David Gooden walks through setting up a rate controller on a 10-section boom: configure sections, calibrate speed and flow meter, record the valve settings. Daily work is mostly adjusting water rate and resetting field area. Watch your flow rate against the spray plan's pressure to catch blocked sections or faults early.
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I'm here with David Gooden. We just want to have a quick chat about some of the automatic rake controller functions, setting them up when you first get the machine and the sorts of things you do on a regular basis. So when you first got this machine, David, what sort of things did you have to go through in the controller to make sure it was set up for the sorts of jobs you're going to do?
So we've got to set up our boom sections. That's a 10 section boom. We also need to set up and calibrate our speed and our flow meter along with our valve cal figure, which controls the rate of the flow control system.
With those sections. It's just purely section width.
It's section width. So counting the nozzles and measuring the distance between each nozzle to enter into the boom cal figures.
Okay, so once you've got all those calibrations set up, do you need to go back and change those at any time?
There's nothing there that should be neat that needs changing. The main thing is to record them somewhere. So if something does go wrong, you've got them recorded.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea to write those down, the controller manual and perhaps somewhere else as well. So once we've got this set up, we recorded all the things that are the settings that are in there. So on a daily basis, when you're doing jobs, what sorts of things do you now need to change in this.
Controller, the main change from a daily basis is what water rate we're using. So the main thing is the rate and then filling in the tank volume and resetting the field area. Field volume.
And I guess with this setup that you've got that three tier or three step dual boom, you're not having to make changes regularly with your old setup. When you're on a single line with each job, what sorts of things were you checking in the controller before you went out and did each job?
Minimum hold was one of the most important things for a particular nozzle and water rate. So that had to be changed every time. Whereas in this system, a three tier system that automatically changes that minimum hold is suitable to the nozzles that I've gone over a larger size, speed range and water rate range.
So any older controller, that minimum hold, it can be set up by pressure or by flow by speed. Which one was yours set up for?
So we're on flow. So setting up the litres per minute.
That litres per minute is really important even in your management of daily jobs. So when you're driving. Do you have that on the screen?
Absolutely. So, in the paddock situation, when I'm spraying, flow or litres per minute is the most important thing. And that's the setting that we look at from a day to day job.
How do you use that litres per minute? Just to make sure that everything's going right.
So, from our spray plan, we work out what the flow is per minute and then we know what pressure it should be operating at before sections are on and therefore we match the two together to ensure that there isn't a section turned off by mistake or something broken.
And I guess that highlights the importance of having a spray plan up front, knowing what your litres per minute and your pressure should be. So if you're driving by that and checking them regularly, everything should be sweet.
That's right. And yeah, it's following that spray plan and making sure you've got the settings set right so you know where it should be operating and knowing where the pressure gauge and matching the two together.
