Ultrasonic for accuracy

Texas Instruments has launched a family of MSP430 MCUs with an integrated ultrasonic sensing analogue front end. According to the company, the devices will enable smart water meters to deliver higher accuracy and lower power consumption.

Shailesh Thakurdesai, marketing manager for embedded connectivity, said the device was the first SoC for ultrasonic water metering. “Along with a high speed A/D converter, it has new algorithms to give accurate and precise measurement.” He noted the part consumes 3µA when making one measurement a second and claimed flow rates of less than 1litre/hr can be detected.

Alongside an MSP430 CPU running at 16MHz, the MSP430FR6047 features 256kbyte of FRAM, an LCD driver and a metering test interface.

In addition, TI has launched two reference designs intended to help companies to add automated meter reading capabilities to existing mechanical water meters.

One, featuring the CC1350 wireless MCU, allows dual band wireless comms, while the other, based on the CC1310 wireless MCU, supports wireless M-Bus comms in the 868MHz band.