Irrigation Controller Product Specification
Table of Contents
PART 1 - Product Specification 3
1.1 Operating Specifications 3
PART 2 - Warranty 3
2.1 Standard Warranty 3
2.2 Extended Warranty 3
PART 3 - Controller Firmware 4
3.1 Configuration 4
3.2 Programming 4
3.3 Messages and Alerts 5
3.4 Reports and Graphs 6
3.5 Intelligent Soak Cycles 6
3.6 Master Valves 6
3.7 Flow Monitoring and Management 7
3.8 Moisture Sensor 7
3.9 Water Management 8
3.10 System Backups 8
3.11 Diagnostics 8
3.12 Manual Operation 9
3.13 Start, Stop, Pause 9
3.14 Event Scheduling 9
3.15 Central Control and Remote Control 9
3.16 Smart Watering Modes 10
PART 4 - Hardware 10
4.1 Display 10
4.2 Ethernet Jack 10
4.3 Power Specifications 10
4.4 Surge Protection 11
4.5 Environmental Specifications 11
PART 5 - Controller Enclosures 11
5.1 Enclosure Options 11
PART 1 - Product Specification
1.1 Operating Specifications
A. Each controller shall be able to operate:
1. Up to 200 zones along a two-wire path and/or a conventional wire path
2. Up to 25 moisture sensors
3. Up to 8 temperature sensors, which monitor and control program operation based on temperature thresholds
4. Up to 8 normally open or normally closed event device inputs
5. Up to 8 normally open or normally closed master valves and/or pump starts for the entire system
6. Up to 8 flow sensors or meters, which manage and monitor flow across a site as independent or connected hydraulic systems organized into mainline groupings
7. Up to 8 independent mainlines for control and management of separate water delivery systems
8. Up to 110 device loads on the two-wire path
- 1, 2, and 4 station decoders = ½ load
- 12 to 24 station powered decoders = 2 loads
- Soil moisture sensor = 1 load
- Flow decoder = 3 loads
- Event device = 1 load
9. Up to 99 completely independent programs
10. Up to 15 solenoids concurrently over two-wire
11. Up to 2 typical solenoids per 12 station powered decoder or up to 4 typical solenoids per 24 station powered decoder over conventional wire plus 2 additional solenoids using the specially designated ports
B. The controller shall display on-screen help. The on-screen help shall be available in both English and Spanish. The help text language shall be user-configurable.
C. The operator shall be able to establish 3 levels of security for users of the controller: Operator, Programmer, and Administrator.
PART 2 - Warranty
2.1 Standard Warranty
A. The controller and installed equipment shall carry a standard warranty of 5 years from the date of installation.
1. The customer shall be responsible for reviewing the full Warranty Statement.
2.2 Extended Warranty
A. The user shall have the option to apply for an extended warranty of 10 years from the date of installation.
1. Approval of the extended warranty shall be based on:
- Fully completed extended warranty application
1) The Extended Warranty application form shall be available online.
- Successful site inspection
1) The site inspection shall be completed by an authorized company representative.
B. The extended warranty shall include coverage of surge damage, even from direct lightning strike.
1. Surge protection equipment shall be installed according to specification.
PART 3 - Controller Firmware
3.1 Configuration
A. The controller shall search for and identify all devices connected to the two-wire and list them according to device type and serial number.
B. The controller shall be capable of addressing or re-addressing any two-wire decoder from the controller by re-assigning the device’s serial number to a new zone address.
C. The controller shall assign any station or terminal number on a multi-station decoder from the controller to any zone address in any order, in any program.
D. The controller shall support full two-way communication with all devices and monitor two-wire voltage and communication integrity, solenoid voltages, current, and status (reported as open/short/OK).
3.2 Programming
A. The controller shall be capable of managing 99 programs, including up to 8 start times per program with overlapping run times.
