16. Glossary
#16.1 Terms, acronyms and screen names
In alphabetical order. On-screen names in bold, written as the screen writes them; guide terms in regular type.
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| .ftds | Exported dashboard, as JSON text with the images in base64. v1: one target, written by the PC (the PC only opens v1). v2: multiple targets, written by the phone and the tablet. |
| 2-Step / 3-Step | VCU rev limiters used at the launch. |
| Activate night mode / Enable | Switch that turns on the night background: Activate night mode on the PC, Enable on the other devices. |
| Activation mode | Field of Device (FT700 and Plus), with Activated at 0V and Activated at 12V. It is saved, but does not change the signal: the Input sensor applies. |
| Alert | Section of the reading gauge: mode, Low alert and High alert, in the map's unit. On the Shift, High alert is the shift point, in RPM. |
| Anti-lag | VCU function that keeps the turbo spooled with the throttle closed. |
| base unit | Unit in which the map and the .ftds store scale, alert and limits (km/h, °C, bar, lambda). When you change the unit, enter Minimum and Maximum again. |
| base64 | A way of writing an image as text, to fit in the map and in the .ftds. It takes up about 4/3 of the file size. |
| bracket | Drag racing format in which each driver dials in the elapsed time they expect to run (the dial-in). The Time selector edits these times (section 6.5). |
| Burnout | Function to heat the tires before the launch. |
| CAN / FTCAN2.0 | CAN (the CAN bus) is the data network between the car's modules; FTCAN2.0 is FuelTech's CAN protocol. Both are possible signal sources for an input. |
| Cancel changes | Discards the changes of all targets and clears the undo history. On the PC it asks for confirmation; in the touch editors, it does not. |
| canvas | The editor's drawing area, at the target's size. |
| Chroma key | Video Overlay option that generates the video with a solid color (green, by default) in place of the image, so that another program can cut out that color. |
| Color / Gradient | Color selector: Default, Solid and Gradient (Linear, Radial, Axis), with up to 4 colors. |
| Conditional visibility | Turns the gauge on by a measurement (Data), in 5 modes (section 17.5). It is not Visibility, which has the Show title and Show value checkboxes. |
| dashboard | What the VCU shows: up to 4 screens per target, stored in the map. The screen says dashboard. |
| Dashboard setup | Opens the editor: 6th item of Interface Settings on the PC and 5th on the other devices (on the FT700, the Plus and the tablet the group is Interface). F3 opens it on the PC. |
| DashG2 | Internal name of the dashboard, seen on buttons in the Video Overlay Composer. |
| Data source | Measurement selector (about 1,180). When you change it, Reload data?: Yes rewrites the minimum, maximum and decimals with those of the new measurement; No keeps the old ones. |
| DataSourceId / GaugeType | Fields of the .ftds file: the measurement number (Number column of section 9.2) and the gauge type (0 to 32). |
| Day background / Night background | Background of each screen, on the Screen tab. On the PC the labels are Day mode background and Night mode background. |
| Day/night mode | VCU function: fixed day or night, dashboard button, external switch or schedule (default: night at 18:00, day at 6:00). |
| Deactivated / Intra / Extra / Above / Below | Alert modes: no alert; within the range; outside it; equal to or greater than the high one; equal to or less than the low one. |
| Device | Tab and list on the PC that choose the target. On the phone and tablet: Select target. |
| Divisions / Divider | Divisions + 1 major marks. The divider only divides the labels: 8000 by 1000 gives 8. |
| Do not import | Destination in the import window: the file's screen is not brought in. Screens beyond the fourth, or beyond the target's Number of screens, are not brought in, without warning. |
| Easing | Speed curve of the entrance animation: it says how the movement speeds up and slows down. Default OutCubic. |
| ECU Button | Touch gauge that commands a VCU function, chosen in VCU Command (59 commands). The new button starts with Engine Start/Stop button: change it, because touching it commands the engine start. |
