pattern, (e.g. for cows , which are tied up during parts of day or night). The sensitivity level can be set between 1 and 5. It refers to how many hours of activity that should pass before ALPRO makes an alarm. The value in paranthesis refer to the system setting in menu 6:1:6:4:1.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Operation ACTIVITY YAG MODE COW NO 1 GROUP NO: TAG NO: 4567 STATUS: STDBY 5 DAYS END DATE: 01.10.12 1 CHANGE NOT ALLOWED. USE THE MAGNET TO CHANGE TAG TO OR OFF MODE PRESS AND TRY AGAIN 2006-11-08 The STDBY mode STDBY (standby) mode is used for suppressing activity alarms when a cow is pregnant, or when there is no need for a cow to give alarms. When setting the STBY mode also set the number of days you want the alarms turned off. Max 255 days.
Activity Receiver Product data Activity Receiver Product data Article number Activity Receiver, complete: - Activity receiver (1) - Antenna (2) - Magnet (3) 90651080 433 MHz 90651180 418 MHz 90672980 separate Antenna (2), complete 3 1 2 Description General The Activity Receiver is the link between the Activity Tags, fixed to the cow neckbands, and the ALPRO system processor, where data from the Activity Tags are processed.
Activity Receiver Product data Features • The circuit board works with three different voltages. The digital part works with 5 V, the RF part with 10 V, except the receiver chip that works with 3 V. Supply voltage is 12 V AC. • The circuit board has two processors: - A PIC-processor that processes what comes in from the RF part. - An 8051 processor, which has an overall function (communication with the ALPRO processor via the ALCOM bus).
Activity Tag Product data Activity Tag Product data Article number 90650080 Activity tag, 433 MHz 90650180 Activity tag, 418 MHz One activity tag per article No. Delivered in a box containing 50 tags. Description General The Activity Tag is a part of the Activity Meter System. It detects and registers movements. The tag is battery driven. The battery has a lifetime of approximately 10 years. A small magnet is used to set the tag in ON or OFF mode via a switch inside the tag. Each tag has a unique identity.
Activity Tag Product data Technical data Battery Internal electronics The Activity Tag contains following parts: Switch Micro controller • Battery (with approximately 10 years lifetime) • Electro-magnetic sensor (senses the cow's movements in all directions) • Micro controller Sensor • Radio frequency transmitter (RF chip) • Reed relay (for setting ON/OFF) • Antenna Antenna RF chip Electrical characteristics Storage temperature: -30°C – +85°C Operating ratings: - Temperature range: 0°C – +70°C - Ope
Activity Tag Product data Radio Radio frequency transmitter works on 3 volt and sends with: 433.92 MHz in Europe 418.00 MHz in USA and UK. Valid frequency is marked on the tag according to adjoining figure. The message is sent one time each hour. Activity tag No. Year and month when manufactured ———————————————————— Warning! The battery contains lithium. Do not dispose of these items without complying with current environmental laws. ———————————————————— 2006-11-08 94118201.
Activity Tag Product data 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description This is a short introduction to the ALPRO program. Detailed information is found in the book ALPRO, Program description, where the processor with its display and key sets is described. There you also find information about menus, how to find the functions desired and how to scroll to find all information in that function The processor is always in stand by mode.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description Top level menu Sub level 1 1. Cow data 2. Activity Sub level 2 address Function display 1:2:1 Activity graph 1:2:2 Activity data 1:2:3 Activity tag mode 1:2:4 Activity alarms 1:3 Breeding 4:1:1 First heat 4:1:2 Insemination 4:1:3 Insemination check 4:1:4 Pregnancy check 4:1:5 Dried off 4:1:6 Build up/ step down 4:1:7 Calving 4:3:3 Relative yield 4:4 High activity cows 4:5 Summary 1.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description Extract from ALPRO, Program description This is an extract from the book ALPRO, 6.60/Program description. The functions connected to the Activity meter system are listed. 1:2 ACTIVITY ✽ ACTIVITY 1: ACT. GRAPH 5: CORRECT COW/TAGS 2: ACTIVITY DATA 3: ACTIVITY TAG MODE 4. ACTIVITY ALARMS The activity information originates from the Activity meter system. The activity menu has 5 alternatives.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description 1:2:2 ACTIVITY DATA ACTIVITY DATA COW NO: 285 TAG NO: 5123 LAST SENDING: 18 STATUS: ON 12 4 65 4 10 8 72 4 12 9 60 6 14 10 62 12 8 7 12 10 B ✽ 9 12 10 – This function shows the activity for the last 24 hours in numbers and the last transferred activity reading. This is the same information as in 1:2:1 but with digits. The digit can be between 0 and 255. (A) Current time sending ("–" = no sending). If there has been a sending, a time is shown.