New project at work: Programming the tablet PC's to use for rounds.

Lemme tell ya the size of the place I work at now in the vernacular of Steinway grand pianos. They come in S,M,L,B, and D. Small, Medium, Large, Big, and DAMN BIG. We're just a big. Right now were an honest M. Few more years, we'll probably be a L. (D is reserved for places like Google, Microsoft, and probably others that I'm not even aware of) I dunnow... If it all builds out as the current design, (and rumor) it'll be an 80MW site within the next few years. Right now it's a meager 24 under our direct control.

Here's a nifty link to a blog for a Data Center being built in Indiana. Lots of neat pictures of a building being built - and I suspect more to come. They're sized about a quarter of one of our buildings, at least electrically. Not to put them down, just putting the scale in perspective. I was actually reading his personal blog, and he seems like a really nice guy. Judging from the picture I saw, young and successful too.

I'll never be able to post a picture of anything at my buildings, unfortunately. There's some neat things to share, but it ain't never gonna happen.

However 24MW of data center makes for 30 pages of engineering rounds. Frankly most of the data is merely yes/no, open valves, closed breakers, CRAH's running, but 30 pages nonetheless, with two more DC sections to come online very soon. Daily. Three shifts.

Right now that precious data is sitting, unused, as graphite on paper. Hence the tablet PC's, just input the data in the first place, into a spreadsheet. I volunteered, I'm always up for a challenge. So:

Excel, and VB, and Access. OH MY!

Guess I should stop volunteering - my head is swimming! I'll post some sanitized screenshots in a few weeks when I get more done - I finally had to break down and buy a reference book, after a week of bumbling about when I had time yielded only frustration with little fruit. Buy the book, block out four hours, and I've got programmed radio buttons that enter their value into the proper cell on the right sheet to be pulled from with Access (somehow, still not sure of that plan yet), and even run a macro to enter a different value into a data entry cell, which I'm hoping that one day will actually be a pop-up VB dialog box. Click the equipment from a list, and boink! pops up a box where you can enter all the appropriate values for that piece of equipment, and maybe even bring up a comment box if an improper value is input that can automatically email the comment and unexpected value to the chief engineer for consideration of action.

Hey, a man can dream, right?

At the least it could automate the dreaded monthly reports.