Method and apparatus for communicating with a meter register
First Claim
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1. An electrical metering device comprising:
- metering means for measuring energy consumption of an electrical load associated with the electrical metering device;
register means, operatively connected to said metering means, for tabulating load profile data related to the measured energy consumption of the associated electrical load; and
communications means for bidirectionally communicating between said register means and an external communications device, said communications means comprising;
a plurality of buffers, each having a predetermined address, for storing data therein;
address free invoke signal receiving means for receiving an invoke signal requesting the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function wherein the predetermined function requires data stored in at least one of said plurality of buffers and wherein the invoke signal does not include an address of the buffers in which the required data is stored; and
address independent accessing means, responsive to said address free invoke signal receiving means, for accessing the data stored in at least one of the buffers which is required to perform the predetermined function such that the external communications device can request the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function requiring data stored in at least one of said buffers without providing an address of the required buffer.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for writing a command to a communications unit of a meter, effecting the execution of the command, and reading the results of the execution includes an electrical metering device having metering means, register means and communications means. The write, indirect execute, and read operations are all driven from one command provided from the reading device to the communication unit.
109 Citations
17 Claims
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1. An electrical metering device comprising:
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metering means for measuring energy consumption of an electrical load associated with the electrical metering device; register means, operatively connected to said metering means, for tabulating load profile data related to the measured energy consumption of the associated electrical load; and communications means for bidirectionally communicating between said register means and an external communications device, said communications means comprising; a plurality of buffers, each having a predetermined address, for storing data therein; address free invoke signal receiving means for receiving an invoke signal requesting the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function wherein the predetermined function requires data stored in at least one of said plurality of buffers and wherein the invoke signal does not include an address of the buffers in which the required data is stored; and address independent accessing means, responsive to said address free invoke signal receiving means, for accessing the data stored in at least one of the buffers which is required to perform the predetermined function such that the external communications device can request the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function requiring data stored in at least one of said buffers without providing an address of the required buffer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An electrical metering device comprising:
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metering means for measuring energy consumption of an electrical load associated with the electrical metering device; register means, operatively connected to said metering means, for tabulating load profile data related to the measured energy consumption of the associated electrical load; a plurality of buffers, each having a predetermined address, for storing data therein; address free invoke signal receiving means for receiving an invoke signal from an external communications device requesting the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function wherein the predetermined function requires data stored in at least one of said plurality of buffers and wherein the invoke signal does not include an address of the buffers in which the required data is stored and for transmitting output signals to the external communications device; and address independent accessing means, responsive to said address free invoke signal receiving means, for accessing the data stored in at least one of the buffers which is required to perform the predetermined function such that the external communications device can request the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function requiring data stored in at least one of said buffers without providing an address of the required buffer. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of performing a predetermined function with an electrical metering device having data stored in a plurality of memory locations, each memory location having a predetermined address, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving an address free invoke signal from an external communications device requesting the electrical metering device to perform a predetermined function requiring data stored in at least one of the predetermined memory locations wherein the invoke signal does not include the address of the memory location in which the required data is stored; accessing the required data stored in at least one of the memory locations to perform the predetermined function requested by the address free invoke signal; and generating a response to the received address free invoke signal based on the accessed data such that the electrical metering device performs the predetermined function requiring data stored in at least one of the predetermined memory locations without receiving the address of the required memory location from the external communications device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification