EZReadIt Gold
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| Click the hyperlinks below to jump to that section. Use the upward pointing finger at the end of each chapter to jump back here. | Revised
12-29-04 |
Chapter 2. Program Installation and Setup
Appendix A. Software Revision History
Online Users' Tech Support Forum - A chance to learn from other people's problems and request answers from the factory and other users.
The EZReadIt Gold program is offered free to users to demonstrate how applications can be structured to read the EZ Meter Plus and Plus IO watthour meters. The program may be used as is or the user is free to modify it to meet his specific needs. Anyone with a working knowledge of Microsoft Access and Visual Basic for Applications should be able to follow the program logic and customize it.
The program consists of three modules. The EZReadIt.mdb file is an Access 2000 database and contains all the forms, queries, reports and VBA code. It is linked to the EZMeter.mdb file that contains all the user data. The EZMeter.exe program is the communication module and functions as a stand-alone program with limited functionality or as an ActiveX module that can be used to communicate directly with the meters from third party programs. Details of the interface are in Chapter 5.
The program is capable of handling multiple facilities with multiple meters at each facility. It can be used solely for data collection or it can be used for billing. While the integral billing function prepares invoices for power, water, gas and rent, it does not have any receivables tracking functions. A planned feature will allow the invoices to be exported to Intuit’s QuickBooks program.
Hardware Requirements: Computer with Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows XP or later. Hard drive requirement is dependant on how the program is used. The program requires Microsoft Access 2000 or later. A free runtime version is included with the program. Installing the runtime version of Access 2000 may overwrite registry entries and render full copies of Access 97 and earlier as runtime only.
Chapter 2. Program Installation and Setup
Installation modules are offered on the Davidge Controls web site and on CD-ROM. The files on the web site are available in ZIP format and in self-extracting EXE format. Follow the instructions on the web site or Start.htm file on the CD-ROM (It should start automatically when you put the disk in the drive) to download and install the program and Access runtime if needed. If you want to install the program in a different folder than the one offered by the install program (C:\Program Files\EZReadIt), you will need to redirect the link to that data file. You need the full version of Access to do this. See instructions below.
Once you have installed the program, you can access it by clicking the Start button, then select All Programs then EZReadIt Gold. This folder contains three shortcuts. 1) to this Help file, 2) to the EZRead communication server program and 3) to the EZReadIt Gold database. Click on the EZReadIt Gold shortcut and the program will be launched and the main menu will appear.
Once you have started the program you need to set up at least one facility and at least one meter location before you can do anything useful with the program. If you will be using the billing feature, you should create your rate structure before entering any customers. You can go back and modify it if you need to, but you need to enter the name of the applicable rate when you enter the customer data.
To use a different drive or folder for data. To do this you need the full version of Microsoft Access. The runtime only version will not do it. Start Access. Select File | Open and navigate to the EZReadIt.mdb file. Hold the Shift key down while you click the Open button. The program will open the EZReadIt : Database window. If the EZReadIt program runs, you probably did not hold the Shift key down long enough - start over. Click Tools on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Select Database Utilities, then select Linked Table Manager. (If Linked Table Manager does not show up, check the Access documentation for instructions for installing that add-in.) Check the Always prompt for new location box, click the Select All button, then click OK. Navigate to the new folder and click the EZMeter.mdb file. Click Open. Close all the windows and restart the program. If you are using the program without the automatic meter reading, you can use this technique to place the data file in a folder that will be backed up daily without having to back up the whole program. But if you separate the program and data files, the communication server will not see the remote database and it will not be able to read the meters.
Chapter 3. Menu & Navigation
The menu screen may have different choices on it depending on whether or not the billing feature has been selected for the active facility. If billing is not selected, you will not see buttons to select customers or rates. Click on one of the buttons to bring up a screen with that feature. The Help button brings up this document. The Quit button ends the program and returns you to Windows.
