Using the Data Lab to monitor your digital and analog I/O devices

Introduction

The Data Lab brings together data from your digital and analog I/O devices in one place, so you can track generic insights from a wide variety of connected hardware. This includes data sources such as the ABB Industrial Edge Gateway (EIG), the EKIT (which reads external meters), and the digital and analog inputs of the SCU100 device.

In the Data Lab you can configure your devices, give them clear names, and visualize their data in three dedicated dashboards: Continuous, Count, and Status.

Accessing the Data Lab

Log in to the SensorFact web application.
In the top navigation bar, click Data Lab.
The Data Lab page opens with the sidebar on the left and the dashboards on the right.

Before your devices are configured

When your digital and analog I/O devices have just been commissioned, they will appear in the Data Lab without any data. You will see a banner at the top of the page that reads: "You have one or multiple assets that are not configured. Configure these assets to view their data."

To start configuring your devices:

Click the Go to configuration button in the banner.
Follow the steps in the configuration page (see the next section).

If no devices have been configured yet, the dashboards will display "No data found" with a Go to configuration button to help you get started.

Configuring a digital or analog I/O device

In the configuration page you can set up each device so that its data appears in the correct dashboard. For a detailed walkthrough of the configuration page, see Configuring your Data Lab page.

For each asset you can:

Give the asset a clear, recognizable name (for example, "Steam boiler - gas 1" or "Motor 1").
Select the metric that the device measures (for example, m³ for gas, °C for temperature, or Count for pulses).
Define the labels for status outputs by assigning a name to each state (for example, 0 = Off, 1 = On, or 0 = Closed, 1 = Open).

Once a device is configured, its data will start appearing in the relevant dashboard.

The three Data Lab dashboards

The Data Lab is organized into three dashboards, one for each data type. Each dashboard supports its own type of visualization.

Continuous dashboard (line graph)

The Continuous dashboard displays continuous measurements over time, such as temperature or pressure.

Each asset is shown as a separate line.
You can only multi-select assets that share the same metric. Multi-selecting assets with different metrics is not possible, because the graph does not support multiple axes.

Example: Temperature room 1 and Temperature room 2 are both measured in °C, so they can be displayed together on the same line graph. A temperature asset and a pressure asset cannot be displayed together.

Count dashboard (bar graph)

The Count dashboard displays pulse-based data over time, such as gas consumption in m³.

Each bar represents a time period (for example, one day).
Assets with the same metric are stacked in the same bar so you can see the total and the contribution of each asset.
You can only multi-select assets that share the same metric. Multi-selecting assets with different metrics is not possible, because the graph does not support multiple axes.

Example: Steam boiler - gas 1 and Steam boiler - gas 2 are both measured in m³ and are stacked in the same bars.

Status dashboard (phase graph)

The Status dashboard displays the state of an asset over time, such as a motor running or a door open or closed.

Each row represents one asset.
The colored blocks show the state at each moment in time, based on the labels you defined during configuration (for example, On/Off or Open/Closed).
The legend on the right shows the labels for each status.
Statuses do not have a metric, so there is no axis maximum to consider when multi-selecting.

Note: Some status sensors also include a count sensor (and the other way around). When you select such an asset, both the Status graph and the Count graph will be displayed.

Multi-select rules

Multi-selecting assets with different metrics is not possible, because the dashboards do not support multiple axes. The following rules apply:

Continuous (line graph): you can only multi-select assets that have the same metric.
Count (bar graph): you can only multi-select assets that have the same metric. They will be stacked.
Status (phase graph): statuses do not have a metric, so you can multi-select different status assets. The legend will show the labels for each.

Troubleshooting

If you do not see your device in the Data Lab:

Check that commissioning of the device is complete.
Open the configuration page and confirm that the device has been configured with a name and a metric.
Make sure the asset is ticked in the sidebar.
Verify that the selected date range covers a period in which the device was active.

If a graph shows "No data found":

The selected assets may not have produced data in the chosen time range.
Adjust the date range or select a different asset.