It is the question our dealers hear most: "My sprayer is eight years old and a different brand. Can GPS be fitted?" The short answer is yes, to almost all of them. The long answer is this article.
First, decide what the GPS should do
"Adding GPS" can mean three different things with different prices and installations:
- Guidance (navigation): an A–B line and light bar on a screen. The driver follows parallel passes from the display instead of by eye; overlap drops and night work becomes possible. The valve system is untouched. Nova 2N covers this.
- Guidance plus automatic section control: the computer keeps a field map and boom sections close on their own when they enter sprayed ground or leave the field boundary. This needs an electric valve kit on the sprayer. Nova 200 or a kit such as Nova 2N Field 500 sit in this class.
- Auto-steer: the system turns the steering wheel. That is a separate investment on the tractor side and outside the scope of this article.
Roughly 80 percent of farmers want option two, because the chemical savings are there. That is what we cover below.
Which sprayers qualify?
The rule is simple: any machine with a standard valve block can be converted. Brand, age and boom width do not matter. The checklist:
- Section valves: does the boom have separate lines for 2, 5 or 7 sections? If not, section valves (5W or 7W) come with the kit.
- Main valve and pressure regulation: a hand-turned regulator is replaced by a proportional (motorised) valve. The computer holds the rate with it.
- Flow meter: required for litres-per-hectare measurement. The Wolf flow meter is standard in the kit.
- 12 V power in the cab: every tractor has it.
- Speed signal: comes from GPS; a wheel sensor is not required.
All of this is in the 20 BAR 5W Wolf flow meter electro valve kit. The dealer removes your existing valve block and fits the kit to the same flanges, which is why "it won't work on an old sprayer" almost never happens in practice.
The cab side: wired or wireless?
In the classic installation a 4.5-metre valve cable runs between the computer and the valves. It passes through the cab door and is unplugged every time the tractor changes.
The AIR ECU introduced with the 2026 catalog changes that: the ECU is mounted on the sprayer next to the valves, the valve harness plugs into it and the link to the cab is wireless. For farms that move the sprayer between two tractors or work with a rented tractor the difference is large; only the computer and a small switch box remain in the cab. The Nova 2N Field 500 and Field 700 kits ship with this architecture.
Antenna choice: is RTK required?
No. The accuracy needed for section control depends on the width of one boom section. On a 24-metre boom a section is about 5 metres; the Cross 200 antenna at 30 to 60 cm is more than enough and needs no subscription.
RTK (Cross 300) makes sense for narrow-row orchards and vineyards, band spraying, a planned move to auto-steer, or fields where signal drops under trees. The built-in IMU of the Cross 300 holds the position on slopes and in shade.
If you are curious how accurate a receiver really is, try the GPS Speed Test with your phone in the field; agricultural antennas are noticeably steadier.
What happens on installation day?
Our dealers follow a standard flow:
- Morning: the old valve block comes off, the electro valve kit and flow meter go on. Hoses and the manometer are connected. About 2 hours.
- Midday: the computer is mounted in the cab, the antenna on the cab roof. If there is an AIR ECU it is bolted to the sprayer. 1 hour.
- Afternoon: calibration: boom width, number of sections, nozzle spacing and flow meter factor are entered. A test run with water checks that sections close correctly on the map. 1 to 2 hours.
- Operator training: drawing an A–B line, recording a boundary, pause point and job records. 1 hour.
The next morning the machine is ready to spray. Knowing your nozzle output in advance speeds up calibration; the Nozzle Calculator picks the right nozzle for your target rate and speed.
How the cost is made up
A kit price has three parts: computer and antenna, the electro valve kit (by number of sections) and cables. Payback comes from chemical savings; in the next article we put a number on it with the overlap loss calculation.
Three common mistakes
- Mounting the antenna at the back of the cab. It belongs in the centre of the cab roof, in line with the boom axis; otherwise sections close late.
- Entering the wrong nozzle spacing. 25 cm instead of 50 cm doubles the rate. Fill in the calibration screen together with the dealer.
- Fitting the flow meter without its filter. The line filter in the kit sits ahead of the flow meter; skip it and readings drift within a season.
Send your sprayer brand and boom width through the contact form; a dealer will reply with the matching kit and an installation date.