Most of the screens have a button bar with one to ten buttons. The First-Previous-Next-Last buttons move you through the available records that are in the database. Use the Add New button any time you want to create a new item that is not already there. Click the Add New button and all the fields will clear or load with a default value that you can change if needed. Clicking the Next button when you are already at the last record has the same effect as hitting the Add New button. Click the Save button or one of the navigation buttons when you are finished. The Undo button will cancel any changes you have made to a record and the Delete button will delete the record completely. When you are finished, hit the Menu button to return to the main menu.
The program comes with a sample facility and a few locations for you to look at. It is probably easier to create a new facility and add new locations and other data than to change all the sample data to reflect your facility, but you can do either.
Chapter 4. Facilities
The purpose of the Facilities feature is to set up communication and other parameters for groups of meters. If you have multiple serial ports in your computer and a separate RS-232 Interface (Model 4810) attached to each one, you would set up a separate facility for each port. If you are metering power in several apartment buildings that you call with a telephone modem, you would have a separate facility for each different phone number.
Facility Number. The program will automatically assign a facility number when you add a new record.
Facility Name. You should enter a short descriptive name for each facility that you set up. When you work with meter locations, the locations will be grouped by facility names so it is helpful if the names are easily remembered. If you want to change the name of a facility, click the Change Facility Name button and enter a new name. Do not add a new facility with the different name because all the locations are linked to this facility number.
Vendor Name. The Vendor Name and address will be printed on the invoices as the place where the customer should send payment. You do not need to enter anything here unless you will be using the program to print invoices for your customers
Communication Connection. This tells the program how you will communicate with the meters. Your choices are Direct Connect RS-232, Telephone Modem, or TCP/IP (LAN or internet).
COM Max Timeout. This is the time the computer will wait for an answer from a meter before it retries or gives up. 500 ms will usually work but you may need to increase it if you are using a radio link or internet connection.
Times try to communicate with meter. This is the number of times the computer will try to communicate before it gives up. Leave it at 3 unless you have a noisy line and a lot of com failures.
COM Port. This is the port number of the RS-232 port or modem that is used for communication with the meters.
Phone Number. Enter the phone number that the modem should dial. A one and area code should be included if needed to complete the call. The field is shared in the database with the IP address so you may see an IP address there if one has been set up before hand.
IP Port. This is the port number in the RS-232 to TCP/IP interface used to communication.
IP Address. This is the IP address of the RS-232 to TCP/IP interface.
Select this Facility for Billing or Data Logging. If you have multiple facilities, you can have the program prepare invoices or do data logging for selected facilities. Check this box if you want this facility to be one of those selected. Some of the reports also let you report on selected facilities.
Normally Online. Check this box if you have a direct RS-232 connection or TCP/IP connection to the meters. If you have a dial up telephone connection or you are just using the program to bill customers because you do not have computer readable meters, leave this empty.
This is the Active Facility. Locations in the active facility are shown when you select Locations from the main menu and all new locations are entered into the active facility. You can choose a different facility on the Locations screen, but this one will be active when you start the program again.
Set This Facility as Active. You will see this button any time another facility is active. Click this button to change the active facility to the one showing on the screen.
Chapter 5. Locations
If you are using the billing feature, a Location is the name of a tenant space that has a meter. In a marina, it would be a slip number. In an apartment building, it would be an apartment number. If you are not using billing, it would describes the function being monitored, perhaps a solar panel inverter or a particular machine in an industrial plant. Keep the name short or it won't show up properly in the drop down boxes.
After you have set up your first facility and made it the active facility, you need to add locations to it. Click the Locations button on the main menu. If there are not any locations, the program should take you to the New Location screen. If you are at the Locations screen, click the Add New button on the button bar in the upper right corner.
You add new meters by filling in the Location and Serial Number fields. For the first one you enter, you should verify the default values of the other fields. They will stay the same for subsequent locations that you enter.
Location. The name of the location as described in Initial Setup above.
Online. If the meters being added on connected at the time they are entered in the database, the program will attempt to read them and fill in the meter type field. If they are not online at the time, the program will wait several seconds while communication is attempted. We suggest that you leave this off unless you are sure communication is working on most meters.
Customer. If you have already entered all your customer data, you can choose a customer at this time. It is generally easier to enter customers from the Customers screen.
