DevicePropertiesEditor

Using the DataExplorer menu bar or started as standalone application it is possible to create new or modify existing device properties files. Doing this the device XML files are touched.

Using the menu bar the device properties file of the actual device will be opened. Is that the case, manipulating properties will not directly manipulate all properties of an already loaded and displayed data set. Will the DevicePropertiesEditor started as standalone application, it is possible to type the name of the device directly, if known. Is the name unknown to the application and can not be find in the devices directory a new device properties file might be created.




A sample files gets extracted and needs to be adapted as required. Selecting the button, right hand side, a dialog will opened to enable selection of an existing file.

The device tabulator shows how to specify name and manufacturer of an device.

Switching the implementation active, the implementing device class name has to be configured, optional as full qualified including the package. The implementation can always used if an equal device implementation class is already available, and/or if the device name does not fit. As an example the CSV2SerialAdapter has several devices using this implementation, differences exist in the data block specification. As additional example the several copies of the Bantam charger devices can be named, where differences exist in cover design and device name. The captured data should be found under the directory followed the device name, isn't it.

If the 'package' is not given, the 'package' gets calculated starting with "gde.device.", followed by the manufacturer name, converted in lower case and hyphen and blanks eliminated. The default class name can be calculated by removing blanks and hyphen. capital letter are kept.
The image name can directly typed if known and it references an existing within the device plug-in. If the image gets selected by use of the right hand side button and file selection dialog the selected image guest scaled to 225x165 pixel. In addition it is possible to pack the image directly into the referenced plug-in. Modifying the plug-in could only done in the temporary folder where write rights are guaranteed. If this option is chosen the modified plug-in must be copied to the application directory, where the plug-in can be added to the class path.

How to do that will be advised in a message box.
Hint : This change might be get lost while updating the application. A backup might be saved somewhere else by your own.

The serial port gets configured easily by selecting appropriate values from the combo boxes.

Hint : If timeouts guest specified the implementation must be written to use this values.
The description of the serial port is optional due to the fact that some devices don't use it. Optional as well is the USB or TCP port definitions.

To configure the time base is simple.

A value greater than 0 milli seconds as time step between the measurement points is voted as constant time gap. The time step value lower than 0 milli seconds signals that the device gives individual time steps. This must not mean that the time steps might not constant. The implementation for the particular device must handle this situation.
Hint : The UniLog, as example, uses an adjustable but constant time step between measurement points. Therefore the time step is -1 msec. Finally the device implementation must handle the situation and read the time step value for each sequence and use it as constant value for the data.

The next two pictures contrast two different data block configurations. The UniLog configuration describes binary data with a constant length of 24 bytes. Is 24 bytes the maximum and a shorter length as example 20 bytes possible the configuration must point out -24 as value. The data type is BINARY and no separator sign is configurable.


Is TEXT chosen as data type additionally configuration parameter must be specified. The file extension, what is used during file selection, as well as the standard data path, will help to select files faster. Both are optional, but help, if data files are delivered by a memory card, like the DataVario from WStech, which will appear with an dedicated path value if inserted into the computer.
Hint : This configuration are optional. Other implementation might use this parameters in a different way.

The state tabulator will describe a sequence number to device states. This description makes sense if a device can use more than one state and data are imported by a text file using the CSV2SerialDataAdapter. Finally the device implementation use the states and match it somehow with the data.

Hint : If text data are imported using the CSV2SerialDataAdapter the state 1 would be charge ($1;1;time;data;..), and state 2 discharge ($1;2;time;data;..) compared to the sample.

The tabulator with the name outlet-channel/configuration is the most complex and the biggest one. Here, as required or desired, the device outlet as a data channel or different configurations gets described. As described two different types of outlet-channel/configurations are available. A charger device with only one outlet to connect one battery at a time has only needs to configure only one outlet-channel/configuration from type outlet. The sample on right hand side just showing this.

Underneath the area where the type and the name has to be configured another tabulator describes the individual measurements. The measurement configuration is responsible how the data are finally displayed in the various windows including the unit and the statistic mathematics.
Hint : Is the outlet-channel/configuration type is chosen as configuration (TYPE_CONFIG) different configurations could be combined with identical data set.
If a copy of an outlet-channel/configuration is necessary it is sense full to complete the measurement configuration which belongs together before do the copy.

Measurements get described with the name, its unit, its symbol and if the measurement is active captured from the device. Non active measurements are calculated (current * voltage). In addition there are optional properties like factor, offset and reduction which influence the view of the (raw) data.

Hint : Are additional properties and/or statistics configuration required, use the context menu to create. After a measurement is completely described by properties and statistics it is possible to copy the complete set into a new one using the + button.
Adding a property is simple since there are a lot of prepared once available and only the value needs to be specified.

This statistics sample showing how to select average minimum and maximum as well as how to configure an trigger. A trigger is described by a value and a time to be specified as a limit. All average, minimum, maximum and deviation are related to this trigger now. In addition it is shown how to configure that the time where the trigger is active gets summarized. This might calculate the real motor runtime. It is also possible to count the trigger events.

Hint : It is possible to add comments to the most of trigger or trigger related statistics. This helps to identify which statistic value relates to an adjusted trigger and which not (Statistics Window).

The next sample is showing how a already defined trigger can be used to calculate related statistics data. In the sample, while "sumByTriggerRef" is selected, the height gets summarized over the trigger period only to count the total height by motor runtime. This will help to identify the best propeller to motor adaption in comparison to other combinations.

In addition a proportionality gets calculated to show the used battery capacity versus the height during motor runtime. This allows judgments how effective the available power is used up.
For special purpose integration of measurement values by trigger time is possible while a reference to trigger is given. For example, this enables to calculate power in Wmin.
Hint : Additional configuration samples can be found in UniLog or DataVario device property files.

At least the description follows about the application visualization. At this point it is initially configured which tabulator is active and visible. Active relates to visibility and calculation time for the content to be displayed within the window behind.

Hint : Initial means that the application device selection dialog itself allows to modify this, refer to Device selection dialog.

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