By Woody Collins, Congo Helping Hands
When you buy a new car or anything these days with electronics embedded inside, you may encounter a new symbol or error message for the first time. And if it stopped the operation of a working item, you go into a panic while you try to find out what’s wrong. You start a frantic look in the manual or search on the internet.
Late yesterday afternoon, I got a message from my lead technician in Kananga, Congo that a SmartTap was not operational. It showed a picture of a wrench on its display. I had never seen a wrench on the display before in our four years of SmartTap operations. Luckily, he sent me a picture as proof! Since we had experienced a potential problem with an app upgrade and a firmware update at the end of April, I thought this was more collateral damage. So, I updated my trouble ticket with this strange symbol.
A quick response said the symbol meant the SmartTap was put out of service. Yeah, I remember seeing that setting in the app. However, I had not used it and really didn’t know why you would use it. I guess you may want to put a SmartTap out of service and block it from dispensing water in case of a Water Quality emergency. You could prevent people from getting and drinking potentially contaminated water, at least from SmartTaps. Here in the states, the health authorities issue a boil water notice to the public instead of cutting off the water. We could just stop dispensing water.
In order to see how to turn on “out of service,” and possibly see that wrench, I headed to the basement to setup my SmartTap. And yes, you can place a machine out of service with an option in the app. WOW! I wrote up the instructions and translated them to French and sent them along with video and pictures to my lead technician in Kananga. (I HAVE NOT GOTTEN A CONFIRMATION OF FIX!!!)
That’s a Congo workday for me while I am here in the states. Due to the six-hour time difference, I am up early before 6 AM here when it is about noon in Kananga. But usually the night before, I send over instructions for them to do and to answer any questions that I may have had. So, I hope that the problem is solved when I check in with them in the morning. Finally, I end my Congo workday with them about 11 AM (EST) which is 5 PM in Kananga.
I think my body is finally back to normal. My sleep score was good this past week. And I achieved about three excellent nights of sleep.
