Measuring and monitoring system
First Claim
1. A system for sampling, formatting, storing, processing and communicating to a central location data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices at a remote site, comprising:
- (a) a host computer located at said central location;
(b) a plurality of sensors each with an output representing the on-off condition of a respective one of said plurality of power consuming devices, each of said sensors being located at a respective one of said power consuming devices;
(c) a processor, coupled to said plurality of sensors, at said remote site comprising;
(1) means for storing said data, said data comprising said on-off condition information for each of said power consumer devices, sampled repetitively, at a pre-determined time interval for a predetermined time period;
(2) a real time clock/calendar;
(3) a micro-controller; and
(d) means, coupled to said processor, for communicating said data from said remote site directly to said central location said means for communicating said data comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means; and
said host computer comprising means for controlling the operation and timing of said processor comprising means for communicating status and command information from said host computer directly to said remote site, said means for communicating said status and central information comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means, and means in said processor for storing said status and command information.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for monitoring power usage of various devices at remote facilities is described. The system employs sensors at each facility to sense the on/off condition of the devices. A processor at each facility, under the control of a host computer at a central location, stores the output data of the sensors in stripped-down form. The host computer specifies to the processor at each facility the time and date at which it should begin polling the sensors, the interval between pollings of the outputs of the sensors, the time and date at which the processor should report to the host computer and transmit the stored data, and the address location to be used when the processor initiates polling of the data. A master clock/calendar at the central location is used to synchronize the clock/calendars at each facility. Thus, only stripped-down data and power outage information are required to be stored by the processor and transmitted to the host computer, without the need to store or transmit any other data such as sensor identification or time and date of polling with each sampling of data. This results in reduction of memory storage requirements and transmission time. Alternatively, rather than storing the on/off condition of the devices, sensors which generate analog currents of voltages representing the amount of power being consumed by the device can be used in conjunction with A to D converters to digitize the information for storage and transmission to the host computer.
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Citations
97 Claims
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1. A system for sampling, formatting, storing, processing and communicating to a central location data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices at a remote site, comprising:
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(a) a host computer located at said central location; (b) a plurality of sensors each with an output representing the on-off condition of a respective one of said plurality of power consuming devices, each of said sensors being located at a respective one of said power consuming devices; (c) a processor, coupled to said plurality of sensors, at said remote site comprising; (1) means for storing said data, said data comprising said on-off condition information for each of said power consumer devices, sampled repetitively, at a pre-determined time interval for a predetermined time period; (2) a real time clock/calendar; (3) a micro-controller; and (d) means, coupled to said processor, for communicating said data from said remote site directly to said central location said means for communicating said data comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means; and said host computer comprising means for controlling the operation and timing of said processor comprising means for communicating status and command information from said host computer directly to said remote site, said means for communicating said status and central information comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means, and means in said processor for storing said status and command information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A system for sampling, formatting, storing and communicating to a central location, data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices at a plurality of remote sites, comprising:
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(a) a host computer located at said central location; (b) a plurality of sensors at each of said plurality of remote sites, each of said sensors with an output which represents the on-off condition of a respective one of said plurality of power consuming devices, each of said sensors being located at a respective one of said power consuming devices; (c) a processor, coupled to said plurality of sensors, at each of said plurality of remote sites comprising; (1) means for storing said data, said data comprising said on-off condition information for each of said power consumer devices, sampled repetitively, at a pre-determined time interval for a predetermined time period; (2) a real time clock/calendar; (3) a micro-controller; and (4) means for accepting from said host computer an identification indicia which is unique for each remote site; and said host computer comprising means for controlling the operation and timing of said processor at each of said plurality of remote sites, comprising means for communicating status and command information from said host computer to each of said plurality of remote sites, said means for communicating said status and central information comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means, and means for storing in said processor said status and command information and each of said processors further comprises means for accepting only said information which includes its unique identification indicia. (d) means, coupled to each of said processors, for communicating said data from each of said plurality of remote sites to said central location said means for communicating said data comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means; and - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A system for sampling, formatting, storing and communicating data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices at a facility, comprising
