Calculations
      Back to home
      1. AlphaX Help Center
      2. AlphaX Cloud™
      3. Calculations

      How to Calculate Equipment Availability and/or Uptime in AlphaX

      In AlphaX, you can easily calculate the availability or downtime of a piece of equipment or sensor using the built-in calculation features. This article provides a step-by-step guide to help you set up and visualize your calculations effectively.

      Step 1: Access the Calculations Module

      1. Open the AlphaX platform.
      2. Navigate to Calculations from the main menu.
      3. Click Create New Calculation to open the setup wizard.

      Step 2: Set Up the Calculation

      1. Fill Out the Calculation Details:

      • Name: Give your calculation a descriptive name (e.g., Equipment A Availability).
      • Description: (Optional) Add details about what the calculation tracks.
      • Data Type: Select Percentage since uptime or availability is typically represented as a percentage.

      2. Trigger the Calculation Based on Time:

      • Select the time interval that suits your use case:
        • Minutely for highly granular monitoring.
        • Hourly for hourly averages.
        • Daily for daily performance tracking.

      3. Set the Calculation Resolution:

      • The resolution determines the smallest unit of time downtime can be measured at.
      • Important: The resolution must match or be greater than the frequency of your incoming data:
        • If data updates every minute, downtime can only be calculated down to a 1-minute resolution.
        • If data updates hourly, downtime calculations will have a minimum resolution of 1 hour.

      Step 3: Add Actions to Define Your Uptime Formula

      The calculation is defined by setting up three key actions:

      Action 1: Add Measured Metric (Sensor)

      1. Choose the sensor or data source that monitors the metric (e.g., kWh readings).
      2. Set the action type to Count (this will count the number of data messages received).

      Action 2: Define Expected Measurements

      1. Add the expected number of measurements for the selected time period.
      2. Example:
        • A sensor reporting every 5 minutes sends 12 messages per hour (or 288 messages per 24-hour day).

      Action 3: Convert to Percentage

      1. Add an action that multiplies the result by 100 to display it as a percentage.
      2. Formula: Availability (%) =(Actual messages received / Expected messages)×100

      Example Calculation:

      • Time Range: 1 day (24 hours)
      • Expected Messages: 288
      • Actual Messages Received: 269
      269 / 288×100 = 92.40% availability for the day.

      Step 4: Visualize the Calculation

      Visualizations help make the data easier to interpret. AlphaX offers various widgets to present availability and downtime in dashboards and reports:

      Recommended Widgets:

      • Info Box Widget: Displays the current availability percentage as a key metric.
      • Heatmap Charting Widget: Great for time-based visualization—clearly shows patterns and trends in downtime over the selected time range.
      • Line Chart/Table: Use these for comparing historical averages across multiple periods.

      See example Uptime Dash Here: AlphaX Service Uptime Monitor

      Tip:

      Using an average over a period (e.g., weekly or monthly) provides a broader view of performance trends.

      Final Notes

      • The accuracy of your availability calculation depends on your sensor’s update frequency and the data quality.
      • You can also configure alerts in AlphaX to notify you when availability falls below a threshold.
      • For troubleshooting data gaps, use the "Data Integrity" view to see where messages might be missing.

      By following these steps, you can track and improve equipment uptime effectively, using AlphaX's powerful calculation and visualization tools.