JP7123766B2 - gas meter - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a gas meter having communication means with a monitoring center, and particularly to a gas meter constituting a wireless automatic meter reading system.

Conventionally, this type of wireless automatic meter reading system consists of a wireless slave unit provided in the meter via a wired line to collect information including data read by the meter, and a wireless slave unit that communicates with the wireless slave unit. The radio master unit and the radio slave unit are arranged in a one-to-N relationship so that N radio slave units can be connected to one radio master unit.

The radio master unit performs radio communication with the radio slave unit using the specified low-power radio, and also communicates with the equipment of the monitoring center via a mobile phone line or a teleterminal radio line. (See Patent Document 1, for example). Moreover, there is also a meter in which the meter reading function and the wireless communication function are integrally configured (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

FIG. 2 shows a conventional wireless automatic meter reading system described in Patent Document 1. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional wireless automatic meter reading system includes meters 1a, 1b to 1n, low-power wireless slave units 2a, 2b to 2n connected to each meter, low-power wireless master unit 3, mobile phone It consists of a radio modem 4 , a mobile phone base station 5 , a center device 6 , an exchange 7 and a center modem 8 .

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-111701 Japanese Patent No. 4853231

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, the low-power wireless handset is connected to each meter as a separately attached unit, and alarms related to wireless communication abnormalities such as wireless carrier busy are alarms of meters such as gas leaks and gas cutoffs. Separately, the low-power wireless handset was independently managed and notified to the center side device.

For this reason, the center-side device needs to collect wireless alarms and meter alarms for each customer, which poses a problem that management of collected data and communications is complicated.

Similarly, in the conventional example described in Patent Document 2, in which the meter reading function and wireless communication function of the meter are integrally configured, there is no description to the effect that alarms are managed integrally. In addition, it is necessary to communicate wireless alarms and meter alarms separately, and the increased frequency of communication results in excessive power consumption, which adversely affects the battery life of the meter.

Furthermore, since wireless alarms are not displayed on the display of the gas meter, for example, in a configuration in which display is performed using a built-in LED, the LED is usually covered with a cover, making it impossible to immediately confirm an abnormal state, thus making failure diagnosis difficult. was not easy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a gas meter that reduces power consumption due to unnecessary communication, facilitates failure diagnosis, and eliminates the complexity of management of collected data and communication.

In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, the gas meter of the present invention includes a flow rate measurement unit that measures the gas flow rate, a gas cutoff valve that shuts off the gas flow path in the event of an abnormality, and various information based on the measurement results of the flow rate measurement unit. a wireless module for transmitting and receiving data to and from a monitoring center; and a wireless control unit for controlling the wireless module. The information is added to the information stored in the control unit and transmitted to the monitoring center.

As a result, meter alarms and wireless alarms can be acquired collectively, so the frequency of meter communication can be reduced, power consumption due to communication can be reduced, and the management of collected data and communication at the monitoring center can be complicated. can be eliminated.

Further, the safety control unit displays a wireless alarm on the display unit of the gas meter, so that when communication with the monitoring center becomes impossible, failure diagnosis can be easily performed by checking the display unit.

Since the gas meter of the present invention collectively transmits the meter alarm and the wireless alarm to the monitoring center, it is possible to reduce the communication frequency of the meter and reduce power consumption due to communication. In addition, it is possible to eliminate the complexity of management of data collected by the monitoring center and communication.

In addition, the safety control unit displays a radio alarm on the display unit of the gas meter, so that failure diagnosis can be easily performed especially when communication with the monitoring center becomes impossible.

1 shows a block diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional automatic wireless meter reading system; FIG.

A first invention comprises a flow rate measurement unit that measures the gas flow rate, a gas cutoff valve that shuts off the gas flow path in the event of an abnormality, and a safety control unit that generates and stores various information based on the measurement results of the flow rate measurement unit. , a wireless module for transmitting and receiving information to and from a monitoring center; and a wireless control unit for controlling the wireless module. It was supposed to be sent to the center.

