CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Overview of The Study

The effectiveness of this study depends on how the methodology is

implemented throughout the study.

The step by step process on how the to achieve the goals and objectives of
the researchers that is to make a device that is capable of identifying the appliance
base on the current and voltage relationship, otherwise known as phase difference
or phase angle. To achieve such goals the researchers must follow the following
steps.

1. Identifying the loads to be sampled – this section, the researchers will

select common student appliances to be sampled.
2. Prototype design – this section talks about the design of the actual
prototype how it basically works and operate.
3. Selection of materials – this section talks about what are the materials and
components needed to build the prototype.
4. Prototyping – the researchers must build the actual prototype and test it
out, if its working then the researchers will proceed to data gathering, but
if not, the researchers must head back to the design section.
5. Data Gathering – this section the researchers will gather the data that is
being produced by the working prototype and compare it to the data
provided by the load characteristics, if the system is functional and then
the prototype is subjected to final fabrication, but if the prototype is not
functional and accurate them the researchers must go back to the design.
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Figure 3.1 Step by Step Process on the Implementation the Prototype.

3.2 Load Characterization

Common appliances were selected and sampled. The following are the
common appliances:

 Netbook
 Flat iron
 Electric fan
 Study lamp
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3.3 Overview of the Phase Angle base Appliance Recognition System

The prototype that the researchers are proposing is a device that can
characterize the set of appliances to a known appliance and to unknown appliance
base on their corresponding power factor. If the device recognizes the power
factor of the appliance current and voltage will continue to be supplied to the
appliance. On the other hand, if the power factor of the appliance is not
recognized the power supplied to the appliance from the source will be cut off
automatically by the use of relays.

The overall operation of the prototype is plain and simple. As current and
voltage is supplied to a specific or set of appliances, it produces a phase difference
between voltage and current, that difference will be analyzed by the prototype and
will scan its memory for any featured appliances base on the phase difference
supplied, if the featured appliance is present on its memory the current and voltage
supply will continue to flow to the appliance, otherwise, if the power factor is not
present, the voltage and current supply will cut off automatically.

Figure 3.2 Prototype Design.

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3.4 Operation of the Prototype

The operation of the prototype device for the appliance characterization

system is a little bit complex due to the transformation of the analog signal to
digital signal. Furthermore, it involves the identification of the power factor of a
specific device being used or plugged in the prototype.

Figure 3.3 Circuit Diagram of the Prototype. .

To measure the phase difference between the voltage and current we must
first find the power factor of the appliance with the help of a microcontroller and
other components. The sinusoidal output of the current and voltage transformer is
sent to their respective zero crossing detection circuit (ZCD) which is simply an
Operational Amplifier circuit (Op-Amp) it is also known as comparator. An Ideal
comparator compares two input voltage or current and produces a logic output
signal whose value depend on which the two sinusoid is larger [7]
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Figure 3.4 Comparator Circuit.

The op-amp converts the sinusoidal signal to square waves. The reason for
the conversion of the sinusoidal signal to square waves is that the two square
waves are fed to an exclusive OR (XOR) logic gate and compare the two signals.
Since the logic gate can only read digital signals, it is required to convert the
sinusoidal signal to digital signal. The output of the XOR gate is the time
difference between two waves from the point they cross the zero point.

Figure 3.5 XOR Gate Output.

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XOR gate output will be 1 just when the inputs have different signals so
when the load is resistive XOR gate output is zero because both voltage and
current phases start and ends in the same time, but when the load is inductive or
capacitive XOR output is 1 because there is a phase shift between current and
voltage. Hence, the power factor is measured by measuring the 1 state of the XOR
gate. Once the power factor is determined, by following the formula of the power
factor cos (f ∗dt∗360). Where cos(phi) is the power factor, f is the frequency of
the measured supply, dt is the time difference between the waves and 360 is the
constant use to give an answer in degrees.

3.5 Selection of materials

Proper selection of materials for our prototype is very important so that

our prototype will function properly and accurately. The overall prototype is
composed of two parts, the power supply part and the device that will recognize
the appliance itself.

3.5.1 Power supply

The prototype will be using a regulated power supply rated at 5 volts. The
main components used in this power supply is a full bridge rectifier, filtering
capacitors and a voltage regulator rated at 5 volts with the maximum current
output of 1 ampere.

Transformer – figure 3.3 shows that the transformer that will be used on the
prototype will be the same transformer that will be used for the power supply.

The function of a transformer is to provide the appropriate ac voltage for

the rectifier and to isolate the load from the ac power line [7]. The transformer that
will be used in this project is a step-down additive transformer, 220 to 12 VAC.
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Full bridge rectifier - the function of the diode is to allow current flow in one
direction. The diode ratings must be higher than the peak forward current and
peak inverse voltage expected in the circuit. If the forward current rating of the
diode is exceeded, the diode overheats, leading to failure. [7]

A full bridge rectifier is basically a component that converts the

Alternating Current input to full wave Direct Current output. It is composed of
four diodes that is arrange in a way that it will cancel out the negative half of the
AC source and outputs only the positive half.

