PC-programmed irrigation control system
A free-standing field irrigation controller is selectively programmed by a personal computer over a radio link. The computer is equipped with software that displays a screen with seven horizontal time bands representing one day each, arranged vertically to display one week's time. Box icons representing watering settings for a plurality of zones can be dragged and dropped onto the time bands, copied and modified thereon as desired, to form a freely selectable watering schedule. Other selectable screens allow odd-days or even-days watering, sophisticated interval watering, global watering time adjustment, and a variety of manual functions. Selectable portions of the main screen can be enlarged as desired. Based on the selected schedule, the computer calculates and displays the monthly cost of water. Selected zones can be temporarily disabled to deal with weather or maintenance issues. A handheld global shut-off and manual watering remote and/or a separate radio-linked computer may be used in field maintenance.
This invention relates to irrigation control systems, and more particularly to a system using a free-standing field controller programmed by a conventional personal computer with the aid of a novel interactive graphic interface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONIrrigation controllers are used in irrigation systems to electrically operate valves that deliver water under pressure to sprinklers or other distribution devices for watering turf or plants. Controllers are normally installed and programmed after the irrigation system has been designed. Technical skills and experience relating to such installations vary greatly from first-time do-it-yourselfers to professional landscaping crews. Furthermore, once the watering schedules are set on initial installation, they need to be changed or adjusted from time to time to adapt the system to climate or seasonal changes, growth of plants, or unanticipated conditions of soil or topography that result in inadequate or excessive watering in some areas of the system.
During the design and installation of the irrigation system, the system is divided into zones, each of which irrigates an area of turf or plants having similar growth characteristics and consequently similar water needs. Thus, the amount and frequency of watering can be controlled uniformly and individually for any given grouping of vegetation in the system. The number and frequency of the periodic adjustments that need to be made to the system depends on the complexity of the landscaping and the changes in the variable water requirements.
Many of the controllers currently available on the market offer a wide array of features and options. These are typically accessed by dials, knobs, buttons and switches, while information is primarily displayed by alphanumeric displays and/or indicator lights. Thus, altering the watering schedule of a controller can be a bewildering, frustrating experience for users, such as homeowners, who seldom find it necessary to make schedule changes. The typical lack of intuitive controls, the often obscure instructions in manuals, and an installer's reluctance to spend time training the user exacerbate that problem.
Worse yet is the not uncommon situation where the 24V AC power fails when the back-up battery that retains data in memory during power failures has been allowed to wear out. In that case, all program information may be lost, and the user has to reprogram the whole system without the original installer's guidance.
As personal computers (PCs) have become more and more commonplace in homes, fairly complex irrigation control systems have been sold to homeowners and other users who are not very sophisticated in manually programming complex controllers, but who do own a PC. Such users are likely to be quite familiar with standard methods of interactively manipulating graphics. For example, most PC users intuitively know how to drag and drop icons by moving and clicking a mouse.
For such users, it is highly desirable to provide a user-friendly graphic interface which allows an operator to manipulate the settings of the field controller with a mouse, and visually observe the effect of his manipulations. In addition, it would be advantageous for users to have a means of allowing repair personnel in the field to perform diagnostic downloads and/or basic control functions, such as turning the water on and off at desired locations, without having to physically access the field controller or the PC. Also, it would be advantageous for users to see how different selections of watering settings would affect the cost of operating the irrigation system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a centrally operated irrigation control system with an intuitive, interactive graphic operator interface by presenting to the operator a two-dimensional time-date chart on a PC screen. Color-coded icons representing the different zones of the system can be placed on the chart and manipulated so as to present to the operator a graphic picture of which zone will be watering how long, at what time and on which days. Clicking on other icons can shut off watering on selected days, start a manual watering cycle, or cause a selected setting to repeat at selected intervals or on selected days of the week or month.
