Hey Rusty,

5.1 has MRL in the route management functions just as always. I still don't think you you can use MRL with a 2130 though.

Drew,

Thanks for stepping up. I too will be in touch.

Thanks for responding Drew.

I, like Rusty, have been using CSI a long time, since 1988 when DOS was the operating system and the keyboard was the only control one had to operate the software. Hence, why I am such a "pusher" for "HOT KEYS".

I will also be sending in some "suggestions" on a few things (losses) that has caused me some "problems" and inconveniences in the way I analyze.

You guys have a GREAT product and as a consultant, I constantly recommend your analyzing software and analyzers to clients who are just beginning in house programs. Like my Dad always told me, "you get what you pay for and the "best" is always going to be a little more expensive, but worth it."

Thanks Again.

Rusty,
View the attached doc for the new mrl.

David Eason

mrl.doc (118 Kb, 32 downloads) mrl doc

David is right about loading multiple routes in that way. What I don't like about it is you have to do this every time you want to load a group of routes. If (when) I forget or miss a route in the group I don't see it until I'm in the plant. With MRL you could set up a group and only have to select that group name to get all of your routes. My memory seems to be deteriorating exponentially with my age and this has been a problem more than once for me. My wife calls it "old-timers disease".

You can still build MRL files in the Route Manangement Area, you just can't use them with a 2130. Unless I'm wrong and just can't figure out how to do it. As far as I know you can still load MRLs to a 21** but I don't have one anymore so I can't test it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Joe Gurney,

BTW: update --- I did get a contact from CSI and was informed we do not have contract. I guess our PA did not get it in or something as I only turned it in to him and did no follow-up. Fortunately our only two software problems were easy fixes I could do from here - so I had no contact with CSI last year.

Joe,
I haven't dug into it very deep, but I connect a 2120 exactly like I connect my 2130 except I use a USB cable for the 2130 and the old serial cable for the 2120. The old analyzer data transfer button doesn't work anymore. You just get a word doc when you click on it. The attached doc shows a screen shot of when I select the 2130 and another of when I select the 2120. The MRL option is still available in Route, but I haven't found anywhere in Data Transfer to use it.

David Eason

transfer.doc (124 Kb, 14 downloads) comm setup

Thanks David.

Hey Drew Mackley - What's up with the Mulitple Route Load function?

MRL was the first email I sent Drew. No, MRL is not available. The click, click, click, etc, etc, etc, is NOT what we are looking for. In order to 'see' a route, you have to click on the database, then the area, then ctrl-click the route, for each and every route, unless you want to select them ALL which I don't want to do because many of my routes are for special situations and/or report use only and I don't want to actually load them all.

Maybe it's just a 2130 thing, I don't know. But I know I can't do what I used to do, which was build an MRL with the routes in exactly the order I wanted them and click one button and load them. This week I have 27 routes loaded from 23 different areas in 3 different databases. I used to be able to load these, in the order I wanted, without having to even think about it, with ONE click. That's what I want.... what we had before!

If I were on staff, and had to be here 40 hours a week (whether I worked 40 hours or not), I probably wouldn't care. But as a consultant, doing a fixed price survey, time is money. I don't want to do anything 200 times (loading routes the 'new' way) that I could do just once.

Hi guys, good to see this thread has generated some interesting discussion with some positive remarks. I will be attending the reliability week in Australia on the 16-march-08. I will wait till I find out the lastest developments from both the vendors and other V.A techs. Then hopefully I will have some more information on this. Thanks for keeping this important issue alive.

I am an avid user of mrl as well. When you have a team of people, some of which might have been on the tiles the night before, you want to make sure they remember all their routes....! an mrl will deal with all the sites where many routes (12+) comprise a complete survey. Aids the fading memory which is more commonly known as quality control. You just do not want to drive / fly back to site because you missed a route!! Cheers. Any other way is prone to forgetting. (and ofcourse in csi you can't have a route which crosses stations or have 1 machine more than once, which is why many routes)--- programmers just would not see the practicality of mrl, they just would not realise the deletion of mrl is a big deal - let's invite them to do a few surveys!!! and test their memories.

I've never understood why CSI (and others) don't have advisory boards or use focus groups to evaluate their products or try out proposed changes. It would be money well spent.

I'm sure the programmers and engineers mean well, but they just have not spent 10-20 years in the field running routes every day. They really don't even know how most 'veteran' route analysts work (hint, they do not rely heavily on "alarms", but rather on field observations, note codes, and extra data).

I agree Rusty,
By extra data I think you mean the wonderful stuff hidden under the "analyze" button. I have used 2 other well known brands and they adopt the approach of having to set up a new point, either off route or back in office on software. What a pain. Then try marrying the extra data with the point it belongs to and you'll have no hair left. With aquire spectrum, there is rarely a use for "off route". CSI notes could be better, by the time I have found one that says what I want it to do, might as well have typed it. Field obs add another level of quality to the service. Even smelt a burned vee belt once. Never would have picked it up in vibration alone. Rgds,

I love the use of notecodes. The 2130 adds notecode "groups" which helps to organize them and saves keystrokes. And the User Defined Notes lets me keep 'odd' notes in the meter to be used with any route. Great ideas!

So, why did they reduce the number of notecodes in RBMware (vs. MasterTrend). When is "less" of anything ever a good idea? This really screwed up my carefully crafted set of notecodes.

Just to share my favourite setting for version 5.1.

For multiple points of a machine (I normally select all points by selecting Shift+Click at first and end point):
See all Overall trend, Waveform P-P trend and Waterfall of Spectrum (such as last 12 months) and scroll it quickly to see any signficant changes.

Kind of screening through multiple spectra using Autoplot in Diagnostic Plotting.