The diode to be used on this study for the full bridge rectifier is a 1n4002
General-Purpose rectifier diode with a peak forward current of 100 volts and peak
forwards current of 1 ampere.

Figure 3.6 Diode.

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Filtering Capacitor – to store the charge pulses that flow through the diodes. A
large capacitance discharges only slightly between current pulses. Thus, the
capacitor maintains a nearly constant output value. [7]

The capacitor will filter the ripple produced by the rectifier circuit to a
smoother DC output. The capacitor to be used is a two 4700uF capacitor and once
100uf capacitor all rated at 50 volts.

Figure 3.7 Capacitors.

Voltage regulator – a voltage regulator is the one that provides a more stable
regulated output or in this case a 5-volt DC output.

The voltage regulator to be used is a LM7805 IC Voltage regulator with

the ratings of 7 – 25 volts input voltage and outputs a voltage of 4.8 – 5.2 volts
with a maximum output current of 1.5 amps.
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Figure 3.8 LM7805 IC Voltage Regulator.

3.5.2 Transformers

Potential transformer (PT) – also known as voltage transformer, as mentioned

earlier, the transformer to be used on the power supply will be the same
transformer to be used to detect the voltage activity of the appliance connected to
the 220 VAC supply.

Figure 3.9 220 VAC to 12 VAC Step – Down Transformer.

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Current Transformer (CT) – A current transformer is design to produce an

alternating current in its secondary winding which is proportional to the current
being measured in its primary. Current transformers reduce high voltage currents
to a much lower value and provide a convenient way of safety monitoring to the
actual electrical current flow.

The current transformer will be use as monitoring device to the current

activity of the load.

Figure 3.10 5A to 5ma Single Phase Current Transformer.

3.5.3 Operational Amplifiers

An operational amplifier, or op-amp, is a very high gain differential

amplifier with high input impedance and low output impedance typical uses of the
operational amplifiers are to provide voltage amplitude changes, oscillators, filter
circuits, and many types of instrumentation circuits

The purpose of the op – amp on the prototype is to convert the sinusoidal

signal to square waves then, the two square waves are then compared using an
exclusive OR (XOR) logic gate.
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The op - amp to be used on the prototype will be a lm324 quad operational

amplifier consists of four independent, high-gain, internally frequency
compensated operational amplifiers designed to operate from a single power
supply over a wide range of voltages. Operation from split-power supplies is also
possible and the low-power supply current drain is independent of the magnitude
of the power supply voltage.

Figure 3.11 LM324 Operational Amplifier.

3.5.4 Exclusive OR Logic Gate

The XOR gate (sometimes EOR, or EXOR and pronounced as

Exclusive OR) is a digital logic gate that gives a true (1 or HIGH) output when the
number of true inputs is odd. An XOR gate implements an exclusive or; that is, a
true output results if one, and only one, of the inputs to the gate is true.

The use of the XOR gate is that it will compare the two signals that are
being produce by the two operational amplifiers and send the comparison to the
microcontroller for identification.
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Figure 3.12 CD4070 Exclusive OR Integrated Circuit.

3.5.5 Relay

Relays are switches that open and close circuits electromechanically or

electronically. Relays control one electrical circuit by opening and closing
contacts in another circuit. When a relay contact is normally open (NO), there is
an open contact when the relay is not energized. When a relay contact is Normally
Closed (NC), there is a closed contact when the relay is not energized. In either
case, applying electrical current to the contacts will change their state.

The relay will be the one to disconnect the load from the power source
automatically when the prototype will detect a foreign appliance or when a power
factor of a certain appliance is not registered to the prototype.
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Figure 3.13 One Channel 5-Volt Relay.

3.5.6 Microcontroller

Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the

ATmega328P. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used
as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz quartz crystal, a USB
connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. It contains
everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a
computer with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or
battery to get started.

This is the final component of the prototype, the Arduino will be

program with the program we developed, it will analyze the signal from
the XOR gate and displays the corresponding appliance on the LCD
display with respect to its voltage and current difference.
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Figure 3.14 Arduino Rev 3

3.6 Prototyping

The researchers were able to test the prototype starting from the
transformers up to the Arduino to check if the prototype is working as it should
be.

3.6.1 Potential Transformer Testing

Before the potential transformer was used for the prototype, the
researchers were able to test the polarity of the PT. The required polarity of the
transformer must be an additive polarity and the subtractive polarity of the
transformer is not desired because it can cause problems on detecting the power
factor of the appliance. Figure 3.15 shows the correct way to test the polarity of
the transformer

.
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Figure 3.15 Polarity Testing of a Transformer

3.6.2 Phase Difference in the Transformer

A transformer is basically an inductive load because of the presence of the

coils composing the transformer, so basically the transformer itself produces a
phase difference if the current drawn by the load is large enough, in this case the
load of the transformer was the comparator. Thus, the researchers made a test to
see if there is a phase difference present from the input of the transformer down to
the output of the transformer.

Figure 3.16 Input Voltage (yellow) VS Output Voltage of the Transformer (blue).

