Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
detect any unusual vibration and sends a wireless
signal to the monitoring tower. To decide whether
the vibration is for tree cutting, damaging the sen-
sor or a casual one the vibration data is processed
by a microcontroller. MSP430 microcontroller
is a popular choice for this system as this has a
wireless capability. These ultra low power mi-
crocontrollers can utilize unconventional energy
sources e.g. wind energy. These microcontrollers
are expected to work for ever as the life of the
product is not limited by the battery power. The
total energy consumption for a prolong use is
appreciable though it is ultra low power. Replace-
ment of a battery with unconventional energy
saves this power.
inside the machine. Though the power consump-
tion in a standard microcontroller is negligible
the total power consumption by all the micro-
controllers used for office or home automation is
quite appreciable. Replacement of these ordinary
microcontrollers with ultra low power MSP430
can save an appreciable amount of power. Ef-
ficient power utilization of MSP430 results in a
negligible ambient heating. This does not load
the air-conditioner as well.
These are some examples where system power
comes down with judicious use of MSP430 mi-
crocontroller. The next section discusses some
strategies which endows MSP430 with ultra low
power consumption feature.
Cooler Systems
STRATEGIES FOR LOW POWER
Consider a refrigerator that uses microcontroller
for inside temperature control. It also analyzes the
quality of the stored food items. With any indica-
tion that a food item is getting spoiled the micro-
controller sends a wireless signal and a message
to the mobile phone. An ordinary microcontroller
shall consume heavy power while sending the
wireless signal. For this the inside temperature
may fluctuate. Fluctuation of temperature needs
a temperature control and that will hike the power
consumption and hence temperature fluctuations.
Thus the system enters into a vicious circle for
increased power consumption and temperature
fluctuations. MSP430 with wireless capability
consumes a little power and temperature fluctua-
tion is unlikely. Here, also unconventional energy
sources can be used. It has been demonstrated
that, an MSP430 microcontroller can function
by extracting energy from an apple stored inside
the refrigerator.
In any device design, when low power is achieved
the speed or performance goes down. It can be
shown that, for an “Integrated Circuit Chip” or
IC there is a trade off among speed, power, chip
area, noise, functionality, cost etc. (Razavi, 2002).
The innovative architecture of MSP430 shall be
discussed in this context. Though this microcon-
troller consumes negligible power its other features
are comparable to the existing microcontrollers
available in the market. We can say that, MSP430
manifests sustainability. Sustainability can be
defined as meeting the need of the present genera-
tion without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs. MSP430 meets
the present needs of speed or performance etc. We
know that, free or available energy is reducing with
each task we perform. Use of low power or low
energy means helping the next generations to meet
their energy needs. The low power technology
is an environment friendly technology and may
be called as a green technology. Following gives
some of these strategies that optimize the power
while maintaining the other features.
Office or Home Automation
If you unscrew any automated machine at office
or home you will find several microcontrollers
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