BEACON is a web-based software application. To use it, all you need is an Internet-enabled device, supported web browser, and a BEACON username and password. See Minimum System Requirements for supported browsers.
The BEACON User Interface (UI) provides an optimized experience that uses all the available space on your computer monitor screen.
The UI is broken into four main sections, as shown in the image above:
Top Nav Bar (A)
Vertical Nav Bar (B)
Page Contents (C) – Page contents change based on the page selected.
Vertical Scroll Bar (D) – A standard browser scroll bar will appear when the browser window is not large enough to view the BEACON window.
Top Nav Bar
Assess the following BEACON features via the Top Nav Bar:
Search (A)
Enter serial numbers, location IDs, meter IDs, customer names and other keywords in Search and press Enter to quickly locate items of interest. Search results are displayed on the Monitor page, regardless of the page the search was performed on. See Search for more information.
Help (B)
Click the ? to view context-sensitive BEACON Help.
User Profile (C)
Click the User icon to expand the User Profile section and view:
- User Name, BEACON portfolio name, user email address and Roles assigned to the User
- Logout button
- Language Selector (English, Spanish, French)
- Switch Utility – If your User account is associated with multiple BEACON portfolios you will see a link to switch between those portfolios.
App Launcher (D)
Click the App Launcher to view other Badger Meter apps linked to your User profile.
Vertical Nav Bar
BEACON is organized in pages, each accessible by clicking a page name in the vertical nav bar on the left side of your screen. Page contents will display to the right of the vertical nav bar.
Pages
- At a Glance (AAG)
- System Sync
- Monitor
- Billing Reads
- Analytics
- Events
- Assets
- Engagement (visible when EyeOnWater is enabled for your portfolio)
- Users
- Utility Settings
Expanding and Collapsing the Vertical Nav Bar and Page Menus
Use the Expand and Collapse buttons at the bottom of the navigation bar to toggle your view of the navigation pane between Expanded (show page icons and page names) or Collapsed (show page icons only).
Where available, click the ˅ (expand) and ^ (collapse) arrows to expand or collapse individual page menus. When expanded, related pages are displayed. When collapsed, hover your cursor over an icon to display related pages.
Locking the Vertical Nav Bar
Use Pin and Unpin, located at the bottom of the navigation bar, to control how the navigation bar displays in relation to the pages.
Click the Pin icon (bottom of the vertical navigation bar) to lock the navigation bar to the left side your screen with pages displayed in the space to the right of the navigation bar. When pinned, pages you are viewing always start at the edge of the vertical navigation bar (below left), whether the bar is expanded or collapsed. When unpinned, the navigation bar overlays the page (below right).
Pin |
Unpin |
| Hamburger icon includes < or > arrows and lets you expand/collapse the navigation bar. | Hamburger icon has no arrows and lets you hide/show the navigation bar. |
