Schematic Control

Command and control hardware using schematics.

A schematic is used to see a diagram of your physical or simulated system. It displays live sensor data and can be used to exercise manual control by changing the values of channels tied to actuators. We’ve added a simple example of a schematic below:

Creating a Schematic

Creating a schematic is as simple as adding a new tab and selecting the schematic visualization:

Modes

Schematics have three modes: view, edit, and control. To change modes, use the controls in the bottom-left hand corner of the schematic.

  • Edit mode - Symbols can be added and moved, and their properties can be edited.
  • View mode - Live data from the cluster is displayed on the schematic. Symbols are not editable and the user cannot change the system state.
  • Control mode - The user can click on symbols such as valves and buttons to control them.

The Symbols Library

Schematics are assembled by dragging symbols out of the library and onto the screen. These symbols are visual representation of sensors, actuators, and other components on your hardware system. If the symbols are not appearing on the bottom of the screen, make sure to click the visualization icon in the bottom-right corner.

Synnax has a collection of built-in symbols including valves, live sensor values, buttons, and tanks.

Changing Symbol Properties

When selected, a symbol’s properties will appear in the bottom toolbar. There are several tabs that can be used to fine-tune the look and behavior of the symbol.

Style Tab

The style tab on allows users to edit the symbol’s label, size, orientation, color, and other visual properties.

  • Label is the test that appears by the symbol.
  • Label Size determines the size of the label.
  • Color changes the color of the symbol.
  • Normally Open causes the body of the solenoid valve to look different when it is open or closed.
  • Width and Height change the size of a tank.
  • Units determines what units a value symbol is displaying.
  • Orientation determines the orientation of the symbol and the relative placement of the label.

Telemetry Tab

The telemetry tab is available on symbols that receive data, such as the value and light symbols. After selecting a channel from the dropdown, the schematic will fetch and display the live data from that channel.

The telemetry tab can have the following properties:

  • Input Channel determines which channel to stream data from.
  • Precision sets the number of decimal places to display.
  • Averaging Window can be used to display a rolling average. For example, a value of 2 will cause the screen to display the average of the last 2 samples.

Control Tab

The control tab is available on symbols that can be actuated. Controllable symbols have two main properties:

  • Input Channel represents the display state of the symbol. If the input channel has a value of 1, the symbol will be display as activated.
  • Output Channel will be written to when you click on the symbol. If the symbol is de-activated, clicking on it will write 1 to the output channel (an activation command). If the symbol is activated, clicking on it will write 0 to the output channel (a deactivation command).

Stylistic Modifying the Schematic

There are many ways that you can change the visuals of a schematic.

Connection Lines

Every symbol has locations to attach connection lines. When hovering over an symbol, these attachement points appear. To draw a connection line, click on an attachement point and drag the line to a different symbol:

Aligning Elements

To align elements, create a selection box by clicking and dragging on the canvas. Then, use the vertical or horizontal alignment buttons to align the selected elements:

Changing Colors

You can also change the color of multiple symbols together in the same manner:

Control Mode

In control mode, elements on the schematic are able to be activated for manual control of the system. Clicking on an actionable element, such as a valve, switch, or button, allows you to activate the output channel on that element. The circle on the element shows what is in control. If the circle is blue, the current schematic has control. If the circle is green, the current schematic has absolute control. If the circle is red, the current schematic does not have control as the element is part of an automated sequence or is controlled by another schematic.

The color of the bar indicates what is controlling the elements on the Schematic. There is a legend on the display indicating what controlling node is what color.

Loading a Schematic from a JSON File

You can download a schematic as a JSON file so that it can be easily sent and loaded.

To download, right click on the schematics name in the resources toolbar and click “Download as JSON”:

To import a schematic, you can drag and drop from your file system or right click on a workspace name in the ontology menu: