| ELECTRO INDUSTRIES/GAUGE TECH Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120078555 | Intelligent Electronic Device and Method Thereof - An intelligent electronic device (IED) having a gain control unit adapted to selectively regulate operating ranges of output signals of a sensing circuit of the device is described. In one embodiment, the IED is a digital electric power and energy meter, which operating ranges for supply voltages and supply currents of electrical services may be adjusted to match pre-determined ranges for input signals of a data acquisition system or a data processing module of the meter. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120029850 | Intelligent Electronic Device for Providing Broadband Internet Access - An intelligent electronic device for monitoring and determining an amount of electrical power usage by a consumer, or end user, and for providing broadband Internet access to the consumer. The intelligent electronic device includes at least one sensor coupled to an electric circuit configured for measuring at least one power parameter of the electrical circuit and generating at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one power parameter; at least one digital to analog converter coupled to the at least one sensor configured for receiving the at least one analog signal and converting the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; a processor configured for receiving the at least one digital signal and calculating energy consumption in the electrical circuit; and a gateway configured for receiving data transmissions imposed on the electrical circuit and for demodulating the imposed data transmission for providing data communications. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120026006 | METER HAVING A COMMUNICATION INTERFACE FOR RECEIVING AND INTERFACING WITH A COMMUNICATION DEVICE - A meter is provided having a communication interface for receiving and interfacing with a communication device for transmitting measurement and other data to a central computer station via the communication device. The meter includes a measurement module for obtaining measurement data and a processor having a memory for storing application software for communicating the measurement and other data to the communication interface. The data are then provided to the communication device via the communication interface. The communication device is preferably a plug-and-play PCMCIA-type card or other type of memory card having a processor and a connection port for connecting to a port adaptor of the communication interface for receiving the data via the connection port-port adaptor connection. The communication device further includes communication circuitry for communicating the received data to the central computer station via one or more communications networks according to a communications protocol pre-programmed within the processor. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120025807 | INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH BROAD-RANGE HIGH ACCURACY - A method and apparatus provides high-accuracy measurements of an electrical parameter across a broad range of parameter input values. In one embodiment, an intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., a digital electrical power and energy meter, with a plurality of independently-adjustable gain factors measures a parameter, and calculates and stores calibration factors associated with known values of the measured parameter. The IED or meter applies the stored calibration factors when measuring unknown values of the measured parameter, to improve the accuracy of the measurement. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120010831 | INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING A PROGRAMMABLE DISPLAY - An intelligent electronic device (IED) having a programmable display is provided. The present disclosure provides for defining screens of a display on a revenue based energy meter. The method utilizes Modbus registers and defines a programming technique wherein a user can custom make any desired screen for every application based on what a user needs. The programming utilizes Modbus registers maps to allow for the customizable screens. Moreover, the display interface allows for customized labeling to provide notice and information to users as to measured parameters other than electricity that the meter might be accumulating such as steam, water, gas or other type of commodity. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20110270551 | METERING DEVICE WITH CONTROL FUNCTIONALITY AND METHOD THEREOF - A metering device of a power substation and method are provided for operating on a secondary analog waveform output by a transformer assembly receiving a primary waveform. The method includes stepping down the secondary waveform and generating a corresponding output signal; operating on the corresponding output signal for generating a corresponding first digital signal having a value proportional to the corresponding output signal and within a first range; and operating on the corresponding output signal for generating a corresponding second digital signal having a value proportional to the corresponding output signal and within a second range. The method further includes processing the first digital signal and outputting a corresponding first output signal; processing the second digital signal and outputting a corresponding second output signal; processing the first and second output signals; and generating output corresponding to the processing of the first and second output signals. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20110260710 | INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING CIRCUITRY FOR HIGHLY ACCURATE VOLTAGE SENSING - An intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., an electrical power meter having circuitry for an input voltage structure with an adjusting voltage divider, resulting in a highly accurate power measurement, is provided. The IED includes a first voltage input for receiving a sensed voltage from a first phase of an electrical distribution system, the first voltage input being coupled to a first voltage divider; a second voltage input for receiving a sensed voltage from a neutral phase of the electrical distribution system, the second voltage input being coupled to a second voltage divider; and an inverting operational amplifier (op amp) coupled to the first and second voltage inputs for providing an output proportional to the voltage of the first phase referenced to the neutral phase, wherein the first voltage divider is adjustable to match a ratio of the first voltage divider to a ratio of the second voltage divider. