Electricity: measuring and testing – Impedance – admittance or other quantities representative of... – Lumped type parameters
Patent
1994-06-20
1997-01-21
Regan, Maura K.
Electricity: measuring and testing
Impedance, admittance or other quantities representative of...
Lumped type parameters
340564, 340660, 324678, G01R 2726, G08B 2100
Patent
active
055962815
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for measuring the output voltage on an electric fence and an apparatus for producing electric pulses in said fence, a chargeable discharge capacitor being connected over the primary winding of a transformer, to the secondary winding of which the fence is connected for receiving pulses at the discharge of the capacitor.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The voltage of pulses transmitted on a fence must be measured, i.a. because it is required by the provisions for such fences that the voltage is below a predetermined threshold, normally 2 kV.
Earlier this measurement has been done with measuring circuits arranged on the secondary side. However, as the control equipment provided for producing the pulses is located on the primary side of the transformer, this previous technique suffers from some disadvantages. It also involves difficulties to carry out the measurement on the secondary side of the transformer as the voltage is high and currents are low, which makes it difficult to power e.g. a light emitting diode, which requires a comparetivly large current.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus of the kind mentioned by way of introduction, which makes it possible to measure the output voltage of the fence from the primary side.
This object is achieved by the method according to the invention by measuring the discharge time of the discharge capacitor as a measure of the voltage of the corresponding output pulse on the electric fence.
At the apparatus according to the invention this object is achieved in that the primary winding of the transformer is divided into two oppositely connected windings and the discharge capacitor is arranged to be discharged through the first primary winding, a voltage determined by the capacitor charge being generated over the other primary winding during he discharge process, and a measuring unit being arranged to measure the duration time of this voltage, determined by the discharge of the capacitor, over the second primary winding, said time being a measure of the voltage of the output pulse on the fence.
The solution according to the invention is advatageous as a direct measurement on the discharge capacitor would require measurement at a point with a continously high voltage. Due to the large coupling inductance of the transformer there will thus be a high voltage over the first primary winding also when the secondary side is short circuited. At a large load on the fence the output voltage will decrease considerably below the unloaded voltage of the apparatus. In this range of operation the voltage will depend on the resistive load and is thus proportional to the current draw. This results in an output voltage directly related to the corresponding discharge time.
According to one preferable embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention the measuring unit is arranged to measure the length of the time during which one end of the other primary winding has a potential which is distinguishing for the discharge process.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
An embodiment of the device according to the invention, chosen as an example, will now be described with reference to the enclosed drawing, which shows a circuit diagram of a battery driven apparatus for an electric fence of the kind according to the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In the battery operated electric fence energiser, shown in FIG. 1, the battery, not shown, is intended to be connected to terminals W1 and W2. S1 is a switch for connecting and disconnecting the battery. The elctric fence apparatus is connected at terminals OUT and GND over the secondary side of a transformer T1. The primary side of the transformer T1 is divided into two windings, coupled in two opposite directions, i.e. an energy recovery winding P1 and a pulse winding P2.
A discharge capacitor C3 is connected over the pulse winding P2. During
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Alfa Laval Agriculture International AB
Regan Maura K.
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