Patent ID: 11957083
Assignee: RAIN BIRD CORPORATION
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 0:
1. An interface unit interfacing with an irrigation controller that is separate from the interface unit, the interface unit comprising:
a housing;
a control unit within the housing, where the control unit is configured to,
based on signaling received from a rain accumulation sensor, detect active rainfall and an absence of rain, the rain accumulation sensor configured to sense and output data corresponding to multiple different amounts of the rainfall at different points in time as the rainfall is occurring;
determine, based on an analysis of the data corresponding to the multiple different amounts of the rainfall at the different points in time as the rainfall is occurring received by the interface unit in the signaling from the rain accumulation sensor, whether an interruption of one or more watering schedules executed by the irrigation controller should occur for an interval of time, after a sensed stop of the rainfall, that is programmed into the control unit; and
output, via an output coupled by wired connection to an input of the irrigation controller, a data signal including a message to instruct the irrigation controller to implement the interruption, the interruption being based on a determination by the control unit that the data indicates that a sensed rainfall accumulation amount is above a predefined rainfall accumulation threshold parameter, the interruption being for the interval of time, after the detection of the sensed stop of the rainfall, that is programmed into the control unit.