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110231121 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING UNIVERSAL ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY FOR POWER METERS - A system and method for providing an additional option function to existing functionality of a meter device configured for measuring parameters of energy is provided. The meter device is coupled with an option device for exchanging data between the meter and the option devices along at least one data path, including exchanging initialization data provided by the option device between the meter device and the option device, wherein the initialization data is useable by the meter device for configuring the meter device to be in condition to operate with the option device. The data exchanged between the meter device and the option devices are processed by at least one processor. Upon the coupling of the devices and the exchanging of the initialization data, the meter device is operated with the option device for adding the option function to existing functionality of the meter device. | 09-22-2011 |
| 20110184674 | PARAMETRIC MULTI-CYCLE AVERAGING IN AN INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A method and apparatus measures electrical power usage and quality, while mitigating the effects of noise on measured signals or parameters. Specifically, a digital electrical power and energy meter employs a method in which a processor averages a parameter, such as voltage or current, over a plurality of cycles of a time-varying signal, such as an AC electrical signal. The method employed by the meter samples a parameter over the plurality of cycles and computes the average of the samples corresponding to the same phase angle of the signal to produce an average signal. | 07-28-2011 |
| 20110153238 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONNECTING ELECTRICAL DEVICES USING FIBER OPTIC SERIAL COMMUNICATION - A system and method for communicating between serially connected electrical devices of a network is provided. The network includes a series of electrical devices, and fiber optic connectors between electrical devices of the series of electrical devices forming a closed communication ring in which output of each electrical device is communicatively connected to input of a subsequent electrical device of the series of electrical devices. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20110115302 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SYNCHRONIZING AN AUXILIARY ELECTRICAL GENERATOR TO AN ELECTRICAL SYSTEM - There is provided herein methods and apparatus for apparatus for controlling the interconnection of an auxiliary AC generator with an electrical system, such as an electrical distribution system, e.g., a utility grid. A measuring circuit measures the frequency of an auxiliary AC generator and the phase angle between one voltage phase of the generator and the correspondent voltage phase of the electric utility's electricity supply lines, i.e., the grid, each of which are averaged and filtered. The measured frequency of the auxiliary AC generator is matched to the frequency of the electrical system and the measured phase angle of the generator is matched to the electric utility's electricity supply lines. Once matching is achieved to within a defined tolerance, interconnecting contactors are closed. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110054814 | POWER METER HAVING MULTIPLE ETHERNET PORTS - A power meter or other electrical device is provided having two independent and communicatively isolated Ethernet ports. The first Ethernet port is addressable by a first unique identifier and is configured for enabling full access to the power meter via an internal LAN. This enables a LAN operator to remotely access the power meter via the internal LAN for performing metering functions, such as full telemetry, control and programming. The second Ethernet port is addressable by a second unique identifier and is configured for being connected to the Internet. Since the second Ethernet port is communicatively isolated from the first Ethernet port, a user can access the power meter via the Internet, but cannot access the internal LAN by connecting to the power meter via the Internet. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110040809 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED DATA TRANSFER FROM AN IED - A system and method for providing easy access to an internal file structure of an intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., a power meter, not presently defined or supported directly by legacy protocols used in metering industry, such as the Modbus protocol. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110035338 | INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING USER-AUTHENTICATING CAPABILITIES - An intelligent electronic device (IED) includes a user authentication module configured for authenticating authorized users of the IED and preventing an access by non-authorized personnel to a user-selectable portion of operational features of the IED. In exemplary embodiments, the user authentication module includes a database of information authenticating an authorized user and a sensor acquiring user-identifying information (e.g., a biometric sensor, a reader of magnetic, holographic, RFID, or smart ID cards, or a keypad). In one application, these techniques are implemented in IEDs such as electrical power and energy meters and used to control access to reset, configuration, billing, communication, and data acquisition/processing functions of the meters. | 02-10-2011 |
