What sort of icon represents a damper?


 

Bryan Mayland

TVWBB Hall of Fame
I've been messing around with some UI ideas and while we can all agree what a blower or fan icon looks like, I keep struggling with what sort of icon would represent the damper's position. The biggest problem is that I am not an artist, but the other problem is that the icon needs to be easily identifiable down to 32x32 pixels and monochrome. So what are some things that could represent an amount of choked-off air such as a damper?

I've mostly been using a open door silhouette as a placeholder, but a rectangle outline with another rectangle in it isn't great at conveying the idea of a damper. I've also looked a using a windy icon which feels more like a combination of blower+damper idea. A open door + wind might be ok but there's not enough resolution for that.

Maybe some sort of jail bars sort of grill? What other concept can be used to indicate damper percentage? Bonus points if you find a royalty-free vector image or PNG in the right size.
 
How about a pie(circle) having 6 slices. The slices don't really need to represent a percentage that accurate. So one slice out of the pie and the dampers is open and below 20%. 2 slices and that can be 20 to 35% or so and 3 slices is 50% and so on.
 
Is it a static icon or one that will change based on the PID output? Where in the UI will it be seen?
 
It will be a static icon with a gauge/meter and a percentage number. It could be used everywhere! Like as a navigation icon for a different settings UI, in the homepage for displaying status, in an app or in more responsive webui that better adapts to mobile. I'm just messing around throwing together a bunch of different mockups to see how things fit together on different displays and layouts and deciding what information is important but I am pretty sure that I'm going to want to break down the PID output into a smaller "Output" (probably a gauge + number), Blower/Boost indicator - 2Fast2Furious (gauge + icon + number) and optional Damper indicator (gauge + icon + position or percentage). However, whenever I need to mock it up I've been using a stupid door icon and I don't like it!

I like the idea of the pie slice, sort of like the Trivial Pursuit filled-wedge design, but this won't be dynamic because it is also accompanied by some sort of indicator bar / arc. That made me think about copying the weber or green egg vent look, but in low res they look just like a fan. Circles arranged in a circle is a damper and tearshapes around a circle in a circle is a fan? I can already hear my Dad asking what they're supposed to be. Maybe a partially opened wedge/pie shape with sectors.
 
I think this is a good indicator for the damper.

Or maybe a valve icon, since it's basically a valve.

I think the windy icon is good for the blower.
 
Here are a couple ideas:

s-l300.jpg


shutter-pipe-valve-icon-vector-18106819.jpg
 
Yeah I think I might take a stab at making one of those except with two lobes like Len's image. That way nobody should think it is a fan because what fan has 2 blades!

I might try to incorporate the windy icon into the blower icon because windy doesn't look like forced airflow enough, but the fan icon by itself looks sort of like the damper icon. \o/
 
So Brian I would like to propose a shift away from the icon. One of he ongoing issues I see with the heatermeter is how to tune. What I propose is to improve the graph screen and introduce some data that is going to help the user and it follows the idea of the icon for damper and fan in a different way. Above the graph of your cook is the moving horizontal bar graph. I see how this is not an easy tool to use when tuning and causes confusion like the new user from Italy experienced. What I propose is to use the areas left and right of the cook graph to give the user the result of what he setup in the config screen. I would put the vertical bar graph info on the left side and make 3 bar graphs. All three scaled 0-100. Now I would highlight lets say on the gragh for the damper state the settings you made in the config screen. 0-100 all white and a color of choice for the 4 settings you configured in the config menu. The next bar graph would be for the fan and same approach there as well, 0-100 for the graph and then highlighted points that follow your config screen setting. The yell tick mark in the horizontal graph I am going to assume is the actual state of the PID controller. Is this is correct a bar graph of that might help as well. For me if this is what the tick mark is for, a tuner might not put it all together when tuning that that tick mark is very important in helping set your
 
Ooh I do like the aperture idea, not just for the idea that it reminds me of the Aperture Science logo.

