Irrigation control systems and user interfaces

Abstract

Systems, user interfaces, and methods related to irrigation control systems are provided herein. In some embodiments, an irrigation control system includes an irrigation management application which, when executed by an electronic device, causes a user interface to be displayed to a user. The user interface includes features that permit a user to do one or more of configure, monitor, program, control, adjust various components and/or operations of the irrigation management system.

1 . An irrigation management system comprising:
 an irrigation management application for use in monitoring and/or controlling irrigation of at least one irrigation area including a plurality of irrigation stations, wherein the irrigation management application is configured to be executed by an electronic device including a control circuit, and a memory, wherein the irrigation management application is stored in the memory, and wherein when executed by the control circuit, the irrigation management application is configured to:
 cause a user interface to be displayed on a display to a user, the user interface including a listing of the irrigation stations in the at least one irrigation area with corresponding irrigation station selectors; and 
 cause the user interface, responsive to a selection of a group of multiple irrigation stations by a user via the irrigation station selectors, to display an interactive batch edit menu that permits the user to select at least one operational attribute and assign values to the at least one operational attribute to be applied to each irrigation station of the group of multiple irrigation stations. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the irrigation management application is configured to cause the user interface to display the interactive batch edit menu that permits the user to select the at least one operational attribute and assign values to only the at least one operational attribute to be applied to each irrigation station of the group of multiple irrigation stations such that the user is not required to assign values to non-selected ones of the operational attributes. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the irrigation management application is configured to cause the user interface to display the interactive batch edit menu that permits the user to select the at least one operational attribute and assign the values to the at least one operational attribute to be applied to each irrigation station of the group of multiple irrigation stations in a single operation of the interactive batch edit menu. 
     
     
         4 . The system of claim  141  wherein the listing of the irrigation stations is caused to be displayed in rows and the corresponding irrigation station selectors each comprise a selection box in each row adjacent each irrigation station of each row. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the at least one operational attribute of the interactive batch edit menu comprises at least one of: a run time, a cycle time, a rotation time, a soak time, a station adjust, a weather adjust, a flow rate per emitter, a sprinkler type, an emitter precipitation rate, a flow zone assignment, a crop coefficient, a suspend setting, an assigned station area, and an assigned station sub-area. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the irrigation management application is further configured to cause the user interface, responsive to a user selection the at least one operational attribute from the interactive batch edit menu, to display a value assignment menu configured to allow the user to assign values to the at least one operational attribute selected by the user in the interactive batch edit menu. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6  wherein the value assignment menu provides a field that permits the user to input a value for the at least one operational attribute selected by the user, or provides a starting value of the at least one operational attribute selected by the user for the user to adjust. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the irrigation control system is configured to update station programming to control the irrigation stations in according with the assigned values for the at least one operational attribute selected by the user. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the listing of the irrigation stations includes a multiple station selector configured to select multiple ones of the irrigation stations. 
     
     
         10 . An irrigation management system comprising:
 an irrigation management application for use in monitoring and/or controlling irrigation of at least one irrigation area including a plurality of irrigation stations, wherein the irrigation management application is configured to be executed by an electronic device including a control circuit, and a memory, wherein the irrigation management application is stored in the memory, and wherein when executed by the control circuit, the irrigation management application is configured to:
 cause a user interface to be displayed on a display to a user, the user interface including:
 a listing of the irrigation stations in the at least one irrigation area with corresponding irrigation station selectors; and 
 an interactive station move or reorder feature which, when interacted with by the user, causes, the user interface to display at least one of:
 an option for the user to reorder a given irrigation station in the listing to allow the user to shift the given irrigation station into a different position within the listing; and 
 an option for the user to move the given irrigation station to another listing of irrigation stations; 
 
