Two-Wire

For years, irrigation installers have had to wrestle with large bundles of valve wires. {picture here with a bundle of wire sticking out of the ground}  For example, an installation with 100 zones needed at least 101 wires connected to the controller.  When the inevitable wiring problems appear, the helpless installer was left to sort through dozens of wires and connections to locate the source of the problem.

Instead of running hundreds of wires to the controller, Baseline implements a unique two-way communication system using only two wires.  The secret to this technology is the biCoder (Baseline’s Smart Two-wire Decoders).  Each valve is automatically assigned a unique biCoder address.  Up to 200 valves can be connected to a single two-wire pair.  Flow meters and biSensors (Baseline’s TDT Soil Moisture Sensors) are connected to the same two wires.

When the controller wants to water a particular zone, it sends a command to the address of the biCoder assigned to that zone.  The biCoder then lets the controller know that the command was received and understood, and the water comes on.

This two-way communication is extremely important. If the biCoder does not respond, the controller knows that there is a problem and can alert you before your lawn or trees die.  Most competing two-wire systems do not implement bi-directional communications.

Another unique feature of Two-Wire technology is expandability.  If you decide to add landscaping, you can tap into the existing Two-Wire and add biCoders as needed without having to trench for new wires back to the controller.

The biCoder also measures the electrical current required to activate the valve, and can alert you to a failing valve before it fails.