TRANSMITTER/RECEIVER CIRCUIT PAIR FOR SIGNAL TRANSMISSION OVER POWER WIRING

Abstract: Disclosed is a system of transmitting and receiving control signals for various types of indoor devices using the existing power wiring in houses and buildings. The transmit­ ter section of the power wiring transmission system is provided with a circuit in which the output of a sine wave oscillator (1) is fed to an emitter-follower (5, 6) through a photocoupler (2) and this output is then fed to the indoor power distribution line through a series resonance circuit (8, 9) after stepping down with a transformer (8); the receiving section is provided with a circuit in which the signal from the distribution line is fed to a parallel resonance circuit after passing through a series resonance circuit. Moreover, the input and output sections of the receiver are resistor terminated.

Description: The present invention relates to a transmitter receiver circuit pair for signal transmission over power wiring. In the transmitting section of power wiring transmission, the lower the output impedance the better for effective superimposing of signals on the distribution line. However, low impedance loads must be prevented from remaining on the distribution line and carrier leakages due to the effects of high level noise (thyristor noise etc.) on the input side must also be prevented during transmission breaks. The higher the input impedance the better from the standpoint of the receiving section to prevent drops in signal level at the receiving point and also to prevent loading when a number of receiving units are connected. US 3,909,821 discloses a system for communicating over power lines the transmitter comprising a circuit in which the output of a sine wave oscillator is fed to an electronic switch and this output is then fed to a distribution line through a series resonant circuit after passing through a step-down transformer. However, typical electronic switches in such a transmitter/circuit are susceptible to noise superimposed on the distribution line which is stepped up by the transformer. According to the present invention there is provided a transmitter preciser circuit pair as claimed in claim 1. The transmitter/receiver circuit pair of the present invention alleviates the above problem of noise on the distribution line because the photocoupler isolates the base of the emitter follower. The transmitter/receiver circuit pair of the present invention has the further advantage that the filter characteristics of the resonant circuits of the receiving section are improved by the series and parallel impedance-matching resistors. Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to Figures 1 to 6 of the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 is a circuit diagram of a transmitter circuit in a transmitter/receiver circuit pair in accordance with the invention; Figures 2(a) and (b) are time charts showing examples of various types of noise; Figures 3(a) and (b) are diagrams showing alternatives to photocoupler 2 in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of the filter circuit in the receiver unit of a transmitter/receiver circuit pair in accordance with the invention; Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of the filter of Figure 4, inductance-coupled to increase the level, and Figure 6 is a block diagram showing in outline the receiving system of a transmitter/receiver circuit pair accordance with the invention. We shall first start by describing the transmitter. Figure 1 is the electrical circuit of the transmitter. The circuit includes sine wave oscillator circuit 1, photocoupler (2-directional FET type) 2, current limiting resistor 3 for the photocoupler LED, transistor 4 that controls the LED by an ON-OFF signal from the control section (microcomputer etc.), emitter-follower transistors 5 and 6 for lowering the impedance, decoupling capacitor 7, step-down transformer 8 (n:1) to further lower impedance, series resonance circuits 9 and 10 to isolate the distribution line voltage and feed the carrier to the distribution line at a low impedance, power supply 11, and high level distribution line noise suppression diodes 12 and 13. Although the output impedance of normal transistor emitter-followers (5 and 6 in the diagram) is about 15 ohm, this is not satisfactory, as the distribution line impedance is only about 2 to 5 ohm. Step-down transformer 8 is therefore inserted between the emitter-follower and the distribution line and the desired impedance obtained by setting the output impedance to 1/n² (n is the turns ratio). However, it will be necessary to generate a signal of n times the final level with the sine wave oscillator circuit for the output voltage to also be 1/n. However, it will serve no purpose even if the impedance is lowered up to stepdown transformer 8 if the impedance at the connection to the distribution line is high. For this reason capacitor 9 and coil 10 are inserted in the form of a series resonance circuit at the connection where only a capacitor is used normally. Although operation during transmission is as explained above, consideration will also be necessary for transmission breaks. As various devices are generally connected to the distribution line, various type of noise will be mixed on the line. The principal types will be thyristor noise (Fig. 2(a)) and motor brush noise (vacuum cleaners etc., Fig. 2(b)). These noise levels reach a maximum of 30V pp for thyristor and 2V pp for vacuum cleaners. These noise frequencies pass through the series resonance circuit 9, 10 and are added to the base of emitter-follower 5, 6 after being stepped up through transformer 8. However, as photocoupler 2 acts as an isolating analog switch, the emitter-follower will be in a completely isolated OFF state and will therefore not load the distribution line as its output impedance is high. Although the secondary impedance of step-down transformer 8 will be the direct load during the OFF state, there will therefore be practically no problem if a sufficiently high impedance (over 1 mH) is selected. Also, as the control of the analog switch is completely isolated from the switch, there will be no adverse effects even if there is line noise present on the base. As the switch and control parts are not completely isolated in normal analog switches (transistors FET's CMOS's etc.), in essence, carrier leakage to the distribution line will occur for OFF commands issued by the control section when the level at point A (base of emitter-follower 5, 6) becomes momentarily high or low. If point A is grounded through a resistor or capacitor in an attempt to prevent this, a low impedance load will be presented to the distribution line as emitter-follower 5, 6 will not be completely isolated. As each power wiring transmission section is normally made up of a transmitter/receiver pair, the load applied even during OFF periods of the transmitter when a large number of units are connected for an answer back service on the assumption of improved reliability is highly undesirable. This invention completely resolves these problems. Instead of the 2-way FET shown in Figure 1, photo transistors (2 sets used to obtain 2-way characteristics) connected as shown in Figure 3(a) and (b) and CDS can also be used for photocoupler 2. Photothyristors are not suitable as they are turned ON easily but require additional circuitry to turn OFF and switching speed is slow. We shall now explain the receiving section. In power wiring transmission using an AM system, data transmission is carried out by turning a special carrier frequency ON and OFF. To block the distribution line voltage and effectively remove the noise elements, the narrower the band width of the filter used the better the results. The higher the input impedance the better at the receiving point to prevent attenuation of the signal and to prevent loading when a number of receiving circuits are connected. Although a signal tuning circuit is normally used in this section, this will not be suitable here considering the foregoing problems. As shown in Figure 4, this example uses a series resonance circuit composed of capacitor C1 and coil L1 as a filter at the connection to the distribution line and a parallel resonance circuit composed of capacitor C2 and coil L2 on the load side. If the circuit within the dotted lines in Figure 4 satisfies the following conditions, it can be treated a a constant-K filter and this simplifies design. C₁L₁ =C₂L₂ The various parameters of the filter may be obtained as follows. Characteristic impedance: Z= L₁ C₂ (= L₂ C₁ ) Centre frequency: f₀= 1 2π L₁C₁ (= 1 2π L₂C₂ ) Bandwidth: Δ= Z L₁ (= 1 C₂Z ) The characteristic impedance determines the impedance at the input and output sections of the filter and can be arbitrarily selected by means of C₁, C₂, L₁ and L₂. However, if we select 1 k ohm for example to disregard the load effect, the anticipated filter characteristics will not be obtained as it will be extremely mismatched with a line impedance of only about 2 to 5 ohm. In this invention, resistors R₁ and R₂ have been inserted to match the input/out sections with the characteristic impedance. When Z₀.. distribution line impedance and also Z₀.. input impedance of the next stage (inputs to emitter-follower, MOS etc.), the following can be selected. R₁=R₂=Z₀ The receiving level in this condition will be 1/2 the level on the distribution line. If a coil with ratio 1:n is added as shown in Figure 5 to isolate the portion following the output of the filter from the distribution line and also give additional voltage gain, a receiving line of n/2 will be realized. Although R₂ may be repositioned in the secondary at this time, its equivalent value must be n²R₂. Demodulation is carried out by means of an amplifier and level detector connected after the filter. In Figure 6, 14 is the filter, 15 the amplifer and 16 the level detector.

