| US 7,526,365 B1 | ||
| Continuous-flow irrigation timer | ||
| David K. Frerich, Abernathy, Tex. (US); and Earl T. Farley, Lubbock, Tex. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Eco-Drip Irrigation Systems, Abernathy, Tex. (US) | ||
| Filed on Apr. 24, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/739,658. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/745738, filed on Apr. 26, 2006. | ||
| Int. Cl. G05D 11/00 (2006.01); B05B 3/00 (2006.01); B05B 3/18 (2006.01); F16K 11/074 (2006.01); F16K 31/48 (2006.01); G05B 11/01 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 700—284 [700/14; 239/723; 137/624.13; 137/624.18] | 20 Claims |
| 1. An apparatus for controlling an irrigation system having a plurality of irrigation zones, each of the zones having water
distribution ducts and a zone valve for selectively providing water to the ducts in response to a control signal, the apparatus
comprising:
a processor with associated memory;
a plurality of valve controllers operatively connected to the processor, each of the plurality of valve controllers being
selectively activatable by the processor to provide a control signal to a respective zone valve, if connected thereto;
an input device operatively connected to the processor, the input device adapted for inputting to the associated memory first
data designating which of the plurality of valve controllers are available for activation, second data designating how many
of the available valve controllers are to be activated simultaneously and third data designating how many times during a predetermined
time period each of the available valve controllers are to be activated;
a display device operatively connected to the processor for visually displaying information related to the first, second and
third data stored in the associated memory;
wherein, initially, the processor uses the first, second and third data to select a valves-to-cycle set containing at least
two of the available valve controllers from the plurality of valve controllers, to simultaneously provide control signals
to all of the valve controllers in the valves-to-cycle set to activate all of the respective zone valves, and to maintain
the control signals until a new valves-to-cycle set is selected;
wherein, continually at a regular interval thereafter, the processor uses the first, second and third data to select a new
valves-to-cycle set containing at least two of the available valve controllers from the plurality of valve controllers and
including at least one valve controller that was not included in the preceding set, to simultaneously provide control signals
to all of the valve controllers in the new set to activate all of the respective zone valves, and to maintain the control
signals until another new valves-to-cycle set is selected;
whereby during a predetermined period, each of the available valve controllers is cumulatively activated for an equal amount
of time.
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