Issue
When working with numbers that are 7 digits or longer the number is displayed in exponential format and there is a loss resolution in the lower digits that can cause an issue with metering applications. This can be an issue when using pulse counter inputs.
Product Line
Andover Continuum
Environment
All Continuum controllers and modules that support Pulse counting with Counter inputs
Cause
The number formatting throughout the Continuum product is 32 bit IEEE Floating point notation, for numbers up to 7 digits long they will be displayed as a regular decimal number, for larger numbers they will be displayed in exponential format:
Significant digits × baseexponent
This allows Continuum to work with huge numbers like 123.45 x 1067 but has the disadvantage that as the numbers get larger there will be a loss of resolution in the lower digits starting with the units.
Resolution
When working with pulsed inputs from meters try to keep the size of the numbers down, putting scaling factors of x10 and x100 only makes the numbers bigger, so where possible scale the numbers down and upscale the units.
For example when scaling an input where you would enter a conversion of: Value+(ElecValue * 10)
Instead use: Value+(ElecValue*0.1) and change the units to Kilo Units, Mega Units etc.
If you have to measure large pulsed numbers another option is to split the large numbers across 2 Numerics, so in Plain English when a value gets to 999,999 then add 1 more pulse, you get 1 in the upper number and 0 the lower number. This can then be displayed on a graphic with 2 adjacent text boxes.
Where very accurate metering is required the best solution is to use meters with an intelligent data interface that supports one of the common open protocols supported by Continuum (i.e. BACnet MS/TP, Modbus or M-Bus via X Drivers). This solution means there is no chance of missing a pulse or Continuum getting out of sync' with the meter.
Note: If you need to set the lower number back to zero, then the object first needs to be disabled. If this is a BACnet bCX then the BACnet name (eg BACnetDevices\bCX25\Counter2) needs to be used within the PE Program