Claims: 1. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair for power wiring transmission, the transmitting section comprising a circuit in which the output of a sine wave oscillator (1) is fed to a distribution line through a series resonant circuit (9, 10) after passing through a step-down transformer (8), wherein a photocoupler-controlled switch (2) is connected to receive and control the feeding of said output, switch control means (3, 4, ON, OFF control) being provided for supplying a switch control signal to said switch (2), wherein after having passed the photocoupler-controlled switch (2) and before being fed to the step-down transformer (8) the output of the sine wave oscillator is fed to an emitter follower (5) which is electrically isolated by the photocoupler controlled switch from the switch control means and wherein the receiving section comprises a level detector (16), an amplifier (15) and a filter circuit (14), in which the signal from the distribution line is fed to a parallel resonant circuit (L₂, C₂) to which a first resistor (R₂) is connected in parallel, after passing through a series resonant circuit (L₁, C₁) to which a second resistor (R₁) is connected in series, the resistors matching the filter (14) to the power wiring output impedance and to the amplifier (15) input impedance and the respective centre frequencies of the resonant circuits of the receiving section being substantially identical. 2. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair as claimed in claim 1, wherein the series and parallel resonant circuits of said receiving section obey the relationship: C₁L₁=C₂L₂, L₁, and L₂ being the inductances of the series and parallel resonant circuits respectively and C₁ and C₂ being the capacitances of the series and parallel resonant circuits respectively. 3. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said photocoupler (2) comprises an FET connected in series between the base of said emitter follower (5, 6) and said oscillator (1), further switching means (4) being coupled to a photodiode of said photocoupler and thereby arranged to modulate the output of said oscillator. 4. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said photocoupler (2) comprises a pair of reverse parallel connected bipolar phototransistors (PT) connected in series between said oscillator (1) and the base of said emitter follower (5, 6), respective photodiodes associated with said phototransistors being coupled to further switching means (4) which is arranged to modulate the output of said oscillator. 5. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said photocoupler (2) comprises a photosensitive resistance connected in series between said oscillator and the base of said emitter follower (5, 6), a photodiode being associated with said photosensitive resistance and connected to further switching means (4) which is arranged to modulate the output of said oscillator. 6. A transmitter/receiver circuit pair as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said parallel resonant circuit (7, 8) comprises a stepdown transformer (8), the secondary of which is connected in series with the series resonant circuit (C₁, L₁) of said receiving section.

Inventors: ISE, MASAHIRO, MACHINO, KATSUYUKI, MATSUBARA, TOSHIYUKI, TANAKA, HIDEHIKO
Applicants: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1982
Main classification: H04B3
IPC codes: H04B3