Activation signal for solenoids and method of activation
AssigneeRain Bird Corporation
InventorMichael Joseph Millius
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided an irrigation system and method involving the activation of solenoids. The system may include valves that open to start irrigation and close to stop irrigation and solenoids. Each solenoid may be coupled to a corresponding valve with each solenoid being activated to open its corresponding valve. The system may further include a controller coupled to each solenoid with the controller configured to generate an activation signal to activate each solenoid. In addition, one or more hybrid circuits convert the activation signal to a DC signal for a certain time interval at initiation of the activation signal and then convert it to an AC signal after the predetermined time interval.
Claims10
A controller for an irrigation system comprising:
- a user interface configured to allow a user to input an irrigation schedule for the irrigation system;
- and
- a circuit in communication with the user interface, the circuit activating a solenoid in accordance with the irrigation schedule;
- wherein the circuit receives an AC source signal from an electrical source and converts it to a DC activation signal for a predetermined time interval for transmission to the solenoid to initially move a plunger of the solenoid at activation of the solenoid;
- wherein the circuit stops converting the AC source signal to a DC activation signal after the predetermined time interval and transmits an AC activation signal to the solenoid to maintain solenoid activation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.