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

Claim 13:
14. A method of controlling irrigation, the method comprising:
providing an interface unit interfacing with an irrigation controller that is separate from the interface unit, the interface unit including:
a housing;
a control unit within the housing, the control unit being configured to, in response to receiving signaling from a rain accumulation sensor, detect active rainfall and an absence of rain, wherein the rain accumulation sensor is configured to sense and output data corresponding to multiple different amounts of the rainfall at different points in time as the rainfall is occurring; and
determining, by the control unit and 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 received 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
determining by the control unit that 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 received from the rain accumulation sensor indicates that a sensed rainfall accumulation amount is above a predefined rainfall accumulation threshold parameter;
based on the determining, outputting, 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, being for the interval of time, after the detection of the sensed stop of the rainfall, that is programmed into the control unit.