Other screens, dialog boxes or icons provide more detailed information about individual zones, calculate the anticipated monthly or yearly cost of the water expended by the system as a result of the chosen settings, or selectively temporarily disable one or more malfunctioning zones.
The schedule and run time settings created by the operator on the PC screen are transmitted to a field controller when desired, and the PC polls the field controller to assure reliable communications by radio or other electronic means at frequent intervals, e.g. once per second, as long as the control program of this invention is running on the PC. The field controller's clock is synchronized with the PC's clock whenever a schedule is uploaded from, or downloaded to, the field controller. This prevents unintentional resetting of the field controller's clock e.g. between daylight saving and standard time. The field controller's transceiver acknowledges each transmission back to the PC. The transmitted schedules and settings for the field controller are stored in that controller and remain in effect until altered by the PC, even if the PC goes off line.
Thus, a significant aspect of the invention is that the field controller is a free-standing unit; i.e. it does not depend on the PC for its operation. Once it has been programmed by the PC, it continues to function on its own, with or without the PC, until its operation is purposely disabled or modified. This is important for several reasons. Firstly, the system of this invention does not tie up the PC unnecessarily. Secondly, a PC or radio link failure does not impede the scheduled functioning of the system. Thirdly, a landscape maintenance technician can (with an appropriate radio access code) download and/or modify the field controller's schedule and settings from his truck. This is useful for diagnostic purposes and for correcting inappropriately selected watering parameters without the homeowner having to be present. The homeowner receives the new schedule when he activates the inventive program or chooses, within the program, the menu option to upload the schedule from the field controller.
In one aspect of the invention, a handheld remote is provided to send water-off, manual-watering, and resume-operation radio signals to the field controller without changing its stored parameters. This is useful for maintenance personnel when checking the proper operation of the sprinkler heads.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
As shown in
The face plate of a typical field controller 14 in accordance with the invention is shown in
Under the control of its clock 38, and solely in response to the scheduling and setting data stored in memory 32, the microprocessor 34 turns power to the water valves or stations 16a through 16h on and off as the watering schedule stored in memory 32 dictates. Whenever power is on to one of the stations 16, the microprocessor 34 illuminates the corresponding one of the station LEDs 40a through 40h. When no watering is in progress, the microprocessor 34 scrolls the station LEDs 40a through 40h to indicate that the system is functional and standing by. No intervention by the PC 12 is required for the free-standing field controller 14 to perform these operations.
The controller 14 has two controls which may be in the form of the Manual Start pushbutton 42 and the Enable/Disable pushbutton 44. The Manual Start button 42 triggers the microprocessor 34 to energize station 16a for its run time as stored in the memory 32. A second push turns off station 16a and starts station 16b. A third push turns station 16b off and starts station 16c. Finally, the ninth push turns off station 16h and returns the microprocessor 34 to its automatic operation. If button 42 is pushed only once, each station will water in numerical sequence for its designated run time, and then return to automatic operation.
The Enable/Disable button 44 shuts all watering off by removing the operating power from the stations 16, while keeping the microprocessor 34 and radio transceiver 22 in operation. The Enable/Disable button can be physically pushed by an operator in the field, or actuated by a radio command signal from the PC 12 or the handheld remote 18.
Referring now to
The third line 102c of the menu bar 102 contains the special icons that activate the features of the inventive system. As described in more detail below, the Zone Display icon 108 brings up a Zones box or list 130 of all separately controllable zones. The No-Watering icon 109 toggles the field controller 14 of
The Send icon 118 is normally grayed out. When the program of this invention is opened on the PC 12, the current schedule and settings stored in the field controller 14 are immediately uploaded for display on the PC 12. When any change is made to the uploaded information, the Send icon 118 becomes active. When it is then clicked, the PC 12 begins sending the selected or modified watering schedule and settings to the field controller 14. When the modified parameters have been successfully transmitted to the field controller 14, the Send icon 118 will momentarily change to “OK”, after which the Send icon 118 grays out, the PC 12 resumes its continual polling of the field controller 14, and the screen again displays the status of the field controller 14. Pop-up reminder boxes (not shown) warn the operator if a modification has been made but not sent to the field controller 14 within a reasonable time.
