WO1990013984A1 - Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs - Google Patents

Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1990013984A1
WO1990013984A1 PCT/US1989/001870 US8901870W WO9013984A1 WO 1990013984 A1 WO1990013984 A1 WO 1990013984A1 US 8901870 W US8901870 W US 8901870W WO 9013984 A1 WO9013984 A1 WO 9013984A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
data
meter
pulses
shift registers
storing
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US1989/001870
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Francisco Denis, Jr.
Original Assignee
Lorimaur International, Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lorimaur International, Inc. filed Critical Lorimaur International, Inc.
Priority to PCT/US1989/001870 priority Critical patent/WO1990013984A1/fr
Publication of WO1990013984A1 publication Critical patent/WO1990013984A1/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01R—MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES
    • G01R21/00—Arrangements for measuring electric power or power factor
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04Q—SELECTING
    • H04Q9/00—Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
    • H04Q9/14—Calling by using pulses

Definitions

  • This invention relates to the reading of meter devices for measuring the consumption of electrical energy and the like and more particularly to the encoding, transmission and gathering of data for meter reading purposes.
  • a utility meter reading system wherein a plurality of sensors of a meter based unit respectively sense numerical data displayed on the conventional number wheels of the meters.
  • a further object in accordance with the foregoing object is to provide a unit capable of being readily installed in an existing electric meter for meter reading and communication interfacing purposes.
  • a meter reading unit may be installed in any standard electric utility meter without major structural modification thereof to collect, process and read out data in response to reception of externally generated control signals and address code inputs from a remote centralized terminal at which the individual meter reading outputs are collected.
  • a photo-interrupt type sensor in the meter reading unit encodes meter readings by detecting incremental displacement of an element of the meter driven in response to energy consumption in order to supply corresponding pulses to a continuously operative counter and data store within which a running total of the energy consumed is maintained.
  • An internal standby power source allows the data store to retain its total count reflecting the energy consumed whenever there is a power failure.
  • Readout of the current energy consumption count from the counter and data store is effected through solid state signal transmitting components including a shift register connected by a multi-bit data bus to the counter and data store and under control of a flip-flop.
  • a second shift register receives input data having an address code from a remote central computer terminal. When the address code matches the address code of a particular meter reading unit stored within its address memory, a triggering signal is applied to the flip-flop in order to enable the first-mentioned shift register following reset of the flip-flop and the application of clock signal pulses from the remote terminal in order to produce a data output operational mode for the meter reading unit during which output data reflecting the current consumption of energy is read out.
  • Control signals and address code data are respectively supplied to a plurality of the meter reading units during intervals between generation of the meter reading pulses aforementioned through an interface system connected to the aforementioned remote central computer terminal and its associated power supply.
  • the components of each meter reading unit may be externally powered from the central power supply through the interface system, with only the data store being locally powered by a battery on a standby basis as aforementioned to maintain the count accumulated therein in the event there is a power failure.
  • the interface system also transmits the output data therefrom to the central computer within which the data is gathered and further processed for billing purposes, by way of example.
  • the central computer through the programmed supply of the control signals and address data controls the timing and duration of data readout registration in operative relation to the pulses generated within the meter reading unit.
  • Figure 1 is a front elevation view of a typical electric utility meter with which the present invention may be associated.
  • Figure 2 is a top partial section view taken substantially through a plane indicated by section line 2-2 showing a portion of the meter reading system of the present invention installed within the meter.
  • Figure 3 is a partial section view taken substantially through a plane indicated by section line 3-3 in Fig. 1 showing another portion of the meter reading system installed within the meter.
  • Figure 4 is a block circuit diagram illustrating the meter reading system of the present invention in accordance with one embodiment.
  • Figure 4A is a block diagram illustrating a modified arrangement of meter reading devices in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.
  • Figure 5 is a graphical illustration of the data signals associated with the meter reading system of the present invention.
  • Figure 6 is a basic program flow chart for the remote controlled computer associated with the system of the present invention.
  • Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate by way of example a typical electrical utility meter generally referred to by reference numeral 10 enclosed within a transparent housing secured to the meter base 14.
  • a rotatable element of the meter such as the circular disk 16, is driven in response to energy consumption in order to effect movement of a plurality of meter reading dials 18 through gearing, as is already well known in the art.
  • the meter 10 without any major structural modification has a meter reading unit generally referred to by reference numeral 20, installed therein as more clearly seen in Figs. 2 and 3.
  • the meter reading unit 20 includes a pair of closely spaced circuit boards 22 and 24 fixedly mounted within the meter enclosure below the disk 16 in order to mount a plurality of its solid state electronic components.
