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un parcours événementiel
apport
Jun 15, 2014 18:06
9 yrs ago
French term

variable sollicitée

French to English Tech/Engineering Electronics / Elect Eng Building Management System
This occurs in a large tender document for a major electrical instalaltion project for a large building complex.

La remontée de ces informations de température se fera sous forme de variable sollicitée

Please, if anyone finds my source text on the 'Net, do NOT post it here, for reasons of confidentiality!

I can sort of see what they are getting at: this BMS gathers information from all sorts of detectors of various kinds round the building, and then controls the building's technical facilities accordingly. So the data are 'sent back up' to the central control unit, and here, the computer handles them as 'variables'; but I can't find many references to this term in FR, still less any explanation.

I imagine it to be 'pull variables' — ones you have to go and ask for, instead of their being sent to you; I also thought of 'called variables' or 'polled variables'; but none of these semms to get any even vaguely relevant Google hits. So I'm wondering if I have the wrong idea in the first place, or if I just haven't hit upon the right term yet.

There is no other mention of this particular variable, or indeed any other ones, in my document, which might have helped a bit :-(
Proposed translations (English)
3 +2 requested variable
4 by way of on-demand data acquisition
2 +1 changed/buffered data

Discussion

Daryo Jun 17, 2014:
grammatically and logically (having a rough idea of how such a system would work) data "made available on request" / "sent to the central unit only when asked for" is the only variant that really makes sense (having a central unit flooded with unwanted information would be extremely poor design)
Tony M (asker) Jun 16, 2014:
Temperature is a red-herring I don't think we should pay to much attention to the specifically 'temperature' aspect, that is just one of many dimensions that might be covered. These are clearly 'variables' in the computer (etc.) sense, as Daryo says
Daryo Jun 16, 2014:
@Francis Marche Different room temperatures are needed in the building, hence "variable temperature needs"

I'm afraid not.

"variable" is here used as defined in maths and physics: "une grandeur qui peut prendre des valeurs variables";
even if the temperature was exactly the same throughout the whole building, it would still be "la variable (qui mesure/représente la) température"
Francis Marche Jun 16, 2014:
Different room temperatures are needed in the building, hence "variable temperature needs". Information on the different existing room temperature levels is fed into the system which processes the data as variable energy needs ("variables sollicitées").
chris collister Jun 16, 2014:
In noise and vibration work, for example, a structure can be "sollicité" by road traffic, earthquakes, etc., ie it is an "excitation". Although I can't imagine a temperature sensor being "excited", "excitation variables" might work, but surely these would simply be "measurements"?
Francis Marche Jun 16, 2014:
@Tony "Sollicité" in building management is in line with "sollicitation" (the intensity or weight of traffic in some passageway, etc.). In this case, the context may be telling your more : "sollicité" could be used to express the variable "temperature needs" in the differents parts of the building. The various sections and rooms of the buildings have their respective temperature regulation needs. I'd investigate this particular aspect of the issue : a "sollicitation" as a "need".
Tony M (asker) Jun 15, 2014:
@ Evgeny That's an interesting thought, but I don't think it could really be the case here; certainly, there is no other instance of 'sollicité(e)' used in that (or any other!) way in the rest of the document, which I think would be a bit surprising if it were being used in that sense.
Evgeny Artemov (X) Jun 15, 2014:
I may be dead wrong, but can the form (or the variable) be "sollicitée" not by the computer but the technical specifications?
Tony M (asker) Jun 15, 2014:
@ Lorraine Thanks, Lorraine! It is indeed a bit like that, only a LOT more complicated; I can't go into too much detail for confidentiality reasons, but that's pretty much the general idea.
Lorraine Dubuc Jun 15, 2014:
Sounds like temperature parameters that are programmed to trigger a status report. But maybe I got it all wrong...

Proposed translations

+2
26 mins
Selected

requested variable

I cannot find any relevant reference, but it could work since "to request" seems to be the meaning of "solliciter" according to your explanation. Don't hit me if I am wrong!
Note from asker:
Thanks, Anca! I think the meaning would be 'variable that has to be requested' — but I'm not sure that's a valid term! But this is certainly the idea, as far as I have been able to ascertain; this applingly-written source text flits around all over the place, with scant real hard information where you need it most.
Peer comment(s):
agree Lorraine Dubuc : I came to the same conclusion.
1 min
Thank you, Lorraine.
agree DLyons : As you say, it's 50-50.
1 day 21 hrs
Ha, ha, thanks Donal. I really mean it: it should be alowed for one person to say it is "this" or "that"!
Something went wrong...
2 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks a lot, Anca! I did have trouble finding much convincing support for this suggestion (sadly, there's a lot of 'noise' out there in Google-land!) — however, I was able to find a plausible-sounding wording along these lines that the customer has happily validated, so "all's well that ends well" as Will said."
+1
15 mins

changed/buffered data

This may not be your setup, but in high-volume systems something like OPC XML-DA Subscription is often used. This means that data is only sent if it has changed - unchanged data does not form part of the traffic.
Note from asker:
Thanks a lot, Donal — that certainly sounds to me along the right lines!
Thanks a lot for this good suggestion, Donal! Other elements in my wider context however made me wary of using it; in particular, this represents a level of technical detail out of place compared with the rest of the document, and without a little more surrounding corroboration, I was a little uneasy about the risk of over-translation.
Peer comment(s):
agree Anca Florescu-Mitchell : I agree, because it can well be that the variable is sent when it has changed for whatever reason. Since I am not sure, I will leave my answer as well, what could be clearer that fifty-fifty? Not much room for doubts with this Kudoz game.
1 day 20 hrs
Thanks Anca. I could be right, I could be wrong. It's my best guess in the limited context.
Something went wrong...
45 mins
French term (edited): sous forme de variable sollicitée

by way of on-demand data acquisition

La remontée de ces informations de température se fera sous forme de variable sollicitée

... by way of on-demand data acquisition

I don't see that you need to stick blindly to "variable"

Note from asker:
Thanks a lot, Daryo! I quite take your point, and I think this would work in many circumstances; in my particular case, however, I did find it a little awkward to fit into the rest of my sentence — and in addition, it was pertinent to talk about a 'variable', as that term had been bandied about quite a lot throughout this section talking about the BMS as a whole.
Something went wrong...
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