Abstract:
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&#39;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.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     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 INVENTION  
       [0002]     Irrigation 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.  
         [0003]     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.  
         [0004]     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&#39;s reluctance to spend time training the user exacerbate that problem.  
         [0005]     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&#39;s guidance.  
         [0006]     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.  
         [0007]     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 INVENTION  
       [0008]     The 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.  
         [0009]     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.  
         [0010]     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&#39;s clock is synchronized with the PC&#39;s clock whenever a schedule is uploaded from, or downloaded to, the field controller. This prevents unintentional resetting of the field controller&#39;s clock e.g. between daylight saving and standard time. The field controller&#39;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.  
         [0011]     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&#39;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.  
         [0012]     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  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of the system of this invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 2   a  is a front view of a typical field controller in the system of the invention;  
         [0015]      FIG. 2   b  is a block diagram of the field controller of  FIG. 2   a;    
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a handheld remote optionally used with the system of the invention;  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  shows the start-up screen of the control program;  
         [0018]      FIG. 5  shows the zones selection box;  
         [0019]      FIG. 6   a  shows the screen of  FIG. 5  with zone schedules inserted;  
         [0020]      FIG. 6   b  shows the label produced by positioning the cursor over a schedule box;  
         [0021]      FIG. 7  shows the schedule dialog box;  
         [0022]      FIG. 8  shows the screen of  FIG. 4  with alternate-days watering schedules entered thereon;  
         [0023]      FIG. 9  shows a magnifying box on the screen of  FIG. 8 ;  
         [0024]      FIG. 10  shows a magnified section of the screen of  FIG. 4  with a new-lawn schedule inserted;  
         [0025]      FIG. 11  shows an odd-days watering schedule;  
         [0026]      FIG. 12  shows an interval schedule screen;  
         [0027]      FIG. 13  shows an enlarged section of the screen of  FIG. 8  with a global adjustment of 100%;  
         [0028]      FIG. 14  shows the screen section of  FIG. 13  with a global adjustment of 150%;  
         [0029]      FIG. 15  shows the water cost calculator of the invention;  
         [0030]      FIG. 16  shows the Station On-Off subscreen of the manual operations screen;  
         [0031]      FIG. 17  shows the screen of  FIG. 16  with manual operations entered;  
         [0032]      FIG. 18  shows the Stations Enabled/Disabled subscreen of the manual operations screen; and  
         [0033]      FIG. 19  shows the Cycle and System subscreen of the manual operations screen. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0034]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the system  10  of this invention is composed of a PC  12 , a field controller  14 , zone valves or stations  16   a  through  16   h  (collectively referred to herein as stations  16 ), and optionally a handheld remote  18 . Radio transceiver  20  connected to an appropriate USB or modem port of the PC  12 , and transceiver  22  at the field controller  14 , exchange schedule, setting and clock data between the PC  12  and the field controller  14 . A transceiver  24  in the remote  18  allows the remote  18  to access the field controller  14  for limited purposes. Each of the stations  16  turns the water from a main  26  on or off, under the control of the field controller  14 , to a set of sprinklers  28 .  
         [0035]     The face plate of a typical field controller  14  in accordance with the invention is shown in  FIG. 2   a . A communications monitor LED  36  indicates operation of the radio link between the field controller  14  and the PC  12  and/or the remote  18 . Zone Status LEDs  40   a  through  40   h  indicate the current status of the valves  16   a  through  16   h , respectively, which control water flow to the sprinklers  28  in zones  1  through  8 , respectively. Manual Start pushbutton  42  is provided to start a manual watering sequence and to switch from one zone to the next. Enable/Disable button  44  toggles between inhibiting and restoring all watering. Water-Off LED  56  is connected to the power supply  46  ( FIG. 2   b ) in such a manner as to light steadily when watering is disabled, and to flash at intervals of e.g. four seconds under the power of a backup battery (not shown) in the power supply  46  to indicate an AC line power failure.  
