Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I have limited experience with the older DJ rate controllers. Most of it bad. As I recall the DJ controllers are designed to work with their own control valves and actually didn't work that great with them. If you are trying to use one to control a two wire butterfly type control valve of another brand, the DJ might not have the ability to run the motor directly.
Another problem with a Hardi sprayer is that many of them use a positive displacement pump. This means the flow must go somewhere so for control, the butterfly valve would need to control in bypass. By bypass, I mean the control valve would need to be on a tee prior to a flow meter and change the amount of flow that is allowed to return to the tank. The sections valves must also direct the flow back through an orifice to the tank. The controller must be aware of that arrangement. Some can, come can't.
I realize this isn't much help. Maybe someone else has more positive suggestions.
Since you have been successful in getting your system to read the flow meter and display the applied rate, you might consider using a manual momentary switch to work with the control valve. This would not be as nice as an automatic controller but would allow you to set the rate for normal conditions manually so the majority of the time the applied rate would be correct.
For example, a Raven butterfly control valve runs on 12VDC and ground. By sending +12VDC on one wire and ground on the other, the motor would turn one direction and the valve would slowly open. By reversing the wires the valve would close. To go from fully closed to open takes 8 seconds which means you have a good chance of changing the flow gradually.
By using a DPDT momentary switch wired in the "criss cross" fashion. You could change the position of the butterfly yourself to attain the proper applied rate.
This might not be ideal but would be an improvement over basic speed and pressure settings.
Edited by tedbear 6/8/2025 09:38
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Dickey john rate controller with 2 wire flow control valve
