SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/506886
38 SportsTurf | May 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com O ur system is a Toro Sentinel Central Irrigation Control connected to a Vantage Pro2 weather station. The Sentinel computer constantly monitors real-time weather data provided by the weather station. This allows automatic rain shutdowns and will eventually allow the system to automatically adjust runtimes and rates based on real evapotranspiration data coupled with information gathered from soil sensors, which we are beginning to install this summer. I felt this system was necessary to improve the efficiency of our operation because of the irrigation controllers for different sites on campus being so spread apart. In order to make a change to a program, I would have to travel to the facility, access the controller, make the changes and then move to the next facility. It also helps diagnose problems like wet spots or dry spots. The Sentinel's "Watcher" feature sends an alert if it senses a leak or if flows aren't normal, potentially the sign of a broken head. It also alerts me if there is a power failure or a fault. Alerts are sent to me by email and text message. Water use efficiency also played into this purchase. The university pays for its water since we do not operate off of any wells. Water use and waste have become hot topics, particularly in the summertime. Right now I do not have enough information to determine how much less water we are using on the athletic fields for irri- gation. I plan to take a look at that this summer since we will be into our second full season with this system. To purchase the entire system including software, weather station, new satellites and supplies for those, computer, and support cost the univer- sity around $50K. Hardware includes a new controller and hydrometer for each site, radios, Sentinel computer and weather station. We installed the entire system in-house. The Vantage Pro2 we bought is wireless. A solar panel powers it and it communicates with the console connected to the Sentinel computer through its own wireless signal. I easily installed the solar panel on a light pole outside my office with a custom-made bracket. It worked out well that we had the entire winter sea- son (2013-14) to get all the parts put together and begin to figure the system out. We are lucky that so far the radio signals travel well enough to each satel- lite for the system's communication. If the radios could not communicate effectively, we would need the system to communicate through ethernet or wireless signals. The most difficult part with install- ing the system was the wiring. The existing zone wires were used but new wires to communicate with the hydrometers were required. Sometimes the meters are nowhere near the location of the satellite. Additionally grounding plates and rods needed to be installed for each satellite. Our plumb- ing shop helped with installing the new meters and our electric shop helped with power supplies as needed. I'm beginning to install Turfguard soil moisture sensors. The new sys- tem installation for our softball field includes one. I plan to install more soil moisture sensors as time goes on. These will automatically provide more information to Sentinel so it can adjust system run times and watering frequen- cies. Software setup and training was organized through Toro. Our vendor has visited quite regularly to help set up the system and show us how to use it. We have had some issues with con- trollers and meters. The vendor and manufacturers were very responsive and have fixed everything satisfactorily. ■ ST FIRST YEAR WITH NEW CENTRAL IRRIGATION CONTROL SYSTEM IRRIGATION & DRAINAGE Editor's note: We asked Shawn Mahonski, athletic field manager at Towson University, Baltimore, MD to share with us his experience after about a year of his using a new central control irrigation system on campus. Here's what he relayed: