Device Serial Register

Every set-top box, router and ONU registered by its own serial and tracked from the shelf to the subscriber and back — so a unit that came home can be told from one that did not. Off counts kit by model only, which is what the catalogue already does.

Switch: Settings > Cable > Device Serial Register.

Where it appears

Getting serials in

Boxes arrive by the carton, so the register takes them the same way. Register from a purchase bill asks for the bill once, then a whole run of serials pasted or typed one per line — a list separated by commas works too. Everything lands on the shelf, unissued, stamped with the bill that bought it, so the register can say what a unit cost and when it was bought.

A serial that is already on the register is skipped rather than overwritten or allowed to fail the batch: keying fifty boxes and re-keying one you already entered should not cost you the other forty-nine. The count of what was added and what was skipped is shown when it saves.

Cable shell: the Devices page, next to Bulk Tools because it is store work rather than subscriber work. A connection’s box number links to the unit issued against it.

Flow

flowchart LR
    A[Serials entered off the purchase bill] --> B[(On the shelf)]
    B --> C[Issued to a subscriber]
    C --> D[(Out with a connection)]
    D --> E{Comes back?}
    E -->|returned| B
    E -->|not returned| F[Still out · chased or written off]
The serial is the identity, so the same unit can be issued, recovered and issued again without becoming a second row.

Screens

Switching off. Warns at save when devices are out with subscribers — the settings page says how many.