MoTeC Display Creator User Manual

USER MANUAL

Display Creator

- Graphics Software for Customising Colour Displays

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Introduction ..........................................................................5

About CAN Signals and Channels ......................................................6

How to Create a Display Configuration .................................................7

Functional Overview ..................................................................8

About Element Selection ..............................................................9

About Origin Points...................................................................10

About Alarms ........................................................................10

Display Creator Tabs .................................................................11

Settings Tab ............................................................................11

Channels & Functions Tab...................................................................12

Communications Tab ......................................................................13

Alarms Tab .............................................................................16

Pages Tab..............................................................................19

Page Management and Properties .........................................................21

Overlay Page ........................................................................23

Page Elements .......................................................................24

Selecting Elements on a Page ................................................................25

Right-Click Menu Element Placement Functions ....................................................26

Rectangle ..............................................................................29

Ellipse.................................................................................30

Image.................................................................................31

Static Text .............................................................................32

Channel Value ...........................................................................33

Horizontal Bar Graph.......................................................................34

Create Representative Tick Mark Text ......................................................35

Creating a Non-Linear Progression .........................................................37

Adding Sweeps ......................................................................38

Vertical Bar Graph ........................................................................39

Create Representative Tick Mark Text ......................................................41

Creating a Non-Linear Progression .........................................................42

Adding Sweeps ......................................................................43

Dial ..................................................................................44

Create Representative Tick Mark Text ......................................................46

Creating a Non-Linear Progression .........................................................47

Adding Sweeps ......................................................................48

Switch ................................................................................49

Alarm Displays ..........................................................................52

Alarm Elements ......................................................................53

4 MoTeC

Alarm Icon Element ...................................................................54

Alarm Message Element ................................................................54

Alarm Channel Value Element ............................................................55

Importing a DBC file..................................................................56

Initial Import of a DBC File ..................................................................56

Subsequent Imports of a DBC File .............................................................58

Updating a DBC File Import ..................................................................60

Imported DBC File Alarms...................................................................63

Project Validation ....................................................................65

Configure Device .....................................................................65

Troubleshooting ......................................................................66

Introduction 5

Introduction

Display Creator is a unique application used to design and create custom display configurations for MoTeC's D series displays and C series display loggers.

It has versatile and powerful graphical creation functions that allow the configuration of all display elements. Many of the functions are self explanatory, and onscreen assistance is provided.

See the following three topics before starting a Display Creator project.

About CAN Signals and Channels

How to Create a Display Configuration. This topic includes automatic quick setup.

Functional Overview

Help and Samples

The purpose of this help system is to provide an understanding of Display Creator concepts, and the information necessary to create a display configuration. However, it is not possible to cover the extensive flexibility built into the system, or the many options available. Therefore, in conjunction with using this help, it is highly recommended to analyse the sample projects that ship with Display Creator, and watch the various webinars provided by MoTeC.

This link is to all available webinars, including Display Creator — webinars.

To open a sample project:

1. Select File > New.

2. Select the device model for which the display is required.

3. Select a sample from the Template list.

4. Click OK.

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To gain an understanding of how to create a display, read this help and then methodically deconstruct one of the samples.

6 About CAN Signals and Channels

About CAN Signals and Channels

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Messages, signals and channels can be manually created and set up, or automatically added by importing the DBC file created in Dash Manager when a Dash/Logger configuration is saved. See Importing a DBC file

Not all signals need to be assigned to channels. Unassigned signals are not received.

See the following for a depiction of the functional process flow:

How to Create a Display Configuration

Functional Overview

How to Create a Display Configuration 7

How to Create a Display Configuration

To create a functioning display the following tasks are required.

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The tasks, sequence and dependencies shown below are provided to indicate functional relationships. Pages, elements, channels etc. can be created, deleted, modified at any time, and at will.

Setup

It is best to define the display device and default font before performing any of the tasks below, see Settings

Tab. Changing the device after creating a display configuration will automatically resize all elements so as to fit

on the device's screen.

Task When Reference Links

1 Any time before 12 Communications Tab

* Setup communications (messages and signals)

Importing a DBC file

2 Any time before any of 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 Channels & Functions Tab

* Setup channels for use in the display elements

Importing a DBC file

3 After 1 and 2 Communications Tab

* Assign channels to signals

Importing a DBC file

4 Create pages (each page covers the whole screen) Any time Pages Tab

5 Create page display elements Any time Page Elements

6 Assign channels to display elements on each After 2

relevant page

7 Define conditions on which pages are displayed After 2 Pages Tab

8 Create alarm displays (these are placed on pages) Any time About Alarms

9 Create/modify alarm display elements Any time after 8

10 After 2

** Assign channels to alarm display elements

11 Define alarm conditions After 2

12 Validate and configure device Validate any time during creation to check Project Validation

for issues. Configure device when ready, an automatic validate step occurs first. Configuration must be valid before the system sends the display configuration to the device.

Alarm Displays Alarm Elements

Configure Device

Use this link to view a webinar showing the creation of a basic configuration using a DBC file, webinar_DBC.

* For C Series display/loggers, these tasks can be automatically performed by importing the DBC file that is

automatically generated by Dash Manager. If required, manual adjustments can still be made. See Importing a

DBC file. For D Series displays, importing a DBC file is not applicable. However, a quick display can be setup by

using one of the provided samples. See Introduction.

** For C Series display/loggers, if a DBC file is imported, all alarms are automatically set to display in the

Alarm Display element on the Overlay Page. See Overlay Page

8 Functional Overview

Functional Overview

The process flow and functions involved in creating a display are depicted in the following diagram. Details on the use of each tab, and the elements associated with them, are provided in the relevant topic within this help file.

About Element Selection 9

About Element Selection

This topic applies to selection of elements on a page. As Display Creator does this in a unique way, it is provided here as a preamble. Some of the operations used to select elements in Display Creator are unique. Such as:

• Select an element from the element tree list, see Page Elements.

• Click repeatedly on an element at one location on the page. This will sequentially select (drill down) each

element whose boundaries encompass the cursor location. When the selection reaches the lowest element in the hierarchy, the selection loops back to the first element. It does not necessarily drill down through every element on the page. A more precise method of selecting a specific element is to select it in the hierarchical element tree.

See Selecting Elements on a Page for more information.

10 About Alarms

About Origin Points

This topic applies to alignment of elements on a page. As Display Creator does this in a unique way, it is provided here as a preamble. See Page Elements for more information.

Element Origin Points

All elements that can be included in a display have an origin point, this point is used for the alignment of elements. By default, text based elements have an origin point at the top left corner of the element (this can be changed via the element's properties, as an example, see Static Text). All other elements have an origin point in the centre of the element, this cannot be changed, however, the alignment of these elements is internally calculated so that alignment is based on the element's border.

The distinction is that text elements will align using the location of the origin point.

For example:

Take these two selected elements , the origin point for the Text element is at the bottom left.

Aligning the elements to top has the following effect , the top of the rectangle is aligned with the origin point of the Text element.

About Alarms

Managing alarms in Display Creator can be summarised as follows:

• Required alarms, and the conditions which make them active, are defined on the Alarms tab. See Alarms

Tab.

• Any number of alarms are then assigned to any number of Alarm Display elements, see Alarm Displays.

• An Alarm Display element is a parent element that can contain Alarm Icon, Alarm Message and/or Alarm

Channel Value elements. See Alarm Elements. When an alarm becomes active, the appropriate Alarm Display and its child elements display the alarm information.

• Multiple Alarm Displays can be placed on the Overlay Page and on any other page(s). See Overlay Page

and Pages Tab.

Display Creator Tabs 11

Display Creator Tabs

Display Creator contains six tabs required to create a display configuration. That is,

• Settings

• Communications

• Channels & Functions

• Alarms

• Pages

• Images

Settings Tab

Defines the display or logger device for which the display configuration is being created. Changing the device will automatically resize all elements so as to fit on the device's screen.

The default font used for the configuration is also specified on this tab. The display configuration is not valid and cannot be sent to the device if a default font is not specified.

A green tick in the font icon indicates that it is a Windows system font. As such, there is certainty that these fonts will be available if the project is moved to another PC.

12 Display Creator Tabs

Channels & Functions Tab

This tab allows manual creation of channels. These are subsequently assigned to signals.

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Messages, signals and channels can be automatically created for use in Display Creator by importing the DBC file created in Dash Manager when a Dash/Logger configuration is saved. See Importing a DBC file.

The properties displayed for this tab vary depending on the element selected.

Channel Properties

Channel "name"

Name Name given to the channel. As this will be assigned to a signal, it is recommended to use a name that corresponds

to the signal.

Value

Data Type Used to specify the expected format of the received value or an enumeration.

Quantity Used to specify the class of data expected for the channel.

Display

Unit Unit chosen for the applicable type of channel (signal).

Enumeration Properties

Enumeration Value

Name Name given to the enumeration.

Value Value of the enumeration.

Display Creator Tabs 13

Communications Tab

This tab allows manual setup of CAN messages and signals, and the assignment of channels.

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The properties displayed for this tab vary depending on whether the Message or Signal element is selected, as shown in the Message Element and Signal Element examples.

Message Element

These are the properties with a message element selected.

Message "name"

Name Name given to the message. The name could identify the type of data transmitted in this message, or some other

aspect that is relevant.

Message

Address Type Two formats of message ID exist. Standard, which uses 11 bit and has values between 0 and 2047. Extended has

29 bit and has values between 0 and 536870911.

Address The Address value tells all other devices what to associate the incoming data with based on their internal databases

All addresses should be shown as hexadecimal numbers.

Packet Format For signals containing more than 8 bits (1 byte) of data, the byte order can be either most significant data in the

lower byte offset or most significant data in the higher byte. Lower byte is specified by selecting Big Endian, higher byte by selecting Little Endian.

Receive Rate Default is 50 Hz and can be user configured.

14 Display Creator Tabs

Compound

Optionally, a message may contain further addressing of the signals by extending the address into the data section of the message. The location of the compound address is specified, and signals associated with this message must match the Address and the Compound ID.

Compound Checkbox — Check to identify use of extended addressing.

Compound ID A compound address value for associated channels.

Type Used to set the format of the received value. Unsigned integer values are absolute, containing values from 0 to max

for the bit length of the signal. Integer values use the two's complement format giving negative and positive values in equal proportions.

Offset The Offset and Length settings tell the device where the compound ID is within the message.

Length

Signal Element

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Not all signals need to be assigned to channels. Unassigned signals are not received.

These are the properties with a Signal element selected.

A signal can be a single bit, or number of bits of the data transmitted in the data section of a CAN message. The data section contains up to 8 bytes, or 64 bits of data. A signal can comprise between 1 and 32 bits of the entire 64 bits of data.

General

Name User defined name given to the signal.

Signal

Channel The Display Creator channel associated with this signal. The selection list is populated from the channels created in

the Channel & Functions tab.

Display Creator Tabs 15

Location

Type Used to set the format of the received value. Unsigned integer values are absolute, containing values from 0 to max

for the bit length of the signal. Integer values use the two's complement format giving negative and positive values in equal proportions.

Offset To identify the unique signal, the Offset and Length settings tell the device where to find this signal within the Length

Once the signal has been received, the raw numeric value can be determined. This value can then be scaled using the Multiplier and added to using the Offset to convert the raw value into the final channel value in a real unit of measurement specified by the quantity and unit.

For example:

Sending engine temperature as an integer, where 0 == 0 degrees, and 1000 == 100 degrees. A multiplier of 0.1 is required to convert this to a floating point signal containing 0.0 to 100.0 degrees.

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Conversions are applied to signal values in two steps:

1. Scaled Value = (Signal Value * Multiplier + Offset).

2. Final Value = Scaled Value converted to the specified Quantity.

message, based on the order in which the data is received.

Conversion

For example:

A signal with a multiplier of 0.1, offset of 50 and a Quantity & Unit of speed and miles/hour respectively are converted as follows: Scaled Value = Signal Value * 0.1 + 50. Final Value = Scaled Value * 0.44704 metres/second.

Multiplier A scaling factor applied to the raw CAN value.

Offset Amount added to resulting value after the multiplier.

Quantity Used to specify the class of data on which to apply the conversion.

For example, temperature.

Unit The unit to convert to for the quantity selected.

For example, K (Kelvin).

16 Display Creator Tabs

Alarms Tab

The Alarms tab is used to create any number of alarms.

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Although an alarm is created and its condition may become true, it will not display unless it has been assigned to an Alarm Display element, see Alarm Displays. By default, all alarms created on the Alarm tab are automatically selected to display in Alarm Display elements on the Overlay Page. Therefore, at the simplest level, all that is required to display an alarm is to create it.