 wherein all operational attributes of the given irrigation station and others of the plurality of irrigation stations in the listing or the other listing are retained following reordering or moving. 
 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein, when the option to reorder is selected by the user, the user interface is caused to display a reorder station menu, the reorder station menu allowing the user to select a new position in the listing for the given irrigation station, and
 wherein, when the new position is selected, the user interface is caused to redisplay the list of irrigation stations within the given irrigation station in the new position and remaining irrigation stations shifted in view of the new position. 
 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the reorder station menu is caused to display a user selection to apply a new default name for the given irrigation station. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the reorder station menu is caused to display a user selection to re-sequence the irrigation stations in the listing with default station names to remove gaps in naming. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10  wherein, when the option to move is selected by the user, the user interface is caused to display a move station menu, the move station menu allowing the user to select the other listing of irrigation stations, and
 wherein, when the other listing is selected, the user interface is caused to redisplay the list of irrigation stations without the given irrigation station. 
 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the move station menu provides a plurality of listings of irrigation stations including the other listing that may be selected by the user. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  wherein the plurality of listings selectable via the move station menu permits the user to move the given irrigation station to a selectable listing based on user selection of one or more of an area portion of the at least one irrigation area to be irrigated, a plant type area portion of the at least one irrigation area to be irrigated, a non-plant feature area portion of the at least one irrigation area to be irrigated, and a sub-area portion of the area portion of the at least one irrigation area to be irrigated. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the move station menu is caused to display a user selection to alter attributes of the given irrigation station to be consistent with default attributes of the irrigation stations of the other listing. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the move station menu is caused to display a user selection to apply a new default name for the given irrigation station to be consistent with default names of the irrigation stations of the other listing. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14  wherein, when the other listing is selected, the user interface is caused to redisplay the list of irrigation stations without the given irrigation station including a gap in place of the moved irrigation station and provide a user selectable option to remove the gap and re-sequence the list of irrigation stations. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the irrigation management system is configured to update station programming to control the given irrigation station in accordance with the operational attributes. 
     
     
         21 . An irrigation management system comprising:
 an irrigation management application for use in monitoring and/or controlling irrigation of at least one irrigation area including a plurality of irrigation stations, wherein the irrigation management application is configured to be executed by an electronic device including a control circuit, and a memory, wherein the irrigation management application is stored in the memory, and wherein when executed by the control circuit, the irrigation management application is configured to:
 cause a user interface to be displayed on a display to a user, the user interface including a flow tree listing including a hierarchy of expandable flow element layers each having flow elements,
 wherein a first expandable flow element layer comprises a pump layer indicating a listing of pump elements in the system; 
 wherein a second expandable flow element layer comprises a flow branch layer indicating a listing of one or more flow branch elements associated with each pump element of the pump layer; and 
 wherein a third expandable flow element layer comprises a flow zone layer indicating a listing of one or more flow zone elements associated with each flow branch element of the branch layer; 
 
 cause the user interface to allow a user to select a given flow element in the hierarchy; and 
 cause, in response to a selection of the given flow element by the user, the user interface to display an option to move the given flow element. 
   
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein in response to a selection by the user of the option to move the given flow element, the user interface is configured to allow the user to move the selected flow element to a new location in the hierarchy of expandable flow element layers. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein each of the pump elements, the flow branch elements and the flow zone elements are sequentially named, and wherein one or more of the pump elements, the flow branch elements and the flow zone elements are automatically sequentially renamed based on movement of the flow element by the user. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the hierarchy of expandable flow element layers includes a fourth expandable flow element layer comprising a sprinkler layer indicating a listing of one or more sprinkler elements associated with each flow zone element of the flow zone layer. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein one or more of the expandable flow element layers comprises multiple expandable flow element layers. 
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the second expandable flow element layer comprises a main flow branch layer indicating a listing of one or more main flow branch elements associated with each pump element of the pump layer, and one or more sub-flow branch layers each indicating a listing of one or more sub-flow branch elements associated with each main flow branch element. 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the option to move the given flow element comprises a flow element move menu to allow the user to define a new location in the hierarchy of expandable flow element layers.