Intrinsic safety type sensor with low power consumption
By designing low-power intrinsic safety sensors and using the MCU processor to periodically control the power supply of the signal acquisition module, the problem of shortening the service life of sensor batteries in the mine environment is solved, and efficient energy management and safe production are achieved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202421286720.4
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Utility models(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2024-06-06
- Publication Date
- 2025-05-13
- Estimated Expiration
- 2034-06-06
AI Technical Summary
The mine environment is harsh and traditional wired intrinsic safety sensors have difficulty in wiring, which leads to shortening the battery life of wireless intrinsic safety sensors when meeting the response time requirements, increasing the workload of replacing sensors, affecting production demand.
Design a low-power intrinsic safety sensor, including a power supply module, a switch control module, a signal acquisition module and an MCU processor, periodically output control signals through the MCU processor, control the switch control module to open/close, turn on or off the connection between the signal acquisition module and the power module, realize the periodic power supply of the signal acquisition module and reduce energy consumption.
While meeting the response time performance indicators, periodically power supply collects environmental information, reduces energy consumption by at least 80%, extends the normal working standby time of the sensor, reduces the workload of maintenance personnel replacement, and improves safety and production efficiency.
Smart Images
Figure CN222866637U_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of intrinsically safe sensors, in particular to a low-power intrinsically safe sensor and a method for reducing the power consumption of the intrinsically safe sensor. Background Art
[0002] The statements in this section only provide background information related to the present disclosure, and these statements may constitute prior art. In the process of implementing the present utility model, the inventor found that there are at least the following problems in the prior art.
[0003] The working environment in the mine is harsh and explosive, so a variety of mine intrinsically safe sensors are needed to monitor the environment. Intrinsic safety is the abbreviation of intrinsically safe type. In the coal mining industry, intrinsic safety is also called intrinsically safe type. It is a safe explosion-proof type. Intrinsic safety products cannot cause flammable and explosive gas explosions in the surrounding environment regardless of internal short circuit or open circuit. That's why it's called intrinsically safe type.
[0004] Due to the difficulty of underground wiring, wireless intrinsically safe sensors have been used to replace the original wired transmission in recent years. In order to ensure safe production in mines, a wide variety of sensors are deployed underground, such as mine intrinsically safe wireless sensors that monitor environmental methane concentration, temperature, pressure, oxygen content, smoke, etc. These intrinsically safe wireless sensors are powered by batteries. In order to extend the battery life and reduce the frequency of sensor replacement, low-power intrinsically safe sensors have become a research focus. Summary of the invention
[0005] In order to meet the response time requirements of coal mine product standards, the intrinsically safe sensors underground need to continuously power the signal acquisition module and collect data. This will increase the power demand of the intrinsically safe sensors, shorten the battery life, increase the workload of replacing intrinsically safe sensors, etc., which is not conducive to production needs.
[0006] In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the utility model provides a low-power intrinsically safe sensor, including a power module, a switch control module, a signal acquisition module and an MCU processor; the power module is connected to the switch control module, and then the signal acquisition module is connected in series, the output end of the signal acquisition module is connected to the data input end of the MCU processor, the control signal output end of the MCU processor is connected to the switch control module, and the switch control module is controlled to open / close according to the control signal output by the MCU processor, thereby connecting or disconnecting the connection between the signal acquisition module and the power module.
[0007] Furthermore, the MCU processor periodically outputs a control signal, and the period length is a wake-up period t1.
[0008] On the basis of the above scheme, some embodiments of the present invention further include an external serial port device, which is connected to the serial port of the MCU processor.
[0009] Specifically, the external serial port device periodically outputs a command for collecting environmental information to the MCU processor, and the period length is the wake-up period t1.
[0010] In some embodiments of the present invention, the wake-up period t1 is half of the sensor response time t2.
[0011] In the above scheme, the signal acquisition module includes one or more of a methane concentration acquisition module, a carbon monoxide concentration acquisition module, and a dust concentration acquisition module.
[0012] While ensuring that the sensor meets the response time performance indicators, this solution periodically supplies power to the signal acquisition module to collect environmental information, thereby avoiding the signal acquisition module from working for a long time and reducing energy consumption by at least 80%.
[0013] If this solution is used on intrinsically safe powered sensors, it can greatly increase the load distance of the intrinsically safe power supply under the condition of the same terminal detection amount. There is no need to add a relay power box in the middle of the lane, which reduces the customer's high-voltage AC cable laying cost and workload (the power box needs to be connected to AC power), thereby improving safety.
[0014] If this solution is used on battery-powered wireless sensors, under the condition of the same battery capacity, it can greatly increase the normal working standby time of the wireless sensors and reduce the replacement workload of maintenance personnel. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] Figure 1 This is a principle block diagram of the utility model;
[0016] Figure 2 This is a graph showing the relationship between time and concentration after an event occurs. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] like Figure 1 As shown, the utility model provides two low-power intrinsically safe sensors.
[0018] Embodiment 1, a low-power intrinsically safe sensor, includes a power module 1, a switch control module 2, a signal acquisition module 3 and an MCU processor 4; the power module 1 is connected to the switch control module 2, and then the signal acquisition module 3 is connected in series, the output end of the signal acquisition module 3 is connected to the data input end of the MCU processor 4, the control signal output end of the MCU processor 4 is connected to the switch control module 2, and the switch control module 2 is controlled to open / close according to the control signal output by the MCU processor 4, thereby connecting or disconnecting the connection between the signal acquisition module 3 and the power module 1; the MCU processor 4 periodically outputs a control signal, and its period length is the wake-up period t1.
[0019] The wake-up period t1 is half of the sensor response time t2.
