November 2006 -- Increasingly, solid-state, failure-resistant energy meters are replacing ageing electromechanical systems by providing consistently dependable measurement and new functions, like remote meter-reading. ADI claims its new ADE7100 and ADE7500 energy meter families include devices with intelligent battery modes that allow the meters to maintain the time, sense temperature changes, run the LCD, and perform other critical system functions, while using at least 40% less power than competitive solutions.
The installation of energy meters with LCD displays continues to accelerate globally. To address this trend, the ADE7100 and ADE7500 families integrate an LCD driver that meets industrial temperature specifications for all outdoor climate conditions. On-chip charge pumps controlled by a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) allow designers to adjust LCD contrast by setting the drive voltage up to 5.4V with a power supply of 3.3V, which ensures the display is clearly visible even as temperature ranges fluctuate between -40 to 85ºC.
The core includes active, reactive and apparent energy calculations, as well as voltage and current RMS measurements. Several power supervisory features, such as SAG detection, peak and zero crossing, are built into the core to simplify energy meter design. The devices’ microprocessor includes a single-cycle 8052 core, an RTC with full battery backup and a choice of a UART (universal asynchronous receivertransmitter), SPI (serial peripheral interface) or IC interface.
Analog Devices - www.analog.com/energymeter