Serial Number. The serial number shown on the label of the meter. You do not need to enter leading zeroes or the hyphen.
Model. This is the model number of the meter as shown on the meter label.
Number of Digits in Counter. This number should match the electro-mechanical counter you are using so the program will roll over from all nines to all zeroes at the same time the counter does.
How many red wheels? This should really be named 'How many decimal places in counter output?'. Standard meters rated at 200 amps or less usually increment the counter every tenth of a kilowatt hour so the right most wheel in the counter is a different color and you would enter a one in this field. California requires the meters to advance every hundredth of a kilowatt hour so there are two different colored wheels on the right side of the counter and you enter a two in this field.
Display Code. This is the terminal on the meter that the display is connected to. For most meters, it is simply DISPL because there is only one display counter. For the two in one meters, select DISP1 or DISP2 as appropriate. If you want to use both parts of the meter for one location (using a Denali in place of a Yosemite for instance), connect one of the wires on the counter to both DISP1 and DISP2 terminals and select BOTH from the drop down box.
Select for reading and billing. The reading and billing functions in the program allow you to read all locations, all selected locations, or a single location. Check this box if you want want this location to be read when it reads all selected locations.
Log all Readings. Check this box if you want all readings to be logged so you can go back and view them later. If this box is not checked, the program keeps the last reading of the meter and discards all previous data.
IO Capable. Check this box if your meter has three IO ports. If nothing is connected to them, you can leave this unchecked and it will speed up the program because it will not try to read them. If you check this box, it will display three boxes where you can choose which function you want for each of the three ports. Your choices are Input (allows the meter to be connected to a switch to detect tampering with the meter or some other use), Output (allows you to connect a relay to the meter so you can turn lights or appliances on or off), or a pulse input from a gas, water, or other electric meter. If you choose one of the pulse inputs, the program will also you how many pulses are needed for each unit that displays on the meter. For instance the American Meter Company gas meter we sell indicates 100s of cubic feet and puts out 400 pulses for each counter increment. The meter counts each change of state as a pulse so the meter counts two pulses if the input switches from open to closed, then back to open.
Save. When you have finished entering data for a location, click the Save button. The program will increment the serial number by one and take you to the field to enter a new location name. If you have a lot of meters, this can be a big time saver if you have a list of meters and locations in serial number order.
Undo. If you don't want to exit without saving the last record, click the Undo button before clicking Done.
Done. Click this to return to the main Locations screen. We suggest you use this button when you are finished. If you click the X in the upper right corner of the screen to close it, you will get an error message if you do not have a Location Name and Serial number specified.
The Locations screen is the screen you will use when working with the individual locations. You navigate through the different locations using the left four buttons in the button bar in the top right corner or you use the Location Lookup drop down box in the upper right corner.
Locations Lookup. To change locations, you can either click the button with the down arrow on the right side of the box or click in the box and start typing the name of the location.
Location Name. This field is for information only. You can't change it here.
Facility. The drop down box displays the available facilities. You can use it to change the active facility, but you must use the Facilities screen to change the default active facility (the one that is active when you start the program).
Meters Online. Check this box to establish communication with the meters. If you connect via a modem, this will cause the modem to dial the remote location.
Communication Status. This field tells you whether communication has been established or not without reading any meters. If you use a direct serial connection, it tells whether or not the port is open for communication. If you use a dial up modem, it tells if there is communication with the remote modem. If you use TCP/IP, it tells if you have established contact with the remote TCP/IP to RS-232 interface.
Meter Status. This field reports the status of the last attempt to communicate with the meter. Normally it will show OK. It may also show that communication failed and why.
Customer at this Location. This drop down box shows the customer, if any, assigned to this location. You can change customers here, but it is better to do it from the Customer screen because you can enter a starting reading there. If you do it here, the customer's starting meter reading will be the last billed reading for the previous customer. This field will not be visible unless you have selected this facility for billing.
The Meter Data tab displays the latest information about the location. It displays the latest data from the database until you click the Read Meter button which causes the data to be updated. To set a meter simply type the current reading from the meter's display counter into the Last KWH Read box and click the Set button. The program will attempt to set the meter then read it to be sure it got the right value. Check Meter Status on the left of the screen to verify that the meter was set. Retry if necessary.
