---
title: "Hour and Event Meters"
---

# Hour and Event Meters

> <IUCard title="Hour and Event Meters" link="https://inductiveuniversity.com/video/hour-and-event-meters/7.9" />

**Hour meter** and **Event meter** refer to the **Value Mode** option settings on tags in Transaction Groups. The Value mode drives values that are used to create values that determine how long a value was true. While the selected Value Mode for most transactions is **Direct**, however, the **Hour meter** mode accumulates value for the duration of a condition, and the **Event meter** accumulates count in response to the condition.

## Hour Meter
It is common to write to a tag during the time when a tag's value is true. An hour meter simplifies this effort. Hour meters can be meters that accumulate the millisecond, second, minute, hour, or day.

### To count the duration of a tag being true
1. From OPC Browser or Tag Browser, drag a boolean tag into the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** area of a **Standard** transaction group.
1. From OPC Browser or Tag Browser, drag a memory tag or OPC tag (must be a numeric data type) into the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** portion of the **Standard** transaction group.
1. Right-click on the boolean tag in the transaction group and select **Edit** to edit it. The **Edit group tag** window is displayed.
1. In the **Edit group tag** window, for **Value Mode**, select **Hour meter**.
1. In the **Edit group tag** window, for **Target Type** select **Other tag** from the dropdown menu, and in **Target Name** enter the name of the memory tag as the target, and click **OK**.
1. In the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** area where the tags are located, go to the **Target Name** column, left-click on each tag to get the dropdown menu, and set the following:
    1. For the boolean tag, select the memory tag from the dropdown which is set previously as the target tag to write the hour meter to.
    1. For the memory tag, select Read-only from the dropdown.
1. Click **Enabled** at the top of the page, and do a **File > Save** to start the group. 
1. Make the boolean tag true to the start the Hour meter.
 
## Event Meter
Another common scenario is to count the number of times an event occurred. For example, where there is boolean tag and you want to count the number of cycles the boolean tag has experienced.

### To count in response to a tag being true
1. From OPC Browser or Tag Browser, drag a boolean tag into the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** area of a **Standard** transaction group.
1. From OPC Browser or Tag Browser, drag a memory tag or OPC tag (must be a numeric data type) into the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** portion of the **Standard** transaction group.
1. Right-click on the boolean tag in the transaction group and select Edit to edit it. The **Edit group tag** window is displayed.
1. In the **Edit group tag** window, for **Value Mode**, select **Event meter**.
1. In the **Edit group tag** window, for **Target Type** select **Other tag** from the dropdown menu, and in **Target Name** enter the name of the memory tag as the target, and click **OK**.
1. In the **Basic OPC/Groups Items** area where the tags are located, go to the **Target Name** column, left-click on each tag to get the dropdown menu, and set the following:
    1. For the boolean tag, select the memory tag from the dropdown which is set previously as the target tag to write the hour meter to.
    1. For the memory tag, select Read-only from the dropdown.
1. Click **Enabled** at the top of the page, and do a **File > Save** to start the group. 
1. Make the boolean tag true to start the Event meter.

## Reset an Hour or Event Meter Based on a Condition

You can set the hour or event meter based on a condition.

1. In the **Basic OPC/Group Items** section, right-click and **Edit** a tag that is serving as the Hour or Event meter. The **edit group tag** window is displayed.
1. In the **Value Mode** area, select the **Reset on condition** check box, click the **tag** icon to display the **Choose Tag** window, and select a **Group Tag** from the pop-up window.
1. Click **OK**.
1. Next to the **tag** icon, choose the **operator** sign, and enter a number. 
1. Click **OK**. The target tag will now reset in response to the condition.