WO2015164934A1

WO2015164934A1 - Electronic spraying controller

Info

Publication number: WO2015164934A1
Application number: PCT/BR2014/000390
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fábio Aparecido PEREIRA DO REIS; Rodolfo Castanho FERNANDES; Marco Antonio Arantes ESTEVES; Carlos Daniel HUASHAHN
Original assignee: Máquinas Agrícolas Jacto Sa
Priority date: 2014-05-02
Filing date: 2014-10-24
Publication date: 2015-11-05
Also published as: CN106030436B; CN106030436A; BR102014010612A2

Abstract

This is fitted to spraying equipment of the type actuated by a hydraulic pump provided with a DC electric motor and powered by an optionally rechargeable battery or battery array. According to the present invention, the electronic spraying controller is provided with a unified system capable of adjusting the control values in accordance with the charge status of the rechargeable battery and/or outlet pressure/flow, this unified arrangement guaranteeing the elimination of electrical connections between electrical circuits dedicated to one or another function. Thus, the electronic spraying controller is capable of controlling a system comprising a DC motor and powered by a rechargeable battery or recharageable battery array in such a manner as simultaneously to combine the functions of controlling the activity of spraying (initiation, pause, disconnection, pressure rise/reduction), monitoring electronic parameters inherent to the device spraying liquids (battery voltage, rise in electric current, lack of electric current, rise in voltage across the electric motor, sudden reduction in voltage across the electric motor), promoting the man/machine interface (facilitating equipment handling) and visual and audible indication of parameters relevant to the equipment operator (remaining battery power, existence of a technical fault, type of technical fault that has occurred, spraying process pressure level, digital counter of the number of hours worked and spraying interval marker/timer).

Description

"ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER".

This report refers to a patent for an electronic spray controller and, more specifically, a unified electronic module or assembly for controlling, monitoring, interfacing and indicating the stages or status of a spraying process. of liquids.

[002] As is well known to those skilled in the art, there are hand-held, liquid and electronic spray controllers, which are applicable to the most diverse equipment (portable, industrial, chemical control, level control). Water). MaiKiaJ-type controllers are based on the sporadic intervention of a user on one or more flow / pressure adjusting devices so that one or the other quantity is maintained at the desired level. Electronic type controllers may contain specific flow / pressure adjustment techniques by opening solenoid valves, rotating an electric motor, varying an engine's rotation to combustion, turning on or off a pumping or pressurizing device. In these cases, the electronic controllers are generally dedicated to flow or pressure control only and do not have the other characteristics mentioned above.

[003] There are also equipment dedicated to process monitoring »including technical fault indication by means of sensors. However, they are independent items of the flow / pressure controller.

Ô04} Conventionally, liquid puiverization equipment (for example, those used in agriculture for spraying herbicides and fungicides) do not have an electronic control 1 when it has it, this electronic control only controls spray pressure / flow without use real feedback, ie without adjusting the flow pressure according to the current output. They are therefore open loop controllers. In addition, they do not provide visual or audible indication of spray status, technical failure, or monitoring of electrical quantities. It is also known to those skilled in the art that for the correct, safe and efficient use of liquid spraying equipment, it is necessary to obtain minimal information regarding the activity status as well as the need to control it. Currently, when using spray equipment with electrical part, the user adjusts the working pressure through a pressure gauge (if his equipment is provided with one) or simply by visually inspecting the dimensions of the fan, cone or spray jet to equipment working pressure assessment. Clearly, this way of assessing pressure adjustment is quite inaccurate, which may result in under- or over-dosing of the agrochemical and its poor distribution.

Thus, as there is no mechanism for dictating or timing the rate and rate of spraying, the result in practice is a non-uniformly improperly dosed liquid deposition.

Similarly, as there is no efficient way to indicate battery charge, the user cannot estimate sprayer autonomy. This causes it to recharge the battery to ensure autonomy even if the charge is partial. Of course this shortens the battery life.

Finally, as current unified electronic controllers do not have spray pressure compensation according to the battery charge state, so as the battery discharges (due to normal use of the liquid sprayer) the pressure output is reduced, which decreases flow and volume between the beginning and end of spraying activity. This deficiency results in poor, non-uniform application of ongoing spraying.

[009] Another disadvantage of the lack of controller unification is that when there is flow / pressure control and some electrical circuit for activity monitoring, they must be connected via electrical cables and electrical connections. This increases the complexity and cost of the equipment as it makes it less immune to failure. [010] Lack of the above-mentioned monitoring and controls has the potential for short-term human, animal or plant poisoning and risks to human health and environmental damage in the medium term. In addition, it is impossible to perform spot spraying or in the pre-established dosing system. This results in the loss of a possible alternative sprayer functionality. And finally the consequent loss of spray activity efficiency, increased assembly costs (given the need to use cables or electrical connections) and reduced robustness.

