The Atmel ATM90E36A chip looks very interesting
I am just starting on a project that will monitor a 3 phase motor with the purpose of both data logging it and also being able to do some IoT with the unit.
To be honest, the ATM90E36A is well above my pay grade,
I have two questions.
is there any benefit to using such a chip over the more established openenergymon approach ?
has anyone tried using this chip ?
is there a preferred way to monitor 3-phase ?
If you’re not happy to design around this i.c., then you’re probably wasting your time and money. Otherwise…
You’ll still need another processor to handle the higher level communications, either driving a local display or sending the data onwards for whatever purpose.
You’ll still need to use voltage and current transformers to give you isolation from the supply. These will introduce errors, so don’t be drawn in by the accuracy claims - those are for the i.c. itself, not for a working system. If you don’t isolate in front of this i.c., you’ll need to provide an isolated power supply and isolation at the digital interface to the second supervising processor, and you’ll need to observe all the attendant handling and safety requirements.
If you can overcome those hurdles, then yes, it could well provide benefits; no, I don’t know of anyone else using this (though others have looked at similar); and the preferred way to measure 3 phases is correctly.
This guy: Confused Life - Reloaded: ATM90E26 appears to have made a low voltage breakout board of its single phase little brother IC, and has an Arduino sketch to talk to it. That’s probably the easiest and safest way to come up to speed on how the IC works. I’ve not looked at the Atmel energy ICs in detail, but generally once you’re familiar with a vendor’s single phase IC you’ll find their 3 phase IC extremely familiar… typically just 3x of everything you already know.
Hi, I am using this IC (ATM90E36A) in my Energy Meter Device. The device is attached to a 3P4W system , where an induction motor is connected. The chip works fine initially, i have an isolated smps for it along with a isolator on the communication line. However, I am facing a challenge these days where the VDD and GND of the IC gets shorted out internally and I am unable to find the reason till now.
In my Hardware, just by replacing the chip, the hardware starts working fine but again chip gets damage, sometimes after 1 day, sometimes 1 week.
Hi, Muhammad_Abdullah , I am currently working Energy Meter Project using M90E36A IC. I want to read electrical parameters from the IC using SPI . I followed the Datasheet and Application Note for communication but i didn’t get the desired output .I’m getting 0 as default one . Is there any specific configuration available for Communction between the IC using SPI ,Please let me Know. Thanks in Advance.
Have you looked for application notes giving details of how to apply this i.c. in practical situations, particularly with regard to transient voltage suppression? This should be your starting point. You need to look particularly at how to protect the i.c. from high voltage spikes, because my suspicion is; when you switch the induction motor, an extremely high voltage spike is generated (I’m thinking maybe several kV) containing enough energy to get into the i.c. and destroy it.
Not knowing exactly what you are doing means I can’t speculate how the spike is getting in to the i.c., nor offer any more details about what you need to do, but from experience I’m reasonably certain this is the area where you need to look. Also check your SMPS supplying it, the spikes may well be getting through this.
One particular case: a friend of mine lived on a farm in rural Scotland, sharing the final 240 V supply transformer with another working farm about 400 m away and a neighbouring house. The working farm had a milking machine (i.e, a large induction motor). My friend had 3 TVs and a mains Ethernet adapter blown up by the voltage spikes, and the house had the central heating boiler blown up. His was a single phase supply, I can’t remember now exactly what I fitted - it was one of these, and there were no more problems.
