Maritime Instruments — Common Features

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The maritime instruments show the navigation and propulsion state of a vessel: heading, rudder angle, thrust, speed, motion, wind and so on. They are found in the Maritime - OpenBridge section of the Perspective Component Palette. Each instrument has its own page; this page describes what they have in common.

Kind	Components
Heading and course	Compass
Steering	Rudder
Gauges	Gauge Vertical
Indicators	Rudder Indicator

The images on this page show a Rudder. The features look and work the same on the other instruments, though not every instrument has all of them.

An instrument shows the values it is given. It does not read tags itself, and it takes no input from the operator: bind its properties to the tags of the sensor or the control system. The colours follow the OpenBridge palette of the session:

Instruments and Indicators

Most instruments come in two forms:

• The instrument (Rudder, Compass, Gauge Vertical, …) is the full presentation, with a scale, labels, setpoint and advice zones. It fills the component’s box, so you decide its size. Everything on this page applies to the instruments.
• The indicator (Rudder Indicator, Heading Indicator, …) is a small, simplified symbol of the same quantity, for overviews and for places where the exact value is shown elsewhere. It has only a few properties, and its state has other values: see the page of each indicator.

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State

state tells whether the value shown can be trusted:

state
active (default)	The instrument shows a live value.
loading	The value is not available yet. The instrument is dimmed.
off	The equipment is off or has no signal. The instrument is dimmed and the face is empty.

Bind state to the quality of the signal, so the operator is never shown an old value as if it were live.

Properties

Name	Description	Property Type
state	active, loading or off. Default active.	value

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Priority

priority selects the colours of the value and the setpoint. Use enhanced for the instruments the operator is steering by at the moment, and regular for the rest, so that the important instruments stand out.

regular (default)	enhanced

Properties

Name	Description	Property Type
priority	regular or enhanced. Default regular.	value

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Setpoint

An instrument for something that is controlled — a rudder, a thruster, a heading — can show the setpoint: the value that has been ordered, next to the value that has been reached.

Set hasSetpoint to true and bind setpoint to the ordered value. A marker is drawn on the scale:

Without setpoint	With setpoint

On instruments with more than one controlled value, each has its own set of these properties with the name of the value in it: headingSetpoint on a Compass, angleSetpoint and thrustSetpoint on an Azimuth Thruster. They work in the same way.

At Setpoint

When the value has reached the setpoint, the marker is drawn in its “at setpoint” form, docked to the value:

Not at setpoint	At setpoint

There are two ways to decide when the setpoint is reached:

• Automatically — set autoAtSetpoint to true. The instrument compares the value with the setpoint itself, and treats them as equal when they differ by no more than autoAtSetpointDeadband.
• From the control system — leave autoAtSetpoint at false and bind atSetpoint to the signal that says the setpoint is reached.

Changing the Setpoint

Two properties support a control the operator uses to change the setpoint:

• touching — set it to true while the operator has a hand on the lever or is dragging the control. The marker is drawn in its focus form, and “at setpoint” is not shown while it lasts.
• newSetpoint — for a control where the new value must be confirmed. Set hasNewSetpoint to true and newSetpoint to the value being chosen: the current setpoint is dimmed and a second marker shows the new one. When the operator confirms, write the value to setpoint and set hasNewSetpoint to false. With animateSetpoint the marker slides to its new place.

touching	newSetpoint

Setpoint in the Loading and Off States

The setpoint is dimmed together with the rest of the instrument when state is loading or off. Set setpointOverride to true to keep the setpoint in its normal colour — for a control whose order is still valid although the feedback is missing.

setpointOverride = false	setpointOverride = true

Properties

Name	Description	Property Type
hasSetpoint	Show the setpoint. Default false.	value
setpoint	The ordered value. Only shown when hasSetpoint is true.	value
autoAtSetpoint	Let the instrument decide when the setpoint is reached. Default false.	value
autoAtSetpointDeadband	How far the value may be from the setpoint and still count as reached, with autoAtSetpoint.	value
atSetpoint	Whether the setpoint is reached. Used when autoAtSetpoint is false. Default false.	value
touching	The operator is operating the control. Default false.	value
hasNewSetpoint	Show a second marker for a setpoint that is being chosen. Default false.	value
newSetpoint	The setpoint being chosen. Only shown when hasNewSetpoint is true.	value
animateSetpoint	Animate the marker when a new setpoint is confirmed. Default false.	value
setpointAtZeroDeadband	How close to zero the setpoint must be to be drawn in its “zero” form.	value
setpointOverride	Keep the setpoint in its normal colour in the loading and off states. Default false.	value

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Advice Zones

An advice marks a part of the scale: a range that is recommended, or one to be careful with. advices is a list of zones, each an object:

Name	Description	Property Type
minAngle	Start of the zone, in the unit of the scale. Called min on the linear gauges.	value
maxAngle	End of the zone. Called max on the linear gauges.	value
type	advice for a recommended range, caution for one to be careful with.	value
hinted	Draw the zone dimmed, as a hint that is less prominent.	value

type	hinted = false	hinted = true
advice
caution

A zone is triggered, and drawn in its alert colour, when the setpoint is inside it. The value alone being inside the zone does not trigger it:

Value inside the zone	Setpoint inside the zone

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Scale

Name	Description
showLabels	Show the numbers of the scale.
tickmarksInside	Draw the tickmarks and labels inside the ring instead of outside it, which makes the ring larger in the same box.
tickmarkStyle	regular, or enhanced for darker, more prominent tickmarks.

Instruments with a free scale also have primaryTickmarkInterval, secondaryTickmarkInterval and tertiaryTickmarkInterval: the distance between the long, labelled tickmarks, the medium ones and the short ones. Each is turned on with its has… property.

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Size

An instrument fills the component’s box and is centred in it: make the component larger and the instrument grows. The blue frame in the images is the component’s box:

Small box	Large box

The labels need room inside the box, so two instruments in boxes of the same size can end up with rings of different size if their labels differ. To make the rings of several instruments exactly equal, set hasFaceDiameter to true and give them the same faceDiameter, the diameter of the ring in pixels. The instrument then has that size whatever the box, and is placed at the top left of it:

Properties

Name	Description	Property Type
hasFaceDiameter	Give the ring a fixed diameter instead of filling the box. Default false.	value
faceDiameter	Diameter of the ring in pixels. Only shown when hasFaceDiameter is true.	value

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Style and Events

Name	Description	Property Type
style	Standard Perspective style object.	object

The instruments have no component events of their own. The standard Perspective events, such as onClick, are available in the component’s event configuration.

Examples

Example 1 — Setpoint from the Control System

On a Rudder:

1. Bind angle to the rudder feedback, for example [default]Steering/RudderAngle.
2. Set hasSetpoint to true and bind setpoint to [default]Steering/RudderOrder.
3. Set autoAtSetpoint to true and autoAtSetpointDeadband to 1, so the marker shows “at setpoint” when the rudder is within 1° of the order.
4. Bind state to an expression that gives off when the feedback has bad quality, for example if(isGood({[default]Steering/RudderAngle}), 'active', 'off').