  • the meter reading unit also includes in the illustrated embodiment a photo-interrupt type of pulse encoder generally referred to by reference numeral 26.
  • the encoder 26 includes a mounting plate 28 jou naling a rotatable element 30 operatively connected to the meter reading dial gearing.
  • a plurality of angularly spaced holes 32 are formed in the element 30 through which light may be transmitted in order to detect movement by means of position sensor and pulse generator 34 in response to angular displacement of the element 30.
  • a pulse may be generated by encoder 26 each time the driven disk 16 is displaced by 10° in order to reflect a corresponding consumption of energy.
  • the meter reading unit 20 associated with one particular meter as illustrated in Figs. 1-3, is diagrammed in Fig. 4 showing the pulse encoder 26 from which the output pulses are continuously counted by a 16-bit binary counter and data store 36 within which a total count of pulses is accumulated and stored to reflect the quantity of energy consumed, corresponding to the visual dial readout of the meter 10.
  • the binary counter 36 is connected by means of a multi-digit data bus 38 to a 16-bit shift register 40 as one of the components of the meter reading unit mounted on the circuit boards 22 and 24 aforementioned in connection with Fig. 3.
  • the shift register 40 during the operational output mode, transmits a sequential readout of the data received from through bus 38, such readout being applied through a tri-state driver 42 to a data output line 44.
  • the shift register 40 and driver 42 are enabled in response to an output from the Q-terminal of a flip-flop 46. Such enabling output of flip-flop 46 is effected following reset by control signals applied thereto through reset line 48 and line 50 from an equality detector 52. The signal in line 50 from equality detector 52 is produced in response to coincidence between an 8-bit address code applied thereto from shift register 54 and the address code stored in memory 56 identifying the particular meter reading unit 20 with which a selected meter 10 is associated.
  • Data transmitting operation of the shift registers is controlled by clock signals applied thereto through line 58 following the application of the reset signal to the flip-flop 46 through line 48 which also clears the shift register 54.
  • an address code input to the shift register 54 is applied in a sequential pulse format through data input line 60 in order to transmit the aforementioned 8-bit address code to equality detector 52.
  • the input data line 60, the control signal lines 48 and 58, the output data line 44 and a power supply line 62 connected to the various components of the meter reading unit 20, originate from a remote source externally of the meter 10 and transmitted through cable 64 forming part of a data bus system 66 connected to all of the meter reading units 20 of the system.
  • a meter reading operation is initiated by application of a signal pulse 68 through line 48 to the flip-flop 46 and the shift register 54 as aforementioned in connection with Fig. 4.
  • the pulse 68 is followed by the clock pulses 70 and the sequential pulses 72 forming the address code input as aforementioned.
  • Negative pulse 74 in Fig. 5 represents the output of flip-flop 46 as aforementioned necessary to enable data transmission through shift register 40.
  • the sequential pulse readout through line 44 occurs as denoted by the data output pulses 76 in Fig. 5.
  • the data readout lines 44 from the meter reading units extend through data bus 66 to an interface 80 through which the data input in cables 64 are transmitted.
  • the data bus system 66 thus operatively interconnects the various meter reading units 20 with a central computer 82 from which the control signals and address code data originates in response to some selective input such as an input code entered through a keyboard.
  • the central computer 82 also performs data gathering and data processing operations. Operation of the central computer may be powered from a central power supply 84 from which the operating energy for each of the meter reading units 20 is derived according to the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4. While all of the powered components of each meter reading unit is thereby energized by power from a source externally of the meter, a standby power source 86 is provided internally of the meter for the data store of component 36 in order to maintain the accumulated total pulse count representing the energy consumed, in the event there is any power failure.
  • Figure 6 illustrates an operational sequence dictated by programming of the central computer 82 for controlling the timing and duration of a data reading mode of operation within the meter reading unit 20 as hereinbefore described.
  • Input data applied to the equality detector 52 initiates operation as indicated by start 88 in Fig. 6.
  • the equality detection phase 90 effects transmission of the address code data as indicated by operational phase 92 so that the energy consumption count data may be received from the meter reading unit as reflected by operational phase 94.
  • Such data transmission and reception is repeated three times as indicated at 96 in order to ensure the transmission of accurate data.
  • the repeated data outputs are equal, corresponding to readouts limited to an interval between pulse generation by the pulse encoder 26 as reflected at decision block 98, the output data is registered by being stored and displayed through the computer as indicated at 100.
  • FIG. 4A illustrates another communication arrangement between the central computer 82 and each of a plurality of meter reading units 20 having a local power supply 108 associated therewith.
  • Input data including the control signals and address code data aforementioned is fed to each meter reading unit 20 through a transponder 110 also powered by the local power supply 108.
  • the transponder 110 corresponds to the type of medium 112 utilized to establish data communication through a communication interface 114 to which the central computer 82 is coupled.
  • the transmission medium 112 may be in the form of telephone lines, power lines, radio frequency transmission, etc.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Arrangements For Transmission Of Measured Signals (AREA)

