AG-NAV AgNav Platinum User manual

AGNAV FLOW CONTROLLER Guide 1 AG-NAV Inc.
AG-NAV FLOW CONTROLLERS
Operations Manual for Use with A Nav Platinum
AG-NAV INC.
30 Churchill Drive
Barrie, Ontario
CANADA, L4N 8Z5
North America 1-800-99 A -NAV
International [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Revision: 1.0 Date: March 2019

AGNAV FLOW CONTROLLER Guide 2 AG-NAV Inc.
NOTES
The software and hardware described in this manual is furnished under the license and may only
be used or copied in accordance with the terms of the license.
Copyright  AG-NAV Inc. 2 12
Revision: 3. Release date: August 2 12
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication or the components it describes may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written consent from AG-NAV
Inc.
AG-NAV Inc. provides this manual “as is”, without warranty of any kind and reserves the right to
make improvements and/or changes to the product described in this manual at any time and
without notice.
AG-NAV equipment should not be used as primary navigation and control device.
CLASS A COMPUTING DEVICE. This equipment has been teste an foun to comply with the
limits for a Class A igital evice, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are
esigne to provi e reasonable protection against harmful interference when the
equipment is operate in a commercial environment. The equipment generates, uses,
an can ra iate ra io frequency energy an , if not installe an use in accor ance with
the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to ra io communications.
Operation of this equipment in a resi ential area is likely to cause harmful interference,
in which case the user will be require to correct the interference at his/her own
expense.
SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS. To the maximum extent permitte by law, the manufacturer,
(AG-NAV Inc) an its suppliers isclaim all warranties, either express or implie ,
inclu ing, but not limite to implie warranties of merchantability an fitness for a
particular purpose, with regar to the SOFTWARE, the accompanying written materials,
an any accompanying har ware. You may have other rights which vary from
state/juris iction to state/juris iction.
NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. To the maximum extent permitte by applicable
law, in no event shall the company or its suppliers be liable for any amages whatsoever
(inclu ing without limitation, irect or in irect amages for personal injury, loss of
business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other
pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of this pro uct, even if the company has been
a vise of the possibility of such amages. In any case, the company’s an its suppliers’
entire liability shall be limite to the amount actually pai by the owner of the pro uct
for the pro uct. Because some states/juris ictions o not allow the exclusion or
limitation of liability for consequential or inci ental amages, the above limitation may
not apply to the user.

AGNAV FLOW CONTROLLER Guide 3 AG-NAV Inc.
TRADE ARKS
• A -NAV® or A -NAV is a registered trademark of A -NAV Inc.
• uía or uía™ is a registered trademark of A -NAV Inc.
• FlightMaster or FlightMaster™ is a registered trademark of A -NAV Inc.
• All other brand names are trademarks of their respective holders
CONTACT INFOR ATION
Contact the AG-NAV Technical Support Line at:
Toll Free for Cana a an the Unite States Telephone: 1-800-99 AG-NAV
AG-NAV Inc.
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web Site: www.agnav.com
In the event of a problem that cannot be resolve using the information supplie ,
please contact AG-NAV. You can also gain assistance through the User’s Area on our
web page at www.agnav.com.
For further assistance, contact the AG-NAV Technical Support Line by telephone, fax, or
email. AG-NAV Customer Support personnel will iscuss your situation, etermine the
cause of problem an provi e the appropriate technical assistance.

AGNAV FLOW CONTROLLER Guide 4 AG-NAV Inc.
Table of Contents
AG-NAV FLOW CONTROLLER ..................................................................................... 5
1. Guía – Flow Controller Interface ........................................................................ 5
. Flow Controller Settings ..................................................................................... 6
3. Test Flow Controller ........................................................................................... 8
4. AG-FLOW Calibration ..................................................................................... 1
5. Flow Data Display ............................................................................................. 16
6. Granular Flow Controller .................................................................................. 0
7. Granular Flow Control Calibration ................................................................... 5
8. Granular Flow Control Display and Functions ................................................. 37
9. Spray Modes:..................................................................................................... 43
10. E-Motor Flow Controller .................................................................................. 45
11. E-Motor Flow Control Test and Calibration ..................................................... 48
1 . E-Motor Flow Data Display .............................................................................. 56
13. Ultra Low Volume (ULV) Flow Controller ...................................................... 58
14. ULV Flow Controller Calibration ..................................................................... 6
15. Troubleshooting ................................................................................................ 69

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AG-NAV FLOW CONTROLLER
To improve the effectiveness and accuracy of your application, you can use your uía system
with the A -NAV flow controller, the A -FLOW. While the uía system provides the pilot with
accurate guidance, the A -FLOW regulates and provides accurate and even application on the
treated areas. During the flight, uía will constantly calculate the flow rate based on the target
application rate and speed of aircraft, and then send the flow rate to the flow controller. At all
times, the controller reads chemical flow from a flow sensor, adjusts the flow valve to meet the
target flow rate, and returns the actual flow rate to the uía. The uía displays flow data on
screen and records the data for spray analysis.
1. Guía – Flow Controller Interface
uía communicates with the flow controller via comport 4. The settings must be 9600 baud
rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. Below is the diagram of the flow control system.
Figure 1 - 1: Flow Control System

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2. Flow Controller Settings
In order for the flow controller to work properly, you have to tell the uía that a flow controller
will be used. The settings for Flow Controller are for the communications or interface between
uía and your flow controller.
To access the Settings editor, select “Application” from the Main menu.
Select Settings  Flow Controller.
Figure 2 - 1: Settings – Flow Controller

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Figure 2 - 2: Flow Controller Types
Use the or button to select the Flow Controller Type. Or tap this button to
show the list of flow controllers.
If the flow controller is for liquid spray, for example Ag-Flow or Ag-Flow UFC, you can define a
color for each range of application rates ( PA or LPH). This is for variable rate display.
Figure 2 - 3: Application Rate Colors

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3. Test Flow Controller
After installing the flow controller, you should run a test to make sure the communications
between the uía and flow controller is good. To do this,
a) Set the flow controller parameters as shown in Settings  Flow Controller.
b) Exit to the Main Menu, select Tests  Flow Controller.
Figure 3 - 1: Tests Menu
c) Tap “Connect” to initiate the communications with the flow controller. If the
connection is good, the Platinum will get the information from the AgFlow and show it
on the screen.

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Figure 3 - 2: Test Flow Controller
d) Note that in the Flow Controller Test, tap the function bar to run the function. If the
function has a value or options, you can tap the or button on the function tab to
decrease or increase the value, or change the option (open/close, start/stop, Met/US).
e) You can run the flow valve test by tapping the “Fully Close Valve” or “Fully Open
Valve”. Watch if the valve moves as expected.
f) If you use the AgNav 3-way valve, tap “Open 3-way valve”. The 3-way valve should be
in the open position to let water to flow to the flow valve. Tap “Close 3-way valve” to
close the valve.
g) You can test the flow adjustment by tapping “Test Motor”, then tap the or
button to decrease or increase the flow rate (L/min or als/min). For example if your
target flow rate is 60L/minute, you can change the flow rate from 50 L/M to 60 L/M.
The gauge at the right corner shows the target and actual flow rates. Note that the tank
must be filled with water and the 3-way valve should be open for this test to function
properly.

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Figure 3 - 3: Test Flow Control
The following tasks can be done:
• Unit: To set the unit (Liters or allons) of volume used for flow controller
calibration. Select “Met” for liters or “US” for gallons.
• Fully Close/Open Valve: To fully close or open the flow valve.
• Open/Close 3-Way Valve: To open or close the 3-way valve. To drain remaining
chemical out of the tank, tap “Open 3-way valve” and “Fully Open Valve”.
• Cal Volume: To enter the amount of liquid used for calibration. The volume can be
liters or gallons depending on the Unit set above.
• Start Calibration: To start flow controller calibration.
• Stop Calibration: To stop flow controller calibration.
• ulses/Liter: To change the flow sensor setting Pulses/Liter (PPL). Each flow
controller is set with the default or manufacturer’s PPL. The PPL setting indicates
how many pulses the flow sensor will generate for each liter of liquid flowing
through the pipe. After a flight, if you find the amount of chemical actually sprayed

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more than expected, you should reduce the PPL value. If the amount of chemical
actually sprayed was less than expected, you should increase the PPL value. Tap
“Update ulses/Liter” to update the Pulses/Liter in the flow controller.
• Update ulses/Liter: To send the new Pulses/Liter value to the flow controller to
update the flow sensor setting.
• Test Motor: To test the flow adjustment based on the target flow rate L/M.
• Exit: To exit the Flow Controller Test.

