What is digital electricity?

文章：Bill Schweber

While reading an article in the always interesting, informative, and useful publication布线安装和维护，我遇到了一个技术术语，对我来说是新的，也很模棱两可：数字电力。在文章中，“Amtrak HQ renovation employs passive optical LAN technology for long-term campus network connectivity，”主要是关于铜和光纤连接性的，而不是电源接线，仅在几句句子中使用了新的对我的短语，它仍然使我感兴趣。我可以设想这个术语的许多可能的含义，包括数字控制的电源转换器，但在故事的背景下没有任何意义。

这篇文章所说的是我的注意力：“这项新兴技术将直流电源和数据结合到数据包中，这些数据包以某种方式传输和接收的数据包，这些方式与网络上信息包的传达方式有些类似。数字电力使我们能够将电源推到更长的距离，而无需计划正常的电压下降 - 而无需大铜线尺寸；当设施的设计不支持传统的电缆长度（例如火车站，机场和运动场所）时，我们将这项技术万博投注网址纳入我们的设计中。”

我做了一些挖掘，发现它是一个术语，它是指一种相对较新的，非常不同的方式，可以传输大量的非电线接线。我还发现，显然有两个供应商在这一领域：VoltserverInc.和JMA无线(odd name for vendor doing power). What they apparently offer is a way to send very short, very high-voltage pulses for long distances over standard, low-power cabling (such as in Ethernet) to a unit which somehow accumulates and then transforms the energy into a substantial power source (Figure 1). The pulses are halted within 3 msec if there’s a break in the cable, someone touches it, or any other irregularity.

Figure 1The “digital electricity” system transmits about 700 energy pulses per second, while monitoring the line for any abnormal conditions that would mandate near-instant shut-off. (资源:Voltserver)

陈述的好处是，能量是如此之低，以至于接线不需要电工来进行安装，因此可以通过常规的施工人员来完成。据称它的材料成本较低，高效。它还满足所有相关的UL和IEC监管要求，以实现低功率安全性。一个完整的系统需要所谓的数字电力发射机和互补接收器（（Figure 2), but I could not find data sheets for either, nor a clear statement of what goes into and what comes out of each box, their size, power requirements, speed, or anything similar.

Figure 2The digital electricity transmitter (top) and matching receiver appear to be modest-size enclosures, but that’s about all I could find out about them. (资源:JMA无线)

I studied their web sites and collateral carefully and did some other research, and still don’t really grasp how this set-up works or how it manages to accomplish what seems to be contradictory and almost unsupportable goals. How can you send enough energy, via short pulses, to integrate and convert into a fairly large amount of output power in this type of continuous power-drain application? Pulse-power delivery is a viable technique for some specialty situations, such as high-energy tests, but this is very different.

The greatly simplified discussion, “The Idea” on the VoltServer site, actually raised more questions for me than it answered. In addition, the产品页面at the JMA Wireless site was of little help, as was this VoltServer “success story” posted in a publication called Connected Real Estate. The hour-long VoltServer presentation “使用数据包能量传输的触摸安全性，高压数字电力传输，您可以在下面查看，这更有帮助，但仍然让我想知道技术和主张。

Overall, I wish I better understood what they are doing and how they do it. Frankly, the skeptic (or cynic) in me was ready to assume this was some sort of “something for almost nothing” scam that seems too good to be true, but VoltServer claims about 200 installations in various commercial buildings as well as named sports stadiums, so I suppose it really does work. I still wonder, though, why I haven’t seen anything about this apparently innovative technology in the various engineering-design publications, especially as it is clearly not a very new approach given the many actual deployments.

What’s your sense of this innovation? Are you familiar with it? Are you comfortable that it can it really deliver what they claim? Do you understand how it works? What am I missing—or am I missing the point?

Bill Schweberis an EE who has written three textbooks, hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features.

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