readme.md

Setup steps for the getting started VFC Dashboard:

This short tutorial will show you how to set up the simulated assets and the data generator for the VFC dashboard example.

Asset Setup:

We want to create an Asset Type VFC_Dashboard_Machine:

with three Aspects assigned to the Asset type:

• Dashboard_Machine_Location [Static]
• Dashboard_Machine_Sensor [Dynamic]
• Dashboard_Machine_Status [Dynamic]

To do this, please follow the following steps and note the notation for the variables is [Unit, DATATYPE, Max. lenght]

• Setup static Aspect type Dashboard_Machine_Location with three variables:

  • latitude [-, DOUBLE, -]
  • longitude [-,DOUBLE, -]
  • Software_Version [-, STRING, 32]

• Setup dynamic Aspect type Dashboard_Machine_Location with four variables:

  • Pressure_Preheater [Bar, DOUBLE, -]
  • Pressure_WorkingChamber [Bar, DOUBLE, -]
  • Temp_Preheater [°C, DOUBLE, -]
  • Temp_WorkingChamber [°C, DOUBLE, -]

• Setup dynamic Aspect type Dashboard_Machine_Status with three variables:

  • Machine_Status [-, INT, -]
  • Program_Id [-, INT, -]
  • Program_Name [-, STRING, 255]

• Create an Asset Type of parent type core.basicasset, name it VFC_Dashboard_Machine and add the three created Aspect types under the Aspects dropdown window

Your Asset type should look like this:

• Now Create 3 Assets of type VFC_Dashboard_Machine and name them:
  • Basic
  • Performance
  • Eco

For the purpose of this example, let's assume you are a factory manager that has three different machines (Basic, Performance and Eco), but they all share the same data model. Let's assume each machine is exhibited at a fair to showcase the power and potential of the IIoT with Mindsphere. Basic is located at Frankfurt, Performance at Munich and Eco at Berlin. We already created a static aspect Dashboard_Machine_Location to store the latitude, longitude and software version of each machine. Now, we have to initialize these Values. To do so, click on the edit symbol of the Asset, open the dropdown of static aspects and fill in the following under Dashboard_Machine_Location:

• For machine Basic:
  • latitude: 50.1109
  • longitude: 8.6508
  • Software_Version: 1.0.0.2
• For machine Performance:
  • latitude: 48.1353
  • longitude: 11.6962
  • Software_Version: 1.3.3.0
• For machine Eco:
  • latitude: 52.5040
  • longitude: 13.2733
  • Software_Version: 1.5.0.0

Now you want to monitor them, but to do so, your machines need to send data. Let's generate some data using Mindspheres Visual Flow Creator application.

VFC Data Generator:

The Visual Flow Creator (VFC) is a Node-RED based application that can simplify and automate a lot of tasks inside Mindsphere. If you are new to the VFC, please take a few minutes and go through the basics in our Documentation. It will help you understanding the concept of VFC tremendously.

Start by creating a new flow and name it something like DataGenerator. Then copy the json data from the DataGenerator.json file to your clipboard and go back to the VFC.

Under the options tab, click on import:

and paste the json data in the blank field. Click on import and you should have couple of nodes that you can now place in the flow. Then Click Save

Your DataGenerator Flow should now look like this:

This flow will be triggered by the inject node every 5 minutes. If you want to alter the interval data is written to your machines, feel free to do so.

To finish this flow, you have to map the 6 write timeseries node to your own corresponding machines. Double click on a node and choose your asset & aspect by clicking on the three dots:

Make sure you are writing to the correct machine and the correct aspect. Do not write directly to a variable (-> leave the variable field blank) as we are writing several variables of an Aspect at the same time. You will get an error message if you do so.

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Click Save. Your Data Generator is ready to go and will run in the background. Now Continue Here and get started building your VFC Dashboard!

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Data Generator best practices:

VFC offers a build in method to simulate/generate data with the generate node. You can use it to create powerful data patterns and stack signals like: saw, sine, gauss, linear and noise.

However, sometimes the easy way also does the job. Why not simply take a random INT or DOUBLE from a defined interval?

function getRandomInt (min, max) {
    min = Math.ceil(min);
    max = Math.floor(max);
    return (Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1)) + min).toString();
}

function getRandomDouble (min, max) {
    return (Math.random() * (max - min) + min).toString();
}

You can use these javascript code snippets in a function node:

generate the necessary data und pass them as msg.payload to our write-timeseries node. You can use the same (simple) logic to generate a string by picking a random index of a string array.

let StringList = ["String A", "String B", "String C", "String D", "String ...", "String X"];
let RandomString = StringList[Math.floor(Math.random() * StringList.length)];

A function node that gerates random integers and random strings and passes them to the write-timeseries node can look like this:

//declare your functions
function getRandomInt(min, max) {
    min = Math.ceil(min);
    max = Math.floor(max);
    return (Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1)) + min).toString();
}
//set up your string array and pick a random string out of it
let StringList = ["String A", "String B", "String C", "String D", "String ...", "String X"];
let progr = StringList[Math.floor(Math.random() * StringList.length)];

//generate some random integers using your getRandomInt function
var stat = getRandomInt(1,5);
var id = getRandomInt(1000,9999999);

//initialize your payload object and send it as msg.payload
var obj = {};
obj._time = new Date();
obj.Machine_Status = stat;
obj.Program_Id = id;
obj.Program_Name = progr;

msg.payload = obj;
return msg;