Targeting the smart-meter market, Texas Instruments has added the MSP430F471XX to its 430 family of ultra-low-power microcontrollers. The device has accuracy better than 0.1% and a dynamic range of 2400 to 1, necessary for the wide range of high and low currents that power meters encounter. Current electromechanical meters, in contrast, have only about 2% accuracy. Low-power operation is important for electronic three-phase power meters because they must run on battery-backup power during outages.
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