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description ACTIVITY TAG MODE COW NO 1 TAG NO: 4567 STATUS: WATCH ✽ GROUP NO: The WATCH mode 1 In the WATCH mode the No Sendings Alarms are shut off. The activity tag will return to ON mode when a new sending has been recorded. This is useful when the cows are on pasture or out of range of the receiving area. Watch mode is used as default value when a new tag is entered in the processor. ACTIVITY TAG MODE COW NO 1 TAG NO: 4567 STATUS: STDBY END DATE: 99.10.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description restored. Removing the NO ACTIVITY and NO RF SENDING alarms "This alarm" (CLEAR THIS ALARM) refers to the alarm set in the first row. Choose YES and press Enter to remove only this type of alarm from the cow. To remove all alarms on all cows set CLEAR ALL ALARMS to YES and press Enter. Make sure that the ALL-field is selected on the first row.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description reports activity though it is not connected to a cow. This display makes it possible to correct cows with wrong tag numbers by connecting them to the right tag number. 4:3:3 RELATIVE YIELD AND ACTIVITY RELATIVE YIELD AND ACTIVITY HIGH LIMIT 80 LATEST MILK YIELD ✽ From this display you can filter on cows with low relative yields or low relative activity. The relative yield is defined as actual yield/expected yield.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description ++, or +++. If the high activity alarm is more than 24 hours old, it will be reported as (++). This means that if a cow was reported with ++ at 5.00 pm one day, the report will say (++) at 5.00 pm the next day. After 48 hours the alarm will be removed. 5:1:7:6 ACTIVITY ALARM LIST This list shows cows with an alarm such as 48 HOURS NO ACTIVITY ALARM or NO RF SENDING. Cows can only have the 48 hours NO RF sending alarm when the 24 hours alarm is set.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description The display also shows if a high activity alarm will cause an alarm shown on the processor screen or not. 6:1:6:2 TAG ON/OFF TAG ON/OFF TAG NO STATUS: ANTENNA NO: ✽ 64123 ON 1, 2, 3 The display presents a confirmation when a tag has sent an ON or an OFF message. The tag number, and the kind of message (ON or OFF) is presented. The antenna number presents all antennas that recieved the message.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description requires only one hour with of high activity to set an alarm. For sensivity level 2, the system requires two consecutive hours of high activity. Sensitivity 3 requires 3 consecutive hours etc. 6:1:6:4:2 ACCURACY FILTER SETTINGS ACCURACY + 50 ++ 60 +++ 70 ✽ The filter has three levels: 50 , 60 or 70. Every level has a corresponding accuracy expressed in %. (99.996 %) ( 99.998 %) ( 99.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description 6:1:6:4:5 GROUP DATA ✽ GROUP DATA GROUP NO: 1 GIVE HIGH ACTIVITY ALARM: YES STATE GENERAL ACTIVITY TYPE: SENSITIVITY: (2) HOURS: 2 In this display it is possible to set activity parameters for a group of cows. High activity alarm could be turned off. Then set GIVE HIGH ACTIVITY ALARM to NO. General activity type is recommended to be set to STATE. CONTINOUS is a very sensitive setting used only to detect low activity.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description To set breeding attentions (remind codes) for activity It is possible to set breeding attentions (Remind codes) for activity parameters. The parameters are: High activity, No RF sending and Relative activity.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description start. This time period is set on the two rows HOURS SINCE HIGH ACT. For the first row the value < 20 means that the reporting time will end 20 hours since high actvity started. Settings between 10 and 48 are possible. A value set on the next row will give a start time for the reporting time. Values between 0 and 16 can be set. Note that this value must be lower than the previous otherwise no reporting will take place.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description BREEDING ATTENTION ON MPC NO RF SENDING HOURS SINCE SENDING > 8 DAYS FROM HEAT > DAYS IN MILK < 40 DAYS SINCE INSEM > PREGNANT EXCLUDE CULL EXCLUDE + / + + / +++/ EXCLUDE ✽ 6:1:6:6:2 NO RF SENDING No RF sending is defined by the numbers of hours since last sending. Setting range: 4 48, default is 8. - Reporting can be set to start close to expected heat, setting range is 0-4.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description High active (+ / ++/ +++) cows can be excluded (default), included or mandatory. Recommended settings The relative activity is in the first place designed for identifying cows with low activity. The recommendation is to include all cows in the selection; also pregnant, cull and high active cows. 2006-11-08 94118201.
ALPRO ver 6.60/ Activity meter system Program description 2006-11-08 94118201.
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