A Property object is a container for individual values.
These values could be simply a number with its unit, a text or a location to name a few.
If you open the Property details either in the modules section or from the the dashboard by a double tap, you’ll see the additional properties’ characteristics like: State, Source, Timestamp or Timeouts.
State
A value could be either ‘Valid’, ‘Outdated’ or ‘Invalid’.
The Timeouts define when a value reaches the next state. If the respective Timeout is set to ‘0 s’, the state is not available.
Example: A value has been updated and the Timestamp shows the time of this event. Without further updates, this value will be marked as ‘Outdated’ after the ‘Outdated Timeout’ is reached.
Without further update, the value then changes to ‘Invalid’ after the ‘Invalid Timeout’ has expired
An outdated value would be grayed out on the dashboard, while an invalid value would be hidden.
Source
The Source item shows where the property got its current value from or who updated it. This could be, for example, an NMEA sentence, a Module – if this value has been calculated – or even the ‘User’.
If you encounter a strange value, you could investigate where it’s coming from. For example, NMEA sentences also have a source, so you can find out where the cause lies.
Smoothing
All numerical values on the dashboard can be individually smoothed (damped). This has to be done individually for each dashboard readout.
To set the smoothing for a value, you need to open its Property Details on the dashboard – by double-tapping the corresponding display – and set it to ‘Edit’.
There you could disable the smoothing (default) or set it from 1-10 seconds.
‘Auto’ – uses a dynamic appropriate smoothing interval depending on the change of the value.
Smoothing is achieved by applying a moving average filter over the specified period.
The longer this period, the more consistent the data readings will be, but the longer it takes for the effects of a change to become visible.
The shorter the period, the larger the jumps in the numbers, but the faster the response to changes.
With Auto – dynamic smoothing – the applied period is adjusted and reduced to almost zero in the case of rapidly changing data.