Multi-station RF thermometer and alarm system
DCFirst Claim
1. A single-frequency multi-station RF telemetry and alarm system providing monitoring of weather data at different locations of a region to be monitored that is suitable for home, office and light industrial use, comprising:
- a plurality of portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations each providing measurement of weather data in any desired location where the same may be placed and telemetry of said measured weather data over a single predetermined frequency RF communication channel at times, determined in a preselected manner by each said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather station, selected to allow joint transmission and substantially contention-free receipt at a multi-station base station of weather data telemetry from all of said plurality of portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations via said communication channel; and
a hand-holdable multi-station base station that receives and displays the measured and transmitted weather data received from each of said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather stations over said RF communication channel allowing a user at the multi-station base station to learn the weather conditions prevailing at each of said different locations of said region to be monitored where respective ones of said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations may be placed.
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Abstract
A multi-station RF thermometer and alarm system measures temperatures at remote locations by RF thermometers, and displays received temperature telemetry on a multi-station base station that provides out-of-bounds alarm signal indications whenever temperatures are outside of user-selectable minimum and maximum values. Randomized transmission times lessen the possibility of on-going collisions between two or more transmitters contending for the base station at the same time. Redundant data transmission lessens the possibility of environmental noise interference. The redundant data transmitted at random times includes a unique channel ID code, house-keeping data, the current temperature and/or time-to-next-transmission data. The temperature sensing transmitters operate at a low duty cycle with low peak current consumption resulting in long battery life. The multi-station base station may be AC- or battery-powered. Channel and station ID switches are provided on the remote temperature sensing transmitters and on the multi-station base station.
98 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A single-frequency multi-station RF telemetry and alarm system providing monitoring of weather data at different locations of a region to be monitored that is suitable for home, office and light industrial use, comprising:
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a plurality of portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations each providing measurement of weather data in any desired location where the same may be placed and telemetry of said measured weather data over a single predetermined frequency RF communication channel at times, determined in a preselected manner by each said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather station, selected to allow joint transmission and substantially contention-free receipt at a multi-station base station of weather data telemetry from all of said plurality of portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations via said communication channel; and a hand-holdable multi-station base station that receives and displays the measured and transmitted weather data received from each of said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather stations over said RF communication channel allowing a user at the multi-station base station to learn the weather conditions prevailing at each of said different locations of said region to be monitored where respective ones of said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable RF weather stations may be placed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A single-channel RF weather monitoring and display system displaying information at one location representative of weather monitored at multiple, other locations remote from said one location, comprising:
a portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather station, deployable at each of said remote locations, including a housing;
a sensor connected to said housing for measuring a predetermined parameter representative of the weather prevailing in the environ of said sensor at the location where said station may be deployed;
an antenna mounted to said housing; and
a processor-controlled transmitter mounted in the housing and coupled to said sensor and said antenna repetitively operative (1) to compile a data packet having information representative of station ID and of said weather parameter sensed by said sensor at said location where said station may be deployed, (2) to generate a schedule of at least one transmission times in such a way that the schedule of at least one transmission times does not overlap in time with that of other remote locations where portable, battery-operated and hand-holdable weather stations may be deployed and, in accord therewith, to schedule a time to transmit said data packet, and operative (3) to modulate a predetermined-frequency RF carrier wave to transmit said data packet at said scheduled time to enable at said one location contention-free receipt over said single-channel of data packets transmitted from said multiple, remote locations where portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather stations may be deployed.
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26. A battery-powered RF weather monitoring and display system, comprising:
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a portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather station, deployable at a remote location to monitor a predetermined weather parameter and transmit the monitored weather parameter to a remote, battery-powered base weather station for display, including a housing;
a sensor connected to said housing for measuring said predetermined parameter representative of the weather prevailing in the environ of said sensor at the location where said portable, battery-powered weather station may be deployed;
an antenna mounted to said housing; and
a processor-controlled transmitter mounted in the housing and coupled to said sensor and said antenna repetitively operative (1) to compile a data packet having first information representative of station ID, second information representative of said weather parameter sensed by said sensor at said location where said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable weather station may be deployed, and third information that enables the remote battery-powered base weather station to determine time of next transmission allowing the same to enter battery power conserving sleep mode until that time, and operative (2) to transmit said data packet to said portable, battery-powered base weather station; anda portable, battery-powered base weather station operative in response to receipt of a data packet transmitted by said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable remote weather station to recover said first information and display said sensed weather parameter, and to recover said third information and go into battery power conserving sleep mode until the time of transmission of the next data packet expected from said portable, battery-powered and hand-holdable remote weather station.
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Specification