Transmission line measuring device and method for connectivity and monitoring

• US 9,697,724 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2011
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hubbell, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hubbell, Inc.
• Inventors: Miller, Gary, Crutcher, Bernard, Waltz, Peter, Chadbourne, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Bousono, Orlando
• Application Number:
  US13/825,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20140145858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,112 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 1/22 Tong testers acting as secondary windings of current transformers
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 15/142 Arrangements for simultaneous measurements of several parameters employing techniques covered by groups G01R15/14 - G01R15/26
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A method for connecting low power radios into a self-assembling and self-healing network with multiple portals to higher speed networks such as, but not limited to, electrical or optical Ethernet is provided for monitoring transmission lines, for example. A clamp or other device is provided that includes an integral or associated current transformer and associated circuitry with design elements to address high temperature operation or other operating parameters. An arrangement of sensors is provided (e.g., sensors can be associated with clamps or positioned along infrastructure being monitored and without dependence on any clamps or other devices) that are designed to communicate and operate in an geographically distributed array to provide increased and autonomous monitoring of large utility, highway, communication and similar networks. A unique collection of sensors (e.g., an anemometer with no moving parts) provides comprehensive diagnostics for improved operation of large geographic scale utility, highway, communication and similar infrastructure.

Claims

1. A data acquisition device for acquiring data from a transmission line comprising:

at least one sensor for determining at least one of a parameter and image associated with the transmission line;

a radio interface for communicating to at least one of a monitoring device and a neighboring data acquisition device via a radio communication link within a selected range; and

a processing device connected to the at least one sensor and the radio interface, the processing device being programmed to receive and process inputs from the at least one sensor, and to generate messages for transmission via the radio interface;

wherein the processing device is configured to participate in multi-hop communications via the radio communication link by receiving messages generated by other data acquisition devices, and determining from information provided in each of the messages which operation to perform from among process the message, repeat the message, and ignore the message;

wherein a network comprises a plurality of the data acquisition device, each of the data acquisition devices being assigned a unique address, the processing device being configured with a self-assembling process that automatically configures the data acquisition device to communicate within the network of other data acquisition devices and the monitoring device by

receiving a configuration message transmitted from the monitoring device via the radio communication link,

repeating the configuration message via the radio communication link,

sending a reply message comprising its corresponding address via the radio communication link in response to the configuration message,

receiving reply messages sent from other ones of the data acquisition devices, each of the reply messages comprising the corresponding address of the data acquisition device that generated it, and

determining from the reply messages the corresponding address of each of the data acquisition devices within its selected range;

wherein each of the data acquisition devices in the network is configured to perform the self-assembling process to create a table comprising the unique addresses of the data acquisition devices in its selected range;

wherein the unique address of each of the data acquisition devices is a Media Access Control (MAC) address, the radio interface in each of the data acquisition devices is a ZigBee radio interface customized to employ the self-assembling process that assembles each of the data acquisition devices into a communication network that obviates manual configuration of the radio interface in each of the data acquisition devices, each of the data acquisition devices being configured to automatically generate the table with the MAC addresses of selected ones of the other data acquisition devices in its selected range.

2. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the information provided in each of the messages comprises a number of hops corresponding to the number of times the message has been repeated by one of the data acquisition devices following its origination, the processing device being configured to increment the number of hops in each of the messages before it is repeated.

3. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 2, wherein the processing device is configured to determine whether to repeat the message based on the number of hops and the address included in the message.

4. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the configuration message is repeated, and the processing device dynamically updates information relating to the data acquisition devices based on the reply messages to the configuration message and stores the information in a memory device.

5. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 4, wherein the processing device can configure the information in the memory device upon power up and obviate pre-configuration.

6. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device further comprises a radio-to-ground communications interface for communicating with the monitoring device, the processing device being configured to aggregate data about the other data acquisition devices from messages received from the other data acquisition devices via the radio communication link and provide the data to the monitoring device via the radio-to-ground communications interface.

7. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the radio interface is assigned an encryption key dynamically.

8. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device further comprises a web server, the processing device being configured to send the message via email.

9. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the monitoring device is assigned an Internet Protocol address and configured to provide a user with a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page corresponding to the data acquisition device that comprises the at least one of a parameter and image obtained from the sensor.

10. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the data acquisition devices comprises a corresponding Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page.

11. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmission line is a power transmission line and further comprising a power supply for the data acquisition device comprising a current transformer connected to the transmission line and configured to extract power from a magnetic field generated by current in the transmission line and provide direct current (DC) power to components in the data acquisition device.

12. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device further comprises an audio corona detector having a microphone and a processor comprising at least one of the processing device and a processor associated with the audio corona detector, the processor being configured to obtain audio inputs due to respective corona events from the microphone, to process the audio inputs to generate corresponding audio signatures representing the corona events, and to compare at least parts of the audio signatures with selected threshold characteristics.

13. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to sample an output of the microphone at least one of continually, periodically, and at selected times to obtain the audio inputs.

14. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to generate an alert if one of the audio signatures differs from at least one of the selected threshold characteristics by a selected amount.

15. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises an ambient temperature sensor and an anemometer for determining wind speed using a measured ambient temperature from the ambient temperature sensor and a reference temperature.

16. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device comprises a housing having a longitudinal axis that is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the transmission line, the housing comprising a first end that is heated to a reference temperature by a heating element, and a second end enclosing an ambient temperature sensor, the processing device being programmed to determine wind speed using the difference between a measured ambient temperature and the reference temperature.

17. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device is configured to store a table comprising the unique addresses corresponding to a limited number of the data acquisition devices in the network.

18. A data acquisition device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ZigBee radio interface in each of the data acquisition devices is customized to be dynamically assigned an encryption key.