| Elster Solutions, LLC Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120126793 | POLYPHASE METER WITH FULL SERVICE DISCONNECT SWITCH - A switch sensor apparatus, an electrical meter, and a method of manufacturing an electrical meter are disclosed herein. A polyphase electrical meter incorporates a number of switch sensor apparatuses that each have a current sensor and a relay arranged relatively perpendicularly to each other and electrically connected via an electrical conductor. The switch sensor apparatuses may be arranged in a compact configuration. In this way, a polyphase meter can provide full service disconnect functionality while remaining sufficiently compact to fit in an ANSI standard housing. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120089354 | Determining Components of an Electric Service Using Tolerance Ranges - Components of an electric service may be identified by measuring voltage signals relating to the connection of an electrical energy meter connected to the electric service. The voltage signals that may be measured include line to neutral voltages and line to line voltages. The values of the measured line to neutral voltages may be compared to reference information comprising tabulated values that may be tabulated as ratios of nominal service voltages associated with different service types. The values of the measured line to line voltages may be compared to ideal line to line voltages calculated using fixed values from the reference information. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20120086436 | Determining Components of an Electric Service - Components of an electric service may be identified by measuring voltage signals relating to the connection of an electrical energy meter connected to the electric service. The voltage signals that may be measured include line to neutral voltages and line to line voltages. The values of the measured voltage signals may be compared to reference information comprising tabulated values that may be tabulated as ratios of nominal service voltages associated with different service types. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20110248169 | Light Activated Configuration of Environmentally Sealed Metering Products - A metering device and a method for reconfiguring the device to satisfy those regulatory agencies that require that a metering device be disassembled in some way prior to allowing any reconfiguration of the device, but do so without breaking or otherwise affecting the environmental sealing of the device. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20110188656 | KEY MANAGEMENT IN A WIRELESS NETWORK USING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY KEYS - A primary key may be used for a first attempt by a remote node to decrypt incoming messages from a master. In the event the decrypt attempt fails at the remote node, a secondary key may then be used to attempt to decrypt the message. Initially, the primary and secondary keys may be the same. A field tool, such as a hand-held programming unit operated by a technician at a remote node location, may change the secondary key, but may not cause any change to the primary key. The secondary key may remain so changed until a new primary key is verified and/or authenticated and the secondary key is overwritten with the new primary key. The primary key may only be changed/set by the master via an encrypted request. A technician may not use a field tool to change a primary key. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110188516 | WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDING INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN DEVICES CAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING AT DIFFERENT DATA RATES - A method, wireless mesh network and processor-readable storage medium for providing interoperability between devices that are capable of communicating at different data rates are disclosed herein. A start-of-frame delimiter token value in a synchronization header is used to indicate a data rate at which a device is capable of communicating. In certain embodiments, samples are collected around a bit transition and are used to adjust a bit timing of a receiving device to match a bit timing of a transmitting device using a coarse adjustment process and, in some embodiments, a fine adjustment process. In this way, compatibility can be maintained between new devices that can communicate at a relatively fast data rate and legacy devices that communicate at a lower data rate. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110188452 | MESH INFRASTRUCTURE UTILIZING ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION PATHS - A wireless mesh network, method, and processor-readable storage medium for maintaining both a primary communication path and an alternative communication path for a communication node are disclosed herein. A control node determines an alternative communication path for each node in communication with the control node and stores, for each node, primary communication path information and alternative communication path information. By maintaining both primary and alternative communication path information, the control node can switch from the primary path to the alternative path when a failure in the primary path is detected. Because the control node determines and stores information relating to the alternative path before the failure occurs, switching from the primary path to the alternative path involves little, if any, delay. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110188445 | CLEARING REDUNDANT DATA IN WIRELESS MESH NETWORK - A wireless mesh network, method, and processor-readable storage medium for operating a network that has a control node that communicates with a plurality of communication nodes are disclosed. When the control node receives a broadcast message, the control node broadcasts a “clear” message that causes other communication nodes to clear their copies of the broadcast message from their message queues. By clearing redundant copies of the original broadcast message, the network can conserve bandwidth for other network traffic. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110188444 | HIGH PRIORITY DATA READS FOR ACQUISITION OF REAL-TIME DATA IN WIRELESS MESH NETWORK - A wireless mesh network, method, and processor-readable storage medium for operating a network that has a control node that communicates with a plurality of communication nodes are disclosed herein. The control node schedules time-limited sample windows and only collects data that is designated as having a priority, such as voltage data, during those scheduled sample windows. Because the sample window has a defined end point time, the reading software that executes at the head end and that reads data from the collector can follow a known schedule because, by definition, the collector will already be finished collecting priority data when the sample window expires. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110187206 | SAFETY INTERLOCKS FOR ELECTRICITY METER CONTROL RELAYS - Safety in an electricity metering environment is improved by providing an additional level of safety interlocking to disconnect switches and other control relays in electricity meters. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20110175749 | PLANAR DISTRIBUTED ELEMENT ANTENNA ISOLATION BOARD - An antenna isolation circuit, meter reading device, and method of manufacturing an antenna isolation circuit are disclosed herein. A multilayer planar structure antenna isolation circuit uses distributed elements to provide high voltage isolation and RF coupling functions. The distributed elements may be implemented, for example, as multilayer distributed capacitors. In other embodiments, the distributed elements may be implemented as a distributed transformer. | 07-21-2011 |
| 20100195574 | Other Protocol Message Routing Over a Wireless Network of Metering Devices - Methods and apparatus are provided for routing DNP (or other) protocol messages over a network of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system that employs a different communications protocol. | 08-05-2010 |
