Process for remote grounding, transmission sensing, and temperature monitoring device

• US 8,160,825 B1
• Filed: 10/26/2011
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: George Samuel Jr. Roe, Henry Winfield Jr. Price, Mylene Farenas Matthews
• Original Assignee: George Samuel Jr. Roe, Henry Winfield Jr. Price, Mylene Farenas Matthews
• Inventors: Roe, George Samuel Jr., Price, Henry Winfield Jr., Matthews, Mylene Farenas
• Primary Examiner(s): Khuu, Cindy H
• Application Number:
  US13/281,741
• Time in Patent Office: 174 Days
• Field of Search: 702/58
• US Class Current: 702/58
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/20 Measuring earth resistance; Measuring contact resistance, e.g. of earth connections, e.g. plates
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/185 Electrical failure alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network

Abstract

A system to monitor power line temperatures, ground moisture levels, to visually inspect the area around said power line poles and to transmit said data over short, mid, or long range to a monitoring base station for analysis. Said means for monitoring power line conditions are a non-contact temperature sensor, a photo-interrupter, and a digital camera. The camera will be capable of responding to motion automatically or be used in a remote fashion either by day or night. By utilizing the current monitoring setup the potential errors, dangers, or threats of power line failure may be avoided. Further, through the following set up analysis of a failure event at a specific (or group of) power line may be done on site, or remotely and will greatly increase the efficient analysis and repair of failure events.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring and transmitting line conditions of high voltage power lines comprising:

a ground moisture sensor coupled to a first transceiver;

a non-contact temperature sensor coupled to a second transceiver;

a camera sensor for visual monitoring of an area around a base of said high voltage power line coupled to said second transceiver;

a user interface device coupled to and in communication with both said first and second transceivers;

a non-inductance power source connected to the ground moisture sensor, the non-contact temperature sensor, the first transceiver and the second transceiver; and

a plurality of data transceivers for receiving and transmitting generated data to and from a base station via a hybrid topology network;

wherein said plurality of data transceivers, includes short range, mid range, and long range transceivers; and

wherein all of said sensors and transceivers operate together to sense a visual, temperature, and moisture characteristics of said high voltage power lines and a surrounding area of said high voltage power lines.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said ground moisture sensor comprises a means for detecting the change in ground electrical conductance via the absorption of a generated infrared light signal due to atmospheric and soil moisture content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said non contact temperature sensor comprises a means for detecting infrared radiation from an emitting body.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said camera sensor comprises an electronic digital element capable of transforming a given set of visual and infrared light frequencies into a digital signal to be analyzed.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said camera sensor comprises a CCD sensor element.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said camera sensor comprises a CMOS sensor element.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said user interface device comprises a means for directly accessing said data transceivers via interface processing circuitry at their respective locations.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said user interface device is an LCD display.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said user interface device is a USB interface.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said user interface device is accessible at each node by a portable wireless mobile device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said power source is a solar cell coupled to rechargeable battery.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of data transceivers for receiving and transmitting said measured characteristics from said sensors and said interface processing circuitry for retrieving operational status information from said user interface device about the measured condition of said power lines operates on radio-frequencies.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of transceivers for receiving and transmitting said measured characteristics from said sensors and said interface processing circuitry for retrieving operational status information from said user interface device about the measured condition of said power lines comprises:

a short-range transceiver for communication with said sensors, mid-range transceivers, and long-range transceivers;

a mid-range transceiver for communicating with said short-range and said long-range transceivers; and

a long-range transceiver for communicating with said short-range, mid-range, and other long-range transceivers;

wherein said short, mid, and long-range transceivers operate via wireless radio-frequencies.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said short-range, mid-range, and long-range transceivers operate via a directly connected local area network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said sensors and transceivers are located on a separate sensor pole from the high voltage power line pole.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein said short-range transceivers generate an internal reference transceiver identification code for each respective sensor to be correlated with the pre-existing utility assigned identification code associated with each respective power line for determining the source and nature of said transmitted sensor conditions.

17. A system for monitoring and transmitting line conditions of high voltage power lines comprising:

a ground moisture sensor coupled to a first transceiver;

a non-contact infrared temperature sensor coupled to a second transceiver;

a camera sensor for visual monitoring of an area around a base of said high voltage power line coupled to said second transceiver;

a user interface device coupled to and in communication with both said first and second transceivers;

a non-inductance solar power source connected to the ground moisture sensor, the non-contact infrared temperature sensor, the first transceiver and the second transceiver; and

a plurality of data transceivers for receiving and transmitting generated data to and from a base station via a hybrid topology network;

wherein said plurality of data transceivers, includes short range, mid range, and long range transceivers;

wherein said user interface device is accessible at each node by a portable wireless mobile device; and

wherein said ground moisture sensor comprises a means for detecting a change in ground electrical conductance via an absorption of a generated infrared light signal due to atmospheric and soil moisture content.