Direct input photoelectric pulse initiator for meter telemetry and recording systems
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsTheodore M. McClelland, III, William P. Doby
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A completely solid state photoelectric pulse initiator for electric utility meter telemetry and recording systems includes a low power CMOS digital integrated circuit (I.C.) flip-flop output circuit for directly generating output pulses in response to the rate of rotation of a meter movement. A pulse rate dividing circuit is provided by a presettable divide-by-N CMOS digital I.C. in one preferred form for electronically varying the ratio of the output pulses relative to the input pulses. A simplified data magnetic recording receiver circuit is capable of being supplied recorder drive current directly from the Q and Q logic outputs of the output flip-flop to produce non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data pulse recording.
Claims7
A photoelectric pulse initiator for a meter telemetry system transmitting metering data from a rotatable meter movement rotated at a rate related to a measured electric power quantity, comprising:
- a power supply circuit including a rectifier means connectible to a source of alternating current to establish a source of direct current therein;
- first and second radiation source-pickup pairs connected to said power supply circuit, each of said first and second pairs including a solid state radiation emitter source and a solid state radiation responsive pickup, said radiation responsive pickups being alternately activated by reflected radiations from said sources at a rate responsive to the rate of rotation of the meter movement;
- a low power solid state digital integrated circuit flip-flop circuit supplied from said source of direct current in said power supply circuit, said flip-flop circuit including one flip-flop means including one SET and one RESET inputs and one Q and one Q logic outputs, said one SET and one RESET inputs being separately connected to separate ones of said radiation responsive pickups, said one Q and one Q outputs having alternately latched high and low logic states in response to said alternate activation of said radiation responsive pickups;
- and output means including first and second terminal means connected to said one Q and said one Q outputs, said output means being connectible to a data receiver means of the telemetry system such that continuous current pulses having either of opposite directions are supplied from said source of direct current to said output means in accordance with said alternate high and low logic states at said one Q and one Q outputs.
In a meter telemetry system for transmitting pulse information from an electric meter including a rotatable meter movement rotated at a rate related to an electric power quantity measured by said meter, the combination comprising:
- a reflection pattern means rotatable in response to the rate of rotation of the meter movement;
- a photoelectric pulse initiator circuit including first and second radiation source-pickup pairs, each of said first and second pairs including a solid state radiation emitter source and a solid state radiation responsive pickup, said pickups being alternately activated at a rate responsive to the rate at which radiations are coupled between said emitter source and said pickup by rotation of the reflective pattern means, said pulse initiator further including a power input circuit including a rectifier for developing a source of a direct current from an alternating current applied to said power input, a low power solid state digital integrated circuit means supplied by said source of direct current, said integrated circuit means including a flip-flop circuit including SET and RESET inputs alternately responsive to said alternate activation of said pickups of said first and second source-pickup pairs, and further including Q and Q logic outputs having alternately high and low logic states in response to the alternate inputs to said SET and RESET inputs, and output means including a pair of terminals connected to said Q and Q outputs for developing continuous opposite polarity current data pulses each having a predetermined polarity responsive to said high and low logic states of said Q and Q outputs, and a recorder telemetry receiver means including a two-wire recorder circuit including an electrical recording means, said receiver means including an alternating current power supply circuit energized by said electric power measured by said electric meter, said alternating current power supply having an output connected to said power input circuit of said pulse initiator for applying the alternating current thereto;
- and conductor means connecting said pair of terminals of said output means of said pulse initiator circuit to an input to said two wire recorder circuit to energize said recording means by said opposite polarity current pulses to effect data recording of said pulses.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.