Digital Energy Metering for Hardware

Challenge:

A system development company is creating an energy management system that will utilize energy data calculated from current transformer readings. The developer team wants to retain control over the finished form and the communication method for their proprietary PCB based system. They want to save time and budget by incorporating an off-the-shelf hardware module that will calculate the energy data from the CT readings and they need the hardware in a form where it can be integrated with minimal impact to their PCB design.

Solution:

The system developer used Akida’s TARAS card, which easily plugged into their PCB design with standard pin connectors and its diminutive 1.5 inch square template meant no change to the final product dimension. Readings from a current transformer are transmitted to the TARAS card via the PCB and when the energy management system’s software needs real time information, the TARAS card is interrogated through the PCB in order to receive energy data calculated from the coil readings. Since the data packets use a standardized protocol and are in ASCII format, the PCB can feed them directly into the system software (without any further software coding to interpret the readings). There was no impact to the choice of communication platform for the system since the energy metering was an “on-board” component of the PCB allowing the developer team to build in the communication method of their choice elsewhere on the PCB.

Results:

The developer team saved at least six months of engineering time needed to design hardware to perform the digital energy metering. It would take an additional year of engineering to minimize the hardware footprint. The final cost of the TARAS card purchased in large volumes becomes a nominal component cost similar to communication modules and memory cards so the net effect on the end product cost was negligible. The TARAS card’s small size resulted in no real impact to the final product size. Since the TARAS card could work with any communication method, the system developer was able to choose a platform that was best suited to their needs. The TARAS card’s standardized communication protocol meant that all the devices developed using the card could be interconnected easily to form a system resulting in increased flexibility.

Conclusion:

The TARAS card’s ability to offer digital energy metering in a plug-in card allows energy management hardware to be developed quickly reducing development cost as well as manufacturing cost.