AN1702

Application note

ST485EB for e-meter applications

Introduction
This application note explains the procedure for designing the RS-485 communication lines
in energy metering applications which helps e-meter engineers build their projects.
Energy meters are used to monitor personal usage of electricity. In the past only one kind of
e-meter was used which was an electromechanical device and required human intervention
for the periodic on site data collection. The new frontier in energy metering is a new
generation of electronic e-meters providing new features such as network data collection,
auto-diagnosis and time-scheduled accounting differentiation in order to define different
energy costs on differently defined time segments.
These meters provide monitoring, analysis and data storage on energy usage.
The network connection between meters allows for centralized data collection with the
significant advantage that manual meter reading is no longer necessary. Moreover, it makes
locating meters easier, since external accessibility (in order to get a manual reading) is
unnecessary.
The network architecture can be of different types: bus, daisy chain, tree structure and so
on. One of the most efficient is bus architecture. Each meter is connected to the main bus
through a stub, which is kept as short as possible. The communication should be bi-
directional. Each meter, in fact, needs to send data, as well as receive data from the central
control, such as permission to send tariff upgrades, diagnostic routines, setups, etc.
Modern communication technologies offer several choices of communication with meters.
One of these methods is the use of a twisted pair cable, using RS-485 differential
transmission. It offers a wide choice of transceivers available on the market, high data rates
over long line lengths, high noise rejection, and good electrical robustness that makes it
suitable in rugged environments.

September 2007 Rev 2 1/11

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Contents AN1702

Contents

1 RS-485 interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 RS-485 advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Signal levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4 Bus lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5 Network isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

6 Fail-safe biasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

7 Transient voltage suppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

8 ESD protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

9 Revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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AN1702 List of figures

List of figures

Figure 1. RS-485 half-duplex network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Figure 2. RS-485 full-duplex network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Figure 3. Dangerous ground shifts in a common situation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Figure 4. RS-485 terminal node with optocouplers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Figure 5. External fail-safe and line DC termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Figure 6. IEC 61000-4-5 transient voltage test V and I waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure 7. Usage of the transient voltage suppressors in the RS-485 network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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RS-485 interfaces AN1702

1 RS-485 interfaces

With RS-485 two kinds of communication lines can be built: half or full duplex. A full duplex
line requires four wires, and each node can simultaneously send data on two wires, while
receiving from the other pair of wires. A half duplex line uses only one pair of wires for both
sending and receiving, and in this case only one node at any one time can send data on the
line (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). This means that two or more nodes, sending
contemporaneously data to the bus, cause errors in data transmission. It is the application
engineer’s responsibility to choose the proper network management method in order to
avoid this problem. This choice may be constrained by the need to use a pre-defined
protocol on the network, or by the limitation of the calculated power of the network controller.

Figure 1. RS-485 half-duplex network

Figure 2. RS-485 full-duplex network

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AN1702 RS-485 advantages

2 RS-485 advantages

Data transmission in e-meter applications occurs in noisy environments. Meters are

connected to the ac voltage, often located near industrial machinery or home appliances
and the transmission line is often very long (hundreds of meters) allowing atmospheric noise
to degrade signal quality.
For these reasons, RS-485 signaling is particularly relevant. Its differential drivers and
receivers, reject external noise (theoretically coupled equally into both lines) with high field
strength.
Project equipment using RS-485 signaling requires the application of some rules.
Differential lines must be kept close to each other, the use of a twisted pair cable is
recommended and the board layout should be done with traces of equal length for the
differential signals. Impedance matching also has to be considered in order to avoid signal
reflections.

