SP sprayer rate control.

[David.]

Those with long memories may recall I have an oldish 2000L Househam Sprint in the shed, which has been a bit of a long winded project.
The main fault was knackered booms, which I have about finished sorting. Hydro pump and motors were overhauled by J.Rhodes before I bought it as a fixer, so I should be pretty good to go soon.
I would like some advice please on the simplest, cheapest way of achieving self regulating rate control.
There is a Househam Delta3 in the house, but it is now inop, with presumably a dead internal battery.
There is no Ramsey unit, just an inline green flow meter, which having now been unused for about 5yrs may also be kaput.
I know I can fairly simply set pressure to a fixed 3bar and just use GPS to drive close as possible to 10 kmh preferred spraying speed, but would much prefer something self compensating for speed variations.
Any experience/advice how to achieve this as simply as possible gratefully received, I'm not interested in auto section, field recording, or anything more sophisticated than pure and simple rate control, either flow or pressure based.
Thanks.

 

[neilo]

Will the Delta3 just be an RDS unit? If so, they will normally refurb (& fit new battery) for a price.
I sent my ‘Frazier’ unit back via Dave Lightowler two years ago, with some of the buttons being unusable. They were unable/unwilling to fix it, but did supply a previously refurbed replacement for a little over £300. I thought that was very reasonable for an ‘as new’unit, which will likely see the machine out. Worth a phone call before writing it off anyway.

Can’t help on the rest of the gubbins so I’ll pipe down.

 

[David.]

I expect it is RDS, its probably worth a phonecall.

 

[David.]

I am hoping someone will offer me some guidance as to whether it is better to stick with the flow meter rate control, or whether to go to a pressure based system, if I have to start again from scratch.

 

[David.]

Bump, please.

 

[PSQ]

I'd stick with flow based if you can, especially if its to be used for liquid fert. Flow based doesn't need any compensation for different densities. I've been using the same flow meter for 25 years, it hasn't given me a single issue in that time. But I have upgraded to the head unit from Delta 34, to Delta 34i, as the internal battery went. It would boot up, but it wouldn't store any machine settings longer than a day.

As for the rest, phone RDS, they've always been very helpful with any tech queries I've thrown their way.

RDS - 01453733300

 

[HCC]

For simple rate control, either pressure or flow based, you won't go far wrong with this.

Spraymaster 200 - RDS Technology

For the accurate application of liquid spray products proportional to the forward speed of the vehicle.

rdstec.com

 

[AdamHoggard]

It looks like this will do what your after if your wanting a complete refresh

 

[David.]

Having spoken to Simpers, it appears that the most economical route is likely to be to try and retain the RDS equipment already fitted, either through remanufactured/exchange controller or repair by likes of D.King, perhaps

 

[David.]

Feedback for anyone interested, or anyone who has a borked RDS Delta 34 controller.
I called RDS, who are now Topcon. They referred me to RDS Mme Ltd in Dorset, who organised a service/repair instruction with Topcon, to whom I sent the controller 2 weeks ago. Yesterday's delivery brought my unit back, repaired, tested and with software re- installed.
Looks like less than £300, all in.
So big thanks to Claire at RDS Mme who sorted it and hopefully we are all good.