[0020] The signal acquisition module 3 includes one or more of a methane concentration acquisition module, a carbon monoxide concentration acquisition module, and a dust concentration acquisition module.
[0021] After the MCU internal timer reaches the set wake-up cycle t1, the MCU processor controls the switch control module to turn on the power supply of the signal acquisition module. After the signal acquisition module is powered on, the currently collected environmental information is fed back to the MCU processor. After the MCU processor obtains the current environmental information, it actively transmits the data to the outside through the serial port; at the same time, the software judgment is performed. If the environmental information is normal, the MCU processor allows the switch control module to turn off the power supply of the signal acquisition module to reduce power consumption. If the environmental information is abnormal, the MCU processor allows the switch control module to turn on the power supply of the signal acquisition module and continuously sample the current environmental information.
[0022] Embodiment 2, a low-power intrinsically safe sensor, including a power module 1, a switch control module 2, a signal acquisition module 3, an MCU processor 4 and an external serial port device 5; the power module 1 is connected to the switch control module 2, and then the signal acquisition module 3 is connected in series, the output end of the signal acquisition module 3 is connected to the data input end of the MCU processor 4, the control signal output end of the MCU processor 4 is connected to the switch control module 2, and the external serial port device 5 is connected to the serial port of the MCU processor 4. The external serial port device 5 periodically outputs a command for collecting environmental information to the MCU processor 4, and its cycle duration is the wake-up cycle t1. The MCU processor 4 uses this output control signal to control the switch control module 2 to open / close, thereby connecting or disconnecting the connection between the signal acquisition module 3 and the power module 1.
[0023] The wake-up period t1 is half of the sensor response time t2.
[0024] The signal acquisition module 3 includes one or more of a methane concentration acquisition module, a carbon monoxide concentration acquisition module, and a dust concentration acquisition module.
[0025] The external serial port device 5 can be the host part of the sensor or a superior device.
[0026] After the external serial port device reaches the wake-up cycle t1, it sends a command to collect environmental information to the MCU processor. After the MCU processor receives the data demand of the external serial port device, the MCU processor controls the switch control module to turn on the power supply of the signal acquisition module. After the signal acquisition module is powered on, the currently collected environmental information is fed back to the MCU processor. After the MCU processor obtains the current environmental information, it transmits the data to the external serial port device through the serial port; at the same time, software judgment is performed. If the environmental information is normal, the MCU processor allows the switch control module to turn off the power supply of the signal acquisition module to reduce power consumption. If the environmental information is abnormal, the MCU processor allows the switch control module to turn on the power supply of the signal acquisition module and continuously sample the current environmental information.
[0027] The software judgment and other processing in the above-mentioned MCU processor can be implemented by conventional means in the prior art, which is not the creativity of the present utility model.
[0028] like Figure 2 As shown in the figure, the relationship between the time after the event and the increase in concentration is expressed in the form of a coordinate axis. The event refers to the sudden appearance of quantifiable abnormal conditions in the environment, such as the sudden appearance of methane in the environment. Figure 2 That is, the relationship between the methane concentration in the environment and time. Since it takes some time for environmental information (such as methane concentration) to change from the beginning (coordinate zero point) to the alarm threshold c2 measured by the sensor response time t2, as long as the wake-up cycle is selected properly to ensure that the intermediate number of environmental changes can be collected, the power consumption of the probe can be reduced. The wake-up cycle is related to the requirements of different sensor product standards and different sensor types. The longer the wake-up cycle, the more energy consumption is saved. Among them, the sensor response time is a fixed value required by the sensor standard. According to different types of sensors, their response time is known as t2 according to product standard requirements.
[0029] The sensor internal timer / external serial port wake-up period is t1, which is generally about half of t2. The value can be determined based on the importance of the environmental parameter type and the sensor element response characteristics. The importance and response characteristics are inversely proportional to the wake-up period.
[0030] Set the abnormal threshold c1, which is between the value in the normal environment and the dangerous value c3, slightly higher than the normal environment value and much lower than the dangerous value c3. The purpose of setting the abnormal threshold is to control the switch control module to turn on / or off the power supply of the signal acquisition module by comparing the detection value with this threshold after the wake-up detection. If the current value is less than this threshold (normal situation), the power supply of the signal acquisition module is turned off; if the current value is greater than this threshold (abnormal situation), the power supply of the signal acquisition module is turned on for continuous sampling.
Claims
1. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor, characterized in that: The invention comprises a power module (1), a switch control module (2), a signal acquisition module (3) and an MCU processor (4); the power module (1) is connected to the switch control module (2), and then the signal acquisition module (3) is connected in series; the output end of the signal acquisition module (3) is connected to the data input end of the MCU processor (4); the control signal output end of the MCU processor (4) is connected to the switch control module (2); the switch control module (2) is controlled to open / close according to the control signal output by the MCU processor (4), thereby connecting or disconnecting the signal acquisition module (3) and the power module (1).
2. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor according to claim 1, characterized in that: The MCU processor (4) periodically outputs a control signal, the period length of which is a wake-up period t1.
3. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes an external serial port device (5), wherein the external serial port device (5) is connected to the serial port of the MCU processor (4).
4. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor according to claim 3, characterized in that: The external serial port device (5) periodically outputs a command for collecting environmental information to the MCU processor (4), and the period duration is a wake-up period t1.
5. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor according to claim 2 or 4, characterized in that: The wake-up period t1 is half of the sensor response time t2.
6. A low-power intrinsically safe sensor according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The signal acquisition module (3) comprises one or more of a methane concentration acquisition module, a carbon monoxide concentration acquisition module, and a dust concentration acquisition module.