3 Signal levels

RS-485 drivers must produce a differential output voltage of at least 1.5 V into a 54 Ω load
(usually the lines are terminated at both ends with a 120 Ω resistor; each driver seeing a
120/2=60 Ω load, 54 Ω being the worst case (10% tolerance). Receivers must detect a
differential voltage as low as 200 mV. This is because if a degradation of the signal occurs
across the line, the communication must not be affected. However, the driver differential
output voltage depends on its output current capability. If many receivers are connected to
the line, the driven load seen by the driver increases, as receivers are added to the bus,
requiring more current. The RS-485 standard defines a unit load (UL), which is about a 12
kΩ resistance over the bus voltage range interval (-7 to +12 V). RS-485 drivers must
generate the required output minimum voltage (1.5 V) with at least 32 unit loads on a
terminated bus with a 120 Ω resistor on each end of the line.
The ST485EB is a half-duplex RS-485 transceiver with a low unit load. A network provided
with these 1/8 UL transceivers allows interconnection of 256 nodes, driven by means of a
standard compliant driver, without overloading it.

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Bus lengths AN1702

4 Bus lengths

The signal quality is evidently affected when the length of the bus increases. The most
significant factor is the attenuation of the high frequency components of the signal. This
produces slackening of the rising and falling edge of the signal as well as jitter and inter-
symbol interference. All these factors must be taken into account when considering the
cable length and signaling rate. Most e-meter applications require signaling rates below
250 kbit/s. With these rates, the signal degradation is less evident for cable lengths up to 1
km. The ST485EB is suitable for these signaling rates. Its driver outputs have a slew rate
limitation, which reduces EMI and signal reflections on the line, allowing very low signal
degradation over long distances.

5 Network isolation

Due to the long distance covered by the network, many factors such as ground loops,
external noise, spikes, electrical storms, or common-mode voltages exceeding the
maximum voltage range (-7 V to+12 V), can bother or, in some cases, damage the
equipment connected to the TTL side of each transceiver (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Dangerous ground shifts in a common situation

In order to avoid this, it is advisable to electrically isolate the equipment from the bus. In
Figure 4 an example is shown of isolated transceivers, requiring the use of optocouplers at
any single-ended (TTL input/output) terminal. Note that two isolated power supplies are
used: one for the transceivers and the related sides of the optocouplers connected to them
(VBUS), the other one for the equipment and the other sides of the optocouplers (VTTL).
These two supplies should be isolated from each other, and derived from different power
generators or transformer windings.

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AN1702 Network isolation

Figure 4. RS-485 terminal node with optocouplers

VTTL VBUS
RECEIVED
DATA
VBUS

ST485EB
ST485E
RO
R
VTTL VBUS B
RE
DE
A

SEND/
RECEIVE
CONTROL
VTTL VBUS

SENT
DATA

The choice of proper optocouplers should be based on rise and fall times, which are related
to the signaling rate. The RS-485 requirements for the signal quality are that the rise (or fall)
time should not exceed 30% of the bit time (reciprocal of the signaling rate). For a signaling
rate of 250 kbit/s, the maximum rise or fall time of the optocouplers is:

Equation 1
1
0.3 ⋅ (bit time)= 0.3 ⎛⎝ -------------------------⎞⎠ = 1.2 m sec
250 kbps

Therefore, an optocoupler with rise/fall times faster than 1.2 msec is required. The biasing
resistors should be selected taking into account the current characteristics of the
optocouplers, and the threshold voltages of the transceiver input pins, in order to ensure a
reliable driving of the transceiver.

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Fail-safe biasing AN1702

6 Fail-safe biasing

In an RS-485 network, a driver is always active on the line. Therefore, each receiver has
differential input voltages, which exceed the 200 mV minimum threshold voltage, ensuring a
known logic state at its output. When a receiver is disconnected from the bus (receiver
inputs floating), its output assumes an undetermined logic state. The ST485EB has an
internal fail-safe feature, which avoids this problem. A weak internal biasing ensures a
receiver differential voltage higher than 200 mV, and therefore a valid logic state at its output
under floating inputs conditions.
A different situation occurs when there are no active drivers on the network (idle-bus). In this
case, the receivers are connected to the bus and to the termination resistors. The
termination resistors decrease the differential voltage near 0 V, and the internal fail-safe is
not able to ensure a proper voltage level.
Some transmission protocol (for example the UART protocol) requires a high logic state of
the bus when in idle state. In order to solve this problem, two biasing resistors should be
applied to the two line wires, giving a proper biasing of the line (see also the application note
"fail-safe biasing for ST485"). In a terminated bus with a 120 Ω termination resistor at each
end, the equivalent resistance is 60 Ω (120 Ω/120 Ω). In order to produce a differential
voltage at its leads higher than 200 mV, a current of 4 mA should flow into it. In order to
guarantee this current without unmatching the characteristic impedance of the line,
500/600 Ω resistors should be used (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. External fail-safe and line DC termination

