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Precision Irrigation with Wireless Monitoring and Control System Technology

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  5th National Decennial Irrigation Conference Proceedings, 5-8 December 2010, Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, Arizona USA  IRR10-1044.(doi:10.13031/2013.35830)
Authors:   José L Chávez, Francis J Pierce, Todd V Elliott
Keywords:   variable-rate irrigation, remote control, water management zones, MODBUS, RS-485, GPS

Continuous move irrigation systems have been modified since the 1990s to support variable rate irrigation. Most of these systems used PLC (Programmable Logic Controllers) technology but were expensive to add remote, real-time monitoring and control through wireless sensor networks and the Internet. This article presents new technology to monitor and control continuous move irrigation systems. Two different systems were developed and installed on 2 spans of a 4-span Linear Move irrigation system: a) a Single Board Computer (SBC) connected via relays to solenoid valves/spray nozzles, sensor network radios, a GPS, an Ethernet radio, and a remote server; and b) a single wire (SW) monitoring and control system that uses a five-wire conductor cable, with 2 wires to carry 24VAC power, 2 wires to support RS-485 communications signals, and one wire as a common ground. A nozzle controller interfaces the RS-485 wire and each solenoid. The ubiquitous protocol MODBUS was implemented on all controllers for receiving and transmitting information to individual controllers. One main difference between the SBC and the SW system is the significant number of wires that is reduced using the latter system. This system reduced the cost of materials significantly and cut the installation requirements to a small fraction of the previous system in which each nozzle was wired individually to a control board. Both systems can be managed through the internet by means of an applied interface program.

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