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Mobile App Targets Smart Irrigation Controls

HydroPoint, has announced a broad array of updates to its WeatherTRAK family of irrigation controllers and services that share a common goal of enabling landscape professionals and water managers to establish new sites faster, manage existing sites more efficiently, and maintain equipment automatically by keeping it up to date with the latest features and improvements. An EPA WaterSense Partner of the Year, HydroPoint combines IoT technology, data analytics, and cloud computing to optimize irrigation and reduce water usage by up to 35 percent or more.

Leading these announcements is a new release of WeatherTRAK Mobile that puts the power of cloud-based management in the hands of every field technician to make their on-site time more focused, valuable, and productive. Almost everything they need to do on a regular basis can now be done from anywhere using a mobile device.

"We understand that irrigation managers and technicians are always on the go. Mobile is an essential part of their workflow," said Sean Penn, vice president of product management and marketing at HydroPoint. "With this new version of our popular WeatherTRAK Mobile app, we are putting more power into more hands than ever before, saving landscape maintainers time and footsteps so they can spend it doing what matters most: landscape health and curb appeal.”

Version 3.0 of the mobile app for iOS and Android helps WeatherTRAK customers:

• Save time and labor – One onsite irrigation technician can now use any handheld device to run their own manual irrigation and wet checks and view which stations are running, all without ever needing to be at the controller or master valve.
• Access all their sites and accounts - Whether managing one controller or hundreds, the app intuitively shows alerts and controller status at individual sites or across entire portfolios.
• Benefit from a full mobile experience – The app uses location services to know where the user is and, combined with its site knowledge, shows them the nearest irrigation components that require the most attention. Because it is a native mobile app, it also responds swiftly to screen inputs like fine-tuning station settings in real time while walking the site. 

"Landscape staff typically spend their day going from one location to another and only have a fixed amount of time to dedicate to any one site," said Joseph Jackson, head of water management solutions, Sprinkler Supply Company. "WeatherTRAK Mobile helps them make the most of that limited time by showing them where the problems are and giving them the tools to learn about, test, resolve, and clear issues ­– all from their mobile device. With staff availability becoming a critical issue, giving field techs the ability to be more efficient and productive when they are on site is indispensable."

HydroPoint is also announcing significant system enhancements for WeatherTRAK controllers that further streamline remote management:

• WeatherTRAK OptiFlow – New site views and controls allow site topology to be mapped within water windows, enabling irrigation managers to visually create hydraulic trees that represent the irrigation framework.
• RainShare– Multiple WeatherTRAK controllers on a site can now share a single rain sensor, enabling immediate, site-wide pausing during rain, while minimizing costs.
• Cloud updates – WeatherTRAK LC/LC+, ET Pro3, and OptiFlow XR controllers can now receive feature updates through the cloud, enabling instant access to new features and capabilities as they are released.

More From 8/10/2018 on FacilitiesNet