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4. AG-FL W Calibration
Before you start the calibration, make sure you have set “Ag-Flow” as the Flow Controller in
Application  Settings  Flow Controller. To calibrate the flow controller,
a) Select Tests  Flow Controller.
b) Tap “Connect” to initiate the communication with the AgFlow.
Figure 4 - 1: Test – Flow Controller
c) If you wish to change the volume unit, tap “Unit” and enter the correct unit “Met” for
liters and “US” for gallons.
d) Tap “Cal Volume” and enter the amount of water you will use for calibration. At least
100 liters or 25 gallons of water should be used. Make sure you have this amount of
water in the tank. As an example, assume that we use 100 liters for calibration.
e) Check if the flow valve is fully or partially closed, tap “Fully Open Valve”. You should
see the following display.

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Figure 4 - 2: AgFlow Cali ration – Fully Open Valve
f) Tap “Start Calibration”. If the 3-way valve is closed, tap “Open 3-way valve” to let
water flow to the flow valve. When water is flowing, the flow sensor will output the
pulses. The AgFlow will count the number of pulses and calculate the PPL based on the
calibration volume.

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Figure 4 - 3: AgFlow Cali ration
g) Check the water tank, when the full amount of water (100 liters per our example) has
flown through the valve, tap “Stop Calibration” to stop counting the pulses. You can
shut off the water flow by tapping “Close 3-way valve”.
h) Check the calculated Pulses/Liter shown on screen, and compare it to the current
Pulses/Liter. If you agree with the result, tap “ ulses/Liter”. Change the value to the
calculated PPL.

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Figure 4 - 4: AgFlow Cali ration – Edit PPL
i) Tap “Update Pulses/Liter” to change the PPL setting in the AgFlow.
j) If desired, you can run the calibration again with the new PPL.
When you finish testing and calibrating the flow controller, tap “Exit” to exit the Flow Controller
Test.

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5. Flow Data Display
When flow controller is used, the display will show “A ” for current applied application
rate in gallons/acre or liters/ha, and “TAR” for target application rate in the same unit. In
normal case, the 2 numbers should match within one second.
Figure 5 - 1 : Flow Data Display
The flow data display is on when data coming in from the flow controller. The Data
Communication Indicator is flashing when the communication between uía and flow
controller is good. When there is a problem with the data communication, the indicator just
shows a circle or stops flashing.
The indicator next to the Data Comm indicator shows Auto Spray or Manual Spray being
used. “A” indicates Auto Spray on and “M” indicates Manual Spray on.
When using the flow controller, the Platinum will calculate how much material has been
sprayed. As shown in the picture above, “91” gallons has been sprayed on the area. The
data is used to plot the vertical tank gauge to show how much material left in tank (green
bar).

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During flight if desired, you can change the application rate. To use this function, you have
to assign “AppRate” to one of the Control Menus of Old Area.
Figure 5 - 2: Flow Control Functions
To change application rate during flight, tap the green button at the center of Control Menu
or press on the remote switches until you see the function “AppRate” in the Control
Menu.

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Figure 5 - 3: Change Application Rate
The AppRate editor is present. Use the or button to change the application
rate value. If the change is big, tap the Keyboard button to show the virtual keyboard then
enter the new application rate to be used on the area.
Figure 5 - 4: Edit Application Rate
When done, tap to accept the new application rate and continue.

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Note that once you accept the rate, it will be used until you exit the Application program.
The new AppRate will be saved to the area or project file for future application on this area.
The AppRate function won’t change the default application rate.
There is another function that relate to flow data which is “TankFull”. During flight, the
Platinum shows the tank gauge as a vertical bar in the Flow Data box. The height of the bar
indicates how much spray material is left in tank.
TankFull is used to reset the tank gauge. You should do this when refill the tank. The
amount of TankFul is defined in Settings  Spraying.
Figure 5 - 5: Tank Full Function

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6. Granular Flow Controller
The AgNav ranular Flow Controller works with the Isolair Broadcaster tanks or IMS bucket to
provide even application of granules over the target areas. The ranular Flow Controller
consists of one controller box, two granular dispensers and harnesses. Each granular dispenser
has an impeller driven by a DC motor and an RPM encoder.
The uía Platinum has settings for interfacing with the granular flow controller to automatically
adjust the motor speed to dispense material based on the target spread rate, swath width, and
speed of helicopter.
To check and change settings, select Settings  Flow Controller. Select “Ag-Granular” for Flow
Controller Type.
Figure 6 - 1: Settings – Granular Flow Controller