Overview
Power-line Communication (PLC) provides a mechanism for reusing existing electrical wiring for data communications. As these wirings are already present everywhere to power various electrical appliances, there is a huge saving on additional infrastructure.
We at Aftek realize the tremendous potential offered by PLC in home automation and security systems and have developed advanced solutions for home and building automation as well as in AMR / AMM sector.
Aftek's PLC expertise can be readily observed with our proprietary DigiHome products. We offer state of the art and highly customizable solutions for intelligent homes using PCL SoCs. Additionally, we have in-place framework for energy-saving infrastructure for intelligent street lighting, society lighting and more.
Aftek Smart Metering Solution with ADD1010 PLC SoC
Aftek has collaborated with ADD Semiconductor for the development of Smart Metering Solution. ADD Semiconductor is a world leader in the development of SoCs for communication over Powerline, Automatic Meter Management and DSP applications. Moreover, they are one of the founding members of PRIME and are involved in an ambitious international development plan for a Powerline standard.
The ADD1010 is a Power Line Communications System on Chip, which implements a full PLC node. This chip is designed to be used by meter manufactures. It provides a low cost and small size solution for AMR and AMM system using narrow band power line communications.
- PHY
- MAC
- ADD8051C3A MCU
The ADD1010 implements a full PLC node using FSK or S-FSK modulations compatible with IEC61334-5-1, IE C61334-5-2. It also includes a hardwired Medium Access Controller (ADD1210). It has been developed to reduce the CPU computational load in a PLC system, allowing the microcontroller to be used in other application tasks.
MAC functional capabilities of ADD1010 involve the construction of message packets, adding FEC (Forward Error Correcting Code) values to bytes and FCS (Frame Check Sequence) to packets. Additionally, ADD1010 MAC is compatible with EHS, KONNEX and IEC61334-4-32. However, the SoC design is versatile enough to allow users to create a wide range of datagram structures with the only constrain of FEC and FCS hardware codes. The MAC can be set in a bypass mode allowing direct connection between the microcontroller and the modem to support old FSK software that doesn't include the MAC.
The PLC modem of ADD1010 (ADD1310) can use a single power supply of 3.3V and a few external components. It supports several AFE configurations suitable for Home Automation or AMR. It can replace the traditional analog PLC modem and can use the same software libraries or a simplified version, if the hardwired MAC is used.
The MCU under the ADD1010 and ADD8051C3A supports a range of peripherals that can be used to connect the energy metering chips, segmented LCDs, UARTs, Boot Flash and more. These features make the ADD1010 an ideal proposition for Aftek's energy metering solution.
Technical key features
- Powerline carrier modem for 50 and 60Hz mains
- 8 programmable carrier frequencies from 60 to 132.5kHz
- Baudrate selectable: 600 to 4800bps
- Fully compliant to IEC61334-4-32, EHS and KONNEX
- Half Duplex
- Receiver sensitivity: Up to 44dB Vrms
- Convolutional coding, Viterbi decoding
- FEC and CRC error correction
- Enhanced 8051 core, average speed-up of 5 times
- Internal executable SRAM
- 40x4 segments LCD driver
- Auto boot-loading program from serial flash
- In-circuit serial flash programming
- Programmable watchdog timer T3
- 3x double baudrate UART
- SPI to serial flash and indepedent RTC
- Buffered SPI to external metering IC
- Software reset and Wake Up from Power Down interrupt activated
- Quadruple dimmer in/out
- Power supply 3.3V
- Pb-free and RoHS compliant
Target applications
- Smart Metering (AMR/AMM)
- Home automation
- Building automation
- Street lighting
- Society lighting
- More than 10 years of expertise in BSP development
- Debugging Tools:
- CATC USB analyzer
- USB host tester
- Smartcard analyzer
- ICD
- ICE
- Extensive expertise in development of device drivers for various interfaces and peripherals
- Fully equipped hardware design house for further performance measurement and enhancement
- Centre of excellence for BSP development for new architectures and platforms