         [0036]      FIG. 2   b  shows the details of the free-standing field controller  14 . Irrigation parameter and clock synchronization signals from the PC  12  of  FIG. 1  are received by the transceiver  22  and decoded by the encoder/decoder  30 . An access code may be embodied in the signals to assure that the field controller  14  responds only to its owner&#39;s PC. The received irrigation settings and schedules are stored in the non-volatile memory  32  by the microprocessor  34 . The microprocessor  34  acknowledges receipt and execution of the transmission from the PC  12  by transmitting a status signal back to the PC  12 . A status signal is also transmitted back to the PC  12  when the field controller  14  is polled by the PC  12  (typically about once per second while the PC program is running. The communications monitor LED  36  blinks whenever a good signal is received so that the proper operation of the communications link can be observed.  
         [0037]     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  16   a  through  16   h  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  40   a  through  40   h . When no watering is in progress, the microprocessor  34  scrolls the station LEDs  40   a  through  40   h  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.  
         [0038]     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  16   a  for its run time as stored in the memory  32 . A second push turns off station  16   a  and starts station  16   b . A third push turns station  16   b  off and starts station  16   c . Finally, the ninth push turns off station  16   h  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.  
         [0039]     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 .  
         [0040]     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , the optional remote  18  has a Manual Start button  70  and an Enable/Disable button  72 . An encoder  78  translates a button actuation into an appropriate code for transmission. The transceiver  24  is equipped with an LED  80  that lights when a signal is being transmitted or received. The LED  80  is programmed to blink twice if the addressed controller  14  is operational and acknowledges the transmission, once if the controller  14  is disabled, and not at all if the controller  14  is out of service and does not respond, or if a bad transmission is received.  
         [0041]      FIGS. 4 through 19  illustrate the establishment and manipulation of watering schedules and settings in the system of the invention. When the inventive control program is first opened on the PC  12 , the start-up or main graphic or screen  100  ( FIG. 4 ) is initially presented to the user. The first two lines  102   a  and  102   b  of the menu bar  102  contain the standard operational icons of the Windows® operating system, adding only the Communications menu  104  and the Irrigation Tools menu  106 . The Communications menu  104  allows the selection of ports for the connection of the transceiver  20  and the initiation of a data transfer to or from the field controller  14 . The Irrigation Tools menu  106  allows the selection of the various types of screens discussed below.  
         [0042]     The third line  102   c  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  FIG. 2   a  on/off in the same manner as the enable/disable buttons  44  and  72  described above. The Communications icon  110  monitors the functioning of the radio link by showing radiating green circles when transmissions to the field controller  14  are being acknowledged, and red ones when they are not. The Percent icon  111  brings up the global adjustment bar of  FIGS. 13 and 14  for globally increasing or decreasing all the watering times of all the zones in response to climatic changes or water conservation requirements. The Manual icon  112  brings up a set of screens which handle a variety of manual operations. The Plus and Minus icons  113 ,  115  enlarge and reduce, respectively, selected portions of the screen as described below. Undo and Redo icons  114  and  116  carry out standard editing functions of the Windows® operating system. The “100%” notation  119  indicates that the global adjustment (discussed below in conjunction with  FIGS. 13 and 14 ) is set to 100%.  
         [0043]     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.  
         [0044]     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&#39;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&#39;s clock, on the midnight-to-midnight scale of the time bands  120 .  
         [0045]     In order to set up a watering schedule, the Zone Display icon  108  is clicked. This brings up the Zones box  130  ( FIG. 5 ) which displays a valve icon  132  and an editable description box  134  for each of the separately programmable zones. A watering schedule is begun by dragging and dropping, in accordance with standard Windows® practice, a selected valve icon  132  onto a selected time band  120  at approximately the time position at which a watering cycle is selected to begin. (Note that in  FIG. 5 , the down arrow  126  has been clicked until the time bands  120  on the screen represent the sixth through twelfth days of a two-week setup).  