See the IO section if the meter IO ports
The Meter Setup tab is pretty much like the New Location screen, with a couple of additions.
Reset Meter. This button clears any internal error messages from the meter. If IO Capable has been checked, it also updates all the IO features.
Who Are You? This button causes one meter that has the test jumper installed to respond with its serial number. You can use this to check a meter if it does not seem to respond, perhaps because the wrong serial number was entered or because the wrong meter board is in the plastic box. It only works if there is only one meter with the test jumper on because all the meters so jumpered will respond at once and nothing will get through.
Get Option Byte. The meter has the capability to store a small amount of configuration data for use by the program. It is not currently used for anything.
This tab shows the history of meter readings with the most recent ones on the top.
This tab shows some of the underlying data not useable by the user, but helpful to a programmer trying to troubleshoot a malfunctioning system. If you call for technical support, you may be asked to read some of this data to the technician.
Meters with IO capabilities can be used for 1) monitoring a switch position, 2) activating a relay, or 3) counting pulses from a water meter, gas meter, door switch or any other type of switch closure. There are three ports and each port may be used independently. If you have a dual, 2-in-1 meter, one, or two ports can be assigned to one location and the remaining port(s) assigned to the second location.
You use the Meter Setup tab to configure the IO capabilities. If you check the IO Capable box, you will see three columns with IO Port #1, IO Port #2, and IO Port #3 headings. These correspond to the terminals on the meter with the same IO numbers. Under each heading, is a dropdown box that contains the different functions possible for each port. If you choose one of the pulse counting functions, you will be presented two more fields to tell the program about the display resolution in the same manner you do for electricity.
After you have selected IO Capable and chosen the functions, the Meter Data tab will display current data about the IO features. Labels identify each port, its function and its current status. For an input, On means the switch is closed. For an output, On means the relay is activated. To change the state of a output, use the drop down box, then click the Set button underneath it. The water, gas and pulse features operate just like the electricity ones do.
Chapter 6. Data Logging and Billing
The Billing screen has two tabs: Billing Action and View Invoices. The View Invoices tab only appears if you select EZReadIt Billing.
This screen changes appearance depending on which billing type is selected.
No Billing. Use this option if you want to read the meters and log the data but not prepare an invoice for each location. Select the locations of the meters you want to read. The bottom choice reads the meters at locations where you have checked the 'This Location Selected for Reading' box in the Meter Setup tab of the Locations screen. At this point you can click the 'Read Selected Meters Once' button or you can enter the number of seconds between the start of each read cycle. If you enter one or any number less than the time it takes to read all the meters, the readings will be taken continuously. Click the 'Start Data Logging' button when you are ready. The meters will be read at the requested interval until you quit the program. When you restart the program, you have to manually start the data logging again.
EZReadIt Billing. Select the locations for the meters you want to prepare a bill for or those you want to read the meters and log as above.
If you check the Read Meters box, the program will read the meters immediately before preparing invoices. We suggest you read the meters first, print a report of meter reading sorted by date and correct any problems you may have with meters that did not read properly.
Check the 'Mark meters as billed when creating invoice data' button so that the next billing cycle will begin with the current reading as the Last Billed reading (see the Meter Data tab on the Locations screen). If you want to experiment printing invoices and be able to reprint them, leave this box unchecked. If you mess it up, you can edit the value in Last Billed in the Locations screen.
Select the Print Option. 'Print Later' allows you to print the invoices from the Reports menu. 'Print while Reading' will print the invoice right after the meter has been read. Do not use this option if any of your tenants rent more than one location or they will get a separate invoice for each location. 'Print after Reading' will have cause all the invoices to be printed after they have been calculated. If you have not checked the 'Read meters before billing' box, the program will behave the same way after the invoices have been calculated (ie, the legend should say "Print while calculating invoices' instead of 'Print while reading.')
Click the 'Prepare Invoices' button when ready to proceed. If you click the 'Start Data Logging' button, the program will perform the same function as described above under 'No Billing.'
