Intelligent electronic device having improved analog output resolution
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for improving the resolution of an analog signal relative to a digital signal, the analog and digital signals representative of a numerical value, the method comprising:
- forming, from one or more sensors operatively coupled with an AC electrical service, one or more first analog signals representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service;
converting the one or more first analog signals into one or more first digital signals representative of the one or more analog signals;
receiving the one or more first digital signals;
determining, from at least one of the one or more first digital signals a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service;
transmitting a second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, the second digital signal comprising a plurality of datagrams, each datagram having a first resolution; and
receiving the second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service,wherein the plurality of datagrams have an average value indicative of the value of the parameter, the average value having a second resolution exceeding the first resolution.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus provides improved resolution in an analog signal, relative to the resolution of a digital-to-analog converter producing the signal. In one embodiment, a digital electrical power and energy meter varies a digital input to a digital-to-analog converter such that an average of the output of the digital-to-analog converter indicates a value with greater resolution than the instantaneous resolution of the digital-to-analog converter.
26 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method for improving the resolution of an analog signal relative to a digital signal, the analog and digital signals representative of a numerical value, the method comprising:
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forming, from one or more sensors operatively coupled with an AC electrical service, one or more first analog signals representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; converting the one or more first analog signals into one or more first digital signals representative of the one or more analog signals; receiving the one or more first digital signals; determining, from at least one of the one or more first digital signals a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service; transmitting a second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, the second digital signal comprising a plurality of datagrams, each datagram having a first resolution; and receiving the second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, wherein the plurality of datagrams have an average value indicative of the value of the parameter, the average value having a second resolution exceeding the first resolution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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a sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; an analog-to-digital converter, for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal; a memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured to determine from at least the first digital signal a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service and to construct a second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service by determining a plurality of datagrams having an average value indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, wherein each datagram has a first resolution and the average value has a second resolution exceeding the first resolution and configured to output the second digital signal. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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a sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; an analog-to-digital converter, for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal; a memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured to determine from at least the first digital signal, a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service and to construct a second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter for the AC electrical service comprising a series of digital representations of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, and wherein the processor is further configured to output the second digital signal by varying the value of the series of digital representations of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, such that the average of the series of digital representations of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service has a higher resolution than each of the series of digital representations. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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a sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; an analog-to-digital converter, for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal, the first digital signal comprising a plurality of data points; a memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; and a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured to determine, from at least the first digital signal, a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service for at least one of the plurality of data points, configured to construct a second digital signal, the second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service for the at least one data point, by determining a plurality of datagrams for each of the at least one data points, wherein each datagram has a first resolution and the average of the plurality of datagrams has a second resolution greater than the first resolution, wherein the processor is further configured to output the second digital signal. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method for communicating a value of a parameter of an AC electrical service from a digital electrical power and energy meter to an external device, the method comprising:
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forming a first analog signal representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; converting the first analog signal into a first digital signal representative of the first analog signal, the first digital signal comprising a plurality of data points; receiving the first digital signal; determining, from at least the first digital signal, a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service for at least one of the plurality of data points; transmitting a second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service for the at least one data point, the second digital signal having a first resolution; and receiving the second digital signal indicative of the value of the parameter of the AC electrical service for the at least one data point, wherein the second digital signal comprises a plurality of datagrams for each of the at least one data points, each datagram having the first resolution, and wherein the average value of the datagrams has a second resolution greater than the first resolution. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A method for improving the resolution of an analog signal relative to a digital signal, the analog and digital signals representative of a numerical value, the method comprising:
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forming, from one or more sensors operatively coupled with an AC electrical service, one or more first analog signals representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; converting the one or more first analog signals into one or more digital signals representative of the one or more analog signals; determining, from at least one of the one or more digital signals, a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service; and converting the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service by a digital-to-analog converter to a second analog signal representative of the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, the converting further includes determining a predetermined number of datagrams, each datagram including a string of binary values indicative of the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, the average of the value of the predetermined number of dataqrams substantially equals the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, wherein the effective resolution of the second analog signal is higher than a bit resolution of the digital-to-analog converter. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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at least one sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; at least one analog-to-digital converter for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal; at least one memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured to determine from the first digital signal a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service and to construct a series of digital representations of the value of the parameters of the AC electrical service, wherein an average of the series of digital representations substantially equals the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service; and at least one digital-to-analog converter for converting the series of digital representations to a second analog signal representative of the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service, wherein the effective resolution of the second analog signal is higher than a bit resolution of the digital-to-analog converter. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method for improving the resolution of an analog output signal, the method comprising:
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forming, from one or more sensors operatively coupled with an AC electrical service, one or more first analog input signals representative of at least a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; converting, by an analog-to-digital converter having a predetermined resolution, the one or more first analog input signals into one or more digital signals representative of the one or more analog signals; determining, from at least one of the one or more digital signals, a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service; determining a predetermined number of datagrams based on a desired resolution of the analog output signal, each datagram including a string of binary values indicative of the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service and converting the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service by a digital-to-analog converter to the analog output signal representative of the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service by processing the predetermined number of datagrams, wherein the predetermined number of datagrams have an average value substantially equal to the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service such that the resolution of the analog output signal is higher than the predetermined resolution of the analog-to-digital converter.
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39. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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at least one sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; at least one analog-to-digital converter for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal with at least 12 bits of resolution; at least one memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured for determining from the first digital signal a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service; and at least one digital-to-analog converter, wherein the at least one digital-to-analog converter converts a plurality of datagrams into a corresponding plurality of analog signals, wherein the plurality of datagrams are selected so the corresponding plurality of analog signals when averaged are substantially equal to the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service and the averaged value has a resolution higher than a resolution of the digital-to-analog converter.
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40. A digital electrical power and energy meter comprising:
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at least one sensor coupled to an AC electrical service and generating a first analog signal representative of a voltage or a current of the AC electrical service; at least one analog-to-digital converter for converting the first analog signal to a first digital signal with at least 18 bits of resolution; at least one memory unit for storing a plurality of executable instructions; at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory unit, wherein when the plurality of executable instructions are executed the processor is configured for determining from the first digital signal a value of a parameter of the AC electrical service; and at least one digital-to-analog converter, wherein the at least one digital-to-analog converter converts a plurality of datagrams into a corresponding plurality of analog signals, wherein the plurality of datagrams are selected so the corresponding plurality of analog signals when averaged are substantially equal to the determined value of the parameter of the AC electrical service and the averaged value has a resolution higher than a resolution of the digital-to-analog converter.
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Specification