| 20100324845 | Intelligent electronic device with enhanced power quality monitoring and communication capabilities - An intelligent electronic device (IED) has enhanced power quality and communications capabilities. The power meter can perform energy analysis by waveform capture, detect transient on the front end voltage input channels and provide revenue measurements. The power meter splits and distributes the front end input channels into separate circuits for scaling and processing by dedicated processors for specific applications by the power meter. Front end voltage input channels are split and distributed into separate circuits for transient detection, waveform capture analysis and revenue measurement, respectively. Front end current channels are split and distributed into separate circuits for waveform capture analysis and revenue measurement, respectively. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100238983 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA TRANSMISSION BETWEEN AN INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND A REMOTE DEVICE - A system and method for data transmission between an intelligent electronic device (IED) and a device, such as a remote display or input/output (I/O) device, are provided. Each data line of the IED is input into a serializer and transmitted over a serial link to a deserializer and then provided to the inputs of remote device, such as a remote display or input/output (I/O) device. The serial link can be made of any media such as copper, fiber optics, etc. The serial link can be formed as one, two or more channels. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100179777 | TEST PULSES FOR ENABLING REVENUE TESTABLE PANEL METERS - A panel meter including an energy test pulse device that enables the panel meter to be used for revenue applications and eliminates the need for two separate meters, one for panel indication, and the other for energy and revenue applications. The electrical panel meter including at least one sensor configured for measuring an electrical parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter coupled to the at least one sensor for converting the measured electrical parameter to a digital signal; a display for continuously displaying at least one electrical parameter; a processor configured to receive the digital signal and calculate an amount of energy consumed; and a test pulse circuit configured to receive the calculated amount and generate a plurality of pulses equal to the calculated amount, wherein each of the plurality of pulses is equal to a predetermined amount of energy. | 07-15-2010 |
| 20100145642 | System and Method for Compensating for Potential and Current Transformers in Energy Meters - A meter device for measuring electrical energy is provided. The meter device includes circuitry for measuring at least one parameter of electrical energy provided to the meter device. A storage device is provided for storing at least one calibration factor for compensating for errors associated with at least one of at least one external current transformer (CT) and at least one external potential transformer (PT) that operates on the electrical energy provided to the meter device. At least one processor is provided for processing the at least one calibration factor for adjusting the measuring for compensating for the errors when measuring the at least one parameter of electrical energy. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20100138001 | SYSTEM AND METHOD UTILIZING VIRTUAL SWITCHING FOR UPGRADING MULTIFUNCTION DEVICES - A system and method utilizing virtual switching in an electrical panel meter or multifunction device is provided. The virtual switching enables the meter or multifunction device to be upgraded or downgraded through a switching signal, by activating or deactivating multiple operative functions that are to be performed in the meter or multifunction device, such as operative functions for substation automation. Accordingly, when the upgrade or downgrade is necessary, the meter or multifunction device does not have to be replaced. | 06-03-2010 |
| 20100090680 | INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING A TERMINAL ASSEMBLY FOR COUPLING TO A METER MOUNTING SOCKET - An intelligent electronic device having a terminal assembly for coupling the IED, e.g., a revenue meter, to a meter mounting socket. The assembly includes a housing including a generally planar, rigid base, the base including at least one opening and at least one circuit board having at least one electrically conducting terminal surface mounted thereon, the at least one electrically conducting terminal extending through the at least one opening of the base to mate with at least one matching jaw of a detachable meter mounting device coupled to the electrical circuit. | 04-15-2010 |
| 20100057387 | CURRENT INPUTS INTERFACE FOR AN ELECTRICAL DEVICE - According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electrical power meter, is disclosed. The electrical power meter includes a housing for containing electrical circuitry therein, the housing including at least one of voltage and current inputs, the housing including passages extending entirely therethrough, wherein the passages are configured to receive a CT lead therethrough, and wherein the CT leads are not electrically connected to the electrical circuitry therein; and a face plate operatively supported on a surface of the housing, wherein the face plate includes at least one of displays, indicators and buttons. It is envisioned that the through passages are located along a side of the housing. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20100054276 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES VIA AN OPEN CHANNEL - An intelligent electronic device is configured to receive and generate data formatted in accordance with Distributed Network Protocol 3.0 (DNP 3.0) through an Ethernet TCP/IP medium. The intelligent electronic metering device for communicating over a network via an open channel includes an adapter to coupled the electronic metering device to the network and to receive a message in a protocol of the network, wherein the adapter formats the message in a serial protocol; and a processor to receive the message from the adapter, generate a response to the message and transit the response to the adapter, wherein the adapter formats the response in the protocol of the network and transmits the response over the network via an open channel. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20100046545 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS COMMUNICATION ON MODBUS AND DNP 3.0 OVER ETHERNET FOR ELECTRONIC POWER METER - A system and method is provided for simultaneous communications on Modbus and DNP 3.0 over Ethernet for an electronic power meter. The system incorporates one or more protocol wrappers to provide compatibility with both Modbus and DNP based applications. The system removes the appropriate wrappers and routes the incoming data packet to its destination. Additionally, the system also wraps outgoing response packets with the appropriate protocol wrapper based on the related data packet wrappers. | 02-25-2010 |
