Suggestions for ver 4.0
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:18 pm
I have been playing with 4.0 Public Beta and have the following suggestions (take with a grain of Salt as I know very little about Javascript. I do know Visual Basic (at least I did one time).
Quick Suggestions (Look and feel items only, not function OK, some function).
1. Put “Upon Exit” next to the Process Start Stop on the Edit Process Page
2. Change the look of the DIN boxes to something other than Oblong as you cannot activate them like the Outs, but only external to the User Interface. Maybe Rectangles?
3. Make the PWM Outs look different or have a colored Oblong box around them. Even better, have any Out when UNDER BCS Process or Ladder Logic control and not just manual on/off something different.
4. When you click the DCHP it throws the current IPAddress into the Static IP Address Dialog Box or simply have the Static IP Address show the Current Address and change the label from “Static” to “Current” when the DCHP is selected and to Static when the DCHP is de selected. Or maybe a Button to throw the “current” to the “Static”. This is easy to mess up and has caused my fat fingers many problems.
5. It would be nice for a lost connection button (like the Red Radio button in ver 3.7.1 to display when you lose connection.)
6. Since Manual Mode is gone, could you move the Output Control (Configurable) to the Top of Process Editor form where the “Alarm when exiting state” is now. In fact I would move “Alarm when exiting state” to the “Assert Registers” to the bottom as they are the least used if doing something manual with duty cycle. Of course adding Duty Cycle to the “Temperature Setpoint Adjustment Screen” would also solve the issue with manual mode being gone. It already will work perfectly for PID or Hysteresis as long as the Process State is running
7. I found the small “Temp Probe 0” below the Temperature gauges useful. If I had an issue, I could quickly change to another probe and know “who was on first”.
8. I would add the Temperature Scale (C or F) to either the Header or any field (setpoint) that is Temperature.
9. Button Text (The Menu Selectors on the Headers like “Settings”.) Make these any Text that you use like a button Blue like the Toggle Help (Or another Color if you want to maintain strict GUI for Hyperlinks or put an Oblong Box around them).
10. Get rid of the “Toggle Help” hyperlink as this only takes up Code Space and will be very hard to maintain and be constantly wrong. You are creating a nightmare as every time the Wiki changes or a Firmware Update happens, the Firmware Help Icon may be “broken”. Just have a “Wiki” hyperlink that takes you to the Wiki Index Page. If we get to an interactive Wiki, the Wiki should be changed quite a bit.
11. Bring Back Temp Average.
12. Add Exit Information just below the Timers to the Process State Control Panel on the Main Control Panel. This could be something as simple as next” State” if it is programmed.
13. Rename “Scale 1 max” to “Left Scale 1 Max”
14. Rename “Scale 1 min” to “Left Scale 1 Min”
15. Rename “Scale 2 max” to “Right Scale 2 Max”
16. Rename “Scale 2 min” to “Right Scale 1 Min”
17. Rename “Show Scale 2” to “Show Right Scale 2”
18. Get rid of 4 Channel Mode Checkbox. Easy enough to disable any trace. Save Programming space.
19. Rename the Time Scale Data from “Log0: Temp Probe 1{Your label}” to “Trace1: Temp Probe 1{Your label}”. Trace is better than Log.
20. I would get rid of anything that is “O” like “Temperature Probe 0”. I would renumber them all and make it Temp Probe 1 to 8 instead of Temp Probe 0 to 7.
21. I would have the Process # Static on the Process Editor and not just appear after you have updated a Process Name. o.k. I discovered this is the Previous Name and I find that confusing. I know also found it disappears on the next instance of the BCS so I will not be confused long. I think I can remember what I changed from.
It would be better if I knew the Order.
22. If you change the name and hit enter, then enter, you get a Previous Name for each click. These extra go away if you reload the BCS (Get Out totally and then come back). Getting Off the Page and then returning does not get rid of the extras. If you had another DropDown List box where you could choose the Process, by number in addition to the existing one (and tied to same data, i.e. one change both change), you could select by # or name. The same could be done for a State.
23. Not quite sure about the “Always” choice on the Process Editor Display DropDown Listbox. Even if displayed, and the Process is dead, the Panel is not interactive and shows not a lot. I can more understand the “Never”, but still cannot think when I would want to do that either.
24. Add a Popup Warning when switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit that the Setpoints are not converted to a new scale. If you have a PID set to 150 for HERMS and you change to Celsius from Fahrenheit, You will be MASHING a little warm.