| Electric gauge | Power gauge in both directions, traction and regeneration, for an electric vehicle (section 6.5). |
| Entrance animation | 18 effects plus None; plays once, when loading finishes. |
| Export dashboard to .ftds file / Import dashboard from .ftds file | PC icons. Export saves the checked screens of the active target as a v1 .ftds. Import replaces the chosen destination screens entirely, which are already in the open map, without checking target or resolution, and clears the undo history. |
| FFmpeg / PATH | FFmpeg: free video programs that Video Overlay uses to generate the MP4. PATH: list of folders in which Windows looks for programs. |
| Fill / Centralize / Free | Positioning of the background image: stretches to the whole screen; centers; or goes to the Offset X and Y position. Scale (%), from 1 to 1000, only applies in Centralize and Free. |
| firmware | The VCU's internal program. This guide covers firmware 00.03.00.54. |
| frame | Each image of a GIF. The screen says frames. |
| FT700 / FT700 Plus / FT470 | VCU with a 7" display, with a 12.3" display and with no display. The FT470's dashboard appears on the PC, phone or tablet; in 3.00.54 the editor opens on Media Device: edit Tablet, Mobile or Desktop. |
| FuelTech Vision | The software on the PC, phone, tablet and the units. VisionFT is the VCU line, not the name of the software. |
| gauge | Each element of the dashboard. The screen says gauge. |
| GIF | Frame-by-frame animation. It runs on its own or follows a measurement, in Position or Speed (section 17.3). |
| Group / Ungroup | Gathers gauges into a Group (Ctrl+G; Ctrl+U undoes it, on the PC). Grouping resets the Entrance animation of each item. Pointers inside the Group do not rotate by value. |
| Hide / Show | Hide or show the gauge on the dashboard in use. In the editor, a hidden one appears at 30% opacity. |
| hysteresis | Band between two limits in which the previous state is kept: the light turns on at 100 °C and only turns off below 95 °C. |
| Initial screen | Field of Device: screen opened when the dashboard loads. It is not Startup screen selection. |
| Input Expander | FuelTech input module connected over the CAN network. Its DashBtn_Switch channel delivers the same measurement as the physical screen-change button. |
| Input for screen swipe | Button on the Device tab (FT700 and Plus) that chooses the input. The Dashboard button measurement is number 240. |
| Interlock | Command of the VCU's gear shift management. |
| IP Camera / IP cameras | IP Camera is the video gauge. IP cameras is the VCU function where name, address and trigger are registered; the dashboard does not store the address. Change the equipment's factory password. |
| lambda / AFR | Measurements of the air-fuel mixture. Lambda 1 is the stoichiometric mixture; below 1, rich. AFR is the air/fuel ratio by mass: lambda times the fuel's stoichiometric AFR (section 9.3). |
| Layers | List of the screen's gauges: the top is in front. Each row has an eye, a padlock, duplicate and a trash can. |
| Lock | Prevents dragging and moving the gauge. On the PC it cannot be selected by clicking in the work area: use Layers. |
| Lockup | Torque converter lock of the automatic transmission. |
| map (.ftmap) | File with the complete VCU configuration: tables, functions and the dashboard. It is what is written to the unit. |
| measurement | Data that the VCU sends, chosen in Data source. |
| Measurement units | On the FT700 and the Plus the dashboard always follows the map's units. On the PC, phone and tablet it follows the map (From map/log, default) or Vision (From Vision). |
| Media Device | Reserved target in the Device list: no screen in version 3.00.54 shows it. |
| MiB | Mebibyte, 1,048,576 bytes. The map cap, 128 MiB, is about 134 million bytes. |
| Minimum / Maximum | Start and end of the scale, in the map's unit. When you choose the data, the app writes the measurement's default range (Tachometer with RPM: up to 32000). |
| Navigation Button | Touch gauge that goes to a screen, chosen in Screen index (section 17.2). |
