Wireless diagrams represent your wireless plant infrastructure and are the key building block in the AMS Wireless SNAP-ON application.
Diagrams can be stored locally or shared and are saved with the .WND extension. You can use Windows permissions to control which users can access this folder. If you choose a folder with multiple nested folders, the AMS Wireless SNAP-ON application only displays and saves diagrams one level deep.
Diagrams can contain a single plot plan, or scaled drawing of the plant area. They also contain a pasteboard, an area outside the plot plan which is not considered to have the same scale as the plot plan. This allows flexibility to place devices in locations not represented on your plot plan.
- placeholder devices, which are not associated with a real device.
- live devices, that are part of a wireless network configured in AMS Device Manager, and have an AMS Tag name.
Importing or Transitioning wireless networks
If you have AMS Device Manager installed and running, importing an existing wireless network into a diagram adds a new wireless network to the diagram, and its devices to Unplaced Devices. You can then drag those devices onto the diagram. If you are commissioning a wireless network, and have created placeholders on the diagram with the same AMS Tag as the live devices, you should transition the wireless network in that diagram, which preserves any notes or mounting height data you entered on the placeholder.
Live networks correspond to one wireless gateway in AMS Device Manager.
Check network layout
This option allows you to see that your wireless network meets the network design parameters you have defined for the diagram. It also indicates range distances of the devices in your wireless network based on the parameters you have defined, and the scale of your plot plan. If your layout does not meet the design parameters you specify, those parameters will be highlighted.
Circles indicate:
- Device range. The size of the circle indicates the range of the device.
- The device does not meet wireless recommended practices.
You can also permanently show circles for individual devices by right-clicking them and selecting the Show Device Range option.
You specify the violation and valid colors in the Options dialog.
You can enter distances from a known point for devices placed off the plot plan. That distance is used when calculating the network layout, but the physical length of the line drawn off the plot plan does not matter. The angle or direction of the line indicates the direction where the device is located. The device (or antenna) height you specify is also taken into account.
If the gateway is highlighted, then not enough devices in the wireless network are within range to meet minimum communications requirements.
Live wireless networks in diagrams
If at least one wireless network in a diagram represents actual physical wireless devices, it is considered "live", and its icon changes in the Diagrams pane.
Live wireless network icon
A network is live after you have either:
- Imported a wireless network from AMS Device Manager.
- Transitioned a wireless network (associated your placeholder devices with devices in AMS Device Manager).
You can have multiple live networks per diagram.
Moving the mouse over a wireless device or its gateway on a live wireless network displays a tooltip with status information, including primary variable, battery voltage, and status.
Once your diagram is live, and the AMS Device Manager server is running, clicking on a device displays its communication path to the gateway. Clicking the gateway displays all the possible communications paths.