Transcript
Introduction
Welcome everyone to today’s Ask a Pro series. My name is Vinnie Lazzara, and I’m gonna be going over the most recent white paper, Streamlined PQ Analysis, with the latest PMI View updates. PMI View for iOS continues to evolve, and so we’re gonna go into some new features and improvements that we’ve made since our last white paper. These updates reflect direct feedback from power quality professionals who use PMI View for daily critical tasks.
New Features at a Glance
At a glance, here are some of the things that we had added:
- Live data and user interface revamps where we redesigned the meter view for enhanced readability and usability.
- Support for delta voltage analysis on waveform plotting.
- Improved hookup detection with animated guides to more clearly demonstrate how to fix CT connections.
- Controls to edit common initialization parameters much easier.
In terms of some more diagnostics, we added diagnostic readings as a live view directly from the device menu, and we also have added real-time cell stats for any of your cell devices.
For recording data, we added the ability to set recording reminders and export them to the iOS calendar or reminders app. This was actually a direct feature from one of our users. We take a lot of feedback from users directly, and we design it for you guys. So if you guys have any suggestions, any features, or anything that you guys would like to add, feel free to let us know.
We also added the ability to view recordings in their local time zone. If your recording was set with a time zone that was different than when you download it, you can switch that over for any state lines or anything like that. We also added the ability to inspect device settings and make quick edits to recording templates.
For device management, we added the ability to update your recorder’s firmware directly from the app. That was a big feature, and then we also added the ability to search, save, and view the Bolt’s calibration certificate. And finally, we added the ability to download system logs for troubleshooting.
Redesigned Meter View
One of the first things that we had done is redesigned the meter view. If any of you are familiar with how it looked before, some of the readability was just a little bit difficult on it. It went from that to being a lot more legible. We also added the current range down at the bottom for reference as well. With this, it also added additional measurements such as voltage THD, current THD, and frequency, and the current range as well.
Hookup Detection
Now, if our seeker was hooked up incorrectly, one of the things that you’ll see is that incorrect hookup detected, where it lets you know that there could be a hookup that is incorrect. One of the things that we had done here is we added these animated cards to make it a lot easier for you to visualize what exactly needs to be done. And these animate with the arrows and everything else. It’s currently inside of our panel, so it’s not hooked up incorrectly. But that’s what it would look like. Hopefully, you guys never have to see that.
Advanced Diagnostics and Cell Data
We also added advanced diagnostics to view live diagnostic data and cell data. Whenever you’re connected to your device, you can tap on this info button right over here. We added this diagnostic readings over here. This can tell you things like the super cap, voltage, the firmware version, time zone, hookup, frequency, current range. Now, this isn’t a cell seeker, but if it was, you can view all the cell data over here. This has all the modem and signal information as well.
For the cell stats, when you’re using cell-equipped devices, this can help you understand the signal strength and connection quality. The data that it shows is:
- Real-time signal strength, like RSSI, RSRQ, RSRP.
- Device and SIM details like the IP address, the APN, ICCID, and the IMEI.
- Radio metrics about the band and tower.
Recording and Analysis
In-App Reminders
One of the things that we added are in-app reminders, as I mentioned, as a direct result of customer feedback. After you initialize the device, you can now set a reminder for yourself directly within PMI View, and you can also export it to your calendar.
So if we were to start a new recording over here on the seeker, we wanna just restart. This will download the current data that’s on there and start a new recording. After it’s successfully initialized, a confirmation pop-up will appear, and we’re gonna tap set reminder on there if we would like. So right there, device has started recording. You got this little countdown, otherwise it’ll automatically dismiss itself. But we can hit set a reminder.
Now it’ll let us enter in the date and time that we wanna set the reminder for. So if we wanna download this recording and remember, let’s say, Monday, we’re planning out our week. We can set that for Monday and set the time at nine AM. We can also include a reminder type. Even though it’s download, we can also go to retrieve. Let’s say that this is a cell seeker. We can give us a reminder to download it. But if it’s not a cell one, then we can give us a reminder to retrieve it. We can add notes over here too, so if we wanna include the address.
