A REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEM SWITCHING SIMULATOR

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

[0001] The present invention relates to an automatic power switching system and more particularly to an automatic power system-switching simulator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The role of switches and timers are very much appreciated for controlling or switching the supply of power in any electric power driven circuit. Wrong switching may cause serious malfunction in a system dependent on the circuit. Therefore, the switching process is very critical and it requires constant supervision/ invigilation. Analog timer is one of the types of switches available in the market. The analog timer may have individual terminal for resistive, capacitive and inductive load. However, said timer is required to be handled manually. A Power System Switching Simulator (PSSS) is another type available in the market to switch and control the power supply. The power system-switching simulator may include a Programmable Interface Controller (PIC) to be programmed manually to switch the power supply. Moreover, the power system-switching simulator may have a display unit to view the running state of the simulator. However, the PSSS can only be programmed manually at the site where it is installed (ON site). It may annoy a supervisor/ invigilator to visit the site repeatedly to program and monitor the PSSS. Moreover, it may hamper the other work that the supervisor/ invigilator may be doing at that time; especially if the other work is critical. Furthermore, if the supervisor/ invigilator is not nearby, the work is required to be hand over to some other person who may not be well acquainted with the process that may result in wrong entry of data and malfunctioning of the PSSS dependent system. Therefore, a power switching system is required that can obviate the above-mentioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

[0003] An object of the present invention is to provide an efficient and effective power switching system.

[0004] Further object of the present invention is to monitor and control the power switching system remotely.

[0005] According to one embodiment of the present invention an automatic power switching system comprises a power switching system having parameters associated for its functioning, a computing system having Graphical User Interface (GUI) to monitor and input data associated to the parameters, a log file integrated to the computing system to collect and store the data and a communication channel enabling communication between the power switching system and the computing system thereby managing the power switching system remotely and effectively.

[0006] Details of the instant invention and further objects thereof will become evident as the description proceeds and from an examination of the accompanying drawings, which illustrate preferred embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

[0007] Fig 1 shows the diagrammatic representation of the automatic power switching system.

[0008] Fig 2 shows the wired communication between the power switching system and the computing system.

[0009] Fig 3 shows the wireless communication between the power switching system and the computing system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

[0010] The present invention describes in conjunction with the accompanying drawing an power switching system. The invention provides an integrated solution for monitoring, analyzing and controlling the power switching system remotely.

[0011] According to one embodiment of the present invention and as represented in figure 1 block diagram of an automatic power switching system is shown. The automatic power switching system comprises a power switching system (100), a computing system (110), a log file (120) integrated to the computing system (110) and a communication channel enabling communication between the computing system (110) and the power switching system (100) most preferably Power System-Switching Simulator (PSSS). The power switching system (100) may have number of parameters associated for it's functioning. The parameters may be monitored and controlled by the computing system (110). The computing system (110) may include Graphical User interface (GUI) to monitor and input values of the parameters. The GUI may accept message entered by an invigilator/ supervisor for setting the parameters. The message may include the values of a set of parameters defining and controlling an attribute of the power switching system (100). The message may be transmitted to the power switching system (100) through a communication channel. The communication channel may be wireless for example using modem (300 and 310) (refer fig. 3) or the communication channel may be wired using RS232 level converter (200) (refer fig. 2).

[0012] To check if the communication may be established between the power switching system (100) and the computing system (110), a character 7" may be send to the power switching system (100) if power switching system (100) returns a character "C", it may be ready for the communication and the
programming. The initialization of the programming and monitoring may be done in two different modes namely Guest login mode and Administrator login mode. Administrator login mode may provide full access to the power switching system (100) wherein any of the parameters associated to the power switching system (100) may be edited.