3.6.3 Power supply

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To make the prototype work, a proper power supply is needed to

power the entire system. In this study a 5-volt dc power supply is used as
the power supply for the IC’s and a separate power supply was used for
the Arduino Uno. The components needed to build the power supply are
the fallowing;

 220 to 12 volt step down transformer

 Diodes
 Electrolytic capacitor
 5 volts 1-amp voltage regulator
 Printed circuit board (PCB)

Figure 3.17 5-Volt Dc Supply Circuit Diagram.

3.6.4 Potential and Current Transformer Setup

The potential transformer or otherwise known as transformer must

be connected in parallel with the mains voltage to collect the voltage
waveform of the connected load.
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The current transformer is a toroidal type current transformer and

must be looped around the single wire form the mains voltage connected
to the load to collect the current waveform of the connected load.

3.6.5 Zero Crossing Detector Setup

For the ZCD setup the researchers chose LM324 as its comparator.
The LM324 series are low−cost, quad operational amplifiers with true
differential inputs. They have several distinct advantages over standard
operational amplifier types in single supply applications. The quad
amplifier can operate at supply voltages as low as 3.0 V or as high as 32
V.

The researchers were able to utilize two LM324, one for the
potential transformer and one for the current transformer. The output of
the current and potential transformer was connected to input 1 and input 2
of the lm324 and the output will then be connected to the XOR gate.

Figure 3.18 LM324 Pinouts.

3.6.6 Exclusive OR gate setup

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The output of the two comparators is now then fed to the XOR gate
and compare the two signals.

The researchers chose a 4070B CMOS XOR gate for the prototype.
The 4070B contains four independent Exclusive OR gates. The output of
the two LM324 will be connected to pins 1 and 2 and then the output at
pin 3 will be connected to the digital input 13 of the Arduino Uno
microcontroller.

Figure 3.19 4070 XOR Pinouts.

3.6.7 Incandescent Bulb test load

For the researchers to be able to check if the prototype is working

properly, a test load was used to see if the desired output is achieved. In
this study an incandescent light bulb was used to be the test load, because
of its purely resistive properties, thus, the output of the system is already
expected.
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As the test load is connected to the prototype the potential and

current transformer are able to detect the sinusoidal waveforms generated
by the test load. The sinusoidal waves are then sent to the comparator
circuit to convert the sine wave into square waves. Figure 3.20 shows the
digital waves of the test load were the yellow wave represents the voltage
and the blue wave represents current.

Figure 3.20 Digital Waves of the Test Load.

The wave form figure 3.21 is to be sent to the CMOS exclusive or gate to
combine the two digital waves and then sent to the microcontroller.
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Figure 3.21 XOR Output Test Load.

3.6.8 Arduino Uno Setup

Once the output of the XOR gate is connected to the digital input
of the microcontroller, the microcontroller must be able to translate the
input pulse from the XOR gate to its corresponding power factor, for this
to happen a series of codes were used by the researchers to achieve its
goal. Before that the researchers must be able to communicate with the
Arduino. Using a free software for the Arduino called Arduino IDE, by
this, researchers are able to communicate with the Arduino board and
send its corresponding codes to the device via USB cord.
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Figure 3.22 Arduino IDE Interface.

3.6.9 Code Setup

The following codes are used to translate the pulse from the XOR
gate to its corresponding power factor.

Figure 3.23 shows the first part of the code, which is to declare the
variables that are needed for the code
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Figure 3.23 Declaring of Variables.

Then, figure 3.24 shows the setup of the entire code.

Figure 3.24 Void Setup.

Figure 3.25 shows the void loop setup. There, the codes are looped
all throughout the program and important condition and statements are
present in this area.
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Figure 3.25 Void Loop.

Once the pulse is now converted into power factor the 16*2 LCD
display will show what is the corresponding power factor. The displayed
power factor of the appliance will now be subjected to profiling.

Figure 3.26 LCD Print.

Figure 3.27 shows the method on how to profile the power factor
of the corresponding appliance by using IF-statements. If the power factor
is present on the statement the voltage and current source will continue to
flow to the appliance, but when the power factor is now present on the
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statement the relay will automatically cut off the voltage and current
supplied to the load.

Figure 3.27 Load Profiling

3.7 Prototype Testing

To test if the overall functionality of the prototype is working, a

test must be conducted.

To test if the profiled appliances were properly characterized by

the device, the researchers change the status of one known appliances to
unknown appliance to see if the relay will activate or disconnecting the
power source to the unknown load while the rest of appliances remains at
known status. This test was applied to other loads.
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3.7.1 Electric Fan

Figure 3.28 Electric Fan status modification

Figure 3.28 show the if statement used to change the appliance

status to unknown.

3.7.2 Study Lamp

Figure 3.29 shows the if statement used to change the appliance status to
unknown.

Figure 3.29 Study Lamp status modification

3.7.3 Flat Iron

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Figure 3.30 shows the if statement used to change the appliance

status to unknown.

Figure 3.30 Flat Iron Status modification

3.7.4 Netbook

Figure 3.31 shows the if statement used to change the appliance

status to unknown.

Figure 3.31 Netbook Status modification