Abstract

Un codeur d'impulsions (26) génère des impulsions espacées dans un compteur de distribution (10) qui réfléchissent la mesure d'une quantité prédéterminée, ces impulsions étant comptées et additionées en continu de façon à fournir des lectures répétitives de comptage d'impulsions enregistrées par un terminal (82) éloigné de collecte de données en réponse à la réception de signaux de commande et à des données sélectives d'adressage en provenance du terminal éloigné.
PCT/US1989/001870 1989-05-08 1989-05-08 Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs WO1990013984A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US1989/001870 WO1990013984A1 (fr) 1989-05-08 1989-05-08 Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US1989/001870 WO1990013984A1 (fr) 1989-05-08 1989-05-08 Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO1990013984A1 true WO1990013984A1 (fr) 1990-11-15

Family

ID=22214978

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US1989/001870 WO1990013984A1 (fr) 1989-05-08 1989-05-08 Systeme electronique de lecture de compteurs

Country Status (1)

Country Link
WO (1) WO1990013984A1 (fr)

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3656112A (en) * 1969-03-14 1972-04-11 Constellation Science And Tech Utility meter remote automatic reading system
US4697182A (en) * 1985-09-16 1987-09-29 Sangamo Weston, Inc. Method of and system for accumulating verifiable energy demand data from remote electricity meters
US4749992A (en) * 1986-07-03 1988-06-07 Total Energy Management Consultants Corp. (Temco) Utility monitoring and control system

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3656112A (en) * 1969-03-14 1972-04-11 Constellation Science And Tech Utility meter remote automatic reading system
US4697182A (en) * 1985-09-16 1987-09-29 Sangamo Weston, Inc. Method of and system for accumulating verifiable energy demand data from remote electricity meters
US4749992A (en) * 1986-07-03 1988-06-07 Total Energy Management Consultants Corp. (Temco) Utility monitoring and control system
US4749992B1 (en) * 1986-07-03 1996-06-11 Total Energy Management Consul Utility monitoring and control system

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