1. The controller shall automatically stack overlapping programs. The system can run any number of programs concurrently if permitted by the concurrent zone settings.
B. The controller shall allow run times for zones from 1 minute to 23 hours 59minutes.
C. The controller shall support program prioritization and progression to allow control of which landscape areas get watered first, and/or to prioritize water rations during restricted water allocations.
D. The controller shall be able to adjust seasonal water budget from 25% to 200% by program.
E. The controller shall allow an operator to enable or disable each zone.
F. The controller shall allow an operator to set a “water window” by program on a per hour basis for each day of the week, which suspends watering beyond a set time and resumes watering when another window opens.
G. The controller shall allow a program to be started by the following conditions:
1. Start time
2. Moisture percent
3. Temperature value
4. Event decoder contacts open/closed
H. The program shall be capable of using the following schedules:
1. Day intervals in even days
2. Odd days
3. Odd days excluding the 31st
4. User defined interval
5. Custom 7-day calendar
6. Historical day interval calendar with customizable half-months
I. The controller shall be able to irrigate in the following modes:
1. Timed (standard time-based watering)
2. Soil moisture based
J. The controller shall be able to group zones into scheduling groups as follows:
1. Primary – Primary zones can be time based or soil moisture based.
2. Linked – The settings for a linked zone match the settings of the assigned primary zone.
3.3 Messages and Alerts
A. The controller shall display an on-screen, historical-run-time chart that includes the time watered for last 6 days by program.
B. The controller shall display an on-screen historical water used chart that includes the actual water used for the last 6 days by the flow meter.
C. The controller shall display a 6-day scalable soil moisture history graph with integrated run-time bar chart.
D. The controller shall display all pause and stop conditions in message screens that are accessible from the main screen. The system displays one message for each condition, and the user can clear each message.
E. The controller shall display high flow alerts, low flow alerts, pause messages and conditions, and rain delays, wire faults, as well as other operating conditions.
F. The controller shall display messages generated from diagnostic tests initiated by the controller and by the user.
3.4 Reports and Graphs
A. The controller’s main screen shall be able to display water usage, soil moisture graphs, design flow or actual flow, two-wire current, program reports, pause reports, and zone status by program (shown as a color representing watering, soaking, waiting, paused, disabled, and error) without affecting any active programs.
B. The controller shall be able to log data collected from each flow meter, moisture sensor, temperature sensor, and zone run time.
C. The controller shall have the ability to report:
1. The last date a program ran
2. The next run date of a program
3. Water consumption used by program per run estimation
4. 14 days of moisture readings displayed graphically
5. Water flow estimation in gallons per minute (gpm)
6. Total daily, current month, and previous month’s water consumption estimation in gallons
7. Actual water used and flow rate for each flow meter
8. A report for every pause condition event
9. Monthly water budget
3.5 Intelligent Soak Cycles
A. The controller shall have the ability to perform Intelligent Soak Cycles™ to prioritize cycles for zones that have already started to water over zones that have not started.
B. The controller shall have the ability to program cycle times and soak times between 0 minutes and 23 hours 59 minutes.
3.6 Master Valves
A. The controller shall support up to 8 normally open and/or normally closed master valves and/or pump starts for the entire system.
B. Each master valve shall be assignable to any program or all programs.
C. The controller shall have the ability to manage a pump or other loads switched with a relay on a per program basis.
D. The controller shall be able to operate normally open and normally closed master valves.
3.7 Flow Monitoring and Management
A. The operator shall be able to manually enter a design flow for each zone, with or without an installed flow meter.
B. The controller shall be able to learn flow rates by turning each zone on, one at a time, allowing the flow rate to stabilize, and then recording the flow of each zone back to the controller.
C. The operator shall be able to configure pipe fill time for each point of connection.
D. The controller shall display real-time flow updated every 15 seconds when watering.
E. The controller shall be able to learn flow for zones assigned to one mainline, while zones assigned to another mainline(s) shall be allowed to continue irrigating.