The body of the start-up screen 100 displays horizontal time bands 120 arranged in a vertical series of days. The first day 122 of the series is always the current day as determined by the computer's internal clock. The screen 100 preferably displays seven time bands to form a repeating one-week setup. Two-week or four-week setups (i.e. setups that repeat every two or four weeks) can be chosen from the Irrigation Tools menu 106, in which case weeks preceding or following the displayed week can be accessed by clicking the up arrow 124 or the down arrow 126. A vertical line 128 shows the current time, in accordance with the computer's clock, on the midnight-to-midnight scale of the time bands 120.
In order to set up a watering schedule, the Zone Display icon 108 is clicked. This brings up the Zones box 130 (
Repeated dragging and dropping produces the screen of
Because only one zone can normally be on at any given time, an attempt to drag schedule box 136 onto schedule box 138 causes schedule box 136 to jump back to a position immediately adjacent schedule box 138. Positioning the cursor 135 over a schedule box such as 133 brings up an information label 137 (
To the right of each time band is a large X 148. Clicking that X highlights the time band and the X, and disables watering for that day only. This would be useful if the forecast for that day calls for rain. If an error is made in scheduling a given day, the error can be corrected by a conventional Edit-delete or Undo and reentry operation.
When local ordinances or other watering restrictions so provide, watering can be scheduled for odd or even days of the month by selecting, e.g., “Odd Days” from the Irrigation Tools menu 106. This brings up the screen of
The effect of a global adjustment to 150% of the original settings is shown in
A water cost calculator, shown in
Clicking the Manual icon 112 (
Clicking the “Stations Enable/Disable” tab 200 brings up the screen of
The “Cycle and System” tab 202 brings up the screen of
It will be understood that the foregoing description is only one example of a system according to the invention, and that the described system may be modified to cover a variety of situations and requirements within the ambit of the following claims.
Claims
1. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to present to said operator a graphic of the time of day for a plurality of days, said computer receiving said data from said operator by placing water valve identifying indicia into selected positions on said graphic.
2. The system of claim 1, in which said memory is non-volatile.
3. The system of claim 1, in which said graphic includes:
- i) a plurality of time bands extending in a first direction, each time band representing hours of a day, said time bands being juxtaposed in a second direction to represent a series of days.
4. The system of claim 3, in which the current time is indicated by a line extending in said second direction across said time bands.
5. The system of claim 3, in which said graphic further incudes:
- ii) a selectably displayable list of indicia representing the water valves of said set, watering schedules of said water valves being placed on said time bands by dragging and dropping indicia from said list onto said time bands in the form of schedule boxes having an edge representative of the start of watering and a width representative of run time.
6. The system of claim 5, in which said graphic includes directional arrows, and said displayed days are selected by clicking said arrows.
7. The system of claim 6, in which said schedule box can be expanded along its time band by dragging a trailing edge of said schedule box.
8. The system of claim 5, in which sets of schedule boxes in one time band can be copied to other time bands.
9. The system of claim 5, in which said graphic is arranged to display, whenever the cursor is placed over a scheduling box, a label showing the identity of the valve involved and its start and run time.
10. The system of claim 5, in which clicking on a schedule box displays a dialog box which allows the parameters of the schedule box to be changed.
11. The system of claim 5, in which said time bands each represent the 24 hours of a day, and said graphic shows seven time bands representing a repeating week.
12. The system of claim 5, in which said time bands are arranged in a series beginning with the current day and ending with the last day of a selectable repetition cycle, the displayed days of said repetition cycle being selectable.