@Gary V: I can not visualize what you are trying to describe, especially the part about "highlighted points from the conig". If you're saying the damper and fan graphs should be scaled to 0-100 with indicators on them for "fully open at" and "on above", then that is 3 bars all synced showing the same value except two have a line on them somewhere. Or is it like damper is scaled so that the bar shows 0% to "fully open at" % being a full bar? Because that is what I'm talking about doing. Blower is the same thing, except it starts showing a bar at "on above" and can only show bars within the size of min-max. This is shown in the current home page in the inner bar. There's also the PID Output, which is what the main bar is now, and the moving average, which is the pip. So the only new thing would be to split them out into three displays, and show the damper position (because that information is not available anywhere in the webui now) which is what I'm talking about. If that's not what you're saying then maybe a quick MS Paint might clear it up.

There's also information about what is currently displayed in the wiki under LinkMeter Home, particularly section E.
The current PID output percent is indicated by the size of the bar and the label. There may also be a lighter blue bar inside of the main bar indicating the current blower speed, if max fan speed isn't 100%. The exponential moving average of the output % is displayed as a translucent yellow rectangle "pip" at the correct percentage
 
let me try again Brian. I will use just the damper this time. What I am suggesting is to use either empty space next to the cook graph to create some bar graphs that independently show the horizontal graph data that's is always live above the current cook graph. With the damper for example, a vertical bar graph would be displayed with a scale attached to it scaled from 0 to100. When we configure are heather meter in the configuration page we set 4 data points for the damper. What I was trying to covey is with the new bar graph those data points we adjust in the configuration screen could be display on the new bar graph as a colored percentage point unique to that configuration setting. This allows you to see as you cook and tune what you currently have set up in the damper parameters and see a graph that is changing like you have now moving horizontally above the cook graph. If the user wants to change a value with out leaving the "home" page, he could click on one of the displayed colored configuration points and that point would open on the right side of the cook graph for the user to tune and save without going back and forth to change values. The space next to the cook graph might be large enough for 3-4 graphs. This would allow you to not overlay the fan, damper ,pid live data, but instead plot it with vertically displayed side by side graphs.
 
I think you are talking about something similar to what I suggested should appear on the HM Config page for setting up the fan and servo, except have it shown on the graph so you can adjust things "live". I mocked up a graphic to demonstrate the concept:

FanServoGraph.jpg

The HM settings for the above would be:
Servo Fully Open at 50%(yellow line)
Fan on above 50%(yellow line), Min 0%(green line), Max 25%(red line)

The HM PID output is currently 75%, so the servo is fully open and the blower is at 12.5%. which is shown on the respective graph.
Perhaps this could be a pop out sidebar/toolbar on the graph page?
 
That is kind of what I am thinking. I would do the graph differently though. Only 3 graphs and made longer to get better resolution. Each graph has a scale on left side 0-100 like the left side of cook graph. for damper you would make colored point on the scale at your 4 setting point on the configuration page. Lastly you could click the colored point at that setting comes up and allows modification and a save without leaving the page. Same approach but since I work a lot with recorders and controllers I like in a world of digits and I like to see data. Other than that were on the same page. This would allow the upper current horizontal graph to be eliminated and maybe make the current cook graph larger.
 
I don't get your concept about the damper (4 settings)? The only setting that you would need access to for the damper IMHO is the "Fully Open At" setting, the "Servo Pulse Duration" and "Inverted" settings are set and forget settings, I see no need to adjust any of them during the cook? Once you've calibrated the servo and decided to invert or not you wouldn't need to adjust those settings unless you change servo or damper. The "Fully Open At" setting is the one you may want to change for different types of cooks. The blower Min, Max and On Above settings you would all want available for tweaking. As for numbers, you could have the numbers appear when you click the bar and slide it to make adjustments.
This was obviously a quick mock up of the concept, I placed the graphs next to the 0-100% scale on the normal HM graph so a scale shouldn't be needed for these setting graphs.
 
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alright, one last time.
I like graphs with scaling.
I like the graphs to have the ability to open a setting in another page, configuration page and edit the point without leaving my "Home" page.
I like separate, not overlaying graphs to help tune and troubleshoot processes.
I do find at times, because of changing conditions, I might have to tweak a setting to get better results. Case in point. A cook when the outside temp is 80 degrees versus a cook where the temp is around 10 degrees.
this concept can still be used with a picture of a blower or a fan damper. My preferences is graph. Others might be a live picture of the device.
Just my thoughts and ideas here, nothing more.
Now for some sleep. Been up on call all night trying to make operators happy when they do not enough and the best user usable data to operate and troubleshot a process.
 

 

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