WIMSdata

Although this site has been useful as a platform to share the concept of volumetric parameter monitoring, I never felt the web application was as good an experience as I would like it to be. This feeling was accentuated when I developed the WIMS Android and iOS Apps. The uptake of these Apps has been underwhelming TBH, partly due to business IT concerns regarding Apps, so it felt a good time to redevelop the Web version to be more like the App experience.

I have therefore developed the WIMSdata section to achieve this. Now it's possible to use virtually the same App functionality with any modern device that has an internet connection, and also benefit from additional server capabilities such as printing Parameter Lists and Records directly to PDF format.

This Web Application features an easy to use stop-watch, for recording arc times, and integrates most of the mobile App functionality.

Differences to the Mobile Apps

The main difference in using this Web App compared to the mobile (offline) versions, is that the "Settings" and "Details" are defined at the bottom of the Edit page, instead of separate screens. This is more natural for a web application, and in some ways is an improvement; particularly since this data is already stored with the individual parameter records.

A second difference is that filtering of records is carried out using normal searches from the WIMSdata List view.

Thirdly, deleting records uses the standard features of the Web interface, ie. Search, combined with ticking boxes for each row you want to delete.

There is no "Sharing" option because exports are handled directly from the List page, along with Printing facilities. The Web App still supports the Shared Key approach to allow multiple users to see each other's data by agreement.

Lastly there are two types of Project in each record; "Project" retains compatibility with the mobile versions, whereas "ProjectID" is used to make individual records child records in the Projects table.

Getting Started

From the top menu, click on MAIN to see the dropdown, and then WIMS DATA. You should see a screen with an "Add New" button (this image shows one accessed via Projects).

Press the  Add New  button on the List screen, which takes you to a new record in Edit mode, and then scroll to the bottom of the screen:

The "Threshold" value is used when the "WFS Auto" field is set to 1. It's not unusual for fabricators to use a range of wire feeders / welding sets, and therefore no guarantee that they will use the same wire feed speed settings. When this function is enabled the user can convert the WFS at the time of entry when the WFS field loses focus. So for example, if the WFS units were set to "m/min" and the user entered 400 and moved away from the field, this will be converted to 10.16 m/min as it is greater than the "Threshold" of 39. Similarly if the default units are in "in/min" and the user inputs 9, moving the focus away from the field converts this to 354.3 because it was less than 39. If you don't want to use this feature, set "WFS Auto" to 0.

Check that all the Units are the formats you wish to use, or change them to your preference using the dropdowns. Then scroll back up to the main data section, noting that there is some information already prefilled to allow shortcut methods to be used.

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You might want to start the stopwatch running at this point using the Start button, noticing that this also changes the Record Time.

Now fill in any data on the screen and stop the stopwatch at some point. If you have input sufficient data, Arc Energy and Heat Input will be calculated, along with the Calculation Type. You may also see a calculated Travel Speed unless you're using a ROL vs Stub Length estimate. If you see an Arc Energy but no Heat Input, it's means the Efficiency field is blank. Typically this is set to 0.6 for GTAW or PAW, 1.0 for SAW, or 0.8 otherwise.

If you used the "Lookup" button to select a predefined consumable, you may notice that some of the factors in the lower portion of the screen changed, or were deleted if not applicable. This will also have set the Efficiency field correctly for the process.

To save the record, press one of the following buttons:  PREVIOUS ,  NEXT , or  ADD NEW 

As this is the first record, either of the first two buttons will display an alert, telling you that you're already at one end of the records.

If the calculation is complete, you'll notice that the button with a padlock on it has changed to dark red , indicating that this record is now locked. This means that any changes to the record will not be permanent until you unlock it by pressing the button. This allows you to play with a parameter record without fear of changing it, eg. to quickly see what an Arc Energy looks like in J/in instead of kJ/mm. 

When you use the  ADD NEW  button, you'll notice that some of the data gets carried across from the last record, and also that any Pass field or No field gets incremented as follows:

• If the No field contains data it is incremented by 1
• Otherwise, if the Pass field contains data and the No field doesn't, then the Pass field is incremented by 1

Calculation Priority

View Page

When you click on the icon from the List page, or select the icon at the bottom right of the Edit page, you can view the records and step through them using the left and right navigation buttons.

In the View Page, you can press its icon to download a PDF of the individual record, or return to the Edit Page.

List Page

Once the user has created the first record, it would be time-consuming to enter the default units again to create another record. Normally, the user should proceed to the last record in the List Page and click the icon, to move to an example record.

In the Edit Page for that example, pressing the  ADD NEW  button will effectively use it as a template for the new record.

The List Page also has Print icon that loads a Print Sub-Menu:- 

Normally the user will want to filter the records to be printed using the Simple or Advanced Search feature. It's also possible to just tick the required records before pressing the Print icon.

Once in the Print Page, the user can opt to download the parameters as a PDF file.