# Time Series setup when the Object is its own "Sensor"

**URL:** <https://community.palantir.com/t/time-series-setup-when-the-object-is-its-own-sensor/7315>\
**Category:** Product Feedback\
**Tags:** ontology-management, time-series\
**Created:** [October 2, 2026, 8:07am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/time-series-setup-when-the-object-is-its-own-sensor/7315 "2026-10-02T08:07:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gdf](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/gdf/32/2149_2.png) [@gdf](https://community.palantir.com/u/gdf)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 8:07am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/time-series-setup-when-the-object-is-its-own-sensor/7315/1 "2026-10-02T08:07:17Z")

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Hello,

I would like to suggest a small but critical addition to the Time Series documentation to prevent a common point of confusion for beginners discovering the Ontology Manager (OMA).

**1. The Context & The Gap** The current documentation excellently explains the “Machine → Sensor” paradigm: an Object Type has a Primary Key (`machine_id`), and a separate property (`sensor_1_id`) that holds a string referencing the Time Series ID. However, beginners often start with a different, simpler use case: tracking a metric for the entity itself (e.g., an `Asset` or a `Tool` and its daily usage). In this case, the Object _is_ the sensor, and the Time Series ID is identical to the Object’s Primary Key.

**2. The Technical Block in OMA** When a beginner tries to implement this:

- They read that the Primary Key property cannot be configured as a Time Series property.

- They create a second property (e.g., `ts_series_id`) in OMA with Time Serie Type and configure the backed time serie dataset attached to this property.

- The Spark Line do not appeare because the property is empty. In fact they don’t get the point that the junction is done by property content taht should be the `Asset` or a `Tool` ID.

**3. The Confusion** Without deep OMA experience, the user think that the link is performed by the Object Type’s Primary key.

**Proposed Solution:** Could you add a short “Tip” or “Note” section in the Time Series documentation (specifically around the OMA configuration page)? _It should explicitly state:_ “If your Time Series data is tracked at the Object level (i.e., the Series ID is the same as the Object’s Primary Key), you must duplicate the identifier column in your backend PySpark/Pipeline dataset (e.g., `tool_id` and `tool_id_ts`). This allows you to map one column to the Primary Key and the other to the Time Series property in OMA.”

This simple callout would save hours of troubleshooting for new developers. Thank you!

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**Author:** ![pnepywoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@pnepywoda](https://community.palantir.com/u/pnepywoda)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/time-series-setup-when-the-object-is-its-own-sensor/7315/2 "2026-10-13T18:13:51Z")

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Thanks for the detailed suggestion! The additions are now live on https://www.palantir.com/docs/foundry/time-series/time-series-properties/#time-series-properties-tsps