[0013] However, the guest login mode may have limited accessibility to the power switching system (100) wherein only few parameters are editable and the other parameters remains 'read only'. The value of the parameters may be entered or edited under a prescribed range. The prescribed range of all the parameters may be stored in the log file (120). Therefore, the wrong entry of the value of the parameter may be restricted and prohibited by the computing system (110). The computing system (110) may also collect and stores the data associated to the parameters in the log file (120). The data type and the memory location of all the parameters may be predefined. The interval of time for collecting the data in the log file (120) may be defined and the collected data may have time and date stamp.

[0014] The parameters may include options for power switching system (100) initialization which may be hardware based (PH) or software based (PS). The hardware based initialization requires to start/ initialize the power switching system (100) manually from the site whereas software initialization can be done remotely form anywhere through the computing system (110). Once the power switching system (100) is initialized, it may be ready for the programming. The programming may be done under the programming status (PS). The programming status (PS) may have option 'skip' and 'continue', 'skip' may represent non entry of data whereas 'continue' may demands data to be entered by the supervisor. The data may be for 'load on time' (LO), which represent the time for which a load (resistor, capacitor, inductor) may be in 'ON' state. For example if the 'load on time ' is 10 second, then the loads e.g. resistor, capacitor and inductor each may be in 'ON' state for 10 second respectively. It may be required to keep any two or all of the loads in the 'ON' state simultaneously, this may be done by setting 'overlap time' (OT).

[0015] It may also be required to keep the loads fluctuating/ flickering (ON and OFF alternately), this may be done by setting 'chattering count' (CC). For instance, if the 'chattering count' (CC) is set to 10 then it may indicate that the load will be in ON and OFF state alternately for 10 times. The time interval at which the fluctuations may be caused can be set by setting the value for 'chattering time interval' (CT). For example, if the 'chattering time interval' (CT) is set to 10 second, then the load will fluctuate after every 10 second. 'Sequence Selection' (SS) is another parameter to indicate the quality of fluctuation required. The 'Sequence Selection' (SS) may have options namely sequence 1 and sequence 2 wherein sequence 1 may be the worst quality sequence having constant disturbance and sequence 2 may be the least disturbing sequence. The above mentioned parameters namely the programming status (PS), Sequence Selection (SS), 'load on time' (LO), 'overlap time' (OT), 'chattering time interval' (CT) and 'chattering count' (CC) may be edited under both the guest and the administrator login mode.

[0016] The supervisor working under the administrator login mode may enquire the number of times power-switching system (100) has been programmed by 'programming count' (PC) parameter. The 'programming count' (PC) parameter is a type of counter that provides the number of times the power switching system has been programmed. The administrator login mode can also enquire the number of times power has failed while running the power switching system (100) by power failure count (PF).

[0017] The present invention therefore, provides the automatic power switching system, to monitor, control and analyze the power switching system from any site, remotely vide the computing system preferably a computer. The power switching system programmed as per requirement. All the transaction of the power switching system may be monitored and controlled from the GUI on the real time basis. The performance of the power switching system may be checked/ verified on the basis of the monitored transactions. Therefore, the invention provides a simplified and an efficient to analyze, monitor and control power switching system remotely. Moreover, said system is user-friendly and can be programmed as per requirement.

[0018] The invention provides an effective and integrated solution for automatic controlling and analyzing the power switching system especially the power system-switching simulator.

[0019] The foregoing description of the invention has been set for merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to person skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

WE CLAIM:

1.) An automatic power switching system, comprising:

a power switching system having parameters associated for its functioning;

a computing system having graphical user interface to monitor and input data associated to the parameters;

a log file integrated to the computing system to collect and store the data;
and

a communication channel enabling communication between the power switching system and the computing system wherein power switching system is remotely controlled by the computing system .

2.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said power switching system is a power system switching simulator.

3.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication is wireless.

4.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication is wired.

5.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computing system is a computer.

6.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the log file restrict and stores the range of data to be input.

7.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computing system includes an administrator login providing full access to the computing system and a guest login providing limited access to the computing system.

8.) An automatic power switching system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said parameters are load ON time, overlap time, chattering count and the like.