Watering Program Basics
A watering program requires three basic instructions to operate automatically:
•What days to water
•When to water – called a program start time
•How long to water – called station run time
The following example illustrates how a typical watering program could be set for the sprinkler system shown on the previous page.
Example: The program start time is set for 5:00 AM. Lawn stations 1 and 2 each have a run time of 10 minutes and lawn station 4 is set to run for 20 minutes. Note that sta- tions 3 and 5 water shrubs and flowers and have been excluded from this program. (These stations will be set to operate on separate programs).
As shown in the watering program diagram, at 5:00 AM the controller starts the program watering cycle. Station 1 sprinklers run for 10 minutes and shut off. Station 2
Watering Program Diagram
Program |
|
|
Starts - 5:00 AM |
| 12 |
|
| |
Station 1 | 9 | 3 |
| 6 | |
|
| |
|
| 12 |
Station 2 | 9 | 3 |
| 6 |
| 12 |
9 | 3 |
Station 4 | 6 |
|
Program Ends- 5:40 AM
sprinklers turn on, run for 10 minutes and shut off. The controller skips station 3 and turns on station 4, which runs for 20 minutes and shuts off. Station 5 is skipped and the watering cycle ends at 5:40 AM.
As you can see from this example, only one program start time was needed to operate three different stations.
Because of variations in plant watering needs, the GreenKeeper 212 provides three separate programs. The programs, called A, B and C, are completely inde- pendent of one another – like having three timers in one housing.
Using more than one program for example, would enable lawn zones to be watered every day on program A, shrub zones to run on on Monday, Wednesday and Fri- day on program B and drip irrigation to soak the flower beds every three days on program C.
Although the GreenKeeper 212 offers the multiple pro- gram feature, you may want to have all zones on one program if it meets your needs. The other programs can remain turned off until you need to use them.
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