Defining Equipment Meters

< Previous section | Table of Contents | Index | Next section >

Before you can record meter readings, you must describe the meter(s) that will be used. There are two ways to start this process:

Click the Add Meter button in the Meters section of the equipment record for the equipment that contains the meter. For more about equipment records, see Creating and Editing an Equipment Description.
Click the New button in the Meters browser. For more about the Meters browser, see Browsing the Meters Table.

Both approaches opens a window that contains the following:

Code: An identification code for this meter (10 characters maximum).
Desc.: A one-line description of this meter (30 characters maximum).
Building, Unit, Location: Where the meter is located. "Unit" is the equipment that contains the meter, and "Location" is the location of that unit (taken from the Equipment table).
UOM: A unit of measure, specifying what the meter measures. You must have previously defined this unit in the Units of Measure table; for more information, see Units of Measure.
Meter Offset: In order for MainBoss to schedule work orders based on meter readings, the reading values must keep increasing—they should never go backwards. In practice, however, meters sometimes do go down instead of up: for example, when an old meter is replaced by a new meter, or when an existing meter "rolls over" back to zero.
The "Meter Offset" field is intended to compensate for this kind of problem. MainBoss adds the value in this field to the number read from the actual meter in order to calculate the "true" reading for the meter.
For example, suppose a meter only shows four digits so that values run from 0000 to 9999. When the meter rolls over after 9999, you can set the "Meter Offset" to 10000. After that, when a worker enters a meter reading like 0100, MainBoss adds the "Meter Offset" to determine that the "actual" meter reading is now 10100: what the meter should have been if it could show more digits. The next time the meter rolls over, you set "Meter Offset" to 20000, and so on. In this way, MainBoss can determine the actual value corresponding to a particular meter reading.
As another example, suppose that a meter breaks and has to be replaced. The old meter broke at the 50000 mark, but the new meter is set to start at zero. In this case, you would set "Meter Offset" to 50000. This shows that the equipment already has 50000 on it, even if the meter reads zero. MainBoss can then make appropriate corrections so that it keeps track of how long equipment has actually been in use, no matter what the meter says.
Created: The date and time this meter was created. Typically, you leave this blank; MainBoss will then fill in the current date/time. However, you can type in a different date/time to indicate when the meter began running.
Meter Readings: The area below this title lists readings collected for this meter.
New Reading: Click this to enter a new reading for this meter. For more on entering meter readings, see Entering Meter Readings.
Save & New: Saves the current record and clears fields in the window so you can enter a new record.
Clone: Creates a copy of the current meter. You might do this for equipment that has more than one meter. For example, if you were editing information on one of the meters, then wanted to describe a new meter, you could click Clone. MainBoss would create a copy of the previous meter, and you could edit this copy to record information about the new meter.
Delete: Deletes this meter from the list of meters associated with this equipment.
Save: Saves the current record, but leaves all data as is. You can then continue to edit the same record.
Cancel: Closes the window. MainBoss discards any information or changes that have not already been saved with Save.

For more about equipment records, see Creating and Editing an Equipment Description. For more about entering meter readings, see Entering Meter Readings.

< Previous section | Table of Contents | Index | Next section >