Differential Gauge Node, a proposal for a new appearance

Dashboard
1

I'm using latest Dashboard v. 2.19.4.
Gauges/Donuts work very well when the range minimum value is not negative.
In my case I'm using a dashboard flow to display the electric power exchanged between grid and solar PV panels in my home. When you produce more than you consume the ehchange value is positive ( you are selling energy to the grid), whereas it's negative if you consume more than you produce ( you are buying energy from the grid). So, when setting up the node, a negative value has to be inserted in the minimum field, say -6 kW and +6 kW for the maximum.

In this situation the gauge/donut display is very unintuitive, if not misleading. For instance if no power is echanged (payload =0) you still see half sector filled with color and you may think that half power of total range (-6 kW-6kW) is exchanged while it's actually 0!

Comparison0
Comparison01304Ă—1188 131 KB

As you can see in the following screeshots the gauge rapresentations with power = -5kW, 1kW and +5 Kw are equally not meaningful. For instance, if you are buying 5 kw from grid, you just see a tiny red sector whereas it should be at its almoust maximum extension:

Comparison-5
Comparison-51344Ă—1218 140 KB

On the right side of every screenshot I have proposed what in my opinion should be the correct representation.
What I'm proposing here is a sort of "differential" gauge.
It should have following behaviour when a negative minimum value is set in the minimum field :

  • with value = 0 the needle is in vertical position ( a "zero" digit on central top of gauge would alse be nice to have)
  • with value < 0 the circular sector is drawn counterclockwise starting from zero vertical position
  • with values > 0 the sector is drawn clockwise from zero.

Is this behaviour achievable with some particular node configuration/tweaking? if so please help me.

If not, I'm proposing to the Dashbord/Gauge team to add this new "differential" appearance. From a UI perspective it will suffice to add in existing node configuration window a checkbox "Use differential appearance", enabled only when a negative value is inserted in the Minimum field. So you can keep actual behaviour if you like it more.

HTH
Note: I also had screenshots of 1 kW and 5kW scenarios, but I couldn't post more than two images here. I will if someone is interested in the topic.

2 Likes
2

interesting - but I think it would need changes to the underlying justgage library first in order to "move" the start point to be your zero point at 12 o'clock.

3

Hi dceejay,
Glad that you like my idea. Is there a chance that someone will convert this suggestion into an upgrade to current gauge node?

4

Always a chance... but as I said it would need the Justgage project to pick it up first to allow that to happen.

5

Would be something that @robertsLando may be interested in.

6

already DM'd him

2 Likes
7

OK dceejay. I'm a newbee here and I hope @robertslando will pick it up. At disposal for further information.

8

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10

I see this option has been implemented now. "Fill gauge from centre" has been added.
But it only works for a differential and it has to be symmetric. Otherwise you will end up with a weird looking gauge. I opened a request Request to fix this.