H20Pro
Irrigation Control that Listens to the Weatherman
As the California 2011-2017 drought worsened and water users faced water shortages and rising costs, H2OPro co-founder Tom O’Dell identified a dire need for a more intelligent way to monitor irrigation and change watering habits.
Since residential water meters only record overall household usage, O’Dell and his team designed an internet of things (IoT) device that combined a sprinkler timer with a flow meter to control and monitor overall outdoor water supply in multiple sprinkler zones.
Featured Technology
The H20Pro device uses a commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) Texas instruments SoC (system on chip) containing a power-efficient Arm Cortex-M4 processor and integrated Wi-Fi module. Data is sent to a smartphone app to monitor and record water usage remotely, and watering schedules can be created, adjusted, and tracked in the app. Since H20Pro also connects to the internet, it monitors local weather and can adjust schedules depending on recent or anticipated rainfall.
Flow sensors that attach to the sprinkler valves monitor water flow and allow the system to auto-learn typical water flow patterns so potential leaks are identified over time. A major leak will trigger an automatic valve shut off.
As further weather-base functionality is planned, the team is working on more advanced algorithms to scale water use and expand from home lawns to commercial agriculture.