Universial AMR system
First Claim
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1. A universal meter interface unit (MIU) configured for transmitting utility data, said meter interface unit comprising:
- a MIU housing suitably configured for housing MIU components;
a controller associated with a memory and disposed inside said MIU housing wherein said controller is one of (a) electrically associated with a transceiver and (b) configured with an on chip transceiver wherein said transceiver is electrically associated with an antenna that is one of (a) disposed at least partially inside said MIU housing and (b) external to said MIU housing;
a register interface configured for being electrically associated with an external data source via at least one of (a) a wired interface and (b) a wireless interface and wherein said register interface is further electrically associated with said controller and wherein said controller is configured to use said register interface to retrieve device-data from said external data source according to a predefined schedule;
a power pack that is one of (a) disposed inside said MIU housing and (b) disposed within a power pack housing configured for being removably mechanically associated with said MIU housing wherein said power pack is suitably configured for supplying power to said MIU components including at least two of said controller, said transceiver and said register interface;
wherein said controller is configured to execute any one of a plurality of MIU modes without hardwire modifications and according to a MIU mode schedule wherein at least one MIU mode is configured for drive-by interrogations and at least one MIU mode is configured for fixed network interrogations;
wherein said MIU mode schedule comprises the MIU mode that is to become active;
wherein said controller is configured to generate MIU-data stored in event logs comprising information about the status of the MIU; and
wherein said controller is further configured to program said transceiver to transmit a MIU-data-signal comprising at least one of (a) MIU-data and (b) at least part of said device-data.
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Abstract
The disclosed inventions include an apparatus and method for providing a universal Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system. Such system may be configured to work in a plurality of modes including a walk-by, drive-by and fixed network mode without hardware modifications. The apparatus tracks warranty data and provides for secure remote software configuration updates.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A universal meter interface unit (MIU) configured for transmitting utility data, said meter interface unit comprising:
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a MIU housing suitably configured for housing MIU components; a controller associated with a memory and disposed inside said MIU housing wherein said controller is one of (a) electrically associated with a transceiver and (b) configured with an on chip transceiver wherein said transceiver is electrically associated with an antenna that is one of (a) disposed at least partially inside said MIU housing and (b) external to said MIU housing; a register interface configured for being electrically associated with an external data source via at least one of (a) a wired interface and (b) a wireless interface and wherein said register interface is further electrically associated with said controller and wherein said controller is configured to use said register interface to retrieve device-data from said external data source according to a predefined schedule; a power pack that is one of (a) disposed inside said MIU housing and (b) disposed within a power pack housing configured for being removably mechanically associated with said MIU housing wherein said power pack is suitably configured for supplying power to said MIU components including at least two of said controller, said transceiver and said register interface; wherein said controller is configured to execute any one of a plurality of MIU modes without hardwire modifications and according to a MIU mode schedule wherein at least one MIU mode is configured for drive-by interrogations and at least one MIU mode is configured for fixed network interrogations; wherein said MIU mode schedule comprises the MIU mode that is to become active; wherein said controller is configured to generate MIU-data stored in event logs comprising information about the status of the MIU; and wherein said controller is further configured to program said transceiver to transmit a MIU-data-signal comprising at least one of (a) MIU-data and (b) at least part of said device-data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15)
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13. A universal interrogator configured for interrogating remote devices, said universal interrogator comprising:
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a computing device electrically associated with a transceiver electrically associated with an antenna, a GPS receiver, a non-volatile memory and at least one communication port configured for transferring data between the computing device and a remote-computing-device; wherein the universal interrogator is powered by at least one of an external and internal power source; wherein said computing device is configured to use said GPS receiver to determine interrogator-location-data representing the current location of the interrogator; wherein said computing device is further configured to access MIU-location-data and determine the MIU ID number for the MIU devices closest to said interrogator for a predefined MIU-number of MIU devices; wherein said MIU-location-data is one of (a) stored in a local memory and (b) stored in a remote memory; wherein said computing device is further configured to use said transceiver to transmit a MIU wakeup signal comprising said MIU ID numbers; and wherein said computing device is further configured to use said transceiver to detect a MIU transmitted response signal. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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Specification