Patent attributes
A tamper detection arrangement in a meter having a service disconnect switch employs a voltage sense circuit that requires only a single connection to digital processing circuitry for the feeder lines of typical residential service. In one embodiment, the voltage sense circuit includes an isolation device that electrically isolates the processing device from the line voltages. The voltage sense circuit senses a voltage on the feeder lines and is operable to generate a voltage detection signal having a characteristic representative of whether line voltage from the electrical power lines is present on the feeder lines. A processing circuit is operably connected to the voltage sense circuit to receive the voltage detection signal and to selectively generate a tamper flag based on whether the characteristic of the voltage detection signal indicates the presence of voltage on the first and second feeder lines when the service disconnect switch has disconnected the electrical power lines from the first and second feeder lines.
