New ultrasonic MCUs and reference designs make both electronic and mechanical water meters smarter

Texas Instruments has a new family of MSP430 MCUs with an integrated ultrasonic sensing analog front end that enables smart water meters to deliver higher accuracy and lower power consumption. In addition, TI introduced two new reference designs that make it easier to design modules for adding automated meter reading capabilities to existing mechanical water meters. The new MCUs and reference designs support the growing demand for more accurate water meters and remote meter reading to enable efficient water resource management, accurate measurement and timely billing. As part of the ultra-low-power MCU portfolio for sensing and measurement, the new MSP430FR6047 MCU family lets developers add more intelligence to flow meters by taking advantage of a complete waveform capture feature and ADC-based signal processing. This technique enables more accurate measurement than competitive devices, with precision of 25 picoseconds or better, even at flow rates less than 1ltr per hour. In addition, the integrated devices reduce water meter system component count by 50% and power consumption by 25%, enabling a meter to operate without having to charge the battery for 10 or more years. The new MCUs also integrate a low-energy accelerator module for advanced signal processing, 256KB of FRAM, an LCD driver and a metering test interface. The MSP430 Ultrasonic Sensing Design Center offers a comprehensive development ecosystem that allows developers to get to market in months. The design center provides tools for quick development and flexibility for customization, including software libraries, a GUI, evaluation modules with metrology and DSP libraries.