3 Hardware Implementation
This section describes the hardware that is required for an energy meter using the MSP430AFE2xx.
3.1 Power Supply
The MSP430 family of devices is ultra-low-power microcontrollers from Texas Instruments. These devices support a number of low-power modes and also have low-power consumption during active mode when the CPU and other peripherals are active. The low-power feature of this device family allows design of the power supply to be simple and inexpensive. The power supply allows the operation of the energy meter powered directly from the mains. The following sections discuss the various power supply options that are available to support your design.