Any number of Alarm Display elements may be added to the Overlay Page or any other page. See Overlay

Page and Pages Tab

When a single Alarm Display element has a number of alarms assigned to it, and more than one of these alarms become active at the same time, the alarm that is higher on the Alarms tab list will display. If in the meantime another alarm becomes active that is higher on the list, that alarm will immediately replace the currently displayed alarm.

If Alarm Display elements are included on pages other than the Overlay Page, the alarm will only become visible if that page is also the one that is currently displayed. However, that same alarm will nevertheless display on the Overlay Page and be visible (unless it has been deselected). Therefore, the possibility exists that the same alarm could be displayed twice.

Display Creator Tabs 17

Alarm Properties

General

Critical Checkbox — Check this to ensure the alarm displays when active. Non critical alarms may not display in some situations.

Name Descriptive name given to the alarm.

18 Display Creator Tabs

Condition

Contains the statements that specify the conditions under which the alarm becomes active.

Add Use to add a condition expression. The Add Condition dialogue box displays as shown in the image above.

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A sequence of condition expressions can be inserted and connected by And or Or statements.

Add Condition Dialogue Box

Channel For selecting a display channel defined on the Channels & Functions tab.

Is To insert the required operator (==, !=, <, <=, >, >=)

Channel or For selecting a display channel or value that the operator is applied to. Value

Inverse Result — Check this to make the condition true when the defined condition expression evaluates to false.

Remove Removes the selected expression.

Edit Use to edit an existing condition. The Edit Condition dialogue box displays, which is identical to Add Condition

dialogue box.

Moves a selected expression up or down.

Remove All Removes all condition expressions.

Display Message

Show Message Checkbox — Check this to enter a message that is to display when the alarm becomes active. The Alarm Display

element used for the alarm must have an Alarm Message element associated with it in order to display the message.

Show Icon Checkbox — Check this to select an icon to display when the alarm becomes active. The Alarm Display element used for the alarm must have an Alarm Icon element associated with it in order to display the icon.

Change Change the selected icon.

Display Channel Value

Used to specify a channel value to display when the alarm becomes active. The Alarm Display element used for the alarm must have an Alarm Channel Value element associated with it in order to display the value.

Channel Used to select the display channel to use.

Format Format of the value (either numeric or time format). Formats offered are those that are applicable to the selected

display channel.

DPS The number of decimal points to which the value should extend.

Flash

Used to define the flash behaviour for the alarm message when the alarm becomes active.

When alarm is Used to choose the circumstances under which the alarm message should flash. active

On Time The amount of time the alarm message will display between flashes.

Off Time The amount of time the alarm message will not display between flashes.

Condition Contains the statements that specify the conditions under which the alarm message should flash. For this to have

an effect Flash if condition is true option must be selected in the When alarm is active field.

Display Creator Tabs 19

Pages Tab

The pages defined on this tab comprise the displays available for the current project.

The Properties pane at the right side of the Display Creator window will change depending on what is selected. For information on management and properties of a page, see Page Management and Properties. For information on the properties of individual elements see the Page Elements topics.

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All pages are initially created by the user, except for the Overlay Page, which always overlays the currently displayed page. A project can contain any number of pages but only one Overlay Page.

Default page

The Default Page is the first page listed in the Navigation (Pages) pane that does not have any display conditions assigned to it in the Switched Element section of the Properties pane.

Page display (switching) criteria

A device that uses a Display Creator project will display pages according to the following criteria:

• The page displayed is the page whose display conditions are true, however:

○ If more than one page has conditions that evaluate as true, then the page highest on the list displays. ○ If there are no pages whose conditions evaluate as true, then the Default Page displays. ○ If a Default Page does not exist, and there are no pages whose display conditions are true, then only

the Overlay Page displays.

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Although a condition expression can use any channel to switch pages automatically, a convenient method to manually switch pages is to use channels assigned to push buttons.

20 Display Creator Tabs

Example

The example below is similar to one of the sample configurations that ships with Display Creator. For more detailed information of what is possible, see the individual element help provided in the Page Elements topics. Also, take time to study the construction of the sample configurations available.

+ 46 hidden pages

MoTeC Display Creator User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Introduction

About CAN Signals and Channels

How to Create a Display Configuration

Functional Overview

About Element Selection

About Origin Points

About Alarms

Display Creator Tabs

Settings Tab

Channels & Functions Tab

Communications Tab

Alarms Tab

Pages Tab