| 20090265124 | Intelligent Electronic Device for Providing Broadband Internet Access - An intelligent electronic device for monitoring and determining an amount of electrical power usage by a consumer, or end user, and for providing broadband Internet access to the consumer. The intelligent electronic device includes at least one sensor coupled to an electric circuit configured for measuring at least one power parameter of the electrical circuit and generating at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one power parameter; at least one digital to analog converter coupled to the at least one sensor configured for receiving the at least one analog signal and converting the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; a processor configured for receiving the at least one digital signal and calculating energy consumption in the electrical circuit; and a gateway configured for receiving data transmissions imposed on the electrical circuit and for demodulating the imposed data transmission for providing data communications. | 10-22-2009 |
| 20090212764 | TEST PULSES FOR ENABLING REVENUE TESTABLE PANEL METERS - A panel meter including an energy test pulse device that enables the panel meter to be used for revenue applications and eliminates the need for two separate meters, one for panel indication, and the other for energy and revenue applications. The electrical panel meter including at least one sensor configured for measuring an electrical parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter coupled to the at least one sensor for converting the measured electrical parameter to a digital signal; a display for continuously displaying at least one electrical parameter; a processor configured to receive the digital signal and calculate an amount of energy consumed; and a test pulse circuit configured to receive the calculated amount and generate a plurality of pulses equal to the calculated amount, wherein each of the plurality of pulses is equal to a predetermined amount of energy. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090154071 | CURRENT INPUTS INTERFACE FOR AN ELECTRICAL DEVICE - According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an electrical power meter, is disclosed. The electrical power meter includes a housing for containing electrical circuitry therein, the housing including at least one of voltage and current inputs, the housing including passages extending entirely therethrough, wherein the passages are configured to receive a CT lead therethrough, and wherein the CT leads are not electrically connected to the electrical circuitry therein; and a face plate operatively supported on a surface of the housing, wherein the face plate includes at least one of displays, indicators and buttons. It is envisioned that the through passages are located along a side of the housing. | 06-18-2009 |
| 20090112494 | System and Method for Providing Universal Additional Functionality for Power Meters - A system and method for providing an additional option function to existing functionality of a meter device configured for measuring parameters of energy is provided. The meter device is coupled with an option device for exchanging data between the meter and the option devices along at least one data path, including exchanging initialization data provided by the option device between the meter device and the option device, wherein the initialization data is useable by the meter device for configuring at least one of the meter device and the option device to be in condition to operate with the at least one of the meter device and the option device. The data exchanged between the meter and the option devices are processed by at least one processor. Upon the coupling of the devices and the exchanging of the initialization data, the meter device is operated with the option device for adding the option function to existing functionality of the meter device. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090096654 | Intelligent Electronic Device Having Circuitry for Noise Reduction for Analog-to-Digital Converters - An intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., an electrical power meter, having circuitry for an input structure of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that reduces noise of a signal from a sensor in the device, resulting in a highly accurate power measurement, is provided. The circuitry includes a first single-ended analog-to-digital converter with an input from a voltage signal and a second single-ended analog-to-digital converter with an input that is the reference voltage used by the voltage signal. A programmable device subtracts the digital output of the second single-ended analog-to-digital converter from the digital output of the first single-ended analog-to-digital converter to produce a digital result of the voltage signal that is free from common-mode noise. | 04-16-2009 |
| 20090072813 | Intelligent Electronic Device Having Circuitry for Reducing the Burden on Current Transformers - An intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., an electrical power meter, having circuitry for reducing the burden placed on at least one current sensor of the device resulting in a highly accurate measurement by the at least one current sensor is provided. The circuitry of the present disclosure reduces the burden on the current sensor while providing amplification, e.g., gain control, to the input signal. The circuitry includes at least one current sensor outputting a signal to an operational amplifier (op amp) having a controlled variable feedback resistance. By employing an operational amplifier in the circuitry, the output of the current sensor will be at a near zero volts condition at all times thus reducing the burden on the current sensor. | 03-19-2009 |