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to provide an electronic spray controller which allows the clear indication of the battery charge at various levels; allowing the indication of the working pressure range, with various levels; allowing indication of technical failure including short circuit, undervoltage, overvoltage, hydraulic pump overload; that enables all information to be gathered in a single interface; and make this interface intuitive to operate; enabling fault signaling through visual and audible signals; allowing electronic control of spray pressure with battery charge compensation; allowing the sound and timed marking of the work rhythm; and make it possible to add additional functionality when desired.

[012} Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic spray controller that allows the unification of control functions, electronical parameter monitoring, fault indication (audible and visual even for rhythm marking) and adaptable human machine interface. battery-powered liquid sprayers.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved with an electronic spray controller, to be adapted to hydraulic pump driven type spray equipment having a battery-powered direct current electric motor or battery bank, rechargeable or not. In accordance with the present invention the electronic spray controller is A unified system capable of adjusting the control quantities according to the state of charge of the rechargeable battery and / or the output pressure / flow. This unification ensures the elimination of electrical connections between electrical circuits dedicated to one or more another function. Thus the electronic spray controller is capable of controlling a system that contains a direct current motor and is powered by a rechargeable battery or rechargeable battery bank in order to simultaneously gather the spray activity control functions (initiate, pause, shut down, raise / lower pressure), monitoring of electronic parameters inherent to the device spraying liquids (battery voltage, electric current rise, absence of electric current, electric motor voltage rise, sudden voltage reduction motor-man interface (facilitates equipment handling) and visual and audible indication of parameters relevant to the equipment operator (remaining battery level, technical failure, type of technical failure, spray process pressure, digital counter of number of hours worked and spray pace marker / timer),

In the following the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the only figure shows a block diagram of the functional components that compose the electronic spray controller and its interconnections.

According to the single figure, the spray electronically controlled object of the present invention, defined with reference (1), comprises an electronic module formed by sub-blocks dedicated to interfacing, monitoring / supervision, control and control of the spraying process.

[016} This electronic module which determines the electronic controller (1) is provided with an electrical power source comprised of a power accumulator (9 which corresponds to a primary or secondary battery, voltage and capacities compatible with the circuits supplied by it). The user intervention to the controller (1 is carried out by means of a control panel (2), connected in turn to an interface module (3), whose function is to convert the user command into signals electric These signals are conditioned so that their voltage and current levels are adequate to the typical levels of a processing unit (4 which receives such signals promoting an analog or digital filtering of any noise. This processing unit (4) comprises a device function controller, programmable logic, reprogrammable or not, semiconductor in nature All control, command and spray signaling algorithms are programmed in the processing unit (4) together with pre-programmed configurations. (7) is responsible for conditioning the accumulator signals, including analog or digital noise ﬁ les and is also responsible for the connection between the accumulator (9) and the processing unit (4).

[017] Based on the information determined by the accumulator monitor module (7), the processing unit (4) determines the charge state of the accumulator (9) by transferring the information to a signaling module (5) which is responsible for the conversion. electrical signals in light, graphic or audible signals which are displayed to the user via the interface module (3). Simultaneously, based on the user command (2) and the load state calculated by the processing unit (4), are The required parameters are determined by a motor drive circuit (6) which receives data such as frequency and cyclic ratio in real time from the processing unit (4) and drives a DC motor (8) (direct current electric) whose power from the battery (9).

[018} An electric motor monitor (11) can determine and report the speed of the direct current electric motor (8), as well as determine the electric current, electrical power, and / or electromechanical torque of this DC motor (8). , in real time, and at any time during spraying activity.

[019} The electric motor monitor module (11). comprises an arrangement of electrical circuits including digital and analog functions, with or without rotation sensors, with or without electrical current sensors, and capable of being connected directly to the processing unit (4). Based on torque, rotation and electrical power set in the DC motor (8) according to the user command (2), the hydraulic circuit (10) is triggered and the resulting flow or spray pressure results.

The hydraulic circuit 10 comprises suitable pipes, hoses and spray tips as well as the centrifugal, peristaltic, diaphragm, piston or other pumping unit.

[021] Operationally, the electronic spray controller can be described as follows :.

[022] User-determined commands (2) refer to turning on the electronic controller (1), turning off the electronic controller (1), increasing pressure, reducing pressure, increasing flow, reducing flow, timer or rhythm marker, change rhythm of this timer or turn off rhythm timer, as well as functions that may be added in the future to the electronics module.

