Prior to leaving his Office, the engineer's handheld is loaded with details of the one or more sites which he is to visit. This includes site name and address, contact name and telephone number, location names and details of all appliances held by the Office PC.

On starting work, the engineer chooses a site on his handheld and selects the location in which he is to start work. If the location does not already exist, it may be set up on the handheld.

As an appliance is tested, its identity is entered into the handheld which looks for the appliance in the database. If it is not found, the engineer can enter its details, checks ensuring that the appliance is fully defined.

The test results may be entered in one of two ways, using the screen illustrated on the right. If the engineer wishes, for each test he may only tap the Pass, Fail or Skip box: alternatively, he can also enter the measured values. The overall test status is determined by the number of Fails. If there are none, the appliance is assumed to have passed: if there is one or more, the appliance fails. If a suitable printer is available and handheld printing is enabled, the engineer can print the test certificate, handing it to the client before leaving site.

On returning to the Office the engineer connects his handheld to the Office PC, updating the PC database with the latest information. If a certificate has not been printed from the handheld, it can be printed now.

Fast data entry In addition to the data entry facilities provided as standard on a Palm handheld, a special feature has been provided for the entry of appliance identities.

On some sites identities are just numbers such as 1544 and 71223: on others, there are leading zeros, padding the identities to 10 characters - 0000001544, 0000071223.

To save time in data entry, the program will automatically enter the leading zeros if required.

This screen also shows the large buttons used to enter the identity - far faster than legible handwriting.

Electronic delivery of test certificates
When printing documents on the PC, there is an option to send the certificate or report to a PDF file for onward despatch by email or disc.


PDF format is an industry standard for documents which is commonly used for manuals and other documents which are to be transmitted by electronic means.

If your customer wants his test certificate or list of defective appliances at the rush, you could send them in PDF format. He'll need Adope Acrobat Reader, which is free, and that's all.

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POP options

There are two options for POP. They are ...

• Support for multiple handhelds
• Printing from a handheld

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