reading the operations manuals as well as technical/service manual.
Wiktionary defines Knobology as “The functionality of controls on an instrument as relevant to their application.” A Medical Device Knobologist is someone who focuses these highly tuned skills toward medical devices. Let’s start off with some basic terminology.
Push Buttons are mechanical operated switch components that when pressed (also depressed, mashed, or punched) will open or close some part of a system. In an electrical instrument, a push button will open or close a circuit.
Toggles are different kinds of switches that work off either a small lever, much like the levers of our BMET ancestors. Modern switches resemble a rocker face plate that “rocks” into 1, 2 or 3 positions.
Dials are rotary control knobs that when turned will adjust a systems output control. If a dial is connected to a circuit, like a rheostat, the amount of resistance is being altered by the user. This in turn will adjust the circuit’s current/voltage in order to get a desired response from the instrument.
We will learn about more controls in the Medical Device Knobologist Level 2 certification scheduled for the next issue of The Diogenes. Why is it important to learn knobology? I mean how many of you still don’t know how to program the correct time on your car stereo yet it doesn’t affect your driving. Well, learning knobology is important because when others depend on you it looks good that you at least know what the device is supposed to do under normal conditions. The operating manual sometimes referred to the users manual list the pushbutton’s and controls for a device. The figure on the following page shows a picture of a Welch Allyn Atlas 621NP monitor. Let's use this device as an example and learn a little about what each button does.
The following link is to an Operations manual for the Welch Allyn Atlas Operators manual.
Reading Operations manuals may not be what all the cool BMETs are doing now a days. You may think others will laugh at you and say "You don't know how to work on that simple device." I promise you that they don't know as much as they pretend to. You see they didn't read the manual either and learned it from someone else who may not have learned it all either. Little by little the training and knowledge gets polluted until there is very little left. On the following page, use