[023} The user command (2) is transferred to the electronic spray controller (1) via pushbuttons, capacitive systems, resistive or other systems that require contact or by non-direct contact means such as radio frequency data transfer. , by optical means or the like.

[024] Interface module 0) comprises the user-friendly graphical interface as well as the user command receiving mechanism (2). The graphical interface contains information concerning the current condition of the spraying equipment, in terms of flow, pressure or charge state of the accumulator (9) and contains light signals of any kind, graphic character displays and / or other forms of visual communication. In addition, it has one or more user command receiving mechanisms (2). These reception mechanisms may be optical, radiofrequency, contact, inductive, capacitive, resistive or other.

[025] The processing unit module (4) has one or more integrated semiconductor integrated circuits, including rewritable and permanent memories, for the purpose of performing calculation and decision-making functions from pre-defined data and instructions. scheduled. Among the integrated circuits that make up The processing unit (4) has an integrated circuit or part of an integrated circuit dedicated to timing and another to analog / digital and digital / analog conversion. The processing unit (4) defines the DC motor control parameters (8) and the rhythm beep parameters based on the user command (2). By monitoring the accumulator parameters (9) provided by the accumulator monitor (7) and the information provided by the electric motor monitor (11), the processing unit (4) continuously adjusts the cyclic ratio or the DC motor drive frequency. (8). In this way, the characteristics of the hydraulic circuit (10) are not changed, the rotation of the DC motor (8) is kept constant, regardless of the charge state of the accumulator (9). Also based on the electric motor monitor (11), the processing unit (4) determines the occurrence of short circuits, motor shaft locking or under load and signals through the signaling module (5).

[026] The signaling module (5) comprises analogue, digital or mixed circuits with graphic character control, visual luminous and audible indication functions. It has electrical connection, including communication buses, to the interface module (3) and the processing unit (4) simultaneously.

[027] The electric motor drive module (6) is responsible for receiving the control and drive signals from the processing unit (4) and matching them to the DC motor voltage and current levels (8). This module includes the power circuit with a reversing direction or not, depending on the nature of the hydraulic circuit (10), as well as additional overvoltage, overcurrent and / or short circuit protection circuits.

£ 028J The accumulator monitor module (7) is responsible for supervising the electrical parameters of the accumulator (9). Circuits comprising the accumulator monitor module (7) include signal conditioning and signal acquisition. The features of this module may be appropriate to the specific features of the accumulator (9).

[029] The DC motor (8) is a continuous current, parallel or permanent magnet brushed DC motor. No current, torque, or speed sensors or transducers are required on the DC motor (8). The DC motor shaft (8) drives the hydraulic pump contained in the hydraulic circuit (10) either directly or through mechanical reductions.

[030] The accumulator (9) is a direct current (non-rechargeable) or secondary (rechargeable) type direct current power source, and there are no restrictions on its composition (NiCd, NiMH, Li-ion, Li-PoKmero). , Lead Acid, Alkaline or others), provided that the voltage and current levels are in accordance with Modules (6) and (7),

[031] The hydraulic circuit (10) consists of hoses, valves, registers, hydraulic connectors, spray tip or hole and DC motor driven hydraulic pump (8). Based on the rotation and torque imposed by the DC motor (8), the hydraulic circuit (10) provides the hydraulic power in accordance with the user command (2). The pressure / flow rate ratio is determined by the choice of spray tip or orifice, which may be of the full conical, empty conical, fan or solid jet type. The spray tip is chosen according to the type of application to the hydraulic circuit (10). The hydraulic pump is fed by a reservoir containing the liquid to be sprayed.

Electronic controller application examples (1),

[032] (A) - The user of spraying equipment, for example in a crop protection product application, needs to apply the chemical over a large area where any crop, such as potatoes, is planted. For this crop and for the application of the desired pesticide, a spray point is chosen. In this case the user intervenes in the electronic controller with an initial command. This user command (2) is received by the interface module (3) and passed to the processing unit (4). This unit is interpret user command (2) as an order to turn on sprayer equipment. This order is executed and the equipment is available to start work keeping the DC motor (8) at a predetermined minimum speed. At the same time, the accumulator monitor module extracts information to determine the charge state of the accumulator (9). With this the processing unit (4) determines what the signaling module (5) should show to the user. For example, this will show that the battery is at 80% of its maximum charge.

[033] (B) - With the sprayer already on, the user starts spraying and notices that the pressure is below expected. By a new user command (2) passed to the interface module (3), the processing unit (4) raises the cyclic ratio or the frequency of the control signal delivered to the motor drive circuit (6). This drives the DC motor (8) in order to impose the new rotation. A new pressure will be observed at the hydraulic circuit outlet as a result.

