Configure a Head of Line signal tower
How can I centrally reflect the most critical states of my production?
A Head of Line signal tower (HOL) is only switchable by software and has the goal to reflect critical or important states of different signal towers. For example, you can always see the status of an assembly line on the basis of a single signal tower and do not have to look at all signal towers to know what the current status is. The light patterns of the Head of Line signal tower are switched via the attributes of the upstream individual signal tower. So if a section goes to a specific feature, it applies to the overall state.
After you have configured your digital twin of the Head of Line signal tower (see the article "Digital Twin of the Signal tower"), you are now faced with configuring your Head of Line signal tower.
Connection to Head of Line
As a first step, you should define which devices should be connected to the Head of Line signal tower. You simply add them via the red plus on the right side.
Create HOL Signal Tower
As a next step, it is recommended to create light patterns for the Head of Line signal tower. So you have defined the source for the input via the assignment of the devices and now define the output via the light pattern of the HOL. To create the rules, input and output should be already configured.
Over the red plus you add here new light patterns, as you know it already from the article "Creation of the light patterns" and assign these likewise attributes from your categories. Here you have 5 levels of the signal tower at your disposal.
In this area you define the rules by which your HOL should be controlled. By default, it is stored here that if no selected attributes are present the HOL remains off. This follows the idea that the HOL only reflects the most critical attributes or faults. If no disturbance is present, the HOL does not light up.
Thus, the trigger and the light pattern for the HOL are defined. Another important part of the prioritized rules is to rank the rule above other existing rules. The HOL always uses the rule that has been ranked highest. If several attributes are present, which address different rules of the HOL, the HOL always uses the rule with the highest priority. If this feature is no longer present, then the rule with the second highest priority is used. If the last prioritized feature is switched off, the signal tower switches back to its default value and goes off.
The prioritization can still be adjusted after configuration.