13. The system of claim 12, in which said computer is adapted to send to said field controller scheduling data representing turn-on of a water valve at the time corresponding to a leading edge of a corresponding schedule box, and a turn-off of said water valve at the time corresponding to a trailing edge of said schedule box.
14. The system of claim 5, in which alternate ones of said time bands can be selectively blocked to allow watering only on odd or even days.
15. The system of claim 5, in which said graphic further includes:
- iii) watering inhibition indicia which, when clicked, inhibit watering on a specific day with which they are associated.
16. The system of claim 1, in which selectable portions of said graphic can be repeatedly enlarged without affecting the effect of said indicia.
17. The system of claim 1, in which said graphic contains an icon which, if clicked, causes the watering schedule defined by said water valve indicia to be suspended.
18. The system of claim 1, in which said graphic contains an icon which monitors the data link between said computer and said field controller, and signals a failure to receive from said field controller a response to a polling or data transmission by said computer.
19. The system of claim 1, in which said data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings is selectably transmitted to said field controller by clicking a transmit icon on said graphic.
20. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to selectably present to said operator a graphic having a time band representing time in a day, any watering schedule established on said time band being repeated at a selectable interval of days beginning on a selectable day.
21. The system of claim 20, in wich said graphic further includes a calendar for a selectable month, with interval-selected watering days being marked by a watering icon.
22. The system of claim 21, in which watering days can be selectively inhibited, and in which a no-watering icon is substituted for said watering icon on inhibited days.
23. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to selectably present to said operator a graphic representing a selectable global adjustment of the run times of all said water valves programmed into said computer.
24. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to present to said operator a graphic in the form of a dedicated spreadsheet which, upon entry of the flow rate of each said water valve and the cost data of a known water consumption, calculates and displays the water use and cost of the irrigation schedule using said desired watering schedules.
25. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to selectively transfer run time data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to present to said operator a selectable set of graphics presenting indicia which, when clicked, manually disable or run selectable ones of said water valves.
26. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller linked to said computer for transfer of data therebetween;
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller; and
- f) said computer being further programmed to present to said operator a graphic of the time of day for a plurality of days, said computer receiving said data from said operator by placing water valve identifying indicia into selected positions on said graphic; and
- g) a remote linked to said field controller for transmitting commands thereto;
- h) said remote including means for transmitting to said field controller only manual operation and disabling commands.
27. An irrigation control system, comprising:
- a) a computer;
- b) a field controller releasably linkable to said computer for transfer of data therebetween; and
- c) a set of water valves arranged to be selectively turned on and off by said field controller;
- d) said field controller being a free-standing unit including a clock, a microprocessor and a memory, said memory being connected to store scheduling data and run time setting data for the operation of said water valves, and said microprocessor being arranged to operate said water valves in accordance with said clock and said data regardless of whether said field controller is linked to said computer;
- e) said computer being programmed to receive from an operator data representing desired watering schedules and run time settings for each water valve of said set, and to selectively transfer said data to said field controller memory when said field controller and computer are linked.
28. The system of claim 27, wherein said computer is linked to said field controller by a radio link.
29. The system of claim 28, wherein said data being transferred to said field controller includes an access code for allowing said field controller to accept said transferred data from any computer cognizant of said access code.
30. The system of claim 27, wherein said field controller is polled continually by said computer while linked thereto to inform said computer of the status of said field controller, and said clock is synchronized with the clock of said computer only as part of a schedule data transmission to or from said field controller.
31. The system of claim 30, wherein said computer displays said status of said field controller unless said data has been modified on said computer but has not yet been transmitted to said field controller.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 10, 2006
Publication Date: Jun 8, 2006
Inventors: Allan Goldberg (Laguna Niguel, CA), Larry Hopkins (Escondido, CA), Randall Pearson (Chino Hills, CA), Larry Hawkes (San Diego, CA), Michael Grundy (Phelan, CA)
Application Number: 11/329,821
International Classification: G05D 7/00 (20060101);