Chapter 1. Features and Capabilities
Transport® Model PT878 Portable Liquid Flowmeter User’s Manual 1
Chapter 1. Features and Capabilities
The TransPort® Model PT878 is a transit-time flowmeter which combines
all the features of a full-size flowmeter with the advantages of a portable
instrument.
This section describes the TransPort features and general system, and
explains the theory of operation.

1.1 Overview

The PT878 measures the flow rate of acoustically conductive single-phase
fluids. This includes most clean liquids, sewage, some slurries, some
oil/water mixtures, and liquids with a small percentage of entrained gas
bubbles. The flowmeter provides one linear (0/4-20 mA) analog output of
flow velocities or volumetric flow rate of these fluids, measuring velocities
from ±0.03 to ±12 m/sec (±0.1 to ±40 ft/sec), along with one selectable
frequency output or pulsed totalizer output.
The PT878 also provides two 4 to 20-mA analog inputs in order to connect
temperature transmitters to measure energy flow rate of liquids. Energy
flow rate may be calculated for water, glycol, and water/glycol mixtures.
The PT878 has the ability to store site data in files which can be accessed at
a later time. Within the Main Menu, a set of forms (windows) asks you all
the necessary setup information for a particular site. Once the necessary
questions are answered, you simply save the information to a file.
The PT878 stores these files and other data in non-volatile memory, which
retains the information even if power is off. The flowmeter itself runs on
rechargeable or alkaline batteries for up to 10 hours.
This small lightweight flowmeter displays measurements in both numeric
and graphical form on a EL-backlit, 240 x 200 pixel LCD graphic screen.
The PT878 also has the capability of logging over 100,000 flow data points
internally.
Using an infrared communications port, the PT878 can transmit or print
logged data, as well as real time data and other stored data. It is also
computer-programmable via GE’s PanaView™ software.