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Running Sensoft without the hardware

 

Applies to

Sensoft Multiline
Sensoft Vision

 

Question

Can I run Sensoft Multiline and Sensoft Vision without any hardware attached? How can I simulate measurements?

Answer

Both Sensoft Multiline and Sensoft Vision can run without hardware attached (e.g. on an office PC) and read previous measurements. With Sensoft Multiline you can also simulate the hardware and thus measure. That is not possible with Sensoft Vision, but if there is an idle Vision hardware system on your LAN, you can measure with it.

Sensoft Multiline

You can download and run Sensoft Multiline without any hardware, which can be handy e.g. to develop OPC UA data management from the office or browse measured data.

Read data

Figure 1: Measurements accessed on remote computers.

To browse and read measurements available on LAN, use the Data reading field on page Settings. Let's assume that a laboratory PC saves locally in the standard folder (i.e. its Data saving|Data folder is \Documents\LabVIEW Data\Sensoft\Data) and you can access that computer on drive Z. Then set that folder into your Data reading|Data folders. In our example that would be Z:\Users\LabUser\Documents\LabVIEW Data\Sensoft\Data . Go to page Main and you should see all measurements made by the laboratory PC (Figure 1). You can:

  • Open spools by double-clicking them
  • See real-time data if the laboratory PC is measuring
  • Add more measuring PCs to the list (more than one folder in Data reading)
  • Include PCs running Sensoft Vision
  • Change the Date field to get measurements of previous days

To include PCs running Sensoft Vision, select <Data folder>\Report in Data reading, with <Data folder> being the data folder in Sensoft Vision.

If the measured data is not available on the LAN, copy the data to your PC and set a local folder in Data reading. The data (i.e. the .tdms files) is located on the laboratory PC in subfolders of Data folder, organized by date, e.g. <Data folder>\2022\10\30. Copy the whole structure or recreate it on your local computer if you copy just single days or single files. If you copy single tdms files you have also to copy the report files: for each day there is a report file, named e.g. 2022-10-30 Report - LineName.tdms. Sensoft Multiline needs the report files to access the spool files and to display the Main page.

Write data

To develop OPC UA applications you need to measure and write measurements. To write measurements without a Sensystem box you need to simulate its hardware. Fortunately this is possible:

  1. Install Sensoft Multiline (if you haven't already)
  2. Install the simulated hardware:
    1. Download, depending on your Sensystem:

      Figure 2: Configuring Sensoft Multiline for simulated hardware

    2. Unzip and open the contained .nce file. Accept the default options
  3. Open Sensoft Multiline and configure:
    1. Go to the Hardware configure dialog (Figure 2) by pressing Configure... on page Settings
    2. Select the newly installed simulated device in Device name
    3. Select the correct SenSystem type. If unsure select Compact 621x, V4 K2, or Process 16 PSM depending if you have a Sensystem Compact, Standard or Process
    4. Optionally select the correct sensor Type
    5. Ensure that each Line name is unique
  4. Save the settings (over Default config.ini to automatically load them at app start)
  5. Pressing Start on page Main should start a measurement, writing the spool and report TDMS file and, if enabled, the OPC UA variables.
Sensoft Vision

You can download and run Sensoft Vision to open measured data, but to write data you must have a hardware Sensystem Network accessible via LAN.

Read data

To browse and read measurements in Sensoft Vision:

  1. Ensure that your data files are in Data folder or some sub-directory of it. Data folder can be set on page Settings, and if it is empty it is \Documents\LabVIEW Data\Sensoft\Data\Vision
  2. Click on Spool on page Results and select the spool file you want to open.

You can also open them in Sensoft Multiline (see the section Read data above), but you must have access best to the entire Data folder but at least its Report subfolder. The photos of the defects cannot be seen in Sensoft Multiline.

Write data

To measure and write data with Sensoft Vision you must have a hardware Sensystem Network accessible via LAN. The USB cable of the camera does not need to be attached to your PC to measure, but if if not, you don't get the photos of the defects. In addition, the hardware Sensystem Network can not be used by anybody else. With these conditions met:

  1. Enter the IP address of the Sensystem Network in the field IP address on page Settings
  2. Press Start on page Main