henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) (05/27/90)
I received this letter in the mail today:
Dear Henry Mensch:
In the next two weeks, Boston Gas Company will be in your neighborhood
to install a new meter reading system. This new system will enable us
to read your meter accurately on a monthly basis without the necessity
of a meter reader entering your home.
A Boston Gas service representative will be at your home to install a
new, specially-equipped gas meter. The inconvenience to you will be
minimal, the meter change will take about twenty-five minutes and will
be performed at no charge to you. We will then be able to read your
meter accurately by radio signal from a computer equipped van as we
drive down your street.
Once the new meter reading system is installed, you will soon begin to
receive your monthly bills based on actual, not estimated, readings.
without the inconveniences associated with conventional meter reading.
We are very excited about this meter reading system and believe that
it will continue to improve our service to you. We appreciate your
cooperation.
Sincerely,
Domenic A. Barbero, Jr.
Manager
Customer Activities
(n.b. -- All capitalization in the letter is mine; the letter was
computer-generated and printed in upper case).
Now, aside from not including very many details of this new system
(does it continuously broadcast use? If not, then how does it know to
broadcast? how is the signal encoded? ...), one wonders what gives
boston gas company the idea that I want them to install a radio
transmitter in my home.
# Henry Mensch / <henry@garp.mit.edu> / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA
# <hmensch@uk.ac.nsfnet-relay> / <henry@tts.lth.se> / <mensch@munnari.oz.au>roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) (05/28/90)
In <8329@accuvax.nwu.edu> henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) writes: > We will then be able to read your meter accurately by radio signal > from a computer equipped van as we drive down your street. Sounds like the Cat Detector Van from the Ministry of Housing! Anyway, I can't help with Henry's question, but have one of my own on a similar subject. A few (ten?) years ago, Hackensack Water Company installed an automated meter reading gizmo on my parents' water meter (and a new meter, equipped for said gizmo). There is a cable running from the meter to a plastic box around 6" x 9" x 2" (about big enough to be a late 1970's line-powered 1200 bps modem, I guess) and some quad cable from there to Tip/Ring on the phone entrance block. Anybody know exactly how this works? Either it is programmed to place a local call in the middle of the night to some data-collection number, or maybe HWCo has permission from NJBell to run some sort of data-over-voice carrier on top of their wires? Anybody know for sure? What would be more interesting if there was some sort of standardized meter-to-recorder interface which all the various utilities used. Then you could design a multi-port version of the box described above and the water, gas, and electric meters could all plug into it. Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy "Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"
dwj@uunet.uu.net (Dan Johnson) (05/30/90)
In Volume 10, Issue 391, Message 5 of 12 roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: > Sounds like the Cat Detector Van from the Ministry of Housing! There are two things that I would like to point out about this. First, the Cat Detector Van was actually from the Ministry of Housinge (it was spelled that way on the van). Second, the UK really does have TV detector vans which are used to find people using TV sets without a license. This earned a passing mention in RISKS DIGEST 9.94 (the licenses, not the vans). Daniel W. Johnson Applied Computing Devices, Inc. UUCP: ...!uunet!acd4!dwj Earth: 39 25 02 N / 87 19 55 W (approx.) ARPA: acd4!dwj@uunet.uu.net Compu$erve: 71520,367
bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu (Jon Baker) (05/30/90)
In article <8341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: > A few (ten?) years ago, Hackensack Water Company installed an > automated meter reading gizmo on my parents' water meter (and a new > meter, equipped for said gizmo). There is a cable running from the > meter to a plastic box around 6" x 9" x 2" (about big enough to be a > late 1970's line-powered 1200 bps modem, I guess) and some quad cable > from there to Tip/Ring on the phone entrance block. Anybody know > exactly how this works? Either it is programmed to place a local call > in the middle of the night to some data-collection number, or maybe > HWCo has permission from NJBell to run some sort of data-over-voice > carrier on top of their wires? Anybody know for sure? The utility runs a special trunk to the CO. The trunk is siezed, and the utility's equipment sends tones to the CO indicating which subscriber line it wishes to connect to. The CO pulls a path from the utility's special trunk to the subscriber's line. Note - the line is not rung; a path is just built. The utility sends some tones to the 'box' at the customer's premise, activating it and requesting the current reading. The box sends some tones back indicating the current reading. If the subscriber goes off-hook, or if a call is placed to the subscriber, while this is going on, the connection is immediately aborted. Pretty nifty, huh?
