Back to results
US 5,856,791 AGranted
Port expander for utility meter reading
AssigneeM&FC Holding, LLC
InventorsBruce E. Gray, Timothy J. Belski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic expander (12) allows for reading a plurality of utility meters (14) with an interrogation device (30) via a common electronic access point (16) wherein the interrogation device (30) interrogates and receives meter usage data from all of the meters (14) during a single coupling with the common electronic access point (16).
Claims14
A method of reading a plurality of utility meters comprising the steps of:
- (a) operatively coupling an interrogation device to a port expander device, the port expander device being operatively coupled to the plurality of utility meters;
- (b) transmitting interrogation signals from the interrogation device to the port expander device;
- (c) relaying at least a portion of the interrogation signals from the port expander device to a first one of the plurality of utility meters;
- (d) receiving meter usage data from the first one of the utility meters by the port expander device in response to the interrogation signals;
- (e) relaying at least a portion of the meter usage data from the port expander device to the interrogation device;
- and
- (f) repeating steps (b) through (e) for a second one of the plurality of utility meters.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.