Cable Calculator

Last updated on 2019-02-07 4 mins. to read

Cable Calculator is a standalone module with a simple and clean interface which allows users to size low voltage cables.  The module calculates the CSA based on current capacity, voltage drop and fault rating while requiring the minimum amount of user input. The calculator is a downloadable website plugin.  Developers can copy the files to their web-server and integrate the calculator into one of their pages with a few lines of code. 

Features

The calculator allows your visitors to size low voltage power cables:

  • clean and simple interface
  • PVC and XLPE, armoured, unarmoured
  • a.c. and d.c. systems 
  • sustained current capacity to BS 7671
  • voltage drop to CCENELEC CLC/TR 50480
  • impedance and fault calculations to IEC 60906
  • many configurable display and operation options

Advanced Features

Advanced features of the calculation can be enabled or disabled depending on your requirements:

  1. Request Quotation - allow visitors to request a quotation:
    • send an email with cable requirements and contact details
    • activated for selected countries to avoid requests from countries you do not supply

If you are a user of our Cable Calculator, we are open to requests for additional features. 

Installation

You can download the application here: Cable Calculator Download 

Installation: to install the application, please extract (unzip) all files and copy to a directory on your web server.  By default, this is set to '/mce/mceCableCalculator', but you can change the directory.

Note: please ensure client-side access is allowed for the config.json file. For example in IIS you may need to modify the  <system.webServer> section of your web.config to allow JSON files:

 <mimeMap fileExtension=".json" mimeType="application/json" />

Upgrade - if upgrading, copy all files except config.json.  If the config.json file has been modified as part of the upgrade, manually add in any changes to your config.json. 

Website Integration

The entry point for the application is index.html.  Running this file will run the calculator.

Integration into your site on a particular page depends on your site structure and programming language.  Common ways of achieving this including injecting the application (index.html) using your content management system, programming language (c# for example), injecting by using Java-script, modifying the HTML of your website, using an IFrame, etc.

The easiest way to enable the application is to inject the contents of index.html itself into the location you want to display the Cable Calculator.  

Once successfully installed, on running the application you should be presented with a welcome message and request to activate the calculator with your API credentials.

Authentication

To authenticate the application you need to subscribe to one of our API products.  To subscribe, please contact us and we will get the process going.

Once subscribed to a product, you need to add you OcpApimSubscriptionKey (available on the developer portal) to the config.json file. 

The application should now be fully functioning.

Configuration

The application can be fine-tuned by changing the parameters in the config.json file.  Please note that changing values may affect the number of API calls and/or performance.

SETTINGS - config.json [the file is in JSON format]

API Subscription Settings
apiUrl  our API URL (normally keep the default setting)
OcpApimSubscriptionKey you AP subscription key
   
General  configuration settings
appTitle title text at top of the application
demoMode set to true to use the calculator in demonstration mode
enableCalculationCounter show or hide the calculation counter (parallel cables, CSA) on the results page
frequency frequency to a.c. calculations
maxInParallel maximum number of parallel cables, the application will consider
   
Settings associated with the 'request quotation' feature
featureRequestQuotation enable the 'request quotation' feature on the calculator
quotationSubmitMessage message to show user after they have submitted a quotation request
quotationCountryList ist of countries (ISO 2 digit codes), for which request quotation will be active (comma separated)
quotationEmailSubject the subject of any quotation request email
quotationEmailFrom email of the from address for request for quotation email
quotationEmailTo list of recipients of any request for quotations (comma separated)

 

Notes & Tips

  1. As part of the set-up, you will need to provide us with the domains you intend running the application on.  We will then authorize access to the API under your subscription keys for these domains.
  2. The number of API calls to select and size a cable depends on the amount of user interaction and how quickly the application can converge on a suitable cable.  For estimating API call usage a typical cable calculation will use around 40 calls.
  3. For details on supported browsers, please see: Supported Browsers.  In general, all modern browsers are supported. Please note, that IE is not supported due to being discontinued by Microsoft and the amount of additional code required, significantly bloats the package.  If IE is particularly important to you, please contact us for options. 

  

Comments

Add comment