Peter Weiss <PMW1@psuvm.psu.edu> (05/30/90)
In article <8397@accuvax.nwu.edu>, asuvax!gtephx!mothra!bakerj@ ncar.ucar.edu (Jon Baker) says: >In article <8341@accuvax.nwu.edu>, roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) >writes: >The utility runs a special trunk to the CO. The trunk is siezed, and >the utility's equipment sends tones to the CO indicating which >subscriber line it wishes to connect to. Does this mean they only install this stuff at dwellings that have telephone circuits installed? Are there any implications on what kind of circuits? What happens if a data call is in progress? If measured service, who foots the cost of the call? Is there an implied theft of (telephone) service from the subscriber's point of view? What does the FCC & PUC think of all this? If this is saving the utility money, will it be reflected back into the rates? I guess these are rhetorical questions since I don't really want to start a flame war. /Pete
James Blocker <blocker%rebel.@sun.com> (05/31/90)
In message <8329@accuvax.nwu.edu> (Volume 10, Issue 390, Message 6 of 7), henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) writes: [form letter from gas company describing new remotely read meters deleted] >Now, aside from not including very many details of this new system >(does it continuously broadcast use? If not, then how does it know to >broadcast? how is the signal encoded? ...), one wonders what gives >boston gas company the idea that I want them to install a radio >transmitter in my home. This sounds very much like a system that I saw a presentation on sometime in the mid-70's. I don't remember a lot of the details, but this should answer at least some of your questions. This particular remote meter reading system had two antennas, a varactor (frequency) tripler, and some circuitry to fetch the current meter reading (be it cu. ft. of gas, gallons of water, kwh, or whatever). The system worked by having a van drive down an alley or street transmitting a continuous carrier on a given frequency (say 450 MHz). This RF energy was received through the first antenna (your receiving antenna) and tripled up to your transmitting frequency (say 1350 MHz) by the varactor tripler. The associated meter reading circuitry sensed the presence of RF (I believe it was even powered by the received RF energy) and modulated the transmitter with your meter information by keying the output of the tripler on and off at a certain bit rate. A serial number and checksum was also included as part of this transmission to guard against false readings. The van then would have a receiver operating at three times its transmitting frequency, demodulate your transmission and feed that into a computer (possibly through a serial port) for storage of the meter reading. What I thought was so slick about this system was that it was mostly passive from the customer's (your) standpoint. No external power was required, since it was powered off of received RF and it did not transmit unless a carrier of the proper frequency and adequate strength was in the vicinity. Unfortunately, I am very hazy on the details as far as the actual frequencies involved and the data format. After your new "remote reading" meter is installed, I'd be interested in hearing what it actually looks like and if it is close to the system I have described. Jim Blocker (KF5IW) Currently working at, but not representing, Rockwell International ..!texbell!texsun!digi!fozzy!phoenix!blocker
nigel.allen@f438.n250.z1.fidonet.org (05/31/90)
roy@phri.nyu.edu quotes Monty Python's Flying Circus:
>Sounds like the Cat Detector Van from the Ministry of Housing!
In Britain, at least at the time the Cat Detector Van sketch was
written, the operations of the British Broadcasting Corporation were
supported, at least in part, by a license fee imposed on television
sets and possibly on radios as well. Any broadcasting receiver is
also a crude transmitter, and a mobile detection device (in a van)
could locate television or radio receivers, and get very nasty if a
tax officials found a television set for which no license fee had been
paid.
I've never seen a television or radio detector van, but I think they
must have existed at one point. The cat detector van that could
pinpoint a purr at fifty yards was purely a creation of the Monty
Python troupe's fertile imagination, but you can see that a British
audience would have recognized the allusions to collecting television
license fees.
A long time ago, there were annual license fees on radios in Canada,
and perhaps even on television sets in the early days, but they were
abolished years and years ago. Now, grants to the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation come out of the federal government's general
revenues.
