Fairfield County, Ohio, USA | I can't decide whether I should put this in Precision Talk or Machine Talk. I feel like most electrical things wind up here? Please forgive me if I chose poorly.
We bought a sprayer last fall, and had it equipped with Ag Leader DirectCommand L2, so we no longer have a use for the "controller" that came with the sprayer... except that it also controls the foam markers and one of the two hydraulic diverters. It doesn't have any provision for the other hydraulic diverter, or ability to control an agitation valve (that I plan to add soon), and DirectCommand made "master" and all of the boom switches irrelevant. So I essentially want to throw away that control panel and make up a custom one that does exactly what we need.
Has anyone done this a somewhat polished way? Or are there companies that will make a one-off switch box like this? We've many times put switches on the ends of cords and just put them in the tractor cab for use, but since I'm going to have a number of switches, I'd like to have a single housing for all of them, that I can put a RAM mount on, and make it tidy and easy to hook-up.
Switches I'm planning for:
- Rinse Pump: Enable-Disable (12V to the sprayer's rinse water electric pump switch). 21A load.
- Foam Markers: Left/No/Right (On-Off-On). 10A load.
- Agitation: More/Less ((On)-Off-(On)). ?A, controlling a TeeJet valve.
- Hydraulic 1: Lift/Fold (On-Off). ?A, operating a diverter solenoid.
- Hydraulic 2: Left/Both/Right (On-On-On). ?A, operating 2 diverter solenoids.
The thing that most surprises me is that the electric rinse pump's max amperage is 21A. I wasn't expecting to need to switch that much, and I was also quite surprised that the original manufacturer had that pump power going through a Deutsch AT connector, which as I understand it, is rated for no more than 12A.
Anyone have any advice? Is this all a fool's errand? I know I could "just do it" pretty quickly, but I'm in no big hurry, and figured maybe someone could give me advice for how to do it right. The kind of box to put it all in, what brand/model/etc of switches tend to last a long while, whether I should be considering a relay for that pump, etc.
As usual, I'm rambling. Hope you're all doing well, and that your planting is complete. :)
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Advice for a custom control/switch panel for a sprayer
