Central irrigation control system

• US 9,192,110 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2011
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toro Company (Toro)
• Original Assignee: Toro Company (Toro)
• Inventors: Standerfer, Paul A., Mock, Gerald L., Iev, Utah, Fuller, John F., Nguyen, Tu Minh, Hill, Jason Lester, Myers, Scott Vincent, Crain, Stephan, Snow, Steven A., Campbell, Stanley C., Huffman, Russ
• Primary Examiner(s): KASENGE, CHARLES R
• Application Number:
  US13/208,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20120041606A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,566 Days
• Field of Search: 700/284, 239/69, 715/700, 715/764, 715/771, 715/772, 715/808, 715/810, 715/835, 715/846, 715/853, 715/961, 715/965
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/165 Cyclic operations, timing systems, timing valves, impulse operations
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/102 for input of programme steps, i.e. setting up sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2625 Sprinkler, irrigation, watering
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/20 Fertilizers of biological origin, e.g. guano or fertilizers made from animal corpses
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/22 Improving land use; Improving water use or availability; Controlling erosion

Abstract

In one embodiment of the present invention, irrigation software is provided for an irrigation system. The irrigation software may include a hierarchical watering plan display, water pump adjustment, water pump efficiency profile use, a soil moisture interface, a historical flow interface, a demand ET interface, an instant program interface, an instant program interface, a manual irrigation interface, a precipitation management group interface, a rain schedule adjustment algorithm, a map-to-monitor button, a universal start time shift interface, and a conditional screen saver.

Claims

1. A system for controlling irrigation comprising:

a server;

software executable on said server and configured for programming and running an irrigation schedule for an irrigation system;

said software causing said server to graphically display a hierarchical watering plan interface comprising;

a top level information display, displaying a plurality of watering program entries vertically listed relative to each other;

said watering program entries including a program name; and

,

a plurality of top level expansion elements that are each located near and correspond to one of said plurality of watering program entries;

wherein a user click event on one of said plurality of top level expansion elements displays a previously hidden first subcategory tier immediately beneath a corresponding watering program entry and above any of said plurality of watering program entries below said one of said plurality of watering program entries;

said first subcategory tier displaying a plurality of geographic area entries corresponding to one of said plurality of watering program entries.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of geographic area expansion elements that are each located near and correspond to one of said plurality of geographic area entries;

wherein a user click even on one of said plurality of geographic area expansion elements displays a previously hidden second subcategory tier displaying a plurality of individual sprinkler entries.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of problem indicator elements that provide a visual indication of a problem and that are each located near and correspond to one of said plurality of watering program entries or said plurality of geographic area entries.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein when at least one of said plurality of problem indicator elements activates;

a second one of said problem indicator elements corresponding to one of said watering program entries also activates.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said first subcategory tier display comprises a plurality of horizontally-arranged columns, including a geographic name column.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein said second subcategory tier display comprises a plurality of horizontally-arranged columns, including an irrigation station name column.

7. A system for controlling irrigation comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions configured for execution at a server, said instructions configured to cause said server to;

display a selectively expandable hierarchical watering plan display having a top level containing a list of one or more watering programs vertically listed and containing a watering program name; and

,

a first subcategory display that is selectively user-toggled between a hidden state and a displayed state via a watering program expansion symbol displayed near each of said one or more watering programs;

said first subcategory display displaying watering plan information corresponding to and immediately below one of said one or more watering programs positioned immediately above said first subcategory display;

said first subcategory display being further positioned above any of said one or more watering programs located below said one of said one or more watering programs.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said top level of said hierarchical watering plan display comprises, a last runtime column, a next runtime column, and a percent adjust column.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said first subcategory display displays watering plan information for a geographic area.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said first subcategory display displays watering plan information for each of a plurality of sprinklers.

11. The system of claim 7, a plurality of problem indicator icons that are each located adjacent to and associated with one of an item of said top level or said first subcategory;

said plurality of problem indicator icons having a first state indicating an irrigation problem and a second state indicating no irrigation problems.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein any problem indicator icons associated with one of an item of said top level changes to said first state indicating a problem when any of said problem indicator icons associated with one of said first subcategory associated with said one of said item of said top level also changes to said first state indicating a problem.

13. A system for controlling irrigation comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions configured for execution at a server, said instructions configured to cause said server to;

display a hierarchical watering plan list having a first hierarchy level and a plurality of first hierarchy level entries that are vertically listed within said hierarchical watering plan list and that each include a program name, a second hierarchy level that is user-toggled between a hidden state and a displayed state beneath each entry of said first hierarchy level, and a third hierarchy level that is user-toggled between a hidden state and a displayed state beneath each entry of said second hierarchy level;

wherein said second hierarchy level and said third hierarchy level are located beneath one of said plurality of first hierarchy level entries and above any of said plurality of first hierarchy level entries located beneath said one of said plurality of first hierarchy level entries.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said each entry of said first hierarchy level contains information relating to an individual irrigation program.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said each entry of said second hierarchy level contains information relating to different geographic regions of turf.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each entry of said third hierarchy level contains information relating to individual sprinklers within said different geographic regions of turf.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a plurality of alert icons, each of which associated and positioned near an entry for said first hierarchy level, said second hierarchy level, and said third hierarchy level, wherein each of said plurality of alert icons are programmed to change to an alert state when any of said plurality of alert icons in a lower associated hierarchy level change to said alert state.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein said first hierarchy level, said second hierarchy level, and said third hierarchy level all include a last runtime column, a next runtime column and a start time column.