Case Study: California Avacado Orchard
Greg Julius manages a 44-acre plot of land in Camarillo, California for St. John’s Seminary that features an avocado and lemon tree ranch. He was fed up with the steep costs, lack luster tech support, and difficult-to-use equipment of his previous system. He wanted a simpler irrigation solution. Countless hours were spent managing his automation system, which required calling in a technician for seemingly minor issues. When searching for a better solution he came across ControlByWeb, and according to Greg, we are “everything that he had ever dreamt of”.
Using ControlByWeb’s 400 Series to monitor and automate irrigation keeps watering on a tight schedule and easily logs the amount of water being used. These automated controllers allow for quick, simple and efficient irrigation management that leads to higher profits and better results. Switching to ControlByWeb meant Greg was able to make the transition to a more effective solution on his own.
Greg’s irrigation system is automated by the following ControlByWeb products:
- X-400 – Modular I/O controller
- X-401 – Dual relay and digital input module
- X-420 – 4 Analog-to-Digital inputs, 2 digital I/O, up to 16 1-wire sensors
- X-17 – A 4 Relay, 4 input expansion module
- X-22 – An 8 Analog input expansion module
An X-400 with connected expansion modules creates a wide variety of automation options and makes remote monitoring easy. These units are currently being run through an ethernet connection, but he hopes to move to cellular in the near future. Changing to cellular will make data acquisition even easier.
The switch to ControlByWeb prevents the many long and complicated calls to a technical support engineer. Over time, Greg has learned how to use and tweak his new automation software to fit his specific needs. These changes have led to:
- Less time spent calling technical support
- More time to improve his ranch
- Higher yield
When he needs support from time to time, the ControlByWeb tech support team is there to help. Greg speaks highly of ControlByWeb and our in-house tech support team. He told us, “If not for CBW technical support, I wouldn’t be where I’m at. They’ve been very patient with helping me get through this”. We take pride in our knowledgeable support team.
