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Companion Overview

github-actions[bot] edited this page May 19, 2026 · 1 revision

FastSense Companion — Overview

The FastSense Companion is a three-pane uifigure control panel that browses the project's TagRegistry, opens dashboards and ad-hoc plots in their own MATLAB figures, and provides live status monitoring across the entire project. It is purely a navigator — every dashboard it opens runs in a standalone classical figure with its own live timer, theme, and toolbar.

Two parallel help systems live inside FastSense: System 1 is the per-dashboard Info button driven by DashboardEngine.InfoFile, and System 2 is this Wiki Browser. See Dashboard Info vs Wiki for the full distinction.

Three-pane layout

Pane What it shows
Left Searchable tag catalog with multi-select and filter pills
Middle Dashboard list (open / live-toggle)
Right Adaptive inspector (welcome / single tag / multi-tag / dashboard state)

The right pane is adaptive: when one tag is selected it shows metadata, thresholds, and a "Plot this tag" action; when multiple tags are selected it switches to a plot composer (Linked grid vs Overlay, time range, live cadence); when a dashboard tile is clicked instead it shows that dashboard's summary plus open / live-toggle buttons. Most-recent click wins.

Top toolbar (left to right)

  • Events — opens the Event Viewer
  • Live: ON/OFF — toggles the companion-driven inspector refresh and the live log
  • Tags — opens the Tag Status Table
  • Tile / Close all — manages the windows the Companion has opened (dashboards, ad-hoc plots, detached panes)
  • Wiki — opens this Wiki Browser (you are reading it now)
  • Gear — opens Companion settings (theme, live period)

Log strip (bottom)

The bottom of the window hosts two compact log panes:

  • Events log — rolling list of recent threshold violations from EventStore
  • Live log — per-tag Δ samples and latest value as new data lands

Each pane has a pop-out icon in its header that detaches the pane into its own figure window. See Event Viewer for the events pane and Live Log for the live updates pane.

Opening a dashboard

Select a dashboard in the middle pane and click Open. The Companion pops it into a separate MATLAB figure via DashboardEngine.render(). The dashboard owns its own live timer, theme, and Info button — the Companion is purely a control panel and does not manage dashboard refresh cadence on the dashboard's behalf.

Ad-hoc plots (single tag → Detail; multi-tag → Linked grid or Overlay) open as classical figures and are tracked by the Companion's Tile and Close all toolbar buttons.

Live mode

The Live: ON/OFF toggle controls a Companion-owned timer that drives the inspector refresh and the live log. It does not start or stop any DashboardEngine's own live timer — those are per-dashboard. When Live is OFF the inspector and live log are idle; the Tag Status Table still polls under its own timer so activity flags stay correct.

See also

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