Irrigation timer and clock initialization method
First Claim
1. An irrigation timer of a type including a controller coupleable to a power source, a user input providing an input to the controller, the controller comprising an output signal terminal coupleable to an irrigation valve actuator and an internal day-of-week and time-of-day clock, an improvement comprising:
- the controller programmed with a predetermined known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting, so that upon actuation, the clock is automatically set to and begins running from said predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day settings; and
the predetermined initialization day-of-week being Saturday or Sunday and the initialization start time-of-day being between about 8;
00 AM and 8;
00 PM.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An irrigation timer (2) includes a controller (8) coupleable to a power source (16), user inputs (12) coupled to the controller, controller output terminals (18) coupleable to an irrigation valve actuator (20) and an internal day-of-week and time-of-day clock. The controller may be pre-programmed with a predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting so that upon actuation, the clock automatically begins running at that setting, such as Sunday, 6:00 PM. The user inputs may have a single, preset function so that no user input is a multifunction input to help make programming essentially intuitive.
72 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. An irrigation timer of a type including a controller coupleable to a power source, a user input providing an input to the controller, the controller comprising an output signal terminal coupleable to an irrigation valve actuator and an internal day-of-week and time-of-day clock, an improvement comprising:
-
the controller programmed with a predetermined known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting, so that upon actuation, the clock is automatically set to and begins running from said predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day settings; and
the predetermined initialization day-of-week being Saturday or Sunday and the initialization start time-of-day being between about 8;
00 AM and 8;
00 PM.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. A method for initializing a clock of an irrigation timer comprising:
-
determining a predetermined initialization day-of-week and start time-of day setting for an irrigation timer, and actuating the irrigation timer on the same day and at about the same time as the predetermined day-of-week and start time-of-day setting. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. An irrigation timer comprising:
-
a controller coupleable to a power source and including an output signal terminal;
user input buttons operably coupled to the controller by which a user can control watering functions of the controller; and
the user input buttons comprising at least the following;
day select buttons;
start time-of-day select buttons; and
watering period select buttons. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
irrigation program buttons; and
irrigation program override buttons.
-
-
11. The irrigation timer according to claim 10 wherein the irrigation program buttons comprise pre-programmed irrigation program buttons and user-programmed irrigation program buttons.
-
12. The irrigation timer according to claim 10 wherein the irrigation program override buttons comprise a rain suspend button and a partial water button.
-
13. The irrigation timer according to claim 8 further comprising a status indicator physically associated with each said input button to indicate the status thereof.
-
14. The irrigation timer according to claim 8 further comprising an illuminated status indicator physically associated with each said input button to indicate the status thereof.
-
15. The irrigation timer according to claim 8 further comprising a speaker coupled to the controller, the controller comprising a voice signal source constructed to provide voice messages to a user via the speaker.
-
16. The irrigation timer according to claim 15 wherein the voice signal source comprises a sound chip to provide voice prompts and voice confirmations.
-
17. The irrigation timer according to claim 8 wherein the user input buttons are operably coupled to the controller to control all user-controllable programming and watering functions of the controller.
-
18. An irrigation timer comprising:
-
a controller coupleable to a power source and including an output signal terminal;
user input buttons operably coupled to the controller by which a user can control all user-controllable programming and watering functions of the controller;
the user input buttons comprising at least the following;
day select buttons;
start time-of-day select buttons;
watering period select buttons; and
an illuminatable status indicator physically associated with each said input button to indicate the status thereof, whereby the complete programming and operational status of the controller is indicated by said status indicators.
-
Specification