         [0046]     Repeated dragging and dropping produces the screen of  FIG. 6  (the up arrow  124  having been clicked to go back to a display of the first seven days of the two-week setup). Preferably, the valve or zone icons  132  are color-coded, and the schedule boxes  135  are correspondingly color-coded in addition to being numbered. It will thus be seen in  FIG. 6  that the flower beds and parkway lawn get watered on Tuesday at about 7:15 am and 8:15 am, respectively; the rear lawn, front lawn and front shrubs get watered on Wednesday at about 5:55 am, 7:05 am and 7:55, respectively; and the rose garden gets watered at 8:00 am on Thursday. The side yard and rear shrubs get watered, one immediately after the other, beginning at 9:00 am on Thursday.  
         [0047]     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  ( FIG. 6   b ) that identifies the zone and shows its start time, run time and end time. Right-clicking a schedule box such as  136  brings up a dialog box  139  ( FIG. 7 ) in which the user can modify the start time and run time, or delete the schedule box entirely. Incompatible selections chosen in the dialog box, such as overlapping run times, are rejected with an advisory pop-up box (not shown) indicating the inappropriate choice. Alternatively, a schedule box can be dragged to a different start time, and its right edge can be dragged to increase or decrease its run time.  
         [0048]      FIG. 8  (with the Zones box  130  now hidden by clicking Zone Display icon  108 ) illustrates a method of building a one-week schedule that waters alternate sets of zones on alternate weekdays. In that figure, the Tuesday schedule of zones  3 ,  7 ,  4  and  8  and the Wednesday schedule of zones  6 ,  5 ,  1  and  2  are first established in the manner discussed above in connection with  FIG. 5 . Next, the Tuesday time band  140  is selected and highlighted by double-clicking on it. Positioning the cursor over the thus selected time band produces a 4-way arrow. The highlighted time band can now be dragged to the desired day with the left mouse button. A copy of the time band  140  will thus be produced on the desired day. In like manner, the Wednesday band  142  is copied to the Friday band. The Saturday and Sunday bands  144 ,  146  are left blank. It will be noted that as the top band rotates to the bottom of the screen (with next week&#39;s date) at the end of the day, Monday&#39;s and Tuesday&#39;s schedules will not alternate but be the same. This can be avoided by setting up a two-week schedule.  
         [0049]     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.  
         [0050]      FIGS. 9 and 10  illustrate the magnification of any desired area of the screen so that settings may be observed and manipulated more exactly. Clicking the Plus icon  113  magnifies the whole screen. Because this may move a desired portion of the screen out of view, a portion of the screen can alternatively be selected for magnification by dragging the mouse with the left button. This places a shaded box  150  over the image on the screen. The box  150  can be moved and sized by its handles  152  in accordance with standard Windows® drawing practice. When it has been placed and sized as desired, clicking the Plus icon  113  enlarges the area encompassed by the box  150  to fill the screen ( FIG. 10 ). This is convenient, for example, when it is desired to schedule, by copying and pasting, a number of short, spaced waterings  151  as would be beneficial on a new lawn. The process of clicking the Plus icon  113  and/or creating a box  150  can be repeated as desired for increasing the magnification of the screen image. Clicking the Minus icon  115  reverses the process step by step.  
         [0051]     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  FIG. 11 , in which all even days are blocked out, but in which watering on odd days can be scheduled at will, as described above. It should be noted that if the last day of the month is odd, it is also blocked out so that watering cannot occur two days in a row. In the screen of  FIG. 11 , double-clicking the arrows  124 ,  126  moves the display to the first seven or last seven days of the month, respectively. As in the other seven-day screens, single-clicking the arrows  124 ,  126  moves the display up or down by one day.  
         [0052]      FIG. 12  shows an Interval Schedule screen  154  which can also be selected from the Irrigation Tools menu  106 . The screen  154  contains only one time band  120  for the current day. A schedule set up for that day will repeat at the intervals selected in the window  156 , starting on the day selected in window  158 . The selections in windows  156 ,  158  cause a water drop icon  160  to appear on the selected days in the calendar  162 . Right-clicking on an icon  160  on the calendar  162  causes a Cancelled icon  164  to appear in its place, and watering will not take place on that day unless the Cancelled icon  164  is removed by right-clicking on it.  
