Signals on the Web for idaq

Transcription

1 Signals on the Web for idaq User guide March 2017 Rev 07

2 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide 2

3 TOOLS for SMART MINDS Worldwide technical support and product information: TOOLS for SMART MINDS Corporate headquarter Via Padania, 16 Castel Mella Brescia (Italy) Copyright 2014 TOOLS for SMART MINDS. All rights reserved. 3

4 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide SUMMARY Introduction... 5 Distributions... 5 Requirements... 5 Minimum hardware requirements... 5 Minimum software requirements... 5 Installation... 6 Features of Signals on the Web for idaq... 6 User interface... 7 R U N N I N G SIGNAL S ON THE WE B F O R IDAQ... 8 O P E R A T I O N S O N T H E E X I S T I N G S E S S I O N S... 9 S E S S I O N S O N T H E C L O U D Selecting channels Editing parameters Visualizing signals Inserting a description Page publishing Help palette Editing communication parameters Useful links

5 TOOLS for SMART MINDS INTRODUCTION Signals On The Web (SOTW) is an add-on for idaq that publishes real-time analog values in a web page. Thanks to idaq features, SOTW receives data from different National Instruments acquisition boards, both local and remote. With Signals on the Web, you can share the acquired signals with your colleagues, wherever they are. You can also specify the number of decimals used to display and publish your signals; it is possible to insert a description of your system that can be published together with the selected signals. This document illustrates the main features of Signals on the Web for idaq and explains how to use it. DISTRIBUTIONS SOTW is available in two distributions: ADD-ON for idaq: SOTW is executed inside idaq environment and can be part of idaq projects. Stand-alone application: SOTW is installed and executed on a PC WITHOUT idaq. REQUIREMENTS This section contains information you should know before using SOTW for idaq. MINIMUM HAR DW AR E R EQ UIREMENT S Ensure that your computer fulfills the following hardware requirements: Dual core CPU or higher. 2 GB RAM (4 GB is strongly recommended). Display resolution 1024x768 or higher. 200 MB free space on disk required by Signals on the Web for idaq. Mouse or other pointing device. Internet connection. MINIMUM SO FTW ARE REQ U IREMENT S Ensure that your computer fulfills the following software requirements: OS: Windows 7 or higher..net Framework 3.5 or higher. idaq. You can download an evaluation copy of idaq at the following site: 5

6 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide INSTALLATION Download SOTWA for idaq from and follow the installation steps. Once installation is completed, you can run Signals on the Web for idaq through the desktop shortcut. All the files are installed into <program files>\tools for SMART MINDS\Signals on the Web for idaq folder. FEATURES OF SIGNALS ON THE WEB FOR IDAQ Signals on the Web for idaq is an easy and quick tool that acquires and publishes analog signals in a web page. Hereafter features of Signals on the Web for idaq are listed. Visualization of signals in a web page (value, device name, channel name and unit). System description can be published together with selected channels. Signals coming from different devices can be published together. All available channels are arranged in a unique table. The web page is updated twice a second. Visualization of selected channels in text format. A unique URL address is generated every single session. Editable number of digits. 6

7 TOOLS for SMART MINDS USER INTERFACE Signals on the Web for idaq has an easy and intuitive interface. In just a few clicks it is possible to acquire, publish and share acquired signals with your colleagues, wherever they are. The following figure shows the main window of Signals on the Web for idaq. FIGURE 1 SIGNALS ON THE WEB FOR IDAQ, USER INTERFACE As shown in Fig.1, the elements available in the main window are: 1. Command panel. It contains the main commands the user can use to access to all the features of Signals on the Web for idaq. The command panel is composed of the following buttons: a. Select channels. It shows the list of all the available channels. b. Publish. It publishes the acquired data on a specific web page. c. Show URL page. It opens the web page in the browser. d. Settings. It allows the editing of published parameters. e. Edit Note. It permits to insert a description to be published together with the selected channels. f. View signals. It shows the selected signals in text format. g. Help Palette. It edits credentials and opens user guide. h. Close. It closes SOTW. 2. Connection status. If a green light appears, SOTW is connected to idaq; if red, connection with idaq is lost/not available. 3. Acquisition status. If a flashing green light appears, SOTW is acquiring data from idaq. 4. Number of selected channels. 5. URL page. 7

8 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide RUNNING SIGNALS ON THE WEB FOR IDAQ When Signals on the Web for idaq starts, the following window appears: FIGURE 2 SESSION SELECTION WINDOW This window requires inserting a name for the current session. This window also shows a list of existing sessions. You can select an existing session or create a new one. According to the previous image, the Session Selection window is composed of the following elements: 1. New session button. It allows the creation of a new session. 2. Browse button. It shows the sessions folders. 3. View modes: a. Alphabetical order. If enabled, it shows the list of existing sessions in alphabetical order. b. Recent sessions. If enabled, it shows the last-loaded sessions. c. Filter. If enabled, it allows to enter a keyword for a research across sessions. 4. Page selector. It shows the selection of session page. The Page selector appears only if the existing sessions cannot be shown in a single page. 5. List of existing sessions. It shows all the existing sessions. To load an existing session, select one or more sessions and press the OK button or double-click on the session. For each session, a thumbnail image and the date of the last change are shown. For standalone version, Signals on the Web allows the selection of more sessions from the Session Selection window. 6. Drive Selector. It allows the selection of the drive where the sessions are loaded and saved. You can select either Local Drive or one of the available cloud options. For more details, see the following sections. 7. Help. It allows to open Getting Started Guide and User Manual. 8. Select. It allows to open the selected session. 9. Close. It cancels the session selection. 8

