Self-powered system for measuring and storing consumption of utility meter

A system without a local power supply for measuring and accumulating a series of electrical signals, comprising:

• (a) means for providing the series of the electrical signals;
• (b) non-volatile memory means for successively storing the series of signals as each is received by said system;
• (c) power conversion means for converting at least one of the electrical signals to provide solely that voltage for energizing said system and including detector means responsive to the receipt of the electrical signal for providing an initiate operation signal;
• and
• (d) sequence control means responsive to the initiate operation signal for enabling the received electrical signal to be stored in said memory means and thereafter providing a terminate operation signal effecting the deactuation of said system.

In a system without local power supply for measuring the consumption of a utility by a customer and adapted to be interrogated by an external interrogation unit to read out a manifestation of the consumption of the utility consumed by the customer, comprising:

• (a) a utility meter responsive to the utility consumed by said customer, for generating a pulse-like, electrical signal upon the occurrence of the consumption of a given quantity of the utility;
• (b) coupling means for coupling said measuring and accumulating system to the external interrogation unit;
• (c) non-volatile memory means for storing in a first address location thereof a first data word indicative of the number of pulse-like, electrical signals generated by said utility meter, indicating the total measured utility consumed by the customer, and for storing at a second address location of said memory means a second data word indicative of a customer identification number;
• (d) power conversion means for converting either the pulse-like signals or an interrogation signal applied by the interrogation unit via said coupling means to said system, to provide solely that voltage for energizing said system;
• (e) detector means responsive to the receipt of either of the pulse-like signal or the interrogate request signal from the external interrogation unit for providing an initiate operation signal;
• (f) a select circuit responsive to the receipt of the pulse-like, electrical signal from said meter for operating said system in a first, pulse increment mode of operation and to the receipt of the interrogation signal from the external interrogation unit for operating said system in a second, pulse request mode of operation;
• and
• (g) sequence control means responsive to the initiate operate signal in the first, pulse increment mode of operation for, first, reading out from said memory means the first data word and thereafter incrementing the read-out first data word by "1" before re-storing the incremented first data word in said first address location of said memory means, and responsive to the initiate operate signal in said second mode of operation for successively reading out from said first addressed location the first data word and thereafter reading out the second data word from said second address location of said memory means, both of the first and second data words to be applied through said coupling means to the external interrogation unit.

A system without local power supply for measuring and accumulating a series of electrical signals, comprising:

• (a) means for providing the series of the electrical signals;
• (b) non-volatile memory means for successively storing each of the series of signals;
• (c) power conversion means for converting one of the electrical signals to provide solely that voltage for energizing said system and responsive to the one electrical signal for producing an initiate operation signal;
• and
• (d) means responsive to the initiate operation signal for enabling the received electrical signal to be stored in said memory means.