Measurement system

• US 10,139,431 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2013
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RION Company Limited
• Original Assignee: RION Company Limited
• Inventors: Nakajima, Yasutaka, Iwahashi, Kiyokatsu, Ohya, Masaharu, Ueta, Toshihiro, Sato, Naru, Hotta, Ryota, Kurosawa, Yu, Yonemoto, Yuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Barbee, Manuel L
• Application Number:
  US14/401,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20150168457A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,029 Days
• Field of Search: 702 56, 702141, 702150, 702179, 702184, 702188, 702189, 34053911, 705 2
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 11/00 Measuring mechanical vibrations or ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves by detecting changes in electric or magnetic properties
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 1/30 Structural combination of electric measuring instruments with basic electronic circuits, e.g. with amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 1/12 Analogue/digital converters H03M1/001 – H03M1/10 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/845 where the measuring is synchronized between sensing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 where the received signal is a power saving command

Abstract

If input signal is transmitted to a main body unit, a sensor amplifier stores the input signal in itself as measurement data, and transmits the input signal with the added transfer order information to the main body unit. By checking the transfer order information added to the input signal, the main body unit can confirm if the input signal is deficient or not. Upon the end of the measurement of the physical quantity, the main body unit transmits the retransmission request that requests the retransmission of the deficient portion of the data to the sensor amplifier. According to the retransmission request from the main body unit, the sensor amplifier extracts the deficient portion of the input signal data stored in itself and retransmits the extracted input signal data to the main body unit.

Claims

1. A measurement system comprising:

a sensor amplifier connected to a sensor configured to output an analog signal corresponding to a measured physical quantity and a main terminal paired with the sensor amplifier, the sensor amplifier comprising;

a first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver;

a second sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver having a power consumption less than that of the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver;

a state-control processor configured to;

shift the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver from an operating state to a suspended state and to maintain the operating state of the second sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver upon receiving an instruction from the main terminal to shift to a low-power-consumption mode, wherein the low-power consumption mode includes a first low-power consumption mode and a second low-power consumption mode with a power consumption less than that of the first low-power consumption mode; and

shift the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver from the suspended state to the operating state upon receiving an instruction from the main terminal to shift to a normal power mode;

a sensor-amplifier processor configured to control a measurement state of the sensor and the state-control processor has a power consumption less than that of the sensor-amplifier processor; and

the main terminal comprising;

a first main-terminal wireless transceiver paired with the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver to communicate therewith;

a second main-terminal wireless transceiver having a power consumption less than that of the first main terminal wireless transceiver and paired with the second sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver to communicate therewith; and

a main-terminal processor configured to;

transmit an instruction to shift to the low-power-consumption mode to the sensor amplifier via the first main-terminal wireless transceiver or the second main-terminal wireless transceiver;

transmit an instruction to shift from the low-power consumption mode to the normal power mode to the sensor amplifier via the second main-terminal wireless transceiver;

transmit an instruction to shift to the first low-power consumption mode to the sensor amplifier via the first main terminal wireless transceiver or the second main terminal wireless transceiver;

transmit an instruction to shift to the second low-power consumption mode to the sensor amplifier via the first main terminal wireless transceiver or the second main terminal wireless transceiver;

shift the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver from an operating state to a suspended state upon receiving an instruction from the main terminal to shift to the first low-power-consumption mode; and

shift the sensor-amplifier processor and the first sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver from the operating state to the suspended state upon receiving an instruction from the main terminal to shift to the second low-power consumption mode.

2. A measurement system comprising:

a sensor amplifier connected to a plurality of sensors configured to output analog signals corresponding to measured physical quantities and a main terminal paired with the sensor amplifier, the sensor amplifier comprising;

an A/D converter configured to convert the analog signals received from the sensors into digital signals;

a sensor-amplifier signal processor configured to process the digital signals for a subset of the plurality of sensors based on a predetermined rule, wherein the predetermined rule establishes a maximum number of sensors of the plurality of sensors whose digital signals are to be transmitted to the main terminal as unprocessed digital signals and wherein the digital signals for the subset of the plurality of sensors processed by the sensor-amplifier signal processor comprise the digital signals of sensors of the plurality of sensors exceeding the maximum number of sensors of the plurality of sensors established by the predetermined rule;

a sensor-amplifier wireless transceiver configured to transmit the unprocessed digital signals and the processed digital signals; and

the main terminal comprising;

a main terminal wireless transceiver configured to receive both the unprocessed digital signals and the processed digital signals transmitted from the sensor amplifier; and

a main-terminal processor configured to process the unprocessed digital signals received from the sensor amplifier.