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13 years 4 months

Forum posts

Forums Topic Type Posted
Project Status High-tunnel bed and trellised crops sprayer Information
Thanks Farm Hack Ithaca Information
Potential Commercially Available 80% Solution? Open Irrigation Controller System Information
Prior Art - both home brew and low cost commercial Open Irrigation Controller System Information
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Thanks for mentioning this study. I reviewed the project report and outreach materials while preparing my grant application. The issue I have with the backpack sprayers is that they are primarily spot sprayers and it isn't really possible to use them in a way which results in uniform application rates. Plus, it is slow going, even with two nozzles on a wand if you are spraying a trellised crop like tomatoes which may be 8+ ft. tall. Based on our farm experience with both Solo backpack and caddy style sprayers, we have determined that for us it will make sense to build a boom type sprayer that we can pull through the tunnel.
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I built the one in the picture. We didn't save drawings and just had a few simple sketches to build it from. When we make the next one, it will be much simpler and a little sturdier. We have broken the weld on the upright piece which clamps to a garden cart or bucket on a loader so will need to make this part a little better. We will also replace the 4 spoke pieces which keep the spool aligned as it winds with sheetmetal disks. The disks may be slightly dished, will be lighter and much simpler to fab.
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We just built it. No drawings. It is a simple enough piece to just fab up using scrap in the shop. The only critical thing for us was the cores. We initially used a poly core tube from a roll of greenhouse plastic which worked great. When we used that up, we tried white PVC pipe which is more brittle and didn't machine as well. We cut the cores to length on either a horizontal bandsaw - which worked well, but was slow or the tablesaw - much quicker, but a little more dangerous. The notches for the drive pin were cut on the bridgeport.
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http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=fr&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fgrenouille34730.fr%2FCommander.html - link to french company which produces device with irrigation functionality similar to what is described by Louis in the project scope. Price per node ~250EUR.