Weedit
WEEDit runs on a standard 12 volt system. Power is connected directly to the battery that runs to the interface box. The interface box does many tasks, one of them is to invert 12 volts up to 30 volts. A low voltage system suffers high power loss over large distances, so to overcome this WEEDit inverts 12 volts to higher voltage levels so that power loss across large 36m booms is minimized.
This inversion allows higher voltages to be used but most importantly allows the interface box to send a very high signal voltage to that specific solenoid for fast opening times. These solenoids are able to open in 1 millisecond and close in 5 milliseconds. At 25km/h the ‘delay distance’ to open the solenoid is only 8mm!
The ‘smarts’ inside the interface box send a high ‘opening voltage’ so that the solenoid opens quickly, but then the voltage is lowered to a ‘holding voltage’ should the solenoid need to remain open for longer bursts.
Be aware that some competitor systems require additional boxes to be installed to act as “boosters” to handle large distances, and these come at an extra cost to you.
WEEDit is the only one of its kind. It is unique how it detects, measures and applies chemical to plant matter.
1m Spacing
WEEDit sensors are spaced at 1m apart and mounted 1m off the ground. The Sensors are more powerful so there is less of them.
20cm Spray Lanes
Each Sensor controls 5 solenoids individually. Each solenoid or spray lane is spaced at 20cm. If a plant passes through that spray lane then only that solenoid is activated. On very large plants all 5 solenoids will activate together.
Fast Detection Rate
WEEDit Detection Sensors operate at a maximum sample rate of 40,000 times per second. The WEEDit sensor is programmed to sample every millimetre of ground to speeds above 25km/h.
Speed Compensating
Each sensor is linked to ground speed therefore chemical is targeted accurately over the weed. If you speed up chemical is applied earlier, if you slow down the sensor will wait until the plant passes under the nozzle and trigger the solenoid.
How does it see plants?
Plants react to all forms of light but they react most to red light. WEEDit sensors have an active red light source that continually beams to the ground which is very prominent when spraying at night.
When red light is passed over live plant matter the chlorophyll in the plant absorbs some of the red light and fluoresces Near Infra Red light (NIR) back out to the environment.
The WEEDit sensors are continually on the hunt for presence of NIR. So much so that each sensor looks at the ground 40,000 times per second checking for the presence of NIR.
WEEDit does not require any manual calibration
A percentage of the 40,000 samples are used as calibration measures, so the WEEDit is calibrated up to 50 times per second. Natural NIR is everywhere in the environment and WEEDit’s constant calibrations measure the level of background NIR, this is all done automatically and without you knowing it.
That all sounds very technical, most importantly all you need to do is turn the console on and drive!! No button pressing, no calibration.
