US 12,436,180 B2
Auto squelch on powerline communications (PLC)
David Glenn Porter, East Troy, WI (US); and Christine Elizabeth McNeil, West Allis, WI (US)
Assigned to S&C Electric Company, Chicago, IL (US)
Filed by S&C Electric Company, Chicago, IL (US)
Filed on Feb. 12, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/438,731.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/501,734, filed on May 12, 2023.
Prior Publication US 2024/0377449 A1, Nov. 14, 2024
Int. Cl. G01R 31/08 (2020.01); G01R 31/62 (2020.01)
CPC G01R 31/086 (2013.01) [G01R 31/62 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for determining a squelch level for each transformer in a series of transformers connected to a power line that communicate with each other through powerline communications (PLC), the squelch level being a certain receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) of a PLC message received by a transformer where the transformer will act on the received PLC message if its RSSI is above the squelch level and will ignore the received PLC message if its RSSI is below the squelch level, the method comprising:
selectively transmitting a PLC test message by each transformer on the power line both upstream and downstream of the transmitting transformer to determine that the transmitting transformer can communicate with other transformers;
responding to the PLC test message that is received by each transformer to identify the transformers that can communicate with the transmitting transformer;
measuring the RSSI of the PLC messages that each transformer receives;
recording the strongest RSSI in each transformer of the PLC messages that are received by the transformer; and
setting the squelch level for each transformer as a predetermined reduction of the recorded RSSI in each transformer.