Talking about how to make a smart water meter

Each Huiyi intelligent water meter must be based on GB/T778.1 ~ 3-1996 "Cold Water Meter", JJG162-85 "Water Meter and Test Equipment", CJ3064-1997 "residential drinking water meter safety The requirements of the National Standards and related product standards such as the “Regulations” have undergone rigorous testing, and many inspection items require far higher than the national standard.

So what is a smart meter? Intelligent water meter is installed on the ordinary water meter valve, electronic module, counter, battery. The intelligent water meter developed by Huaxu Technology Co., Ltd. has small size, light weight, low power consumption, high precision, strong anti-interference, high integration, good reliability, easy installation and use, and realizes data acquisition, processing, and display. Save and automatic control features. Electronic products We all know that its reliability is far lower than that of mechanical products, because many quality factors of microelectronics are invisible to us, and the combination of these devices will change. Therefore, if the increased number of valves and electronic devices is handled badly, it is the root cause of product quality problems.

The use of smart water meters is a direction for the Water Department to manage thousands of users. The development of the times and scientific development, and the adoption of high-tech products is an inevitable trend. Then, as a manufacturer how to reduce product quality problems to a minimum? This is a major issue for the modern smart meter industry. Zero defects are not possible for smart meters. At least in the high-tech industry that started soon, they do not have such production and control capabilities. No one company dares to say that my smart meter is zero-defective and its quality is 100%. However, in the daily life, if users have frequent water quality problems due to frequent use of smart water meters, which can affect daily life, it is not hard to imagine how terrible things are.

How to solve the reliability and stability of smart meter quality? First, the product structure design principle must follow the mechanical principle and the electronic principle, and the mechanical principle should be allowed by the electronic principle or tolerance of the electronic parameters.

Why does the movement used by ordinary water meters have not been improved yet? The key point is that the movement technology is in line with the principles of fluid mechanics design. Therefore, no one has completely improved the design of the movement. The valves added to the smart water meter have various structural designs. The Huaxu smart water meter uses a ceramic valve with obvious advantages, and overcomes the biggest weakness of the ceramic valve by adjusting the material to ensure that it will not be easily damaged by strong vibration and impact. This will increase the friction coefficient slightly, but it is insignificant for the ceramic valve that changes the material. Although the power consumption is increased, the power consumption is still much lower than the ball valve.

The first thing that electronic circuits and programs need to follow is the requirements set by industry standards. The function should be as long as it satisfies the needs of use, because the more functions the electronic products have, the more possibilities there are.

It is very important to choose the appropriate chip in the circuit, the capacity is too large to waste the space of the chip, the capacity is too small will cause the programming to appear the forced pressure beam, thus influence the function of the whole product. The static maintenance voltage of the chip is also a key issue related to product quality.

A well-designed circuit should be concise, various functions meet the requirements of industry standards, and the static power consumption is less than 3uA. It should automatically enter into hibernation when not in use. Now the electronic circuits of various manufacturers should basically meet the requirements of industry standards. The key is the level of quiescent current of the chip and the designed circuit.

We can calculate the quiescent current energy consumed by the smart meter's circuit for six years:

Quiescent current 5uA#times;24 hours #times;30 days #times;12 months #times;6 years =25.92mA

Display current 20uA#times;24 hours #times;30 days #times;12 months #times;6 years =103.68mA

Here we do not seem to feel that the electric energy is too large, but only 1.8A for the electric energy. H's battery is not a small energy concept. Because the battery is used late, its internal resistance increases, power consumption also increases, plus the battery has self-discharge energy. The circuit also has sensor power consumption, valve switch power consumption, credit card communication power consumption, circuit board capacitance charging Power consumption, power consumption and other factors to solve the voltage lag problem. The battery's total capacity is 1.8A. h does not mean that you can use so much energy, generally using the best battery is 80% of the battery capacity. After a preliminary calculation of the quiescent current of a module below 3uA, about 970mA of total power consumption is needed for 6 years (the calculated value of the current for valve opening and closing is 80mA/9s). This is only a calculated value, without any inestimable issues.

If the quiescent current exceeds 3uA, then communication is designed to use interrupted time to scan to monitor the user's card swiping; while the valve uses a ball valve, then the current is not 80mA, because the current ball valve has a variety of unpredictable problems. Generally in the state of pressure (0.4 MPa) in the water pipe network, the opening and closing of the valve usually requires more than 90 mA. If the concentricity between the valve's drive rod and the driven rod deviates, then the current is not in the milliampere range, and it is likely to be in the amperage class.