25. On the Setting Menu => PID Settings, have the Labels for the Outputs to have the Client Name, not just Output O. I would prefer both the Out # and my name.
Quick Suggestions (Look and feel items only, not function OK, some function).
1. Put “Upon Exit” next to the Process Start Stop on the Edit Process Page
2. Change the look of the DIN boxes to something other than Oblong as you cannot activate them like the Outs, but only external to the User Interface. Maybe Rectangles?
3. Make the PWM Outs look different or have a colored Oblong box around them. Even better, have any Out when UNDER BCS Process or Ladder Logic control and not just manual on/off something different.
4. When you click the DCHP it throws the current IPAddress into the Static IP Address Dialog Box or simply have the Static IP Address show the Current Address and change the label from “Static” to “Current” when the DCHP is selected and to Static when the DCHP is de selected. Or maybe a Button to throw the “current” to the “Static”. This is easy to mess up and has caused my fat fingers many problems.
5. It would be nice for a lost connection button (like the Red Radio button in ver 3.7.1 to display when you lose connection.)
6. Since Manual Mode is gone, could you move the Output Control (Configurable) to the Top of Process Editor form where the “Alarm when exiting state” is now. In fact I would move “Alarm when exiting state” to the “Assert Registers” to the bottom as they are the least used if doing something manual with duty cycle. Of course adding Duty Cycle to the “Temperature Setpoint Adjustment Screen” would also solve the issue with manual mode being gone. It already will work perfectly for PID or Hysteresis as long as the Process State is running
7. I found the small “Temp Probe 0” below the Temperature gauges useful. If I had an issue, I could quickly change to another probe and know “who was on first”.
8. I would add the Temperature Scale (C or F) to either the Header or any field (setpoint) that is Temperature.
9. Button Text (The Menu Selectors on the Headers like “Settings”.) Make these any Text that you use like a button Blue like the Toggle Help (Or another Color if you want to maintain strict GUI for Hyperlinks or put an Oblong Box around them).
10. Get rid of the “Toggle Help” hyperlink as this only takes up Code Space and will be very hard to maintain and be constantly wrong. You are creating a nightmare as every time the Wiki changes or a Firmware Update happens, the Firmware Help Icon may be “broken”. Just have a “Wiki” hyperlink that takes you to the Wiki Index Page. If we get to an interactive Wiki, the Wiki should be changed quite a bit.
11. Bring Back Temp Average.
12. Add Exit Information just below the Timers to the Process State Control Panel on the Main Control Panel. This could be something as simple as next” State” if it is programmed.
13. Rename “Scale 1 max” to “Left Scale 1 Max”
14. Rename “Scale 1 min” to “Left Scale 1 Min”
15. Rename “Scale 2 max” to “Right Scale 2 Max”
16. Rename “Scale 2 min” to “Right Scale 1 Min”
17. Rename “Show Scale 2” to “Show Right Scale 2”
18. Get rid of 4 Channel Mode Checkbox. Easy enough to disable any trace. Save Programming space.
19. Rename the Time Scale Data from “Log0: Temp Probe 1{Your label}” to “Trace1: Temp Probe 1{Your label}”. Trace is better than Log.
20. I would get rid of anything that is “O” like “Temperature Probe 0”. I would renumber them all and make it Temp Probe 1 to 8 instead of Temp Probe 0 to 7.
21. I would have the Process # Static on the Process Editor and not just appear after you have updated a Process Name. o.k. I discovered this is the Previous Name and I find that confusing. I know also found it disappears on the next instance of the BCS so I will not be confused long. I think I can remember what I changed from.
It would be better if I knew the Order.
22. If you change the name and hit enter, then enter, you get a Previous Name for each click. These extra go away if you reload the BCS (Get Out totally and then come back). Getting Off the Page and then returning does not get rid of the extras. If you had another DropDown List box where you could choose the Process, by number in addition to the existing one (and tied to same data, i.e. one change both change), you could select by # or name. The same could be done for a State.
23. Not quite sure about the “Always” choice on the Process Editor Display DropDown Listbox. Even if displayed, and the Process is dead, the Panel is not interactive and shows not a lot. I can more understand the “Never”, but still cannot think when I would want to do that either.
24. Add a Popup Warning when switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit that the Setpoints are not converted to a new scale. If you have a PID set to 150 for HERMS and you change to Celsius from Fahrenheit, You will be MASHING a little warm.
25. On the Setting Menu => PID Settings, have the Labels for the Outputs to have the Client Name, not just Output O. I would prefer both the Out # and my name.