Smart Irrigation Systems

Overview

SGT Smart Irrigation Systems is a zoned drip and sprinkler controller that combines a multi-valve manifold, flow meter and pressure sensor with an evapotranspiration-based scheduler and live soil-moisture feedback — delivering exactly the water each zone needs, when it needs it, and shutting off the moment a leak appears.

Built for landscape contractors, vineyards, nurseries, orchards and municipal parks that want to cut water bills 25–40%, eliminate run-time guesswork, and detect pipe breaks within minutes instead of after a $4,000 bill. Replaces dumb-clock controllers (Rain Bird ESP, Hunter Pro-C) with no rewiring of solenoids.

8 to 64 zones — drip, sprinkler, microspray, fertigation — independently scheduled
ET-based watering — daily evapotranspiration replaces fixed run-times
Soil-moisture feedback gate — irrigation only fires when soil drops below the refill point
Leak & flow anomaly detection — ±0.05 bar / ±1 L-min variance triggers auto shut-off

How It Works

The diagram above shows the four layers of an SGT Smart Irrigation deployment. Hover any module to see the live telemetry it produces.

Valve Manifold — solenoid-driven zone valves on a manifold with an inline turbine flow meter, pressure transducer, master shut-off and a 24 VAC field controller. Drops in next to existing Rain Bird / Hunter / Toro hardware.
ET-Based Schedule — a 7-day × per-zone schedule built nightly from the FAO-56 water-balance equation (ET₀ × K_c − rainfall), gated by soil-moisture refill point and forecast-rain pause.
Cloud Dashboard — every site rolls up with daily-litre usage, % saved vs baseline, leak alerts, flow anomaly trends, exportable to water-utility billing or ESG reports.
Grower & Alerts — push and SMS for any zone start / leak / pressure-drop event; one-tap pause, override, run-now, and weather-pause acknowledgement.

A continuous feedback loop pushes ET model refinements, K_c crop-stage curves and schedule optimisations back to the controller — visible as the purple stream along the bottom of the diagram.

Features

ET-based scheduling — FAO-56 Penman-Monteith from local on-farm weather or public station
Soil-moisture feedback — pairs with SGT soil probes or third-party 0–10 V / SDI-12 sensors
Flow & pressure monitoring — turbine flow meter (±2%), pressure transducer (±0.05 bar)
Leak / break detection — flow-without-cycle and pressure-drop alarms with auto shut-off
Weather pause — auto-pause on forecast rain > threshold (configurable mm and hours)
Fertigation injection — pulse-controlled venturi or piston injector per zone
Multi-controller orchestration — fleet of controllers under one site umbrella
Open integrations — REST / MQTT, plus push-to-billing for water-utility audits

Use Cases

Landscape contractors — residential and HOA contracts with leak-detection SLA
Vineyards & orchards — deficit irrigation (RDI) tied to soil-moisture & vine stress
Greenhouses & nurseries — bench-by-bench drip + fertigation
Municipal parks & sports turf — multi-field scheduling, water-budget reporting
Row crops with centre-pivot or drip tape — variable-rate scheduling by management zone
Water-utility incentive programmes — auditable savings for rebate / SmartScape / WaterSense

Specifications

Zones: 8 / 16 / 32 / 64 per controller, expandable via daisy-chained satellite modules
Valve drive: 24 VAC standard solenoid (Rain Bird / Hunter / Toro compatible), 9 V DC latching option
Flow meter: turbine 1″ / 2″ / 3″, ±2%, 0.1 L pulse resolution
Pressure: 0–10 bar transducer, ±0.05 bar
Scheduling engine: FAO-56 ET₀ + K_c, soil-moisture gate, weather-pause, manual override
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, 4G LTE, LoRaWAN to field zones
Power: 24 VAC mains, optional 12 VDC solar field-controller
Environmental: IP65 outdoor cabinet, −20 to +60 °C operating
Certifications: CE, FCC, WaterSense (US), AS/NZS 4020 (potable contact)