Introduction

Overview of the categories covered in the Typhoon HIL Software Manual

The purpose of the Typhoon HIL Software Manual is to provide you with a detailed description of all features available in the Typhoon HIL software suite of tools, including TyphoonSim, Schematic Editor, HIL SCADA, and TyphoonTest IDE which are integrated into our Typhoon HIL Control Center software. The first sections highlight important information regarding Typhoon HIL software. System Requirements outlines the PC hardware and software environment necessary to run Typhoon HIL software. Typhoon HIL Quick Start Guide provides the steps needed to quickly install all necessary software tools and setup hardware components in order to run an example model, either in real-time simulation or TyphoonSim. Typhoon HIL Toolboxes has information on the free and paid software toolboxes that enhance the capabilities of Typhoon HIL Control Center. Lastly, Connecting to your HIL device outlines the procedure for connecting to HIL devices depending on your operating system.

Each other part of the Typhoon HIL Software Manual is focused on a particular software tool, concept, or capability of the toolchain:

  • Device Manager is a globally visible tool for defining, manipulating, loading, and deploying HIL device setups to an instance of Typhoon HIL Control Center. Additionally, Device Manager allows you to upgrade firmware on multiple HIL simulator devices. This section provides detailed guidelines how to conduct the firmware upgrade procedure for each model of the HIL real-time simulator which supports this functionality.

  • Typhoon HIL Control Center is the window which opens when you start the Typhoon HIL software. This section provides a general description of Typhoon HIL Control Center and lists the main software components accessible from it, as well as additional software tools which can be directly invoked from its interface.

  • TyphoonSim is a high-speed offline simulator. It offers variable-step simulation capabilities, providing flexibility for power stage and control design. It is available as both a standalone software and integrated in Typhoon HIL Control Center.

  • Example Explorer is a menu which provides the functionality to navigate and search through pre-made examples. It is accessible from within Schematic Editor or the main Typhoon HIL Control Center window.

  • Signal Access Management describes how to change the the visibility of signals in your model in order to restrict access and protect against intellectual property (IP) leakage when sharing your custom components or libraries with end users.

  • Schematic Editor allows you to create high-fidelity models of the power stage for your real-time or TyphoonSim simulations. This section, therefore, provides detailed explanations of the wide array of features and functionalities of panels, panes and buttons accessible in Schematic Editor. In addition to descriptions of GUI elements, this section also provides guidelines which allow you to take full advantage of Schematic Editor's modeling functionalities. You can see the complete list on the navigation dropdown menu on the left.

  • TyphoonSim Solver Engine provides a summary of the state-of-the-art solvers in the TyphoonSim solver engine that enable simulation of complex models exhibiting both continuous and discrete dynamics. In addition, this section covers key modeling principles and the simulation workflow when working with TyphoonSim.

  • Simulation context definitions provides an introductory overview of the different simulation contexts - Real-time (VHIL) and TyphoonSim. Core library component and feature availability and visibility for each of these contexts are explained in detail with examples.

  • Schematic Editor Component Libraries provides a detailed description of the pre-built components and power electronics blocks that can be used for modeling power electronics systems in TyphoonSim, Virtual HIL, or in real-time on the HIL simulator devices. These libraries are accessible via the Library Explorer toolbar in Schematic Editor.

  • Third-party integrations provides an overview of the key built-in integrations with third-party software and standards for your simulation context.

  • HIL SCADA allows you to interact with the real-time simulation of the model you created in Schematic Editor. To empower you to use HIL SCADA to its full potential, this section first provides detailed explanations of all window elements contained in HIL SCADA: Command Toolbar, Library Explorer Dock, Panel Explorer Dock, Model Explorer, Namespace Explorer, Model Settings Dock, Panel Tabs, Message Log Dock, History Dock and Status Bar. The section also provides detailed information on how you can use and customize various widgets (Action widgets, Monitoring widgets, Connection widgets, Visual widgets, Data Logging Widgets, Analysis Widgets, and the Capture/Scope Widget), as well as guidelines on how to troubleshoot Widget Errors, set up Panel Initialization, and even group, save, and share your widgets as a HIL SCADA Widget Library. Lastly, several different alterantive options for interacting with HIL SCADA are described, including HIL SCADA Command-line Options, HIL SCADA External Mode, and even how to create your own HIL standalone boot configuration for use with Standalone HIL SCADA.

  • Waveform Generator is a software toolbox which allows you to fully customize your real-time simulations with real-date, generated data, or a combination of the two. On the one hand, with the Source file generator you can generate various types of signals which you can change on the point level. On the other hand, the PV file generator allows you to either generate a PV panel file using various parameters or to import an arbitrary I-V curve from a .csv file, and thus generate a PV panel from real date acquired at your test site.
  • Test and Calibration Tool provides detailed information on how you can perform an automated calibration of the analog I/O section of HIL 4- and 6-series real-time simulators.

  • TyphoonTest IDE is Typhoon HIL's signature testing framework, which includes pytest integration, API functions, and integration with the Allure Framework reporting tool to provide beautiful and interactive reports.

  • Signal Analyzer is a tool for visualization and analysis of signal data exported within Typhoon HIL software or dynamically imported from HIL SCADA.

  • Lookup table extraction tool is a built-in tool meant to extract data from datasheets and other technical notes in json, csv, or a Python list format, which can then be imported as non-linear characteristics in other tools within the software.

  • Package Manager is a tool for creating and managing packages using the Typhoon HIL toolchain that contain Schematic examples, Schematic and widget libraries, documentation etc. It is especially useful for wrapping examples, tests, libraries, resources, and python packages via an automated installation, making it easier to share your work internally with colleagues or externally, such as over the HIL Marketplace.

  • Usage Logging is a tool that provides the ability to log various usage statistics and make them available for you to perform further analysis. This currently includes Application usage events, Simulation events, and Compilation events (both simple and detailed).

  • Python Interpreters provides an overview of how to use Typhoon HIL's built-in Python Interpreters to further customize your test files.