The poor life of the battery is now short, some only for one year, and some use two years without electricity. The generation of these problems may be attributed to the quality of the battery, and a large part is due to the defects in the design structure and the manufacturing process itself. In response to the widespread problem of this smart water meter, Huaxu has optimized its own products in two directions. On the one hand, the domestically produced lithium batteries with relatively low prices are all replaced with the imported lithium batteries on the one hand; on the other hand, the module hardware and The software was further upgraded from the original 3.6V rated operating voltage to the current 3V. Greatly improved the service life of smart water meters.

Because the module is installed on the water meter, its environment is not very good, one is wet, and the other is the installation position. In some areas, the smart water meter is directly installed outdoors. For electronic devices is a very severe test. First of all, Huaxu smart water meter module has a good set of pre-drying and surface treatment methods. The surface treatment is to protect the electronic devices to minimize the impact of the harsh environment on the module, and then install the module has a good seal protection. Through multiple protective measures modules can resist the erosion of wet, harsh environments.

In addition to the module is the protection of the battery, the power supply is the source of power for the smart meter, so the battery life in harsh environments up to 6 years, there is no extremely reliable protection is difficult to achieve. The battery is mainly used to prevent the condensation of water at high and low temperatures, and the battery will reduce the service life in a long-term environment of water-condensation. The protection of the battery adopts the mechanical seal method, and the sealant is not selected as far as possible to seal, because the improper use of the sealant can be counterproductive.

Transportation is the only way our products are delivered to users. Transportation involves vibration and handling on the road. When I was on a business trip, I saw at the loading and unloading site how the product was unloaded. The product is from a height of about 3 meters, was thrown down by the loading and unloading personnel, the following is cement, the product is thrown down from the height of the package and broken naturally, the product is seriously hit, it is likely that the product will be scrapped so . Of course, this may be just an accidental discovery, but this phenomenon does exist in our transportation process, which is also a potential threat to the product. Some products have just been installed is a defective that will not be measured or the valve is not open or closed.

Our customer service personnel encountered such a situation, the factory product inspection is qualified, and the quality of self-confidence is very good, but after the installation is the quality of the complaint phone, I received a phone call will feel very strange, obviously factory inspection Very careful and indeed proved that the quality is good, but why did the unqualified products appear on the spot? I think it is incredible, and some people even wonder whether their products are reliable or not. Because after the transport, what kind of things will happen, like the rough handling I saw with my own eyes, or the violent long-distance vibration and bumps, the products have been hurt in the process more or less, after installation, How can there be no unexpected problems? Therefore, we also require testing and quality control at the installation site. After this check and control, the installed product should be 99% normal operation.

To solve the quality inspection problem after transportation, the rest is the installation of the product. We know that when the product is installed, it is absolutely necessary to install the operating system for the user. This operating system is completely unfamiliar to the user. If the user's technical support and short-term maintenance are neglected at this time, the end result is an operator complaint that there is a problem with the quality of the product. In fact, the root cause of the problem is that the operating personnel cannot properly operate the system and cannot normally open water for users. However, the operators did not dare to say in front of the leaders that their level of operation was not enough, and that they could only shirk their responsibility to the supplier.

If enterprises face such a phenomenon, if they are left unchecked, then it is very likely that only so many water meters can be installed in this area, and they may be replaced by other products in the future. Because the operator can correctly master the skills of selling water, he will not be in trouble. This is often the case because of the small number of lists and the fact that they are located in remote areas. It is not very convenient to come and go. Therefore, maintenance and technical support after installation are neglected. As an enterprise, this installation may be considered as an example, but behind it, users who want to use smart metering to communicate with customers in use will experience poor quality of this product. It is said that there may be intention unit to want to install, but I heard that there was no idea that there was installation of such an ending.

At present, some companies attach great importance to this piece of work. In what areas the product is installed, professional technicians and after-sales service personnel are deployed in this area, and the product quality is extended to the user's use. All sales of corporate products that do so will certainly be large and bigger and bigger. Because they have extended the product quality to the user's process. Just think: Who is the most in need of a patient? Needless to say it must be a doctor. The after-sales service staff is the doctor for the user of the product. As long as the doctor is on the side of the patient, what is the user still afraid of?

Smart meter market, China's largest? It's as simple as looking at the more complete after-sales service, then the company must do the most! Because the user needs is the care of the after-sales service personnel.