Flow Sensor; Introduction To Flow; Flozones Overview; Flow Management Features - Rain Bird ESP-LXIVM Series Installation, Programming & Operation Manual

Flow Sensor

Introduction to Flow

The ESP-LXIVM controller offers a wide variety of flow-related
functionality to utilize your system more efficiently, with or without
additional flow sensing hardware.

FloZones Overview

A FloZone is a collection of one or more stations all using the same
water source.
In a simple irrigation system such as a private residence, water is
often supplied from a single source (typically from the local munici-
pality) and in that case all stations are part of a single FloZone.
In a typical commercial installation, each FloZone will have it's water
source(s) controlled by individual Master Valve(s) (or MVs). For this
reason, the number of FloZones is often the same as the number of
MVs.
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NOTE: The number of FloZones can never be greater than
the number of water sources and if multiple water sources
(and likely MVs) supply the same section, then the number of
FloZones will be less than the number of MVs.
• The LX-IVM supports up to 5 Master Valves, so as many as 5
FloZones can be created. The LX-IVM Pro supports up to 10 Mas-
ter Valves, so as many as 10 FloZones can be created.
An irrigation system consisting of 5 MVs flowing into 5 individual
main lines would result in 5 FloZones. An irrigation system consist-
ing of 10 Master Valves flowing into one shared main line would
result in 1 FloZone.
It's important to fully understand your system's hydraulic proper-
ties to set up your water sources, MVs and FloZones appropriately.
For more information on setting up MVs and FloZones, see "Master
Valves" on page 24 for more details.
74 ESP-LXIVM Series Controllers

Flow Management Features

After setting the Master Valves and FloZones for your system, the
next step is to decide which flow-related features you'd like to use.
The LX-IVM controller flow features can be divided into two different
functional groups; Flo-Manager® and FloWatch.
Flo-Manager®
Flo-Manager® adds basic hydraulic management features to your
system to ensure that sufficient water pressure and volume is avail-
able to operate all stations.
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NOTE: Although it is helpful, flow sensing hardware is not
required to use Flo-Manager®. You can manually enter esti-
mated flow rates even if flow sensing hardware is not installed.

FloWatch™

FloWatch allows you to use any or all of the Flo-Manager® features
but adds additional functionality such as alarms for high flow and
low flow situations based on parameters you set and control. See
"Set Flow Limits" on page 86 for more details.
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NOTE: Flow sensing hardware is required to use FloWatch.