Once you’re done, you would just hit create a reminder. We’re all set. We got our reminder set for us. And now we can actually add it to our calendar too. And if we want, we can add it to our reminders. This is our init countdown timer as well to let us know when the recording’s gonna start, so if we have any last-minute hookups.
Time Zone Display for Recordings
One of the things here is when viewing a downloaded recording, the app gives flexibility to display all timestamps. This helps if you are inspecting recordings maybe across state lines or sending it to someone that’s at a different location.
If we go into our downloaded recordings, this is the recording that we just downloaded. We’ve got our time zone, GMT minus four. We can display it local or UTC. So if we wanted it to, let’s say, Los Angeles time, we’re in LA. The recorder is in Eastern Time, so it’s still minus four, so all the timestamps are all displaying what that is. But if we want it in our time, we can hit Local, and now you can see all the timestamps change, as well as all the timestamps on the strip charts as well. This helps larger organizations.
Inspect and Edit Recorder Settings
One other thing that we added was a group process for reviewing and modifying your recorder’s configuration. If you want to know what your device is currently initialized with, like we just restarted the recording, but what if we wanted to know what any of the parameters were set to? We could just tap Inspect Settings. This displays a read-only view of our current recorder. And then from there, we can quickly edit the settings if we want, like recording interval, current range. If we wanted to, we could tap Advanced Options and actually go into the actual editor itself.
Device Management
Firmware Updates Over Wi-Fi
In terms of device management for firmware updates, PMI View now supports firmware updates over Wi-Fi. In order to download the firmware to your phone, it actually is automatically downloaded right when you open the app. You can see it over here if you go to the More tab and then go to Recorder Updates. These are all the current firmware versions that we have for our devices. Make sure that your phone is connected to the internet because it won’t download these if you’re connected to, let’s say, a Bolt. So if you are gonna perform a firmware update in the field, be sure to have that downloaded beforehand.
All of our devices are up to date, but if it wasn’t, this is what it would look like. In our side menu, we would have a red notification right there, and when we tapped it, it would say Update Firmware. So you can see we’re on one seven seven, but if we’re on one seven six, we have this red button to update our firmware, and that would start the firmware update process.
One thing to make sure of is that when you do this, ensure the device will remain powered and your phone can stay nearby for the entire process. It can take up to several minutes. Interrupting it may result in having to send the unit back to us for repair, so make sure that you have enough battery charge on your phone and that the signal strength is good.
Bolt Calibration Certificate
The next feature that we added is the ability to see your Bolt calibration certificate from within the app. Under our More options here, we can now tap Calibration Certificates. This does require internet, so if you are connected to a Wi-Fi device like a Tensor or a Bolt, make sure that you switch back to cell or anything with a valid network connection.
Now we can type in our device’s serial number, which we already have. Let’s say that we didn’t. We have four hundred four five four. This will locate the calibration certificate, and now we can either preview it or save it. If you preview it, it has an embedded PDF viewer inside of here. And if we wanna save that, you just tap Save. I can swipe left to delete it, or I can just tap Edit over here and delete it if we wanted to. Now, if we connect our Bolt, we can also see an option to view it from within the device menu.
Download System Logs
Last but not least, we have the ability to download logs from a system device. First, wanna connect a desired device from your device list. Once we’re connected, we can open the side menu and select Download System Logs. On the side menu, you have an option to download logs. And once you do, you can also upload your logs. If there are any, they will appear inside the More tab under the More options. This is mainly used for troubleshooting. If you’re on a tech support call, it can give us a better understanding of what’s going on with the device. Hope you guys should never have to encounter that. But if you do, you can do it easily over here from the More options.
Verify that your mobile device is connected to internet. After downloading, go to More options, and then you will have an option to Upload Device Logs, and this will send the files directly to us. For security purposes, these are encrypted, so you will not be able to view them. You will have to coordinate this with our support team.
Conclusion
That concludes a lot of the newest features for PMI View. It represents a significant advancement in mobile power quality analysis. These are driven by feedback from users, as we said. We encourage users to share their experiences, suggestions, and feedback by contacting our development team. Thank you guys so much for joining our Ask a Pro webinar. I hope you guys have a good rest of your day.
