User's Manual

60 Meter Operation
Received Message Quality Indicator
Once PLC communication with the specific meter occurs, the Received
Message Quality indicator (or at least part of it) is also displayed. It shows the
quality of the most recently received PLC message, in addition to indicating that PLC
communication occurred with that specific meter. PLC communication is checked for
received-message quality once each minute. After the PLC detection method has
switched from network traffic to received-message quality, all bars on the Received
Message Quality indicator and the PLC Traffic Detection indicator turn off, if no PLC
communication has occurred with this meter within the last X minutes (X is
configurable from 1 to 65535 minutes). This does not indicate that network traffic
has stopped, only that communication with that specific meter has been disrupted.
At this point, the meter returns to the initial network PLC detection method that
occurs once per second.
The PLC Received Message Quality indicator operates as follows:
 No bars = no message received for this meter
 Smallest bar = a poor quality message
 Both smallest and medium bar = a medium quality message
 All three bars = a high quality message
Battery Backup
A battery in the meter provides power to maintain clock accuracy and allow for cover
removal tamper detection during a power outage. The battery cannot be removed or
replaced.
If the battery voltage falls below its normal operating range, an error message is
generated and sent to NES System Software via the Data Concentrator. While
powered, the meter will continue to operate normally if the internal battery fails.
However, stop mode will be entered on the next power down.
This means that during power down, the meter clock will not be advanced, and
tamper and tilt conditions will not be detected. On power up, clock error and primary
power down entries will be recorded in the event log. The meter clock will resume
from where it stopped when the meter was powered down. The clock error causes the
following circumstances to occur:
 Missed Self-reads are not checked for.
 The One-time-read queue is not checked.
 The TOU calendar will not be assessed for DST, seasons, holidays, etc.; tariff
1 is assumed
 The load profile log will not include the power down time since the UTC clock
was not updated.
If the battery is disabled or the battery voltage is below its normal operating range,
then safe mode will not be entered following a switchover.