Power Supply and Communications Controller

• US 20070290835A1
• Filed: 10/21/2005
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atecnum Corporation
• Original Assignee: John Engel Hardt, Larry Fish
• Inventors: Fish, Larry, Engel Hardt, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,497,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/538.16
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 15/142 Arrangements for simultaneous measurements of several parameters employing techniques covered by groups G01R15/14 - G01R15/26

Abstract

A power supply extracts electrical power from the electro-magnetic field surrounding a high voltage power conductor and conditions the derived input power to provide a stable power source for instrumentation and communications equipment. The communications controller is a local network router that routes serial data traffic to selected communication devices such as an instrumentation processor, a power supply processor, or a maintenance port controller. The router forwards the data to other communications equipment and forwards data from the communicating equipment to an external network providing substantially simultaneous communications between the external network and the instrumentation processor, power supply processor and maintenance port controller.

Claims

1. A power supply controller for an instrument platform associated with a power line conductor comprising:

extracting means for extracting and outputting power from an electro-magnetic field generated by the power line conductor;

a shunt coupled to the extracting means to manage the electrical output power of the extracting means;

energy storage means to store a portion of the outputted power and to provide a direct current (DC) input;

power conditioning circuitry coupled to the shunt and the energy storage means to convert the output power from the extracting means and the DC input from the energy storage means to DC potentials required by circuitry of the power supply controller and the instrument platform; and

a communications controller coupled to the power conditioning circuitry to transmit and receive data messages within the instrument platform and with ground-based processors and remotely located instrument platforms.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extracting means comprises a magnetic core and a transformer secondary, and

wherein the shunt limits the output power of the transformer secondary provided to the power conditioning circuitry by temporarily short circuiting the transformer secondary.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a power supply processor to execute a software program to control the communications controller and the instrument platform.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising:

an equipment housing having a first portion mateable to a second portion, the equipment housing having a toroidal shape when the portions are mated, the portions having a metallic outer skin and provision therein to contain the instrument platform;

mounting means for disposing the equipment housing about an energized power line conductor; and

means for mechanically mating and unmating the first and second portions when disposing the housing about the power line conductor.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the mounting means includes a central supporting hub member to fix the equipment housing to the conductor and prevent movement of the equipment housing with respect to the power line conductor, and

wherein the hub comprises a thermal isolation barrier between the power line conductor and said equipment housing.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the extracting means comprises a magnetic core disposed in the equipment housing and extending around an anterior portion of the equipment housing to surround the power line conductor, said magnetic core being divided into the first and second portions such that opposed pole faces are separated when the toroid is unmated and in contact with each other when the portions are mated and mounted on the power line conductor.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the magnetic core has one or more transformer secondarys whose output is used to provide power to the instrument platform and communications controller.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the shunt limits the output power of the transformer secondary provided to the power conditioning circuitry by temporarily short circuiting the transformer secondary

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the shunt controls the time durations of the temporary short circuits and the charging time for the storage means, said charging time being determined from a power requirement of the instrument platform.

10. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein, when current flowing through the power line conductor is below a first predetermined threshold value, the energy storage means provides power for the power supply controller and the instrument platform, and

wherein, when current flowing through the power line conductor is above a second predetermined threshold value, charging current is provide to the energy storage means.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the power supply processor is remotely controlled to modify the first and second threshold values.

12. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the communication controller comprises a wireless radio transceiver and antenna attached to the housing and adapted to transmit and receive data by means of a wireless radio transceiver incorporated into the housing.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the wireless transceiver comprises the Public Telephone Cellular network.

14. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the communication controller enables modification of the software programs using local or remote communications while the power supply controller is disposed on the power line conductor.

15. An instrument platform associated with a power line conductor comprising:

a sensing instrument to determine at least one data parameter associated with the power line conductor; and

a communications controller to communicate the data parameter with another instrument platform.

16. The instrument platform of claim 15, wherein the communications controller further communicates with a ground-based processor.

17. The instrument platform of claim 16, wherein the instrument platform further comprises a plurality of sensing instruments.

18. A system for monitoring a power line conductor comprising:

two or more instrument platforms mechanically couplable to a power line conductor, each having a sensing instrument to determine at least one data parameter associated with the power line conductor to which it is coupled and a communications controller to communicate with another instrument platform,

wherein at least one of the instrument platforms is in communication with a ground-based processor.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the instrument platforms include extracting means for extracting and outputting power from an electro-magnetic field generated by the power line conductor to provide power for the instrument platform and communications controller.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein a first instrument platform communicates a first data parameter associated with the first instrument platform with a second instrument platform and the second instrument platform communicates the first data parameter to the ground-based processor.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the second instrument platform communicates a second data parameter associated with the second instrument platform to the ground-based processor.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein each instrument platform has a plurality of sensing instruments.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the instrument platform is disposed in a toroidal equipment housing;

and further comprising fixing the toroidal equipment housing to the power line conductor to prevent movement of the equipment housing with respect to the power line conductor; and

thermally isolating the equipment housing from the power line conductor.

23. A method of monitoring an instrument platform associated with a power line conductor comprising:

inducing power from a power line conductor to provide power to the instrument platform;

providing power to the instrument platform and a storage battery from the induced power when the induced power exceeds a second predetermined value;

providing power to the instrument platform from the storage battery when the induced power is below a first predetermined value; and

communicating data parameters provided by the instrument platform to a ground-based processor through a communications controller,

wherein the communications controller communicates with the ground-based processors by means of a wireless radio transceiver.

25. A method for monitoring a power line conductor comprising:

using a first instrument platform to a sense at least one data parameter associated with the power line conductor; and

communicating the data parameter to a second instrument platform,

wherein at least one of the instrument platforms communicates the data parameter with a ground-based processor.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instrument platform senses a plurality of data parameters.