Green Applications

Power monitoring

We presented a demo monitoring the power consumption of each room in a house. The micro power meters installed in each room transmit values via Zigbee ^® -RF, which are collected in an Ethernet bridge. The values are then tallied by a host computer connected via the Internet, and finally displayed on a touch panel display. The demo showed that not only can the visualization of electricity be used to aid in energy-saving, but it can also find application in checking the safety of residents.

* Zigbee is a registered trademark of ZigBee Alliance, Inc.

SuperH

We presented a solar power generation control system that used the high-end 32-bit SuperH (SH) microcontroller. Driven at the high speed of 200 MHz, the SH7216 boosts the direct current acquired from the solar cell and converts it to alternating current via an inverter circuit, all in a highly precise sequence of operations. An optimized IGBT and photocoupler are also available as a kit. These are the total solutions we presented at the exhibit hall.

Microcontroller with Built-in Power Measurement
Function for Power Meters

The electricity usage of a smart home must be finely monitored. For this reason, the power meter that visualizes and manages this electricity usage needs to be highly functional. The 8-bit 78K0/Lx3-M microcontroller is specialized for power meters. It has a built-in high-resolution 24-bit ΔΣADC and achieves all the functions required for power measurement on a single chip. External memory (EEPROM) required by peripheral circuitry as well as a photo coupler are also available as a kit.

Sensor network solution

We presented a demo that performs all operations solely on a solar power supply. Sensors detect light and temperature, and are managed in a wireless network via Zigbee ^® -RF. This demo exhibited its maintenance-free aspect by utilizing a large-capacity capacitor for overnight operation, instead of a secondary battery. This impressive degree of energy-saving operation was achieved thanks to the ultralow voltage operation 16-bit 78K0R/Kx3-L microcontroller. We also presented the μPA1820 MOSFET for cutting down mounting area.

We presented demos of evaluation boards supporting system development of LED lighting, a technology which is rapidly becoming widespread.
One evaluation board was for an LED lighting system that performs fine-grained RGB dimming control to achieve the desired color. Using the 8-bit 78K0/Ix2 inverter control microcontroller, up to three LED channels can be controlled. The other was a one-channel white LED system that does not use a microcontroller. Due to the use of the R2A20134 driver IC, this reference board is small enough to be embedded inside a light bulb Both boards were shown at the exhibit hall.

For home appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners, which consume comparatively large amounts of power, energy-saving operation via inverter control of the compressor motor has become essential. A large number of devices are needed in order to achieve fine-grained control of large current. The product lineup of Renesas Electronics was strengthened by the merger, allowing us to provide almost all the devices required. We offer a wide range of devices, from high-performance 32-bit microcontrollers for inverter control, to peripherals such as PFC ICs, MOSFETs, IGBTs, and photocouplers. In the exhibit hall, we presented a demo where three motors were controlled by a single microcontroller, and a demo of an example of a solution for refrigerator.

Smart Battery System Solution

Conventionally, in systems such as notebook PCs that operate for long periods of time on a large-capacity battery, battery monitoring was performed by the system. However, for lithium batteries, which are at risk of abnormal heat generation and explosion, it is becoming common to monitor from a position closer to the battery, for improved safety.
We presented a static exhibition of a compact reference board containing a microcontroller and analog front end parts that was small enough to be embedded inside a battery pack. (The wiring coming out of the center of the board is a thermistor for temperature detection.)

Microcontroller for Devices with Built-In Touch Key

This demo of the R8C/3xT touch-key microcontroller exhibited touch and slide detection, LED lighting, and audio output control on a single chip. Since touch/slide detection is performed by hardware, lower power operation is achieved.
A demo of touch and slide detection was shown at the exhibit hall.

Interactive voice recognition system

We presented a demo of an interactive interface achieved by performing voice recognition and voice synthesis processing on a single chip using the SH7216. We showed the responsiveness of the demo in real-time at a high performance of 400 MIPS. In addition, since 1 MB of flash memory, which is considered a large amount for a single chip, is built in, external memory is unnecessary and a low-cost system can be designed. A rich variety of peripheral functions are built in, allowing this chip to be applied to any possible situation. We presented a demo of operation of a water heater at the exhibit hall. Even in the noisy exhibit hall, spoken commands such as "put hot water" and "start" were recognized at a distance of 50 centimeters from the microphone.

SH7264

In today's embedded systems, the choices for OS for CPUs that do not have an MMU (memory management unit) are limited. The open source .NET ^® Micro Framework from Microsoft Corporation makes it possible to build an OS-less system that does not require real-time capability.
In addition, this framework allows development from coding to debugging to be performed in a familiar Windows environment. We presented a demo that leveraged the .NET Micro Framework network and a rich GUI to obtain Google Maps data and RSS feeds from a Web server and display them.

* .NET is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.