(a) a host computer located at said facility; -
(b) a plurality of sensors each with an output which represents the on-off condition of a respective one of said plurality of power consuming devices, each of said sensors being located at a respective one of said power consuming devices; (c) a processor, located at said facility, and coupled to said plurality of sensors, comprising; (1) means for storing said data, said data comprising said on-off condition information for each of said power consumer devices, sampled repetitively, at a pre-determined time interval for a predetermined time period; (2) a real time clock/calendar; and (3) a micro-controller; and said host computer comprising means for controlling the operation and timing of said processor, means for communicating said status and command information from said host computer to said processor, said means for communicating said status and command information comprising wiring which is independent of any power transmission lines or means, and means, in said processor, for storing said status and command information. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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57. A method for automatically and repetitively sampling and storing data representing the on/off condition of a plurality of power consuming devices at a remote site with a processor using a random access memory (RAM) located at a remote site, and of communicating said data to a host computer, comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving, at said processor, status and command information from said host computer including data specifying the time and date at which said remote processor should initiate said sampling of said data, the time interval between samples of said data and the time and date at which said remote processor should report to, and communicate said sampled data to, said host computer; (b) storing said status and command data in said RAM; (c) sequentially sampling, at said time interval, the outputs of a plurality of power sensing devices, representing said on/off condition, each of said devices being installed at a respective one of said plurality of sensors, and communicating said outputs to said remote processor at said time and date for initiating said sampling; (d) storing said outputs of said sensors in said RAM; (e) sequentially storing each of said sequentially sampled outputs in said RAM; and (g) transmitting such said sampled output data directly from said processor to said host computer, using ordinary public telephone lines only, independent of any power transmission lines or means, at said specified reporting time and date. - View Dependent Claims (58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. A system for sampling, formatting, storing, processing and communicating to a central location data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices from a remote site, said system comprising:
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(a) a host computer located at said central location; (b) a plurality of sensors each having an analogue output representing the power usage of a respective one of said plurality of power consuming devices, each of said sensors being located at a respective one of said power consuming devices; (c) a plurality of analogue to digital convertors, each connected to a respective one of said plurality of sensors; (d) a processor, coupled to said plurality of analogue to digital convertors, at said remote site comprising; (1) means for storing said data, said data comprising said power usage sampled at a pre-determined time interval for a pre-determined time period; (2) a real time clock/calendar; (3) a micro-controller; (4) means for converting said analogue output; (e) means for communicating said data from said remote site directly to said central location coupled to said processor, said means for communicating said data comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means; and
said host computer comprising means for controlling the operation and timing of said processor comprising means for communicating status and command information from said host computer directly to said remote site, said means for communicating said status and central information comprising ordinary public telephone lines and being independent of any power transmission lines or means, and means in said processor for storing said status and command information. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89)
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90. A method for automatically and repetitively sampling and storing data representing the power usage of a plurality of power consuming devices at a remote site, with a processor using a random access memory (RAM) located at said remote site, and of communicating said data to a host computer, comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving, at said processor, status and command information from said host computer including data specifying the time and date at which said remote processor should initiate said sampling of said data, the time interval between samples of said data and the time and date at which said remote processor should report to, and communicating said sampled data directly to said host computer, using ordinary public telephone lines only, independent of any power transmission means; (b) storing said status and command data in said RAM; (c) sampling, at said time interval, the outputs of a plurality of power sensing devices, each of said sensors installed at a respective one of said plurality of devices and having an analogue output representing the power conservation of a respective one of said devices, converting said analogue output into digital form, and connecting said converted outputs to said remote processor at said time and date for initiating said sampling; (d) storing said outputs in said RAM; (f) sequentially storing each of said sequentially sampled outputs in said RAM; and (g) transmitting such said sampled output data from said processor to said host computer using ordinary public telephone lines only, independent of any power lines or means, at said specified reporting time and date. - View Dependent Claims (91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97)
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Specification