As a result, meter alarms and wireless alarms can be acquired collectively, so the frequency of meter communication can be reduced, power consumption due to communication can be reduced, and the management of collected data and communication at the monitoring center can be complicated. can be eliminated.

In a second invention, in particular, the radio control section and the safety control section of the first invention are configured on the same substrate.
This makes it possible to implement the first invention with a cheaper and simpler configuration.

In a third aspect of the invention, particularly, the display portion of the gas meter of the first or second aspect displays the alarm of the wireless control portion and the alarm of the security control portion.

As a result, when communication with the monitoring center becomes impossible, failure diagnosis can be easily performed by checking the display unit.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited by this embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the gas meter 19 includes a flow rate measurement unit 11 that measures the gas flow rate, a gas shutoff valve 12 that shuts off the gas flow path in the event of an abnormality, a meter display unit 13 that displays alarms such as gas usage and gas shutoff, and a flow rate measurement unit. It consists of a security control unit 14 that generates and stores various information based on the measurement results of the unit 11, a wireless module 15 that transmits and receives information to and from a plurality of parties, and a wireless control unit 16 that controls wireless communication. The security control unit 14 also has a security side alarm storage unit 17 that stores meter alarms, and a wireless side alarm storage unit 18 that stores alarms related to wireless communication abnormalities such as carrier busy.

The operation and action of the gas meter configured as described above will be described below.

First, the history of abnormal occurrences such as gas leaks and gas cutoff due to earthquakes detected by the security control unit 14 is stored in the security side alarm storage unit 17 as meter alarms.

On the other hand, the history of radio communication-related anomalies detected by the radio control unit 16, such as radio carrier busy, hop count exceeded, or being in an isolated state without adjacent radios, is sent to the security control unit 14 each time it occurs, and is used as a radio alarm. It is stored in the wireless side alarm storage unit 18 .

When an abnormality related to gas security or wireless communication occurs, the security control unit 14 calls the meter alarm from the security side alarm storage unit 17 and the wireless alarm from the wireless side alarm storage unit 18, processes them into one piece of information, and outputs the alarm. As an information telegram, it is transmitted to a monitoring center (not shown) in batch via the wireless control unit 16 and the wireless module 15 .

Similarly, when an alarm information request is received from the monitoring center, a meter alarm and a radio alarm are transmitted collectively as an alarm information telegram.

As described above, in the present embodiment, by processing a meter alarm and a wireless alarm into one piece of information and transmitting it collectively as an alarm information message to the monitoring center, the communication frequency of the meter can be reduced. It can reduce the power consumption by the monitoring center and eliminate the complexity of managing the collected data and communication of the monitoring center.

The safety control unit 14 and the wireless control unit 16 may be configured on the same circuit board and housed inside the gas meter 19. In this case, a gas meter with a lower cost and simpler configuration can be realized. .

Further, in the safety control unit 14 of Embodiment 1, if a wireless alarm is displayed on the meter display unit 13, failure diagnosis can be easily performed by checking the display unit when communication with the monitoring center becomes impossible. It becomes possible.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the gas meter according to the present invention enables the monitoring center to collectively acquire wireless alarms and meter alarms for meters equipped with wireless communication functions. It can also be applied to applications such as water meters and electric power meters.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 11 flow rate measuring unit 12 gas cutoff valve 13 meter display unit 14 safety control unit 15 wireless module 16 wireless control unit 17 security side alarm storage unit 18 wireless side alarm storage unit 19 gas meter

Claims (3)

a flow rate measurement unit that measures the gas flow rate;
a gas shutoff valve that shuts off the gas flow path in the event of an abnormality;
a security control unit that generates and stores various types of information based on the measurement results of the flow rate measurement unit;
a wireless module that transmits and receives to and from the monitoring center;
and a wireless control unit that controls the wireless module,
The gas meter, wherein the safety control unit adds the alarm of the radio control unit to the information stored in the safety control unit and transmits the information to a monitoring center. 2. The gas meter according to claim 1, wherein said wireless control section is configured on the same substrate as said safety control section. 3. The gas meter according to claim 1, wherein an alarm of said wireless control unit and an alarm of said security control unit are displayed on a display unit of said gas meter.

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