Future Enhancements. The CC Marina Program and QuickBooks interfaces will appear in a future release of the program.
The View Invoices tab still has some unresolved issues. We suggest you use the Reports Menu to view invoices.
Chapter 7. Reports Menu
Select the Report you want first, then select the items you want to include in the report and the sort order. Finally select either the Screen or Print button to generate the report. If you choose screen, you can choose to print the report either by hitting Ctrl-P or selecting File|Print from the Access menu.
Not all the possible menu selections have a report to go with them. If the 'Screen' and 'Print' buttons are grayed out, there is no report available. Some of the Include and Sort options are also grayed out if they are not applicable to the selected report.
Chapter 8. Customers
Most of the fields on the Customer screen are self explanatory. The exceptions are:
Rate Group. Choose the rate group that was set up earlier that will apply to this customer. If a customer will have two different rates for different spaces, you will have to put the customer in twice with slight variations in name to distinguish them.
Selected. Check this box if you want this customer to be included in reports for Selected customers.
Name of other charge. This is the name that will appear on the customer's invoice for an unmetered charge such as rent. Put the amount of the charge in the field below.
Look up customer. This drop down box contains the names of all the customers sorted in order selected in the Sort Order box immediately below. If you sort by Company Name or Phone Number, the drop down box may appear to be empty. Scroll down because it is probably populated with several records that do not have company names or phone numbers entered.
Sort Order. Select the field that you would like the list of customers sorted by. This applies to the Look up customer drop down box and to the First, Previous, Next, Last navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Billing Start Entry. Select how you would like billing to start. Your choices are 1) Online reading meaning that as soon as you assign a location to this customer, the computer will read the meter and that value will be the starting value for future billing; 2) Manual Reading in which the computer will ask you to put in the value; and 3) Don't Set Now will allow you to set the value later from the Meter Data tab of the Locations screen.
Add Meter Location. Click this button and you will be asked to choose one of the vacant locations. If the location you want is not visible, it probably means the location is still assigned to the previous customer. Navigate to that customer, vacate the location and return to add the location to the new customer.
Remove a Meter Location. Use this button to vacate a customer from a location. If the customer has used power that he has not been charged for, the program will ask if you want to continue vacating the location or create an invoice. If the customer has several locations shown in the grid, you must click on one of them to highlight it in black before you click the Remove button.
Chapter 9. Rates
Utility rates can be terribly confusing. There are endless possibilities of how rates can be structured. This program tries to accommodate most of them, but there is no support for rates that have a demand feature (if your maximum usage during any given period goes over a certain level, you pay more) or rates that vary by time of day (usually lower rates at night). The meters are capable of supporting a program like that, but this is not the program.
This program is set up so that the user can define different rate groups. A rate group has the rates for electricity, water, gas and room for one other metered item. You may only have one rate for everyone or you may have separate rates for different customers, partners, employees, charities, etc.
Unless you want to modify the demo rates, begin by clicking the Add New button in the button bar at the bottom of the screen. Type a name in the Rate Group field and click anywhere outside that box to create the group. There are four meter type available: KWH, Water, Gas and Pulse. After you set up the KWH rates, you can click the Meter Type drop down box to enter the rates for the other utilities if you will be using them.
Fixed Charge. This is a fixed charge that applies in addition to charges for power or other metered substance. It is frequently called a service fee or meter reading fee.
Minimum charge. If a customer does not use much power, this is the minimum charge that will apply. It usually includes a meter reading and processing fee.
Maximum charge. This is the maximum a customer would be charged, no matter how much power is used. It applies only if an amount above zero is entered.
Unit Range and Price per Unit. This grid allows you to enter up to six tiered charges for power. Enter the number of units (kwh for electricity) from zero to the top of the first tier in the top field and the appropriate unit charge in the field to its right. Do the same for each additional tier. When you get to the last tier, fill in the rest of the right hand rate column with the amount for the maximum rate.
