Features

Labtime was designed to be inexpensive and easy to configure and support. LabTime provides a full solution for acquiring data from Edge devices, displaying that data worldwide for users real-time, and saving the data in a on-line historian using Grafana to create dashboards of charts, tables, etc.  LabTime also connects to a Drupal Content Management System that saves information about Experiments, Processes, Equipment, Users, Notes, etc.  A Drupal media library can also store and categorize all of the documents, videos, images and links to remote data.

  • Open Source Based:  All of the major components of LabTime are open source and FREE to use.    
    • Mosquitto is a lightweight Open source message broker that Implements MQTT. 
    • InfluxDB - "Open source time series database for storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operations monitoring, application metrics, Internet of Things sensor data, and real-time analytics." 
    • Grafana - "Open source analytics & monitoring solution for every database".  With Grafana you can create complex dashboards with multiple graphs, charts, tables, histograms, etc. 
    • Arduino, Raspberry PI, Groov EPIC and RIO, PLC's - Supports inexpensive EDGE devices for reading sensors and controlling equipment.  Additional Edge devices such PLC's can also be integrated into LabTime.
    • Drupal - Open source content management system (CMS) that can manage custom content types and display them in web pages.  Drupal manages the experiments,  experiment runs, equipment, users, video files, images and documents.
    • MySQL or MariaDB - Open source database used by Drupal to save content
  • Drupal CMS:  Drupal saves the experiment information and each run of that experiment.  A web page is created for each of these.  The experiment page shows the runs, images, videos, associated documents and text about the experiment such as the purpose, notes, and results.  In addition Drupal has a media library that can organize, filter and display all  your documents, pictures, videos and links to exterior websites.  Drupal has a sophisticated security system that ensures your data can only be viewed by approved users.
  • Real-Time Chat: Engage in seamless real-time communication within LabTime's web-based UI. Collaborate with team members, share insights, and discuss important findings, regardless of your location.  All chat messages are stored in Drupal and can be found listed on the associated Experiment page.
  • Note-Taking: Forget those traditional notebooks and instead record time-stamped real time notes as the experiment progresses.  Notes are automatically shared with other users as they happen (just like chat).  They are also stored in Drupal and appear on the Experiment page.
  • Web-Based UI: You can Access and manage your IIoT ecosystem with LabTime's web-based interface. Enjoy the freedom of viewing and controlling your experiments from anywhere in the world.  Real-time communications allow for people to communicate with others and collaborate with other
  • Historian - The historian consists of an Influx time series database, the associated Telegraf data loaders, and the Grafana Analysis tools.  This creates a powerful Historian which allows you to view complex dashboards of data with graphs, tables, pie charts, histograms, etc. 
  • Dynamic Visualization with Grafana: Utilize Grafana's open source visualization and analytics platform seamlessly within LabTime's web-based UI. Create dynamic dashboards that combine sensor data, human input, chat messages, lab notes, and more, for real-time monitoring and analysis.  Grafana can combine data from most any sources and is the place to analyze your data.
  • CERN uses InfluxDB and Grafana to record and analyze the massive amounts of data recorded from the LHC, ALICE and other experiments.
  • Easy Configuration: Seamlessly configure and customize LabTime using JSON files, simple text files that allow you to easily define the system configuration and tailor the platform to your specific requirements. 
  • Multiple experiments can be run simultaneously in separate, isolated processes.  This allows for development, test and production environments to run at the same time.

Future Features  

  • Equipment Controller - program to control experiment procedures, alert for alarm conditions, etc.  This is essentially the SCADA part of LabTime.
  • Real time video feeds - display streaming video in the LabTime UI.