CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Design Criteria

The methodology to be adopted in this work follows a structured

design process that requires a systematic approach with

intelligently guided computer simulations and testing.

Incremental prototyping approach will be used in the

implementation of hardware which entails the development of a

particular hardware unit on a breadboard, testing and evaluating

the performance of that unit to verify its workability before

moving on to the development of other units. After the

development of the various units, integration and further

testing will follow base on a predetermined test criteria to

ascertain the system’s workability before the final packaging.

This approach will be carried out after all the necessary circuit

designs will be done and simulated on a computer.

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Components

The following components will be used by the researcher

in the conduct of the study as stated on the objectives.

1. AT89C52 microcontroller

2. IC–ADE7756 Metering Unit

3. MAX232 IC (voltage converter circuit)

4. GSM Modem

5. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Figure 2: AT89C52 Microcontroller

AT89C52 as shown in figure 2 is an 8-bit microcontroller and

belongs to Atmel’s 8051 family. AT89C52 has 8KB of Flash

programmable and erasable read only memory (PEROM) and 256 bytes

of RAM. AT89C52 has an endurance of 1000 Write/Erase cycles

which means that it can be erased and programmed to a maximum

of 1000 times.
CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Figure 3: ADE7756 Metering Unit

The ADE7756 (figure 3) is a high-accuracy electrical power

measurement IC with a serial interface and a pulse output. It

incorporates two second-order sigma-delta ADCs, reference

circuitry, temperature sensor, and all the signal

processing required to perform active power and energy

measurement.
CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Figure 4: Max232
CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

The MAX232 (figure 4) device is a dual driver/receiver that

includes a capacitive voltage generator using four capacitors

to supply TIA/EIA-232-F voltage levels from a single 5-V supply.

Each receiver converts TIA/EIA-232-F inputs to 5-V TTL/CMOS

levels. MAX232 is proposed for application in high performance

information processing systems and control devices of wide

application. MAX232 is a Voltage converter from Maxim Corp. The

MAX232 converts from RS232 Voltage level to TTL Voltage level

and vice versa for connection between a microcontroller and

RS232 cable. They are also known as Line Drivers. One advantage

is that it uses +5V power source for 8052. The MAX232 has two

sets of Line Drivers for transferring and receiving data. The

Line Drivers used for TxD are called T1 AND T2 while the Line

Drivers for RxD are designated as R1 and R2.

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Figure 5: Sample GSM Modem

A GSM modem (Figure 5) is a specialized type of modem which

accepts a SIM card, and operates over a subscription to a mobile

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

operator, just like a mobile phone. From the mobile operator

perspective, a GSM modem looks just like a mobile phone.

When a GSM modem is connected to a computer, this allows the

computer to use the GSM modem to communicate over the mobile

network. While these GSM modems are most frequently used to

provide mobile internet connectivity, many of them can also be

used for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages.

Figure 6: Liquid crystal display (LCD)

Liquid crystal display (LCD) as shown in figure 6 is an

electronic display device that operates by applying a varying

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

electric voltage to a layer of liquid crystal, thereby inducing

changes in its optical properties. LCDs are commonly used for

portable electronic games, as viewfinders for digital cameras

and camcorders, in video projection systems, for electronic

billboards, as monitors for computers, and in flat-panel

televisions.

Hardware Design

a. Power Supply

The microcontroller and other devices get power supply from AC

to DC adapter or from direct ac lines through voltage regulator.

The adapter output voltage will be 12V DC non-regulated. The

voltage regulators are used to convert 12 V to 5V DC.

b. Metering Unit

The metering unit is responsible for measuring the amount of

load connected to the meter and forwarding it to the processing

system for the necessary computation to be done with it. It uses

a Voltage and Current Sensor connected to an Energy Metering

Unit (EMU) to measure average, active and real power. The core

of the metering unit is a metering IC–ADE7756 (Figure 3). It

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

achieves the integration of the Active Power signal by

continuously accumulating the Active Power signal in the 40-bit

Active Energy register. This discrete time accumulation or

summation is equivalent to integration in continuous time.

