General Description; A3 Alpha Meter Circuit Board - Elster A3 ALPHA Product Manual

A3 ALPHA Meter/Collector
July 2004

General Description

A3 ALPHA Meter Circuit
Board
Product Guide
The A3 ALPHA meter/collector is the component of the EnergyAxis
that provides the interface between the Metering Automation Server (MAS) and
™
the local network of REX
communicates with the A3 ALPHA meter/collector using a standard telephone
line. The A3 ALPHA meter/collector then communicates with its registered REX
meters using a 2-way 900 MHz radio frequency network. The primary task of
the internal LAN controller (ILC1) option board is to maintain the local area net-
work (LAN) and read and store billing data from REX meters. The A3 ALPHA
meter/collector is responsible for various activities within the network of REX
meters, including the following:
reading and storing the billing data from each REX meter on a periodic
■
basis
reading and storing the load profiling data from a configurable number
■
of REX meters on a periodic basis
notifying the REX meters to perform demand resets based on a sched-
■
ule from MAS
reading and storing the previous billing period data from REX meters
■
after a demand reset has occurred
notifying the REX meters to perform season changes based on a
■
schedule from MAS
reading and storing the previous season data from REX meters after
■
season changes have occurred
synchronizing the REX meters to the system time and TOU day type
■
distributing TOU rate schedules and associated display lists to the REX
■
meters
reading or sending commands to an individual REX meter on request
■
from MAS
performing other network maintenance tasks
■
reporting the billing and load profiling data back to MAS
■
The A3 ALPHA meter builds upon the strengths of the existing ALPHA meter
designs. Like its predecessors, the A3 ALPHA meter uses Elster Electricity's
patented digital measurement techniques that offer high accuracy, repeatability,
and low ownership costs. In support of open architecture standards, the
A3 ALPHA meter is the first Elster Electricity meter to fully support ANSI C12.18,
C12.19, and C12.21 standards.
To function as a collector, an A3 ALPHA meter requires the following two option
boards:
internal telephone modem (ITM3) with optional outage reporting capa-
■
bilities
internal LAN controller (ILC1)
■
The ITM3 option board connects to the A3 ALPHA meter using the 20-pin
header (J4) on the meter circuit board as shown in Figure 1. The ILC1 option
board connects to the ITM3 option board using the 20-pin header (J5) as shown
in Figure 1.
The antenna for the ILC1 option board mounts directly onto the electronic hous-
ing (see Figure 2) and fits completely under the cover of the A3 ALPHA meter.
meters that are registered to the meter/collector. MAS
A3 ALPHA Meter/Collector
Product Guide
®
System
1