Manual Interfaces
Manual Interfaces provide a way for users to manually supply data to SCS and ACQ via their keyboard and 'manual' observations. In effect it allows the users themselves to act in the same manner as a sensor. These manual data items are generated and sent by users via the Manual Interface Widget.
Underneath the UI manual interfaces use the ship's network to listen for and process incoming data. As such they need a IP port to bind to on the server which clients can connect to.
The Basic tab consists of the following fields:
- Description
- Provide an optional description of this item.
- System Name
- System generated name, read only format standard across all SCS systems.
- Useful for post-processing data on shore from multiple different sources/vessels.
- Useful for rotating personnel as each ship will always comply with this format.
- If you wish to have a more user friendly name you can edit the Display Name attribute below
- Display Name
- User supplied name
- Can be anything you wish though must be unique.
- Type
- The Type of Sensor Interface being defined.
- This is set upon creation and cannot be changed after the fact. You can copy the interface's Message Definitions and paste them into a new interface of a different type if needed.
- Enabled
- A flag letting SCS know if this interface is actively providing data or if it should be ignored by client applications such as ACQ.
- Port
- The port to use when establishing the socket connection (TCP) or to listen on (UDP)
The Advanced tab consists of the following fields:
- Comment
- A general comment pertaining to this item
- Keywords
- Optional tags used to assist with text searches and metadata
There is no option to 'install' a Manual interface as it is not connected to any physical sensor. The concept being that a human is on the other end supplying the data which renders the installation and linkage portion of SCS between physical and logical interfaces as not applicable.