Nigel Allen Telephone (416) 535-8916
52 Manchester Avenue Fax (416) 978-7552
Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3 nigel.allen@f438.n250.z1.fidonet.org
Canada
MaS Relayer v1.00.00
Message gatewayed by MaS Network Software and Consulting/HST
Internet: nigel.allen@f438.n250.z1.fidonet.org
UUCP: ...tmsoft!masnet!f438.n250.z1.fidonet.org!nigel.allenbakerj@ncar.ucar.edu (Jon Baker) (06/02/90)
In article <8436@accuvax.nwu.edu>, PMW1@psuvm.psu.edu (Peter Weiss) writes: > Does this mean they only install this stuff at dwellings that have > telephone circuits installed? I would presume so. > Are there any implications on what kind of circuits? Might not work with multi-party, but with most other common residential connections it should work. Wouldn't work on a pure data line. > What happens if a data call is in progress? A call is a call. If the line is siezed, the metering is aborted. If you have a data line (as opposed to voice line transmitting voice-band data), I doubt this system would work. > If measured service, who foots the cost of the call? The utility, of course. It is a service provided to the utility by the telco. The telco allows the utility to use their facilities for a fee. > Is there an implied theft of (telephone) service from the subscriber's > point of view? Why? If you go off-hook during the metering process, the metering is aborted. There is no denial of service at any time to the subscriber. > What does the FCC & PUC think of all this? Ask 'em. Since it's been going on for a while, I doubt they object. The line up to your house is telco property, after all. > If this is saving the utility money, will it be reflected back into > the rates? Are you kidding? Why should it? > I guess these are rhetorical questions since I don't really want to > start a flame war. No one does ...
Jim Anderson <jim@aob.aob.mn.org> (06/04/90)
In article <8329@accuvax.nwu.edu> henry@garp.mit.edu writes: >In the next two weeks, Boston Gas Company will be in your neighborhood >to install a new meter reading system. ... >We will then be able to read your meter accurately by radio signal >from a computer equipped van as we drive down your street. ... >Now, aside from not including very many details of this new system >(does it continuously broadcast use? If not, then how does it know to >broadcast? how is the signal encoded? ...), one wonders what gives >boston gas company the idea that I want them to install a radio >transmitter in my home. I had a tour of E. F. Johnson in Waseca, MN a few weeks ago, and they showed me their product that does this. Apparently, E. F. Johnson is one of the major players in this market. The gentleman giving the tour described how this works. Basically, the meter is built on a SMD style board, with a single large chip, a few peripheral components, an antenna, and a lithium battery. The electronics track usage, and listen on the antenna for a trigger signal. This signal is given by a truck with a transmit/receive antenna. When it hears this signal, it transmits its preprogrammed ID, and the current meter reading, then goes back to standby mode. As far as the signal encoding goes, it probably is a relatively unsophisticated code, as the transmission is only a burst transmission and (my opinion) should only contain the current meter reading, not the usage since the previous reading. I hope this explains how this device works. My understanding is that the electric companies, gas companies, and other utility companies are REAL excited about this meter. Jim Anderson (612) 636-2869 Anderson O'Brien, Inc New mail:jim@aob.mn.org 2575 N. Fairview Ave. Old mail:{rutgers,amdahl}!bungia!aob!jim St. Paul, MN 55113 Lucifer designed MS-DOS to try men's souls.
Leonard P Levine <len@csd4.csd.uwm.edu> (06/06/90)
From article <8654@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by jim@aob.aob.mn.org (Jim Anderson): > As far as the signal encoding goes, it probably is a relatively > unsophisticated code, as the transmission is only a burst transmission > and (my opinion) should only contain the current meter reading, not > the usage since the previous reading. I had an interesting experience with a simpler meter some years ago. The system was a municipal (shorewood Wisconsin) water meter with a repeater outside the house so that the meter reader needed only read the repeater without going into the basement. The repeater failed over a period of years, missing ticks, and finally quit. I was asked to allow the city to replace the repeater. They did, and brought the readings up to date. Later I was billed for about ten years missed water service billings. As I recall, the bill was for more than $200.00. Some discussion with the village manager convinced him that not all of the water had been used this year, and that rates earlier did not include sewer service. We negotiated a price. With gas meters the same alarming thing may happen. What is worse, the numbers will be an order of magnitude larger. Be very wary to see that the REAL meter is read when you purchase a house, not just the repeater, whatever the technological type. | Leonard P. Levine e-mail len@cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 |