9 TOOLS for SMART MINDS To create a new session, click on the New Session button. The following window will appear. FIGURE 3 - NEW SESSION WINDOW According to the previous image, the New Session window is composed of the following elements: 1. New session name. Type here a name for the new session. 2. Edit credentials. It allows editing the credentials used to connect with idaq. By 3. Ok. default, communication parameters are: 4. Cancel. o Address: localhost o Port: 9000 o Password: idaq If a new session name is entered, a folder with the name of the session will be created in the selected drive folder. When EDL starts and an existing session name is entered, configuration files are loaded so that communication and application parameters, together with display options and hardware information, are loaded. The session folder is also used to store several information: objects settings, resource settings, storage settings, trigger settings, etc. All the settings are automatically saved in the session folder. In this way, it is possible to refresh all the application parameters when an existing session is reloaded; therefore, the user wastes no time in re-establishing them. OPERATIONS ON THE EXI STING SESSIONS From the Session Selection window, additional operations can be performed on the existing sessions. To see the available operations, right-click on an existing session. As reported by the following figure, Delete Session and Edit Credentials Buttons will be shown. FIGURE 4 - AVAILABLE OPERATIONS ON EXISTING SESSIONS Click on the Delete Button to delete an existing session. Click on Edit Credentials Button to edit the communication parameter of the session. 9

10 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide SESSIONS ON THE CLOUD As reported before, Signals on the Web supports saving on the cloud. In particular, it allows the creation of sessions on the local drive and on the cloud. As reported by the following figure, to select the drive where sessions are loaded and saved, use the Drive Selector. Elements in the Drive Selector are: 1. Local drive. If selected, new sessions will be created in the local drive; in particular, a folder with the name of the session will be created in c:\idaq\addon data \Signals on the Web. Moreover, if Local Drive is selected, only the existing sessions previously saved in the local drive will be shown. 2. Drop Box. If selected, it creates new sessions on Drop Box cloud and only the sessions previously saved in the Drop Box cloud will be shown. Notice that to save sessions data on Drop Box cloud, the Synchronizer Drop Box software must be on the PC in use. 3. Google Drive. If selected, it creates new sessions on Google Drive cloud and only the sessions previously saved on Google Drive cloud will be shown. Notice that to save sessions data on Google Drive cloud, the Synchronizer Google Drive software must be on the PC in use. 4. One Drive. If selected, it creates new sessions on One Drive cloud and only the sessions previously saved on One Drive cloud will be shown. Notice that to save sessions data on One Drive cloud, the Synchronizer One Drive software must be on the PC in use. For the configuration of Drop Box, Google Drive, and One Drive, right click on the relative icon in the Drive Selector. 10

11 TOOLS for SMART MINDS SELECTING CHANNELS To select the channels to be published, click on the Select channels button. The following window appears. FIGURE 5 CHANNEL SELECTION WINDOW This window shows the list of all available analog inputs in a grid arranged accordingly to the device they belong to. Different colors correspond to different devices. You can select more channels, from different devices. All the selected channels will be published in a web page. EDITING PARAMETERS To edit SOTW parameters, click on the Settings button. The following window appears: The editable parameters are: FIGURE 6 - WINDOW FOR EDITING SIGNALS ON THE WEB PARAMETERS 1. Publish at start up. If enabled, signals are published as soon as SOTW starts running. 2. Digits. It permits to modify the number of decimals for the published signals. VISUALIZING SIGNALS To view real-time values of the selected signals, click on the View Signal button. The following window appears: 11

12 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide FIGURE 7 - WINDOW FOR THE VISUALIZATION OF THE SELECTED SIGNALS INSERTING A DESCRIPTION To insert a system description, click on the Edit Note button. The following window appears: FIGURE 8 HOW TO INSERT A SYSTEM D ESCRIPTION The description is published during typing with the selected channels in the web page. PAGE PUBLISHING To publish the values of the selected channels, click on the Publish button. A unique realtime updated web page will be created. The URL address is visualized in the main interface of SOTW. To visualize the web page through the browser, click on the View URL page button or simply click on the URL address. Selected channels (channel name, device, value and unit), system description, date and time of the last update are shown in the web page. 12

13 TOOLS for SMART MINDS The following figure shows an example of a page published with Signals on the Web. FIGURE 9 - EXAMPLE OF A WEB PAGE PUBLISHED WITH SIGNALS ON THE WEB FOR IDAQ Referring to the previous figure, the web page is composed of: 1. Channel Description. 2. Time and date of the last update. 3. Channel name. 4. Real-time value. 5. Unit of measurement. 13

14 Signals on the Web for idaq User Guide HELP PALETTE The Help Palette gives some useful features. As reported in the following figure, to view the Help Palette, click on the Help palette button in the main interface. FIGURE 10 - HELP PALETTE Referring to the previous figure, Help Palette allows you to perform the following operations: 1. Edit communication parameters. 2. View License manager Window. It allows you to view the license status of any idaq product and to activate a license. 3. View User Guide. 4. View more details about SOTW. 5. Close. EDITING COMMUNICATION PARAMETERS To edit communication parameters, press Credential button in the Help Palette. The following window appears: FIGURE 11 - WINDOW FOR THE EDITING OF COMMUNICATION PARAMETERS Every time communication parameters are edited, they are stored in Credential.SCCT file. When communication parameters change, SOTW for idaq must be restarted. 14

15 TOOLS for SMART MINDS USEFUL LINKS idaq product page: idaq ADD-ON Store Support: 15