Timestamp and data synchronization in SCADA systems - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Timestamp and Data Synchronization

📖 Scenario: You work with a SCADA system that collects sensor readings from multiple machines. Each reading has a timestamp and a value. To analyze the data correctly, you need to synchronize the readings by their timestamps.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple program that stores sensor readings with timestamps, sets a synchronization threshold, filters readings within that threshold, and then outputs the synchronized data.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called sensor_readings with exact timestamp keys and sensor value entries

Add a variable called sync_threshold with the value 5 representing seconds

Use a dictionary comprehension to create synchronized_readings containing only readings with timestamps within the threshold

Print the synchronized_readings dictionary as the final output

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

SCADA systems collect sensor data with timestamps. Synchronizing data by time helps operators analyze machine performance accurately.

💼 Career

Understanding timestamp synchronization is important for roles in industrial automation, system monitoring, and data analysis in manufacturing environments.

1

Create initial sensor readings dictionary

Create a dictionary called sensor_readings with these exact entries: 1609459200: 23.5, 1609459203: 24.0, 1609459210: 22.8, 1609459215: 23.1

SCADA systems

# Create the sensor_readings dictionary with exact timestamp keys and values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces to create a dictionary with timestamps as keys and sensor values as floats.

2

Add synchronization threshold variable

Add a variable called sync_threshold and set it to the integer 5 representing seconds

SCADA systems

sensor_readings = {1609459200: 23.5, 1609459203: 24.0, 1609459210: 22.8, 1609459215: 23.1}
# Define sync_threshold variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the number 5 to the variable named sync_threshold.

3

Filter readings within synchronization threshold

Use a dictionary comprehension to create a new dictionary called synchronized_readings that includes only entries from sensor_readings where the timestamp is less than or equal to 1609459200 + sync_threshold

SCADA systems

sensor_readings = {1609459200: 23.5, 1609459203: 24.0, 1609459210: 22.8, 1609459215: 23.1}
sync_threshold = 5
# Create synchronized_readings dictionary using comprehension
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary comprehension with for timestamp, value in sensor_readings.items() and an if condition to filter timestamps.

4

Print synchronized readings

Write a print statement to display the synchronized_readings dictionary

SCADA systems

sensor_readings = {1609459200: 23.5, 1609459203: 24.0, 1609459210: 22.8, 1609459215: 23.1}
sync_threshold = 5
synchronized_readings = {timestamp: value for timestamp, value in sensor_readings.items() if timestamp <= 1609459200 + sync_threshold}
# Print the synchronized_readings dictionary
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(synchronized_readings) to show the filtered dictionary.