This article refers to basic actions and commands that are prerequisites, if you haven’t already done so, please refer to Graphic edition menu explained (Cortex Series) and Introduction to Workspace edition, creation and saving.
The following texts explain how to use two of the basic settings available for the Meters.
- Assignment of an I/O IDentifier to a Meter;
- Setting a Meter’s minimum and maximum scale values (called Meter Window High & Low limits in the DV-200 Series units).
For a full description and examples about the settings found under this menu, please see Cortex Meter Properties Explained (to come) and Advanced Cortex Meter Edition and Creation (to come).
To start, enable the Edit mode by clicking on the small arrow at top left corner of the screen.
Editing a Meter
If a meter is already displayed in the Workspace, it can already be edited (moved, resized, copied, pasted, etc.). To access the properties of a Meter (or any other object), right-click on it, then select Edit in the contextual menu.
Next, a Meter Properties menu will come up. These settings can be used to alter the look and behavior of Meters. The screenshot below shows the top section of the menu. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, while some may require explanations.
1 – ID: ID number (I/O number) of the Cortex Input or Output to assign to the Meter. Can be almost any Cortex I/O ID, like Metering (1A1), SNMP GET (1SG10), Custom Log input (1CL3), Math Function (1F7), etc.
2 – SCALE MINIMUM: Lower limit of the Meter display, or lowest value to which the Meter needle can go. Any measurement below this value will not show up in the Meter window, as it would out of the display range. IMPORTANT: This Meter scale limit setting has no impact on the Level 1 & Level 2 Alarm limits found in the configuration settings of Cortex Inputs, it is only for display purposes.
3 – SCALE MAXIMUM: Higher limit of the Meter scale display, or highest value to which the Meter needle can go. Any measurement above this value will not show up in the Meter window, as it would be out of the display range. IMPORTANT: This Meter scale limit setting has no impact on the Level 1 & Level 2 Alarm limits found in the configuration settings of Cortex Inputs, it is only for display purposes.
The Scale limits define the global display range of the Meter needle. These two limits allow to “zoom” in or out anywhere in the full measurement range of a Metering Input. For example, if you are monitoring a 12 Volt battery and would want the Meter to only display voltage values close to 12 Volts, you could set the meter Scale Minimum to 10 and the Scale Maximum 14, which would give a display having a full range of 4 Volts, centered on 12 Volts, as seen below. The Scale limits have the same purpose on all four types of Cortex Meters (more on these later).
Note that the Level 1 and Level 2 limit settings found in the Cortex Metering Inputs configuration menu interact with the Meter display by changing colors, like yellow (Minor alarm) or red (Major alarm) for example. This therefore has to be taken into consideration when setting up Meters. For more information on Meters, see Advanced Cortex Meter Edition and Creation (to come).
HINT: When editing or creating Meters, if you plan on having many of the same type, begin by creating one single Meter of the desired size, color, background, style, display font, etc, and once this Meter is perfectly set to your needs and tastes, simply copy it and paste it as many time as needed. You can come back later to assign each of them with a specific Cortex I/O ID. Remember to save the workspace regularly while working to avoid losing any work, and when fully done, you can upload the Workspace to the Cortex.
Creating a Meter
Four different styles or types of Meters are available to create your Workspace, as shown below.
Trend Meters, as their name implies, show trends. The display settings of the Trend Meters are actually located in the configuration menu of the Custom Log Inputs (1CL01, 1CL02, etc.), along with which they work in pairs. Note that Trend Meters can only work with Custom Log Inputs. For more information about the Cortex Custom Logs, see Cortex Custom Log Setup explained and Setting up and using the Cortex Custom Log (to come). The other styles of Meters are needle-syle, vertical bargraph, and horizontal bargraph.
To create a Meter, it must first be added from the Edit toolbar menu by houvering the mouse over the Needle Meter icon, then select one of the four Meter styles available, then click in the Workspace where you want to place the Meter.
Note that from the toolbar, once an object has been selected for placement, the mouse becomes “locked” into an object-placement mode for which every click in the Workspace will place a copy of the selected object in the Workspace. To unlock this placement mode, either do a mouse right-click, or click on the Select arrow at the top of the toolbar menu.
Once the Meter has been placed approximately, its properties can be edited by right-clicking on it, and then selecting Edit from the contextual menu. You can precisely position the meter within your Workspace by editing its position fields.