The external fail-safe circuitry should be placed at one end of the bus or at each end of it,
using, in this case, twice the value calculated for one biasing circuit (1 K/1.2 KΩ) and, of
course, it should not be disconnected for any reason.
The external fail-safe circuitry draws current; therefore it loads the driver outputs. This extra
load should be taken in account defining the maximum number of transceivers allowed on
the bus. The equivalent load of the fail-safe circuitry, seen by the active driver is, for
Ra = Rc = 500 Ω, 24UL. Since the maximum allowed on the bus is 32UL, the available unit
loads should be 32UL - 24UL = 8UL. Using the ST485EB (1/8UL per transceiver) the
maximum number of transceivers should be: 8UL / (1/8UL per transceiver) = 64
transceivers.

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AN1702 Transient voltage suppression

7 Transient voltage suppression

Transient voltage surges are generated generally by inductive load switching, for example,
the equipment starts and stops, lightning strikes, etc. The standard IEC 61000-4-5 Immunity
Test describes a method to test circuits with a waveform simulating these conditions (see
Figure 6).

Figure 6. IEC 61000-4-5 transient voltage test V and I waveforms

Surge voltages inducted on both differential lines do not affect the entire system operation, if
the bus is isolated, and the ground voltage shift generated does not exceed the maximum
ratings. However, the use of additional transient voltage suppressors (TVS) is advisable, in
order to protect against surges in case of miswiring, incorrect grounding and other fault
conditions. ST offers a wide range of TVS. Visit the site:
http://eu.st.com/stonline/discretes/index.shtml. The selection criteria are the stand-off
voltage (VRM), the clamping voltage (VCL) and the peak power dissipation (PD). The stand-
off voltage must not exceed the operating common mode voltage range (-7 to +12 V), in
order to avoid clamping during the normal operation, while the clamping voltage must be low
enough to hold the line voltage with no damage to the protected circuits. The peak power
dissipation is the product of the clamping voltage and the peak current that can be managed
by the TVS without being harmed. One TVS suitable for a RS-485 network is the ST’s
SMA12CA. It has:

Equation 2
V RM = +/- 12 V; V CL = 19.9 V @ I PEAK = 20A; P D = 400 W

Figure 7. Usage of the transient voltage suppressors in the RS-485 network

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ESD protection AN1702

8 ESD protection

Common situations such as handling, connection and maintenance can create electro-static
discharges (ESD), which can damage related devices. The use of transceivers with high
ESD immunity in e-meter applications is recommended. In order to evaluate ESD immunity,
two standards are largely used at this time: the JEDEC standard (Human Body Model),
which simulates the ESD of a human body contacting the device, and the ISO standard (IEC
61000-4-2), which simulates the ESD of a human body handling a tool (screwdriver, or a
metallic connector, etc.), approaching (Air Discharge) or contacting (Contact Discharge) the
device. The IEC 61036 standard requires that the device be immune to contact discharges
(ISO IEC 61000-4-2) of 8 kV, while the DL/T 645 standard requires meter equipments to
tolerate 15 kV (HBM) discharges. The ST485EB is compliant to both these specifications.

9 Revision history

Table 1. Revision history

Date Revision Changes

11-Sep-2006 1 First release

– No content changes, document reformatted.
28-Sep-2007 2
– ST485ER replaced by ST485EB

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AN1702

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