SENSOR DEVICE FOR INTERRUPTING IRRIGATION
First Claim
1. A method for controlling irrigation comprising:
- generating an indication representing the amount of rain fall at a sensor unit;
transmitting a signal comprising at least the indication from the sensor unit to an interface unit, wherein the interface unit is adapted to cause an interruption of programmed watering schedules of an irrigation controller and wherein the interface unit is separate from the irrigation controller;
receiving the signal at the interface unit;
receiving user input relating to the interruption of the programmed watering schedules of the irrigation controller via a user interface integrated with the interface unit, wherein the user input defines a rain interruption threshold;
determining, at the interface unit, based at least on the indication from the signal and the user input, whether irrigation should be interrupted; and
generating an interrupt command to interrupt irrigation in the event it is determined that the irrigation should be interrupted.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided herein for permitting or interrupting irrigation using sensor equipment. In one embodiment, a method for controlling irrigation comprising the steps of: generating an indication representing the amount of rain fall at a sensor unit; transmitting a signal comprising at least the indication from the sensor unit to an interface unit, wherein the interface unit is adapted to cause an interruption of programmed watering schedules of an irrigation controller; receiving the signal at the interface unit; determining, based at least on the indication from the signal, whether irrigation should be interrupted; and generating an interrupt command to interrupt irrigation.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for controlling irrigation comprising:
-
generating an indication representing the amount of rain fall at a sensor unit; transmitting a signal comprising at least the indication from the sensor unit to an interface unit, wherein the interface unit is adapted to cause an interruption of programmed watering schedules of an irrigation controller and wherein the interface unit is separate from the irrigation controller; receiving the signal at the interface unit; receiving user input relating to the interruption of the programmed watering schedules of the irrigation controller via a user interface integrated with the interface unit, wherein the user input defines a rain interruption threshold; determining, at the interface unit, based at least on the indication from the signal and the user input, whether irrigation should be interrupted; and generating an interrupt command to interrupt irrigation in the event it is determined that the irrigation should be interrupted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A system for controlling irrigation comprising:
-
an interface unit comprising; an input unit adapted to receive a signal from a sensor unit, the signal comprising an indication representing an amount of rain fall at the sensor unit; a user interface integrated with the interface unit, the user interface being adapted to receive user input relating to interruption of irrigation executed by an irrigation controller, wherein the user input defines a rain interruption threshold and wherein the interface unit is separate from the irrigation controller; and a controller coupled to the input unit adapted to process the signal to determine based at least on the indication from the signal and the user input, whether the irrigation executed by the irrigation controller should be interrupted and to generate an interrupt command to cause the interruption of the irrigation in the event it is determined that the irrigation should be interrupted; and the sensor unit comprises; a sensor adapted to output the indication representing the amount of rain fall; and an output unit adapted to output the signal comprising at least the indication. - View Dependent Claims (20)
-
Specification