The Problem

A distributed energy monitoring solution provided by one of the foremost European Company needed to develop a field installation tool to help rapid deployment of its solution.

The Solution

An Embedded windows compact edition based hand held device was chosen as the platform. The platform had an integrated GPS, WiFi as well as a bar code scanner.
The software based on C# / .NET was developed that functioned as the front end to a comprehensive central database. The application operates with intermittent connectivity to the central database.

The software carries with it all the intelligence and troubleshoot capabilities on the field. It assists the installer with connectivity issues, configuration issues, matching the identity and location of each of the sensor nodes in the network. GPS capability helps keep the location information in the central database in synchronization.

Since the software updates the central database when connectivity is available, a complex three-way merge operation may need to be performed on the database. Timestamp based data items helps in the merge operation. Conflicts that cannot be resolved automatically are presented to the system administrator for manual resolution.

The software application can configure a sensor node completely and bring the node online. It assists the installer in troubleshooting wireless network connectivity issues.

A modern contemporary graphical user interface that has the same look and feel of the web based desktop application helps the user to quickly start using the application.

With the introduction of the hand held installation and troubleshooting tool, the support calls to the client reduced by more than half.