REMOTE METER READING SYSTEM FOR KWH WATTHOUR METERS AND DEMAND METERS
First Claim
1. In a remote meter reading system having meters for measuring quantums of a commodity, at least one meter including indicator means for providing signals indicating the total quantum measurement by said one meter for each predetermined interval of a given time period, means for providing a measurement of the total quantum for each interval including first means enabled thereby to store the measurement for an interval whenever such measurement is larger than the maximum measurement for any previous predetermined interval, accumulator means, means for transferring the value of the stored measurement to said accumulator means at the end of a given time period and thereupon clearing the stored measurement from said first means, transponder means for transmitting signals to a remote location, readout means including first means for selectively providing signals representing the value of the measurement stored in said storage means to said transponder means, and second means for selectively providing signals which represent the measurements which are stored in said accumulator means to said transponder means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A remote meter reading system for providing automatic readout by interrogation equipment located remotely from the meters having the capability of providing demand meter reading including the KWH reading and the demand meter reading for billing purposes regardless of the time of readout of the demand meter reading. Word generator generates words for transmission by an associated transponder in response to an interrogation signal from the remote source.
27 Citations
24 Claims
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1. In a remote meter reading system having meters for measuring quantums of a commodity, at least one meter including indicator means for providing signals indicating the total quantum measurement by said one meter for each predetermined interval of a given time period, means for providing a measurement of the total quantum for each interval including first means enabled thereby to store the measurement for an interval whenever such measurement is larger than the maximum measurement for any previous predetermined interval, accumulator means, means for transferring the value of the stored measurement to said accumulator means at the end of a given time period and thereupon clearing the stored measurement from said first means, transponder means for transmitting signals to a remote location, readout means including first means for selectively providing signals representing the value of the measurement stored in said storage means to said transponder means, and second means for selectively providing signals which represent the measurements which are stored in said accumulator means to said transponder means.
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2. In a remote meter reading system having meters for measuring quantums of a commodity, at least one meter having means for providing signals indicating the total quantum measurement for each predetermined interval of a given time period, comparison means for comparing the measurement for each interval with the previous maximum measurement in said given time period including storage means for storing the value of the largest measurement of each such compaRison, accumulator means, means for transferring the value of the measurement in said storage means to said accumulator means at the end of a given time period and thereupon clearing such measurement from said storage means, transponder means for transmitting signals to a remote location, and readout means including first means for selectively providing signals representing the value of the stored measurement in said storage means to said transponder means, and second means for selectively providing signals which represent the measurements which are stored in said accumulator means to said transponder means.
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3. A system as set forth in claim 2 which includes means for enabling said comparison by said comparison means at the end of each predetermined interval of 15 minutes, and in which said means which transfer the value of the measurement in said storage means to said accumulator means are enabled at the end of each given time period of approximately 30.4 days.
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4. A system as set forth in claim 2 in which said readout means includes control means for enabling said first and second means to sequentially provide the signals to said transponder means which represent the measurements stored in said storage means and said accumulator means.
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5. A system as set forth in claim 4 which includes meter address means for providing meter identification signals, and in which said control means are operative to enable said meter address means to provide said meter address to said transponder means along with said measurements provided by said storage means and said accumulator means.
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6. A system as set forth in claim 2 which said accumulator means includes first accumulator means for storing the value of the largest measurement stored in said storage means at the end of a first measured time period, second accumulator means for storing the largest measurement stored in said storage means at the end of a second measured time period.
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7. A system as set forth in claim 6 in which said first and second accumulator means each includes means for providing a cumulative total of the measurements provided thereto by said storage means during alternate ones of successive time periods, and the measurement provided to said transponder means by said further means are said cumulative totals.
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8. A system as set forth in claim 2 in which said measurements are stored in said storage means and said accumulator means as logic bits, and in which said readout means includes multiplexer means for effecting readout of said logic bits in word form,and means for providing logic bits in each word which represents the meter address.
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9. A system as set forth in claim 4 in which said first and second means comprise a first, second and third multiplexer which are simultaneously sampled in a cyclic manner, and in which said readout means includes a further multiplexer for selectively forwarding the output of said first, second and third multiplexers in a predetermined sequence.
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10. A system as set forth in claim 9 which includes means for providing signals which represent the total measurement made by said meter at any given time, and in which said further multiplexer selectively extends said output to said transponder with the outputs of said first, second and third multiplexer.
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11. A system as set forth in claim 1 which includes separate counter means for providing a cumulative count of the total number of signals provided by said indicator means.
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12. In a remote meter reading system having meters for measuring the quantum of a commodity as used, at least one meter including indicator means for providing an input signal which indicates a given measurement by said meter, demand counter means connected to count the input signals for each predetermined interval of a given time period, storage means, comparator circuit means having first input means connected to the output of said demand counter means and second input means connected to the output of said storage means, meaNs connecting the input of said storage means to the output of said demand counter means, and enabling means for enabling said comparator means at the end of each of said intervals to compare the count stored in said storage means with the count provided by said demand counter means, means controlled by said comparator means for enabling said storage means to store the largest of the two counts in each comparison, accumulator means, and means for effecting transfer of the count stored in said storage means to said accumulator means, said accumulator means including an adder circuit having its input connected to the output of said storage means, a further storage means having its input connected to the output of said adder circuit, and means connecting the output of said further storage means to the input of said adder circuit, whereby each new count input to said adder circuit from said storage means is added to the previous total count in said further storage means and the total thereof is fed to said further storage means.
