Patent ID: 8326440

Claim:
A method for remote management of an irrigation controller, the method comprising the steps of: the irrigation controller establishing a first communication link to one or more servers via a first communication mechanism; while the first communication link is established, the irrigation controller operating in a first mode and receiving, from the one or more servers, updates to a delegated program for operating the irrigation controller while in a second mode; wherein the delegated program comprises a set of condition-based instructions that is updated by the one or more servers based at least in part upon environmental data available to the one or more servers; while the irrigation controller operates in the first mode, performing the steps of: the irrigation controller receiving a first command from one of said one or more servers via the first communication link; in response to receiving the first command, the irrigation controller executing the first command; in response to detecting a failure of the first communication link, the irrigation controller transitioning to the second mode; while the irrigation controller operates in the second mode, the irrigation controller executing the delegated program until the irrigation controller re-establishes the first communication link; wherein executing the delegated program while operating in the second mode causes: accessing sensor data that is available to the irrigation controller while in the second mode, but unavailable to the one or more servers, wherein the sensor data is more recent than the environmental data upon which the set of condition-based instructions in the delegated program was last updated prior to transitioning to the second mode; identifying actions to perform based upon applying the sensor data to the set of condition-based instructions in the delegated program, as last updated by the one or more servers prior to transitioning to the second mode; causing performance of the identified actions.