Equation 1 expresses the relationship.

Where n is the discrete time sample number and T is the sample

period.

The ADE7756 contains a sampled Waveform register and an Active

Energy register capable of holding at least five seconds of

accumulated power at full load. Data is read from the ADE7756

via the serial interface.

The error associated with the energy measurement made by the

ADE7756 is defined by the following formula:

The communication unit is achieved by the use of GSM Module

coupled with a Microcontroller using MAX232 to send and receive

information.
CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

c. Interfacing GSM module to the AT89C52 microcontroller

To interface the GSM modem to the AT89C52 microcontroller, it

is required that they transmit and receive pins be inversely

connected to each other through the MAX232 IC which is also a

voltage converter circuit. By inversely, it means that the RXD

pin of the microcontroller connect with the TXD pin of the GSM

module and the TXD pin of the microcontroller connect with the

RXD pin of the GSM module. Only the RXD and TXD pins are needed

to send message, to receive message, to make call and to receive

call on GSM module through the microcontroller. The

microcontroller uses AT commands to control the GSM Module.

d. Interfacing the display unit

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

The display unit to be use for the design is the Liquid Crystal

Display (LCD) (Figure 6) because of its ability to display

numbers, character, and graphics, the ease of programming for

characters and graphics and low power consumption. The hardware

design involves all the components and tools used to design the

smart energy metering System. There are five Units involved in

the hardware design stage; power supply unit, Input unit

(Metering Unit), Processing Unit, Communication Interface unit,

and Output unit. The software design of the work consists of

developing computer program for the microcontroller to implement

the desire software features and integrate the various hardware

elements. This also includes the program codes to implement and

interface the various sub-unit of the system with the units of

the project. Basically the programs are written in assemble

language and implemented on the microcontroller.

The program development is to be carried out in modules using

an algorithm. The first task is to initialize the registers and

variables to be used in the program in the microcontroller. Next

is to send metering configurations from the microcontroller to

the metering chip and GSM module, In turn, the microcontroller

fetches the energy reading from the metering chip, compute the

power value which is then displayed on the LCD, compute the

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

consumed power cost and deduct from the available credit. The

next routine is designed to perform a check on the available

credit, if available credit is less than or equal to 10, a credit

low alert is sent through the GSM module. A request can then be

sent to the microcontroller to turn ON or turn OFF load.

Research Setting

The researcher (Mr. Cadorna) will conduct the testing in his

residence at Balbagon, Mambajao, Camiguin due to the

availability of the tools and equipment’s in the construction

process as well as due to the stay at home protocol for COVID-

19 safety.

Performance Parameters

The parameters that will be taken into account to determine the

important basis involve in the subjected study are:

1. Voltage. This parameter is the measure in the power supply

of the metering device.

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

2. Current. This parameter is the measure in the average, active

and real power of the Energy Metering Unit (EMU).

3. Power. This parameter is the result product of current and

voltage determined.

The researcher will use different measuring equipment in the

actual testing such as voltmeter in measuring the terminal

voltage and the digital clamp tester in measuring the current

flowing. The researcher recognizes that along the way, equipment

other than already mentioned may be needed for the greater

success of the project.

Methods of Data Collection

In the methods of collecting data, the general plan on how to

get the data is by means of measuring equipment such as voltmeter

and clamp tester. But this will be done alongside with other

equipment for individual use in the testing of hardware design.

Since the metering system is consists of different units which

were coupled together to obtain the whole system, tests on units

independent of one another must be carried out such as the

resistance and capacitance values before circuit connections.

CAMIGUIN POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE – Institute of Engineering and Computer Studies

Proper and organized data leads to effective data presentation.

Thus, every data or results during the actual fabrication of

device will be documented and presented through tabulation form

and images whichever is more reliable.

Statistical Treatment