Baseline Systems BaseStation 6000 - Manual (Page 11)

11
An Important Note on Concurrent Zones
Using concurrent zone settings, you can configure the controller to allow more than one zone to water at once. The
BaseStation 6000 uses a sophisticated watering engine that can use concurrent zone settings on multiple levels
including the device level, program level, Base Unit level, and system wide level. These settings require detailed
information about the electric and hydraulic limits of the system.
During the initial configuration of your BaseStation 6000, we recommend that you set all concurrent zone
settings to one, which limits the number of zones that can run at one time to only one. If you are unsure where
these settings are configured, please call Baseline Support.
If your site requires that more than one zone waters at once, and you know the gallons per minute available from
your sources and the gallons per minute output of each zone, you can set each of those limits appropriately. For
example, if you know that your water source provides 100 gallons per minute, and each zone waters at a maximum
of 25 gallons per minute, then your available concurrent zones would be 4.
We strongly recommend that you call Baseline Support when configuring concurrent zone so we can help optimize
your system’s watering capabilities. We look forward to your call. We can be reached at 1.866.294.5847.
An Important Note on Intelligent Soak Cycles
Soak cycling breaks the total run time (the time set in the Total Min On field) into shorter water “cycles” (timed
water applications) with “soak” periods in between to allow time for water to soak into the soil before applying more
water. Soak cycles save water by avoiding surface soil saturation and runoff.
Thanks for choosing Baseline!
The BaseStation 6000 has built-in support for soak cycling and uses intelligent watering algorithms that apply cycles
in the optimal order to maximize water penetration and minimize evaporation loss.
To understand how this works, consider the settings in the example below:
Total Min On = 60 minutes
Minutes On = 10 minutes
Soak = 30 minutes
In this scenario, the system waters for 10 minutes, and then it turns off and allows that water to soak in for 30
minutes. The system repeats this cycle 6 times to complete the total of 60 minutes set in the Total Min On field.
Even on a perfectly designed system,
it is important to match the water
application rate to the infiltration rate
of your soil. You configure this by
breaking the total run time for any
zone into multiple cycles and soaks. Note: One easy way to determine
good cycle times is to turn on a zone
and watch for first signs of standing
water or runoff. Set the cycle time to
be no more than this amount of time.
Baseline Inc.
Phone: 866.294.5847 · Fax: 208.323.1834 · www.baselinesystems.com