1. The operator shall be able to schedule learn flow cycles for individual zones or for all zones assigned to a program.
F. The controller shall intelligently schedule watering based on available flow or design flow to maximize concurrent valve operation and minimize total water time by mainline.
G. The controller shall support up to 8 mainlines.
H. The controller shall allow a program to be assigned to any one mainline.
I. The controller shall be able to limit the number of concurrent zones using the design flow.
J. The controller shall allow a programmed flow variance from 0 to 100%, where 0 is equal to off.
K. In an “overflow event,” the controller shall close master valves and halt all irrigation by program.
3.8 Moisture Sensor
A. The controller shall support up to 25 individual soil moisture sensors.
B. The controller shall have the ability to automatically adjust run times and/or day intervals based on soil moisture readings.
C. The controller shall override a programmed run time or day interval when it detects a soil moisture reading that exceeds the assigned shut-off value.
D. Using a moisture sensor, the controller shall be able to determine the water capacity of the soil and establish a lower limit threshold for the sensor.
E. The controller shall provide a moisture limit that is accurate within ±3%.
3.9 Water Management
A. The controller shall support water source prioritization and intelligent secondary water source management to control which water sources are used first.
B. The controller shall support empty and full indicators from moisture sensors and switches to optimize management of cisterns, ponds, rainwater catchment and other water storage systems.
C. The controller shall support a settable wait time after an empty condition is met.
D. The controller shall support per-program prioritized daily water rationing across multiple water sources.
3.10 System Backups
A. The controller shall be able to export all data to a USB flash drive including:
1. All events
2. All programming
3. Run times (including manual run times)
4. Water used
5. Moisture logs
6. Temperature logs
7. Alarm logs
8. Program summary report
9. Test all results
B. The controller shall have the ability to load all programming information directly from a USB flash drive.
C. All programming shall be saved in non-volatile memory.
D. The controller shall save running events and logs every 10 minutes to non-volatile memory.
3.11 Diagnostics
A. The controller shall have the ability to reprogram the solenoid drive current of the decoder from the controller without uninstalling or removing the decoder from the field.
B. The controller shall be able to detect and report a “two-wire over current.”
C. The controller shall be able to read and report the current of the two-wire during normal running conditions.
D. The controller shall be able to test each individual zone and display:
1. Two-wire voltage drop
2. Valve voltage
3. Current
4. Decoder serial number
E. The controller shall run a weekly diagnostic test on normally open master valves to help prevent a normally open master valve from “sticking” open.
3.12 Manual Operation
A. The operator shall be able to manually operate one zone or all zones of a program with programmable concurrent zones and run times.
B. The operator shall be able to manually start or stop a program.
C. When running a manual zone, the controller shall allow the user to advance watering to the next zone or return to a previous zone while not affecting the programming of the controller.
3.13 Start, Stop, Pause
A. When a moisture sensor, event device, or temperature device (such as an air temperature sensor or a soil moisture/temperature sensor)is connected, the controller shall be able to:
1. Start a program
2. Stop a program
3. Pause any program
- The user shall be able to configure the pause in 1 minute increments from 0-24 hours. Watering will resume when the pause condition is removed and the allotted time has passed.
3.14 Event Scheduling
A. The controller shall be able to schedule 8 controller-wide event dates plus 8 event dates per program during which watering is disabled.
3.15 Central Control and Remote Control
A. The controller shall be able to connect to irrigation central control software and virtual irrigation controller access when configured with an approved communication module.
B. The controller shall support the following communication options: built-in Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular modem, Ethernet radio, and long haul Ethernet.
C. The operator shall be able to configure, program, and operate all zones from the irrigation central control software.
D. The operator shall be able to receive email and text message alerts when connected to the irrigation central control software.
E. The operator shall be able to perform manual operations remotely with the irrigation central control software.
For more information please refer to the Central Control specification.