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5.2 Understanding Performance Issues
Your UC4 height control system will work well in most situations. However,
as with any equipment, it is important that the operator remains alert at all
times. There may be some field and terrain situations where performance is
diminished. In these situations the operator must resume height control of the
booms manually. A discussion of performance issues is given below to help
clarify these situations.
Sensitivity Setting
Your system is configured to work well in most conditions, with warm
hydraulic oil, at a sensitivity of five. When you first begin operation at the
start of a day, it may be necessary to operate at a lower sensitivity until the
oil has reached normal temperature. Keep increasing the SENSI setting
until the performance is optimized.
Different types of terrain may require different SENSI settings. The SENSI
setting controls more than just response time. It also determines how
accurately the system will try to correct for height errors. The higher the
sensitivity the higher the accuracy. At low sensitivity a few inches of error
will be tolerated. At high sensitivity, virtually no error will be tolerated.
Therefore, the system will be much more active at high sensitivity than at
low sensitivity.
Field conditions and operator preference determine the appropriate SENSI
setting. On some sprayer models, it may be difficult to reach an optimum
level of sensitivity while maintaining good boom stability. This could be an
indication that the boom is mechanically under-damped for control
purposes. Additional shock absorbers/dampers can dramatically improve
automatic control performance. Some UC4 sprayer kits come complete
with additional damper kits. Other sprayer models have damper kits
available from the sprayer manufacturer or from Norac as optional
equipment. Contact Norac or your sprayer dealer for more assistance.
Boom Reaction Time
There are two key factors that determine how quickly your boom can react
to changes in terrain. The first factor is the available hydraulic speed. The
maximum hydraulic speed of your boom was designed by the sprayer
manufacturer and is not improved or diminished with the addition of the
UC4 height controller.
The second factor is the mechanical design of the sprayer. The SENSI
setting does affect the reaction time of your boom - the higher the number
the quicker the response. However, how high you can run the SENSI
setting is determined to large extent by mechanical issues related to the
boom and sprayer.
Summary of Contents for UC4 Total Control
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