Drip irrigation question – how do you use it?

[scottsh]

This is my attempt at a little requirements gathering for my Auto Program plug-in. I’m looking for information on how you would like to see drip irrigation supported.

As I’m building the UI to support drip irrigation in my plug-in I’m wondering what the right drip metric to use is? The little drip I have in my system is measured in GPM or gallons per minute. However, I’ve seen GPH or gallons per hour used on some garden / greenhouse heads. What would you like to see?

Finally, in the world that uses the metric system drip irrigation is measured in liters, so again would you like to see liters per hour (LPH) or liters per minute (LPM)?

Thanks!
Scott

[rederikus]

Mine is real dumb. It simply runs for ten minutes each day at 8:00 PM (so Mrs. rederikus can see it working – she has no faith in electronics) and I regulate the flow via small valves for the various plants in larger or smaller pots. It has only been running for a week and — so far — nothing has died.

[Ray]

I personally prefer the metric system, although here in the US most places still use the imperial system. Perhaps an option that allows the user to select would be the best.

[rederikus]

Yes, an option to choose measurement units would be nice. Hardly anybody but the US uses gallons and inches anymore. Even US gallons are different from UK ones.

I was born in the UK and brought up with the “imperial system” as they then called it but also learned the metric system in science classes. Later I moved to Switzerland where knowing the metric system sure came in handy. After 35 years there I moved back to the UK for 4 years only to find that they too had switched to metric. Now I live permanently in the US, I am back to using feet, inches and miles again. Actually I quite like using 1/6 and 32nds of an inch. It is very satisfying. Even my old analog 0 – 1″ micrometer has been resurrected.

For me both systems are valid but the world seems to have decided that it is easier to count to ten rather than 3, 12, 20, 36 or whatever.

[scottsh]

Thanks for all the input – I decided to go with gallons (or liters) per hour. This was purely for ease of development – because I was already handling inches (or mm) per hour it was very easy to add a new ‘per hour’ metric.

I do have the ability to switch between English and metric, and from what I can see it works fine. What’s interesting is the algorithm doesn’t care if everything is in inches or everything is in mm – just so long as its always consistent. You don’t get to switch between them 😛

Scott

[Donald]

I’m looking forward to see your work. Both GPM and GPH are used in drip. Drip valves are rated at GPM. Few home users would know the volume of water through their drip system, so I’ll be interested in how this works.

[scottsh]

The implementation is complete – you can get it as part of the Auto-Program Plugin to DaninCA’s Interval program.

The instructions on how to get and use the plugin are here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=653

Scott

[Author]

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