Locations and HMIs¶
A location's page is where day-to-day work happens: watching HMI screens, sending commands, building and editing HMIs, placing equipment on the map, and checking who changed what. For the layout of the page, see the Tour of the portal.
Use an HMI¶
- Open the location and stay on Map/HMI.
- Click the HMI's tab in the row of tabs. Tabs for HMIs you aren't allowed to view are greyed out.
The HMI shows live widgets over a picture of your facility.
Move around the screen¶
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Mouse wheel | Zoom in or out around the pointer (up to 5×) |
| Click and drag | Pan across the picture |
| Compress-arrows icon on a row of the Configured Products tree | Zooms straight to that item's widget |
| Go Full Screen (toolbox) | Fills the screen, for wall displays |
The toolbox¶
A small toolbox floats over the HMI. Which buttons you see depends on your roles and on whether you are editing:
| Button | Shown | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Edit Mode (wrench) | If you hold the HMI's Modify HMI Role | Start or finish editing (see below) |
| Change HMI Image (picture) | While editing | Replace the background picture |
| Delete Selected Widget (×) | While editing | Remove the selected widget |
| Go Full Screen | Always | Fill the screen |
Widget colors¶
| Widget | Colors |
|---|---|
| Linear Gauge and tanks | The bar or fill is green inside the good range and red outside it |
| Round Gauge | A red scale with the good range as a green band, and a black needle |
| Status Light / Status Label | The widget's On Color (green by default) or Off Color (red by default), following the channel |
| Bitwise Status Label | Green when the chosen bits are set, red otherwise |
| Sparkline | The last 24 hours; the line turns red where the value was out of range. "No data in last 24 hours." if the channel sent nothing |
| Any widget | A blue border (instead of black) means you can send the channel a value |
Send a value or command¶
If a widget has a blue border and you hold the HMI's Remote Command Role:
- Double-click the widget. A dialog named after the channel opens.
- Enter the new value. Depending on the channel, you type a number, choose from a set of buttons, or switch individual bits on and off.
- Click Save Changes. You'll see "The server has received the update and it will be processed shortly".
If another command to the same equipment is still being carried out, you'll see "A command is currently being processed." Wait a moment and try again.
Commands are recorded in the location's History tab and in the audit log, with your name.
Note
The web portal doesn't ask for an HMI PIN code. PIN codes are used at on-site panels and in WhiskerHMI (see Logging in).
Edit an HMI¶
Editing needs the HMI's Modify HMI Role. Without it, the wrench button isn't shown.
Start, change, save¶
- Click the wrench (Edit Mode). A message says "Edit Mode Enabled. You can now move, resize, or delete widgets. Click the edit icon again to save changes or exit edit mode."
- Make your changes. You can move and resize widgets; they keep their proportions and can't be rotated.
- Click the wrench again to save. A message confirms each widget that was updated.
Warning
Moves and resizes are saved only when you click the wrench the second time. If you leave the page first, they are lost.
Add a widget¶
- While editing, find the channel in the Configured Products tree (Location → Hub → Device → Channel).
- Drag the channel onto the HMI and drop it where the widget belongs.
- The Configure New Widget dialog opens. Fill it in (see below) and save.
A channel can have several widgets on the same HMI: for example a gauge and a sparkline, or one Status Light for each bit of a register.
Change or remove widgets, change the picture¶
- Change a widget: double-click it while editing to open Edit Widget.
- Remove a widget: click it, click × in the toolbox, and confirm.
- Change the background picture: click the picture button and choose a file. Use an image of 3840×2160 (8 MP) or larger so the screen stays sharp when zoomed in.
Widget settings¶
The Configure New Widget and Edit Widget dialogs:
| Field | For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Title | All | The label shown on the widget |
| Widget Type | All | See below |
| Widget Scale | All (Edit Widget only) | Makes the widget larger or smaller |
| Fill Color / Text Color | All | Colors, with transparency |
| Gauge Minimum / Gauge Maximum | Analog | The full scale of the gauge |
| Good Range Minimum / Good Range Maximum | Analog | The green band; readings outside it show red |
| On Color / Off Color | Status Light, Status Label | The two state colors |
| Bitmask | Status Light, Status Label, Bitwise Status Label | 16 boxes (bits 0–15) with All and None: which bits of a register drive the widget |
| Label High / Label Low | Digital channels | The text shown for each state |
| MultiSelect Label / Value | Multi-select channels (Edit Widget only) | Text to show for each value |
Widget types:
| Analog channels | Digital channels |
|---|---|
| Text Box, Round Gauge, Linear Gauge | Text Box |
| Vertical Tank, Dual Tank, Horizontal Tank | Status Light |
| Sparkline | Status Label |
| Vertical Tank Graph, Horizontal Tank Graph, Tandem Tank Graph | Right Pump |
| Status Light, Status Label, Bitwise Status Label, Right Pump |
Create an HMI¶
- Click the + tab. It is shown only to people in the Create HMI role.