Tax rates. You can enter two separate tax types (sales tax, utility tax, etc.) Fill in the name of the tax in the Tax Type fields and enter the applicable tax rate in the columns below the name. If one of the taxes is on the amount of the sale plus the other tax, you have to calculate the combined tax rate and enter it. For instance, if there is a utility tax of 10% and a sales tax of 7 % on the amount charged for power plus the utility tax, you would enter 10% for the utility tax and 7.7% (1.10 times.07) for the sales tax rate.
Chapter 10. File Maintenance
Delete Log File Entries. This choice allows you to delete unwanted meter reading log entries. You can choose to delete all the entries, all the entries for a specified Facility, or the entries for only one Location. You can also specify a date. Only entries before the date entered will be deleted. After you delete log entries, you will not be able to view them again, either on the screen or in reports unless you restore a backup made prior to the deletion. See below about Compact the Database.
Delete Invoices. This choice allows you to delete old invoices, either all or those for a specific customer. Like the Log File Deletion, you can also specify a date and only invoices dated before that will be deleted. See below about Compact the Database.
Backup the Database. The EZReadIt Gold program consists of two Microsoft Access databases: The EZReadIt.mdb file contains the program and the EZMeter.mdb file contains all the data you have entered and all the meter reading data. It is this file that will be backed up when you use this feature. The default folder to hold the backed up database file is the \Backup folder under the folder where you installed the program. You can also specify another drive and/or folder. If the folder does not exist, it will ask you if it should create it. If you say No, the backup will be aborted. If you say Yes, the program will try to create the folder. If it fails, it is probably because you entered a non-existent drive or you violated Microsoft's folder naming conventions.
Note. The program uses a VBScript function to copy the file and some anti-virus programs may warn you that it is a potentially malicious script. You should allow the script to run to continue the backup process. If you choose not to let it run, you may do a manual backup of the EZMeter.mdb file using Windows Explorer or My Computer.
The backup file will be named with the date followed by "EZMeter.mdb" so it will look line 080904EZMeter.mdb where 08 is the month, 09 is the day, and 04 is the year. The backup file will have the same system date as the original file.
Restore the Database. There is no Restore feature in the program. Use Windows Explorer or My Computer to rename the backup file to EZMeter.mdb and copy that file to the folder where the program is installed, overwriting the existing file.
Compact the Database. When Access deletes an entry, it simply marks that entry as not available. When you compact the database, all the deleted entries are permanently removed, the database is made smaller, and it may run faster depending on how many entries have been deleted. Access will close all the files for this procedure and the program will restart when it has completed.
Chapter 11. Technical Support
An online support forum for questions regarding program operation and troubleshooting has been established at http://www.davidgecontrols.com/phpBB. Please review this site to see if your question has already been answered. If it has not, please post the question.
Free technical support is available to registered owners of EZ Meter Plus and EZ Meter Plus IO meters who have reviewed the support forum and not found a satisfactory answer. Call (805) 688-9696 between 8:00AM and 5:00PM Pacific time, Monday through Friday excluding major holidays. For other users, support is available for $40.00 per incident charged to your MasterCard or Visa.
Appendix A Software Revision History
Rev 0.5.0 Added capability to assign the number of pulses per billable unit for pulse counting systems. This involved changes to both the Access database and the Active-X Communication server. 12-28-04
Rev 0.4.9 Fixed problem with writing log entries when two reading pulses and kwh within the same second. 08-24-04
Rev 0.4.8 Added a File Maintenance section to the Main Menu. See Chapter 10 above for a description of the new features. Fixed several problems with invoices not printing properly. 8-9-04
Rev 0.4.7 Fixed problem that limited the Locations page to the Sample facility only. Multiple facilities are now supported. Eliminated error message that occurred if you click done and there is no serial number or location name. 7-19-04
Rev 0.4.6 Completed fix of problem in last rev. 7-16-04
Rev 0.4.5 Partial fix of problem entering new locations 7-16-04
Rev 0.4.4 Fixed issue with meter not online when entering a new location. Fixed issue that prevented data logging from working properly if user had not first visited the Locations page. Fixed several cosmetic items. 5-5-04
Rev 0.4.3 Fixed major issue with the installer.