Machines often contain production counters that count the total number of produced containers, packaged vegetables, processed metal sheets, and much more. This article addresses how you can best visualize this to gain insight into how well the machine is doing and whether it's reaching agreed upon production rates.

• Visualization
• Background information

Visualization

Select which machine information you are interested in:

• The total amount of produced products
• The amount of produced products per hour, day, week, etc

The total amount of produced products

Assuming you're already familiar with Cloud Logging and basic data visualization, below is a list of recommendations to visualize the total amount of produced products of your machine.

Each recommendation lists the required settings needed to visualize the machine data. In short, the relevant settings are:

• Formula: Determines which value is effectively logged to the StrideLinx Cloud (e.g. max, min). The formula is configurable per data tag in the Fleet Manager.
• Component: Determines how the logged data is displayed in the StrideLinx Cloud (e.g. graph, barchart). The component is selectable in the Studio.
• Aggregator: Determines which value is displayed in the component (e.g. last, sum). The aggregator is configurable at the component in the Studio.

The background information chapter contains more information about these settings.

		Line graph Formula: Last Component: Line graph Aggregator: Last
		Single value Formula: Last Component: Single value Aggregator: Last
		Multiple values Formula: Last Component: Multiple values Aggregator: Last
		Live components Formula: not applicable for live components Components: Live line graph, Live multiple values, Live single value Aggregator: not available for live components

The amount of produced products per hour, day, week, etc

Assuming you're already familiar with Cloud Logging and basic data visualization, below is a list of recommendations to visualize the amount of produced products per hour, day, week, etc.

Each recommendation lists the required settings needed to visualize the machine data. In short, the relevant settings are:

• Formula: Determines which value is effectively logged to the StrideLinx Cloud (e.g. max, min). The formula is configurable per data tag in the Fleet Manager.
• Component: Determines how the logged data is displayed in the StrideLinx Cloud (e.g. graph, barchart). The component is selectable in the Studio.
• Aggregator: Determines which value is displayed in the component (e.g. last, sum). The aggregator is configurable at the component in the Studio.

The background information chapter contains more information about these settings.

		Period barchart The component's "Interval"-setting determines for which periods this component displays the sum of produced products. Formula: Increase (create a NEW data tag and set the logging interval as small as possible; more info: background information) Component: Period barchart Aggregator: Sum (if the machine is running 24/7 and the production counter in the PLC is never reset, formula "Last" in combination with aggregator "Difference - Last" is a valid option as well)
		Single value The page's "Default time period"-setting determines over which period this component displays the sum of produced products. Formula: Increase (create a NEW data tag and set the logging interval as small as possible; more info: background information) Component: Single value Aggregator: Sum (if the machine is running 24/7 and the production counter in the PLC is never reset, formula "Last" in combination with aggregator "Difference - Last" is a valid option as well)
		Multiple values The page's "Default time period"-setting determines over which period this component displays the sum of produced products. Formula: Increase (create a NEW data tag and set the logging interval as small as possible; more info: background information) Component: Multiple values Aggregator: Sum (if the machine is running 24/7 and the production counter in the PLC is never reset, formula "Last" in combination with aggregator "Difference - Last" is a valid option as well)
		Gauge The page's "Default time period"-setting determines over which period this component displays the sum of produced products. For consistent results it's recommended to turn off the page's "Show time period controls"-setting. Formula: Increase (create a NEW data tag and set the logging interval as small as possible; more info: background information) Component: Gauge Aggregator: Sum (if the machine is running 24/7 and the production counter in the PLC is never reset, formula "Last" in combination with aggregator "Difference - Last" is a valid option as well)
		Tank The page's "Default time period"-setting determines over which period this component displays the sum of produced products. For consistent results it's recommended to turn off the page's "Show time period controls"-setting. Formula: Increase (create a NEW data tag and set the logging interval as small as possible; more info: background information) Component: Tank Aggregator: Sum (if the machine is running 24/7 and the production counter in the PLC is never reset, formula "Last" in combination with aggregator "Difference - Last" is a valid option as well)

Background information

This chapter goes into more detail about what each of the above mentioned settings does. An overview:

Formula
The formula is a data tag-setting that determines which value is effectively logged to the StrideLinx Cloud. This option is only available when the data tag is configured to log "on interval".

Essentially, what happens is that within each logging interval the StrideLinx router continuously asks the PLC for the value: StrideLinx router asks PLC for value(s), waits for a reply, asks again, waits for a reply, etc. This means that even though you only want to log 1 value per minute for example (if logging interval = 1 min), the StrideLinx router has information about what happened to that value within that minute. This way, you are enabled to log a value that suits your specific situation. For example, you can log the maximum value that occurred in the logging interval, or minimum, or average, etc.

With formula set to "Last", each logging interval (e.g. 1 min) the last product counter value is logged to StrideLinx Cloud.

With formula set to "Increase", each logging interval (e.g. 1 min) the increase of the product counter value is logged instead of the actual product counter value. Additionally, "Increase" ignores all value decreases and value resets. Below is a visual example with a 1 minute logging interval.

A few important remarks about using the Increase formula:

• This formula cannot be applied to already logged data. It's a data tag-setting that determines which value is logged to the StrideLinx Cloud. Already logged data is therefore not affected by any changes to the formula setting.
• Do not use an existing data tag, but rather create a new data tag. This is to prevent confusion in the future when looking up historical data, as the logged values will be different prior to changing the formula to Increase.
• Set the logging interval as small as possible. Data is logged to the StrideLinx Cloud not at absolute times (10:00, 10:15, etc) but rather each time interval (e.g. 15 min) with varying start times (e.g. 9:59) depending on when the machine was powered on. Let's say the logging interval is 15 min, it spans from 9:55 to 10:10, and you intend to display the logged data in a Period barchart on an hourly basis (9:00-10:00, 10:00-11:00, etc). The machine production between 9:55-10:00 is included in the value that is logged at 10:10, when the logging interval ends. This means that in the Period barchart this production is displayed in the time period 10:00-11:00, while that production was actually in the time period 9:00-10:00. The data is never lost, just shifted slightly. To reduce this possible shift to a minimum, it's recommended to configure the logging interval as small as possible.

Aggregator
The aggregator is a component-setting and therefore does not affect the logged data in any way. It only affects the value that is displayed in the component.

Essentially, what happens is that the component determines the aggregated value from all the logged values within that time period. For example, a "Single value"-component with aggregator "average" that is placed on a page showing time period "yesterday", will determine the average value from all values that were logged yesterday and display that single value in the component. Apply the same situation to a "Period barchart"-component with component setting "Interval" set to "hour", will display the average value for each hour yesterday. The "Line graph"-component also uses an aggregator: it divides the displayed time period into many smaller, not visible, time periods and determines the aggregated value per individual time period. This is to quickly display large amounts of data and prevent the issue where there would be more data points than there are rows of pixels on your screen.

Aggregator "Last" determines the last value per time period.

Aggregator "Sum" adds up all the logged data to determine the total production, per time period (e.g. hour, day, week). Below is a visual example of aggregator "Sum" in a "Period barchart"-component.

Aggregator "Difference - Last" determines the difference between the last value of the current period and the last value of the previous period. Below is a visual example of aggregator "Difference - Last" in a "Period barchart"-component.