| 摘要 |
Lightweight portable utility billing apparatus (10) for enabling a utility (private or public) meter reader to: (1) read utility meters (11) of a number of utility customers on a selected route and obtain current meter value information; (3) automatically calculate the customer utility charges; (4) print customer bills (13) containing the calculated charges thereon; and (5) deliver the customer bills (13) to the customer. The apparatus (10) includes a single input/ output magnetic tape (61) for mass data storage and an electronic alterable memory (424) for storing the utility rate tables. The electronic alterable memory (424) may be readily updated by the magnetic tape (61). A keyboard (90), display (80) and impact printer (34) are included as I/O devices with respect to a microprocessor controller (260) that is programmed by an instructional control program stored in a nonvolatile read only memory (422). The apparatus (10) includes many features that greatly increase the versatility of the device, even though the apparatus is very lightweight (less than 10 lbs.). |
