Irrigation timer and clock initialization method
AssigneeTim Simon, Inc.
InventorsTimothy M. Simon, Blaine M. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims18
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.