| 20090055031 | System and method for synchronizing an auxiliary electrical generator to an electrical system - There is provided herein methods and apparatus for apparatus for controlling the interconnection of an auxiliary AC generator with an electrical system, such as an electrical distribution system, e.g., a utility grid. A measuring circuit measures the frequency of an auxiliary AC generator and the phase angle between one voltage phase of the generator and the correspondent voltage phase of the electric utility's electricity supply lines, i.e., the grid, each of which are averaged and filtered. The measured frequency of the auxiliary AC generator is matched to the frequency of the electrical system and the measured phase angle of the generator is matched to the electric utility's electricity supply lines. Once matching is achieved to within a defined tolerance, interconnecting contactors are closed. | 02-26-2009 |
| 20090012728 | System and Method for Multi-Rate Concurrent Waveform Capture and Storage for Power Quality Metering - Systems and methods are provided for use in an IED that perform high resolution waveform capture to generate multi-rate waveform data in real-time. In one embodiment, high-resolution sampled data is dynamically pre-ordered into separate high resolution and low resolution data streams for presentation and storage. This pre-ordering of data is optimized so as to minimize the amount of data manipulation required to prepare the sampled data for eventual presentation and storage in the IED. Pre-ordering of data facilitates minimum performance impact so that continuous real-time data capture can be achieved. | 01-08-2009 |
| 20080312851 | Portable Power Quality Analyzer with Networking Capabilities - An intelligent electronic device (IED) for monitoring power quality of electrical services and receiving/transmitting information using a wireless and wired communication protocol is disclosed. The IED may be configured as a terminal or server of a Wi-Fi network, a cellular network, Intranet, LAN, WAN, or the Internet. In one application, these techniques are implemented in IEDs such as portable power quality analyzers. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20080246628 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONNECTING ELECTRICAL DEVICES USING FIBER OPTIC SERIAL COMMUNICATION - A system and method for communicating between serially connected electrical devices of a network is provided. The network includes a series of electrical devices, and fiber optic connectors between electrical devices of the series of electrical devices forming a closed communication ring in which output of each electrical device is communicatively connected to input of a subsequent electrical device of the series of electrical devices. | 10-09-2008 |
| 20080243404 | Averaging in an Intelligent Electronic Device - A method and apparatus measures electrical power usage and quality, while mitigating the effects of noise on measured signals or parameters. Specifically, a digital electrical power and energy meter employs a method in which a processor averages a parameter, such as voltage or current, over a plurality of cycles of a time-varying signal, such as an AC electrical signal. The method employed by the meter samples a parameter over the plurality of cycles and computes the average of the samples corresponding to the same phase angle of the signal to produce an average signal. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080238713 | Electronic meter having user-interface and central processing functionality on a single printed circuit board - A digital electrical power and energy meter integrates a primary processing module and a user interface module onto a single printed circuit board to reduce overall meter size, assembly time, and cost. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080238406 | Intelligent Electronic Device Having Improved Analog Output Resolution - A method and apparatus provides improved resolution in an analog signal, relative to the resolution of a digital-to-analog converter producing the signal. In one embodiment, a digital electrical power and energy meter varies a digital input to a digital-to-analog converter such that an average of the output of the digital-to-analog converter indicates a value with greater resolution than the instantaneous resolution of the digital-to-analog converter. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080235355 | Intelligent Electronic Device for Receiving and Sending Data at High Speeds Over a Network - The present disclosure provides methods and systems for improving a data transfer rate from an intelligent electronic device (IED) to external PC clients, via a network interface. In one embodiment, an FTP based approach is disclosed which allows for significant optimization of download speeds providing as much a 100 times the download speed capability. In accordance with one aspect of present disclosure, an improved data rate is achieved by utilizing a high-speed transfer protocol, such as the FTP protocol in conjunction with a novel file system incorporated into the IED. | 09-25-2008 |
| 20080234957 | Intelligent Electronic Device and Method Thereof - An intelligent electronic device (IED) having a gain control unit adapted to selectively regulate operating ranges of output signals of a sensing circuit of the device is described. In one embodiment, the IED is a digital electric power and energy meter, which operating ranges for supply voltages and supply currents of electrical services may be adjusted to match pre-determined ranges for input signals of a data acquisition system or a data processing module of the meter. | 09-25-2008 |
| 20080215264 | High speed digital transient waveform detection system and method for use in an intelligent device - A system and a method is provided for the detection and capture, and in particular for an ultra high speed detection and capture, of transients in input voltages by an intelligent electronic device. The system and method detects transients for input voltages in either phase to phase or phase to neutral measurements and permits a user to set threshold levels for detecting transients in input voltages. In an embodiment, the system and method further provides a field programmable gate array as a controller for managing transient detection. The field programmable gate array includes a state machine for determining the state of the sampled signal with respect to a threshold level at a specified waveform sample period. | 09-04-2008 |
