i live in the st louis, mo metro area and i see that ameren and amerenip are installing new power meters and new gas meters which will be read automatically. does anyone know what type of radio frequency these things will be operating on and how they will be read.
amerenip gas and power meters
- Thread starter kc9neq
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My local gas company has a contractor who drives around in a truck with an antenna on the roof tied into a laptop that does the AMR work.
More info here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_meter_reading
More info here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_meter_reading
Automated Meter Reading.
Ameren is using the Cell Net AMR system. Laclede gas also uses it. They use 902/928 MHz to the node which transmits on MAS freqs in the 930/950 MHz range. The nodes are small boxes usually hanging from a street light pole and have a yagi toward their master station and a pair of gain type 900 MHz antenna hanging down from the unit.
One of the benefits of this type system is during a power outage. The meters can send a "last gasp" signal saying I have no power which goes right into Ameren's system letting them home in on where the device is that failed.
Ameren is using the Cell Net AMR system. Laclede gas also uses it. They use 902/928 MHz to the node which transmits on MAS freqs in the 930/950 MHz range. The nodes are small boxes usually hanging from a street light pole and have a yagi toward their master station and a pair of gain type 900 MHz antenna hanging down from the unit.
One of the benefits of this type system is during a power outage. The meters can send a "last gasp" signal saying I have no power which goes right into Ameren's system letting them home in on where the device is that failed.
zzdiesel
Member
Our city utility here in Kennett claims to be working on a system that will talk to the meters through the overhead power lines back to the office. I can see them doing the electric meters like that but not the gas meters.
rabidmoose57
Member
Our water company here uses something called a " Respond to Querry" system. A water company worker walks down the sidewalk and points a hand held device at the top of the water meter cover. It sends a signal to the meter which responds with a data burst that has all the useage information. No way to know the frequencies involved, but the little flat patch antenna on the meter cover suggests it's 900mhz or above.
TheDeviant
Member
I'm in the Ameren area (south Jefferson Co MO), and have had one of the meters for about two years (got it when service was upgraded to 320A). We are rural, so I'm sure it helps them out on reading them.
The unit is a Landis+Gyr FOCUS with the Cellnet DSSS retrofit.
FCC ID: ROV-CLTR900M
The FCC's site has a LOT of good information that was submitted during the testing for compliance of the unit.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...=N&application_id=477604&fcc_id='ROV-CLTR900M'
Landis+Gyr has the manual at http://www.landisgyr.com/NA/Prod_PDFs/Focus Technical Manual Rev 2.5.pdf
The unit appears to transmit DSSS between 913.98 MHz and 917.58 MHz.
From what I understand, the units are designed to only send data every X seconds. It's actually pretty slick, the way they do it - they charge this cap on the transmitter board, and when its fully charged, it uses the cap's power to transmit the signal. They do this so that no one unit will chatter up the network, apparently, since no unit can continually transmit (since the transmitter has no power until the cap is charged).
There's a "currently transmitting" indicator on the unit, that will indicate when the unit is sending. Also, as mentioned previously, they do transmit 'dying gasps' to the network, and tamper alarms as well...
Reading up on this makes me want to know more, myself...
The unit is a Landis+Gyr FOCUS with the Cellnet DSSS retrofit.
FCC ID: ROV-CLTR900M
The FCC's site has a LOT of good information that was submitted during the testing for compliance of the unit.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...=N&application_id=477604&fcc_id='ROV-CLTR900M'
Landis+Gyr has the manual at http://www.landisgyr.com/NA/Prod_PDFs/Focus Technical Manual Rev 2.5.pdf
The unit appears to transmit DSSS between 913.98 MHz and 917.58 MHz.
From what I understand, the units are designed to only send data every X seconds. It's actually pretty slick, the way they do it - they charge this cap on the transmitter board, and when its fully charged, it uses the cap's power to transmit the signal. They do this so that no one unit will chatter up the network, apparently, since no unit can continually transmit (since the transmitter has no power until the cap is charged).
There's a "currently transmitting" indicator on the unit, that will indicate when the unit is sending. Also, as mentioned previously, they do transmit 'dying gasps' to the network, and tamper alarms as well...
Reading up on this makes me want to know more, myself...
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