         [0053]      FIGS. 13 and 14  illustrate the operation of the Percent icon  111 . Clicking that icon brings up the global adjustment screen  166  under the enlarged screen section  168 . In order to globally adjust all the run time settings of the watering schedules entered into the system (e.g. in order to cope with an unseasonal hot or cold spell), the user can move the slider  170  or click the bar  171  or the arrows  172 ,  174  to vary the percentage of run time from the normal 100% to anywhere from 0% to 200%. Each click on the bar  171  on either side of the slider  170  increases or decreases the run time by 10%, while each click on one of the arrows  172 ,  174  increases or reduces it by 1%.  
         [0054]     The effect of a global adjustment to 150% of the original settings is shown in  FIG. 14 . Comparing the schedules of  FIG. 14  to those of  FIG. 13 , it will be seen that the width (i.e. run time) of each schedule box has been increased by 50%, but that the intervals  175  between the schedule boxes remain the same. It is conceivable, therefore, that for late-evening waterings, a 50% run time increase may push schedule boxes partly or wholly past midnight. If that is the case, any schedule portion past midnight is deleted. It is, however, stored in the PC&#39;s memory and is restored by the PC when the global adjustment is returned to 100%.  
         [0055]     A water cost calculator, shown in  FIG. 15 , can be called up from the Irrigation Tools menu  106  ( FIG. 4 ). In the screen of  FIG. 15 , which is essentially a dedicated spreadsheet, the white spaces such as  176  are selectable (as for example space  178 ) and changeable, while the grey spaces such as  180  are automatically calculated. In using the calculator of  FIG. 15 , the flow rate in gallons per minute for each zone (known from the number of sprinklers in the zone and the manufacturer&#39;s specifications for the type of sprinkler involved) is first entered in the corresponding spaces  176 . Next, the user enters the number of gallons in a water company billing unit (usually a ccf, which equals about 750 gallons). Finally, the user consults his latest water bill and enters the number of billing units used and the charge for that amount of water. Based on the total run time, during the current month, of the schedules programmed into the system for each zone, the spreadsheet of  FIG. 15  continuously calculates the water cost per gallon, the total number of gallons scheduled to be consumed that month, and the total cost of that water. This is particularly useful in conjunction with the global adjustment feature of  FIGS. 13 and 14 , as it permits an instant assessment of the cost effectiveness of any particular adjustment.  
         [0056]     Clicking the Manual icon  112  ( FIG. 4 ) brings up the three-tab screen of  FIG. 16 . All of the indicators  182  through  196  are initially dark green. If the “Rose Garden” tag  197  is clicked, indicator  194  turns bright green, and the system sends out a signal to field controller  14  to turn zone  7  on for the twenty minutes currently entered into the Run Time box  198 . Subsequent clicking on “Rear Lawn” and “Front Shrubs” ( FIG. 17 ) causes zones  2  and  5  to be run immediately following the run of zone  7 , in the order in which they were clicked, and each for the time entered in box  198 . The indicators  184 ,  190  and  194  will turn bright green whenever their associated zone is running.  
         [0057]     Clicking the “Stations Enable/Disable” tab  200  brings up the screen of  FIG. 18 . In this screen, all of the indicators  182  through  196  are originally bright green. If, for example, sprinkler heads break off in the rear lawn and the flower beds, those zones can be selectively shut off, pending repairs, by clicking on the labels “Flower Beds” and “Rear Lawn”, and then clicking the “Stations Enable/Disable” tab  200 . This causes indicators  186  and  190  to turn red, and causes the PC to send out a signal to the field controller  14  to inhibit operation of zones  3  and  5 .  
         [0058]     The “Cycle and System” tab  202  brings up the screen of  FIG. 19 . Each of the indicators  204  representing zones  1  through  8  is bright green when its zone is running, dark green when it is not, or red when it is disabled. A communication failure condition is indicated in box  205 . Clicking button  206  stops any manual cycle previously programmed in  FIG. 16 . Button  208  stops the currently running zone and advances the cycle to the next selected zone. Button  220  is provided to completely disable the field controller  14  as, e.g., for performing system maintenance. Button  220  has the same function as the No-Watering icon  109  on the menu bar  102 .  
         [0059]     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.