- In the Create New HMI View dialog, enter a Name: (2 to 50 characters; this is the tab's label) and choose the Modify HMI Role:, View HMI Role: and Remote Command Role: (see Roles and permissions).
- Click Create. The new HMI opens: click the wrench, set a background picture and start dragging channels onto it.
Rename, change access, duplicate or delete an HMI¶
Click the gear on the HMI's tab. The Edit \<name> HMI dialog has:
- Name:, Modify HMI Role(s):, View HMI Role(s): and Remote Command Role(s):. Click Save Changes.
- Duplicate HMI: copies the HMI and all its widgets to a new tab, after asking "This will copy all existing widgets to a new HMI tab. Would you like to proceed?" The quickest way to build several similar screens.
- Delete HMI: removes the tab and every widget on it, after a warning.
The gear is greyed out if you don't hold the HMI's Modify HMI Role.
Warning
Deleting an HMI deletes all its widgets and cannot be undone. If you might want it again, keep it and restrict its View HMI Role(s) instead.
Alerts and snoozing at a location¶
- Status icons throughout the location page (tree rows, table rows) show which equipment has active alerts. Click one to list the issues.
- Alerts (next to Map/HMI and Tables) lists the alerts at this location.
- To pause a device's alerts during maintenance, click Click to snooze in the Alerts column of the Tables view, or Snooze Alerts on the device's page.
Creating and editing alerts is described in Creating and editing alerts, and snoozing in Snoozing alerts.
The Tables view¶
Tables shows every device at the location as rows in tables, one table per kind of product. Each row has the device's status, an Alerts column (Click to snooze), signal and battery icons, its name, S/N, Date, Notes, and one column per channel. Click a device's name to open its page (see Devices and channels). Use the Show/Hide switch to collapse a table, the column chooser to hide columns, and the export button to save a table. The tables refresh every five minutes.
Download history¶
To export readings for a period, click Download History at the bottom of the Tables view:
| Field | Options |
|---|---|
| Start Date / End Date | Whole days, up to today. The default is yesterday to today. The start must be before the end |
| Data Type | Raw Data (every reading), or Daily Stats (Min/Max/Avg) |
| Output Format | Spreadsheet (CSV/ZIP) or PDF Report |
| Quick Filters | All Temps, All Pressure, All, Clear |
| Select Channels | The channels to include, grouped by device. Type to search |
Click Download. A progress bar shows the export being prepared, and the file downloads when it is Complete!
The History tab¶
The History tab, last in the row of tabs, lists activity at this location: who did what, and when.
- Choose a period under Select Time Interval: Today, This Month or Three Months, or set Interval Start and Interval End.
- Click Set. Nothing loads until you do.
| Column | Contents |
|---|---|
| Time Stamp | When it happened |
| User | Who did it |
| Target User | For changes to users, who they were made to |
| HMI, Alert, Alert Contact | What was involved, if anything |
| Activity | What happened |
| Notes | Details, often including old and new values |
Type in the row under a column heading to filter, use the funnel for a checklist filter, and use the export button to save the list as a spreadsheet.
The History tab shows only what happened at this location. For account-wide changes, activity at on-site panels, and refused attempts, use the audit log.
The Map tab: placing equipment¶
The location's Map tab shows the location and one marker for each Whisker.Hub™ and Whisker.Block™. Keep them where the equipment really is: it's how field technicians find it.
- Drag a marker to the right spot. You can also drag a hub or device from the Configured Products tree onto the map, which is the quickest way to place new equipment.
- A confirmation asks, for example, "Are you sure you want to move this Whisker.Hub™ to the selected position?" When you move the location itself, you can move just the location or the location and all its equipment together.
- Click Yes.
Markers must be on land. A drop in water is refused with "Please select a location on land!"
Location settings and permissions¶
Click the gear beside the location's name at the top of the page to open Edit Location. It has the location's Name: and the roles that can view and modify it (see Roles and permissions). Click Save Changes.
A location's coordinates and time zone come from where its marker is on the map: drag the location marker to change them.
| To change | Click | Dialog |
|---|---|---|
| Who can view or modify the location | The gear beside the location's name | Edit Location |
| Who can view, edit or command from an HMI | The gear on the HMI's tab | Edit \<name> HMI |