[034] (C) - With the sprayer fully operational, the user wants to impose a pace on their walk for better uniformity in pesticide application. A user command (2) is made as described and the processing unit ( 4) interprets it. An order is given to the signaling module (5), which triggers a user-audible beep. With each signal coming from the buzzer, the user knows that he must for a new step forward. By following the timer, therefore, it can maintain a constant walking speed. With the new user command (2), the user can adjust the timer by increasing or decreasing the spacing between each beep and thereby increasing or decreasing the walking pace.

[035] (D) - After three hours of operation, the battery is at 30% of maximum charge. For the same flow and pressure condition, the processing unit (4) keeps the electric motor rotating at the same level as the start of spraying, regardless of the remaining charge in the accumulator (9).

[036] (E) - During spraying an unwanted item (a stone, for example) is accidentally sucked in by the hydraulic circuit hydraulic pump (10), locking the bomb. The electric motor monitor (Π) detects the overload of the electric motor. After confirming the existence of the problem, an algorithm programmed in the processing unit (4) shuts down the DC motor (8) through the motor-driven circuit (6) to avoid equipment damage and minimize risk to the user. At the same time, the processing unit (4) determines that the fault should be indicated to the user via the signaling module (5) and the interface module (3).

[037] With the proposed spraying effect, the lower consumption of agrochemicals and other liquids of interest is ensured; better control and uniformity of spray pressure is achieved; it is easier to plan the spraying activity by knowing the autonomy of the equipment; Simplified identification of technical failures is achieved by reducing the need for service interventions and parts replacement; and it is possible to use the equipment as a dispenser due to the work rate marker.

Claims

1- "ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER", to be adapted in hydraulic pump-driven spraying equipment equipped with a direct current electric motor and battery or rechargeable battery bank, characterized by the fact that the electronic spray controller ( 1) comprise an electronic module consisting of sub-blocks dedicated to interfacing, monitoring / supervision, control and command of the spraying process; said electronic controller (1) provided with an electrical power source comprised of an energy accumulator (9) of voltage and capacities compatible with the circuits fed by this accumulator; The user intervention to the controller (1) is performed through a control panel (2), connected in turn to an interface module (3), whose function is to convert the user command into electrical signals suitable to the levels typical of a processing unit (4); provided with an accumulator monitor module (7) responsible for conditioning the accumulator signals, including analog or digital noise filters and is also responsible for the connection between the accumulator (9) and the processing unit (4); based on the information determined by the accumulator monitor module (7), the processing unit (4) determines the charge state of the accumulator (9) by transferring the information to a signaling module (5) which is responsible for converting the electrical signals in light, graphic or audible signals which are displayed to the user via the interface module (3); At the same time, based on the user's command (2) and the load state calculated by the processing unit (4), the parameters required by a motor drive circuit (6) which receive data such as frequency and cyclic ratio are determined. real time from the processing unit (4) and drives a DC motor (8) whose electrical power comes from the accumulator (9); whereby an electric motor monitor (11) can determine and report the speed of the direct current electric motor (8), as well as determine the electric current, electrical power and / or electromechanical torque of that motor. DC motor (8), in real time, and at any time during spraying activity; where the electric motor monitor module (11) comprises an arrangement of electrical circuits including digital and analog functions, with or without rotation sensors, with or without electrical current sensors, and capable of being connected directly to the processing unit (4), so that according to the torque, speed and electrical power set on the dc motor (8) and according to the user command (2 \ the hydraulic circuit (10) is triggered and this results in the spray flow or pressure,

2. "ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER" according to claim 1, characterized in that the fetus of the energy accumulator (9) corresponds to a primary or secondary battery of voltage and capacities compatible with the circuits supplied by this accumulator.

3. "ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER" according to claim 1, characterized in that the electrical signals converted by the interface module (3) have their voltage and current levels appropriate to the typical levels of a processing unit (4); that receives such signals by promoting analogue or digital filtering of any noise.

4. "ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER" according to claim 1, characterized in that the processing unit (4) comprises a programmable logic function controller, reprogrammable or not, of a semiconductor nature; where all spray control, command and signaling algorithms are programmed in processing unit (4) _s together with preprogrammed configurations.

5. "ELECTRONIC SPRAY CONTROLLER" according to claim 1, characterized in that the hydraulic circuit (10) comprises appropriate pipes, hoses and spray tips, as well as the centrifugal, peristaltic, diaphragm pumping unit. , piston or other.