11... APPENDIX A: MASTER ICON FILE REFERENCE
AVERAGE FUNCTION ICON
FUNCTION:
Averages data passing through the icon. The Average icon will accumulate a User specified number of input samples, then calculate and output the average. The Average icon can be used in either of two different modes: Conventional, or Sliding. These two
modes are described below.
Conventional:For example, if a User wants to take temperature readings every 5 minutes and calculate and store hourly averages, a Program Net as shown could be used. The Thermocouple icon is set to sample every 5 minutes per its attached Sample Rate Clock and the Average icon is configured to average 12 readings (ie 12 readings x 5 minutes = 1 hour) then output.
Sliding: The sliding average can be used to smooth noisy signals. When configured as
asliding average, every time the icon receives an updated input, a new average is calculated and output. The average will be calculated by dropping the oldest value, adding the new value then dividing by the Number of Samples Per Average. The following graph shows two plots of the same noisy input signal. The highly varying trace depicts the raw input which was logged straight to memory. The second, smoother trace was fed through a Sliding Average icon set for 10 samples. The smoothing effect is apparent.
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