| Number of screens | Field of Device: from 1 to 4 screens (Video Overlay: 1). |
| Odometer | Total distance measurement, number 1108 (trip: 1109). Number 200 is vacant: old gauges set to it end up with no data. |
| Pit limit | VCU function that limits speed in the pits. |
| Pivot X / Pivot Y | The gauge's pivot, from 0 to 1 of the width and the height; default 0.5, the center. |
| Plot edge / Plot background | Border and background of the pointer's box. They rotate with the needle and come off by default. |
| PNG / JPEG / SVG | PNG: image with transparency. JPEG: no transparency; the image background is always saved as JPEG with quality 85, on a scale up to 100. SVG: vector drawing in XML text. |
| Pointer PNG / SVG Pointer | They rotate and change size according to a measurement. In the touch editors they are inside Primitives. |
| PowerFT | Another line of FuelTech ECUs. FuelTech Vision imports its map with the default dashboard (section 1.4). |
| Pullup | Resistor that holds the input at a defined level while the button is released. The with Pullup options of the Input sensor turn it on. |
| Rotation | Rotates the gauge around the pivot. The field accepts -360 to 360 degrees. |
| RTSP | Video protocol used by IP cameras. |
| Save changes | Check icon. On the FT700 and the Plus it writes the map at once; on the PC, phone and tablet it only marks the map as changed. |
| Scale | Multiplier of the gauge size, default 1.0. The PC field accepts 0.01 to 1000. |
| Screen | Page of the dashboard, from Screen 1 to Screen 4. The Screen tab edits title and backgrounds. |
| Segmented overwrite | Write mode that rewrites the active map on the VCU, keeping its name (section 13.1). |
| Shader | Graphic effect of the animated background, recalculated on every frame, with 14 options (section 5.1). |
| Shift | Gear shift light: lights up at the High alert (RPM); with it at 0, it stays lit. |
| Signal source / Switchpanel | How the button reaches the VCU: White input, CAN, FTCAN2.0 or Switchpanel, the switch panel. In firmware 00.03.00.54 the dashboard button is not among the switch panel's measurements: prefer White input. |
| Single identifiers | Screen in the My VCU menu with the map's list of devices. Writing from a device not on the list shows Attention!, and continuing may revoke its access to the VCU (section 13.1). |
| Snap to grid / Snap to Objects | Snapping to the grid and to the edges and centers of the other gauges, in the Setup snap menu (section 4.2). |
| Startup screen selection | Unit function: where it opens at power-on (dashboard, main menu or favorites). It is not Initial screen. |
| Style | Gauge design: Modern (default), Classic, Neon and Cyberpunk. The Tachometer has only 3. Only Modern draws a gradient in most fields. |
| SVG Button | Indicator that turns on and off from a flag-type measurement. It does not respond to touch, despite the name. |
| target | Device the dashboard is designed for (7 targets; Media Device is reserved in this version), chosen in Device. |
| Transbrake | Drag racing function that holds the car at the launch. |
| Undo / Redo | A single history for all targets and screens, with 50 steps. |
| Value 1 / Value 2 / Angle 1 / Angle 2 | The pointer goes to Angle 1 at Value 1 and to Angle 2 at Value 2 (section 17.4). |
| VCU / ECU | FuelTech control unit installed in the car (FT700, FT700 Plus, FT470): it stores the map and sends the measurements to the dashboard. Some screens show ECU: ECU model and ECU Button; the command field of that button reads VCU Command. |
| Video Overlay / Video Overlay Composer | PC-only target (1 screen, single background) and the tool that generates an MP4 with the gauges over a video, from an .ftlog. |
| warning light | Image, GIF or SVG Button that lights up from a measurement. The screen does not use the name. |
| White input / Input sensor | Physical VCU input, on the white wire of the wiring harness. The Input sensor is the polarity, and it is the one that applies to the physical screen-change button. |
| WMI | Water-methanol injection. |
| Write / Write VCU | Upload of the map to the VCU: Write on the PC (tooltip Write VCU), Write VCU on the phone and tablet. Commands and confirmations in section 17.6. |