Finite State Machines - Make light work of complex functions

State Diagrams 8, a shorthand symbol for timeouts

Because timeouts are (or should be) very common in control program designs, I use a shorthand notation for representing a timeout (Figure 8).

To represent a timeout, draw a horizontal line under the state number then write the time limit under the line. You can abbreviate the time units using a single apostrophe for minutes or a double apostrophe for seconds. So, 10' means ten minutes and 10" means ten seconds. The single upper case T is used to label the timeout event.