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13. A system as set forth in claim 12 which includes a multiplexer circuit connected to the output of said further storage means in said accumulator means, and means for periodically enabling said multiplexer to provide a readout of the accumulated counts stored in the further storage means of said accumulator means.
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14. In a remote meter reading system having meters for measuring the quantum of a commodity as used, at least one meter including indicator means for providing an input signal which indicates a given measurement by said meter, demand counter means connected to count the input signals for each predetermined interval of a given time period, storage means, comparator circuit means having first input means connected to the output of said demand counter means and second input means connected to the output of said storage means, means connecting the input of said storage means to the output of said demand counter means, and enabling means for enabling said comparator means at the end of each of said intervals to compare the count stored in said storage means with the count provided by said demand counter means, means controlled by said comparator means for enabling said storage means to store the largest of the two counts in each comparison, a first accumulator, means for enabling said first accumulator to store the count in said storage means after certain ones of said time periods, a second accumulator, means for enabling the second accumulator to store the counts in said storage means at the end of alternate ones of said time periods, a plurality of multiplexer circuits for effecting readout of the counts in said storage means and said first and second accumulators, and selection means for enabling said multiplexer circuits in sequence to provide sequential readout of the counts stored in said storage means and said first and second accumulator means.
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15. A system as set forth in claim 14 in which said selection means includes means for providing coded signals to enable said multiplexer circuit, different coded signals being provided to enable a correspondingly different one of said multiplexer circuits, and which includes further means controlled by said coded signals to provide identification signals for the one of said multiplexer circuits which is providing the count.
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16. A system as set forth in claim 15 in which said further means includes meter address means for providing a meter identification address for the meter along with the information and identification signals provided for said multiplexer circuit.
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17. In a remote meter reading system having station means for selectively requesting meter information from a meter at a remote location, at least one demand meter in said system which includes means for providing signals indicating the maximum reading for each interval of a given time period, means including comparator means for comparing the reading for each interval with the maximum reading previously detected in said given time period, and storage means for storing the value of the largest of the two readings, transponder means, means for transmitting signals representing the maximum reading stored in said storage means to said transponder means, antenna means for said transponder means operative to receive input signals of a first frequency from said station means, nonlinear impedance means connected to said antenna means operative to distort said input signals to generate related harmonic signals, and means for modulating said harmonic signals with said stored signals prior to transmission over said antenna means to said station means.
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18. A system as set forth in claim 17 in which said stored signals are stored as first and second signal bits, and in which said means for modulating said harmonic signals includes an oscillator circuit biassed to be turned on and off by said first and second signal bits respectively, and means coupling the output of said oscillator circuit across said nonlinear impedance means.
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19. In a remote meter reading system having station means for selectively requesting meter information from a meter at a remote location, at least one meter in said system which includes means for providing signals indicating the reading on said meter, and storage means for storing said reading, transponder means, means for transmitting signal bits of different types to represent said reading stored in said storage means to said transponder means, antenna means for said transponder means operative to receive input signals of a first frequency from said station means, nonlinear impedance means connected to said antenna means operative to distort said input signals to generate related harmonic signals, and means for modulating said harmonic signals with said stored signals prior to transmission over said antenna means to said station means, including an oscillator circuit turned on and off by different ones of said stored signal bits, and means coupling the output of said oscillator circuit across said nonlinear impedance means.
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20. A method of remotely reading meters in a multimeter system which comprises the steps of providing signals which indicate the value of the maximum measurement made in each interval of a given time period, storing the maximum reading obtained in the first interval of said time period in associated storage means, comparing the maximum reading obtained in the next interval with the maximum reading stored in the first interval of said given time period, and storing in said storage means the largest reading of the two compared readings, comparing the maximum readings obtained in each further interval of said given time period with the maximum one of the readings previously stored in the storage means, and in each case storing the largest reading of the two readings thus compared, transferring the maximum reading in said storage means at the end of said given time period to an accumulator, and selectively providing the maximum reading in said storage means and the maximum reading in said accumulator for use in a demand reading calculation.
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21. A method of remotely reading meters in a multimeter system which comprises the steps of providing a pulse count indicating the value of the maximum measurement made in each interval of a given time period, storing the maximum count obtained in the first interval of said time period in associated storage means, comparing the maximum count obtained in the next interval with the maximum stored count obtained in the first interval of said given time period, storing in said storage means the largest count of the two compared counts, comparing the maximum counts obtained in each further interval of said given time period with the maximum one of the counts previously stored in said storage means, and in each case storing the largest count of the two counts thus compared, transferring the maximum count in said storage means at the end of said given time period to a first accumulator, transferring the maximum count in said storage means at the end of a second time period to a second accumulator, and selectively providing the maximum count in said storage means and the maximum counts in said first and second accumulators for use in a demand reading calculation.
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22. A method of remotely reading meters in a multimeter system which comprises the steps of determining the value of the maximum measurement made in each one of a plurality of intervals of a given time period, storing said maximum measurement from a first one of said time periods in a first accumulator, storing the maximum measurement for a second one of said time periods in a second accumulator, and continually providing the largest measurement made in progressive intervals of a third one of said time periods, comparing the output of said storage means in said first and second accumulators with the output at the time of a previous reading and using the reading in said storage means for the billed meter reading whenever the measurement in the first and second accumulator is unchanged from the previous reading.
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23. The method of claim 22 which includes the further step whenever one of the accumulators has a reading different than its previous reading of providing the reading of the one of said accumulators which has changed.
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24. The method of claim 22 which includes the further step whenever the reading on the first and second accumulator has changed, of providing the change in reading on the one of the accumulators which shows the largest change.
Specification