Charts feature requests

  • 24 November 2021
  • 13 replies
  • 138 views

Userlevel 2

Hi,

Some feature requests I would like to see in Charts:

-Function like pandas where. We have sensors with for instance zero point error. In many calculations it can be useful to set values bellow a point to zero to avoid larger errors to sum up over time.

-When Charts and AIR are integrated it would be nice to have more logic and comparing functions. For instance to set an alarm if only certain conditions are met.

-Writing own python code in a function block would have been nice, but I guess that could be a problem with the security?

-Text box to comment in the function blocks would be nice.

-Xy-plot and table output would be nice. If export to Grafana is fixed the function is available there.

-Custom units or more default units in calculations.


13 replies

Userlevel 5

Hi Jonas! Thanks for all of the great feature requests. To share some thoughts and respond directly to each one…

-Function like pandas where. We have sensors with for instance zero point error. In many calculations it can be useful to set values bellow a point to zero to avoid larger errors to sum up over time.

→ This sounds like it could be a useful function to add to InDSL. How do you keep track of or remember which of your sensors have zero point error? And do you take any actions to fix or resolve that?

-When Charts and AIR are integrated it would be nice to have more logic and comparing functions. For instance to set an alarm if only certain conditions are met.

→ Absolutely! We’ve thought and heard about the same type of request. What other types of logic and conditionals would be useful for you, in addition to if ___ then ___?

-Writing own python code in a function block would have been nice, but I guess that could be a problem with the security?

→ This is something we want to and intend to enable. 

-Text box to comment in the function blocks would be nice.

→ (I believe I know the answer, but...) Why do you want to be able to comment in the function blocks / in the no-code calculation builder area? 

-Xy-plot and table output would be nice. If export to Grafana is fixed the function is available there.

→ We do want to enable other types of plots and visualizations in Charts, not only line charts. What are the cases when you’d like to use, e.g. a table output?

-Custom units or more default units in calculations.

→ This is also something we’re working on. Both adding more units to the built-in unit selector and offering a way for anyone to define their own units (if they’re not available). What types of units are you interested in?

Just to complement Eric’s reply in the zero point function. There is a function called Clip that accepts a lower an upper limit and outputs a new time series without the points below and above those limits. Is this the type of functionality you are looking for?

Cheers

Gustavo

Userlevel 2

Hi,

Thanks for quick replay. My comments bellow. 

Hi Jonas! Thanks for all of the great feature requests. To share some thoughts and respond directly to each one…

-Function like pandas where. We have sensors with for instance zero point error. In many calculations it can be useful to set values bellow a point to zero to avoid larger errors to sum up over time.

→ This sounds like it could be a useful function to add to InDSL. How do you keep track of or remember which of your sensors have zero point error? And do you take any actions to fix or resolve that?

I just look at the trend and have a understanding of the process so I am able to know when it should have been zero. This is typical smaller errors that is no point in trying to correct in the sensor and better to fix in the calculation if it causes trouble for that specific calculation. 

-When Charts and AIR are integrated it would be nice to have more logic and comparing functions. For instance to set an alarm if only certain conditions are met.

→ Absolutely! We’ve thought and heard about the same type of request. What other types of logic and conditionals would be useful for you, in addition to if ___ then ___?

I haven’t spent much time thinking on this. But my initial thoughts would be to have functions blocks with compare functions with binary output (if  x> 50 then output=1 ) and “and/or” logic blocks. 

-Writing own python code in a function block would have been nice, but I guess that could be a problem with the security?

→ This is something we want to and intend to enable. 

Nice!

-Text box to comment in the function blocks would be nice.

→ (I believe I know the answer, but...) Why do you want to be able to comment in the function blocks / in the no-code calculation builder area? 

Same function as commenting regular code. Just so it’s easier to understand when you go back to old code. More important if you make code that is complex. Also if you use constants it would be nice to have a reference to where the number came from. 

-Xy-plot and table output would be nice. If export to Grafana is fixed the function is available there.

→ We do want to enable other types of plots and visualizations in Charts, not only line charts. What are the cases when you’d like to use, e.g. a table output?

Table could be nice if you are working on new code with few data points to easier see results. It could also be useful if you want to export results to other programs. 

-Custom units or more default units in calculations.

→ This is also something we’re working on. Both adding more units to the built-in unit selector and offering a way for anyone to define their own units (if they’re not available). What types of units are you interested in?

I was just missing liters now, but don’t know what I will be missing in the future. 

 

Userlevel 2

Just to complement Eric’s reply in the zero point function. There is a function called Clip that accepts a lower an upper limit and outputs a new time series without the points below and above those limits. Is this the type of functionality you are looking for?

Cheers

Gustavo

The problem with clip is that you can’t choose a value. If I have a sensor value of 0.5 and it should have been 0.0 I am not able to do that with Clip. 

Just to complement Eric’s reply in the zero point function. There is a function called Clip that accepts a lower an upper limit and outputs a new time series without the points below and above those limits. Is this the type of functionality you are looking for?

Cheers

Gustavo

The problem with clip is that you can’t choose a value. If I have a sensor value of 0.5 and it should have been 0.0 I am not able to do that with Clip. 

If we added an optional field, Replace, to that function so that sensor data outside the limits are replaced instead of removed, that would solve your issue?
 

If no value is provided, then Clip would work as it does now.

Userlevel 2

Just to complement Eric’s reply in the zero point function. There is a function called Clip that accepts a lower an upper limit and outputs a new time series without the points below and above those limits. Is this the type of functionality you are looking for?

Cheers

Gustavo

The problem with clip is that you can’t choose a value. If I have a sensor value of 0.5 and it should have been 0.0 I am not able to do that with Clip. 

If we added an optional field, Replace, to that function so that sensor data outside the limits are replaced instead of removed, that would solve your issue?

Yes, that is exactly what I want. Is should be a value for both lower and upper. If the fields are left blank the function can be like it’s today.

OK … we can implement that!

We’ll let you know once it is ready.

Userlevel 2

Another feature that would have been nice is to have a shift function with the ability to offset the timestamps. Example for use would be a trend that is increasing during the day and is reset at midnight. If we could have shifted the time -24h you could compare the performance today with yesterday. 

Jonas

That function has been developed and is scheduled to be released very soon. 

I’ll get more information and update you on that in the next few days. 
Regards

Gustavo

At the moment we coded the function to manipulate the timestamp inside the Calculations Editor. It will look something like the image below. As we develop the interface further we will develop an interactive method to easily move the timestamp back and forth.
@Eric Stein-Beldring, do you know when this function will be available in the production version of CHARTS?

 

Userlevel 2

Perfect, this was what I was looking for. 

The ability to move the timestamp interactively would be nice for ad-hoc troubleshooting.

@Jonas Digernes we are preparing a release for this week (I hear tomorrow :wink: ) and the time shift is included in it. The approved version is a single node as shown below 

 

Userlevel 5

Hey again @Jonas Digernes,

Gustavo was correct — we released a new version of Charts yesterday, which included the new calculation builder + updates to the Clip function and the new Shift time series function (both of which are in the Operators toolbox). See my latest post for more info.

Definitely let us know what you think once you have the chance to test for yourself! 

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