WIRELESS APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A VALVE

• US 20150268670A1
• Filed: 03/20/2015
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Melnor Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Melnor Incorporated
• Inventors: Nies, Juergen, Duong, Ha, Michael, Vicky, Brass, Stephen Campbell, Jha, Shishir, Athey, Alexander Preston
• Granted Patent: US 10,945,109 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/00 Arrangements for controlling delivery; Arrangements for controlling the spray area
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/12 responsive to conditions of ambient medium or target, e.g. humidity, temperature position or movement of the target relative to the spray apparatus B05B12/082, B05B12/084 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2625 Sprinkler, irrigation, watering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A wireless water timer and valve control system includes a control unit in wireless WiFi communication with a router and a valve unit in wireless communication with the control unit and designed to connect to a faucet. The valve unit includes a valve that is operated wirelessly via a signal received by the control unit.

Claims

1. A wireless water timer and valve control system, said system comprising:

a control unit in wireless WiFi communication with a router;

a valve unit in wireless communication with the control unit and designed to connect to a faucet, wherein

the valve unit includes a valve that is operated wirelessly via a signal received by the control unit.

2. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to operate multiple valve units.

3. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication between the valve unit and control unit is made by an ISM Band RF link.

4. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the valve unit comprises multiple valves each wirelessly operated by the control unit.

5. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the valve unit is configured to wirelessly communicate with a moisture sensor and relay a moisture sensor status received from the moisture sensor to the control unit, and the control unit is configured to operate the valve unit based on the moisture sensor status.

6. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to operate the valve unit based at least on a schedule sent to the control unit by an internet server.

7. The wireless water timer system according to claim 6, wherein the control unit is configured to maintain the schedule and continue to operate the valve unit according to the schedule until the schedule is modified by a user.

8. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to upload a valve status to an internet server at a predefined time.

9. The wireless water timer system according to claim 8, wherein the predefined time is every time the control unit contacts the server.

10. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the valve unit is configured to shut off all valves if the valve unit loses contact with the control unit for a predetermined amount of time.

11. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, further comprising a moisture sensor in wireless communication with said system, wherein the valve unit is configured to relay received sensor information from the moisture sensor to the control unit.

12. The wireless water timer system according to claim 1, wherein the valve unit comprises capacitive touch switches configured to manually open and close each of the valves on the valve unit.

13. The wireless water timer system according to claim 6, wherein the schedule sent to the control unit by the internet server is modifiable based on local weather information.

14. A method of using a wireless water timer system, said method comprising:

connecting a control unit to a router via WiFi communication;

connecting a valve unit to the control unit via wireless communication; and

sending a valve operation command signal from the control unit to the valve unit, wherein the command signal opens and closes a valve on the valve unit.