Fault tolerant power system architecture for fluid flow measurement systems
First Claim
1. An intelligent power module for providing power to a fluid flow totalizer, the module comprising:
- a processor configured to generate a signal that represents a measure of a flow of a fluid in response to a signal received from a fluid flow sensor;
a plurality of supply circuits, each supply circuit comprising at least one energy storage cell in series with a unidirectional flow element to substantially limit current flow through each of the supply circuits to a preferred direction; and
a switched mode power supply comprising an input coupled to draw power from any of the supply circuits and an output to deliver power to the processor, the power supply providing a voltage boost when a voltage at the input is lower than a desired voltage at the output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
To provide a fault-tolerant architecture to supply electrical operating power in fluid flow measurement applications, apparatus and associated systems, computer program products, and methods include an intelligent power module with redundant and electrically independent battery strings to supply regulated voltage to electronic fluid flow measurement data processing circuitry. In a preferred implementation, the intelligent power module transmits operating power and battery status information over a two wire interface. Circuitry may encode information about the status of individual battery strings in a DC supply voltage. The fluid meter processing circuitry operates from the DC supply voltage and decodes the battery status information. Preferred embodiments may also include a switched-mode power supply capable of extracting substantially all available stored energy capacity from each of the battery strings, each of which is electrically isolated by a unidirectional current circuit.
44 Citations
29 Claims
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1. An intelligent power module for providing power to a fluid flow totalizer, the module comprising:
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a processor configured to generate a signal that represents a measure of a flow of a fluid in response to a signal received from a fluid flow sensor; a plurality of supply circuits, each supply circuit comprising at least one energy storage cell in series with a unidirectional flow element to substantially limit current flow through each of the supply circuits to a preferred direction; and a switched mode power supply comprising an input coupled to draw power from any of the supply circuits and an output to deliver power to the processor, the power supply providing a voltage boost when a voltage at the input is lower than a desired voltage at the output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29)
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21. A fluid flow metering system, comprising:
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a fluid flow meter; a processing system to accumulate fluid flow measurement data from the fluid flow meter; and an intelligent power module coupled to the processing system by an electrical link to transfer power therebetween, the power module supplying power received from any of a plurality of battery strings comprising one or more batteries, each battery string supplying current through a corresponding current steering element having a preferred current direction. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A fluid flow metering system, comprising:
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a fluid flow sensor; a processing system to accumulate fluid flow measurement data from the fluid flow sensor; and means for generating a power signal encoded with energy source status information to the processing system over a two wire link.
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Specification