Alarm Visualization

During the Project Runtime phase the active alarms can be viewed through the "Alarm Window" object or the "Alarm Banner" object on screen.

The Server module in your machine will automatically connect to Alarm Viewers inserted on screens.

However, it is also possible to connect the "Alarm Viewer" to a different Server module to the one already in use the running project, for example, to retrieve alarms from one network Server to another project or third party. To achieve this simply specify the Alarm Viewer's reference Server by using the "OPC UA Browser" window in the desired Server and drag the Server onto the Alarm Viewer.

Alarm Window Object

The Alarm Window object, available from the Toolbox, is used for listing active project alarms. In addition to viewing alarms the Alarm Window can be used for performing other operations by using the buttons described below:

ACK: acknowledges alarm. This event is recorded in the Historical Log table's "Details" column with the "The alarm was acknowledged" message
Reset: resets alarm. This event is recorded in the Historical Log table's "Details" column with the “The alarm was confirmed” message
Shelve: delays alarm activation. The delay time is inserted in the entry field at the side of the button in the "D.hh:mm:ss" format. This event is inserted in the historical log table "Details" column with the "The alarm was shelved” message
Unshelve: the alarm activation delay is suspended. This event is inserted in the historical log table "Details" column as "The alarm was unshelved”
Shelve Time: the shelve time is specified in this field. The time entered in the field will be taken into consideration when an alarm is shelved. Once this time has expired the alarm will be reactivated. Time must be entered in Days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Ack All: acknowledges all the active alarms in the window
Reset All: resets all the active alarms in the window
Refresh: refreshes the window's alarm list
Add Comment: this command opens a dialog window in which it is possible to insert a comment to associate to the selected alarm. This comment will be saved in the alarm's persistence file and then displayed in the Alarm Windows "Comment" column each time the alarm is activated. In addition, this comment will also be recorded in the Historical Log table in the relevant "Comment" column and then displayed in the Historical Log window's "Comment" column. In this case the comment will be shown for all the alarm's different recorded states (active, inactive, acknowledge, confirmed, etc.)
Disable Sound: when managed as a toggle, this button is used for enabling or disabling the alarm sound. This command is linked to the "AlarmSoundState" Server's system variable. Therefore the alarm sound can be toggled directly in this variable ("AlarmSoundState" = True: enables sound, "AlarmSoundState" = False: disables sound). The AlarmSoundState tag's persistence information is recorded in the IsolatedStorage and therefore is UserBased information. If the Windows user is changed, it will also be possible to save the sound state in a different mode.

When the Alarm Window Object is used by the ”Web Client HTML5”, only the “Ack All”, “Reset All” and “Refresh” buttons are available for use but not the "Search" tool, scroll bars, column resizer and filter with clauses even though they are still visible.

The data displayed in columns in the Alarm Window are:

Time On: indicates the alarm's activation time.
Message: shows the alarm text.
Condition: shows the name of the alarm's activation variable.
State: shows the alarm's state. This information is divided into two sections, the first one defines whether the alarm cause is active or not, "Active" or "Inactive", while the second one shows the action type that still has to be executed: "Unacknowledge", "Unconfirmed". For example, an active alarm that has not yet been acknowledged will the "Active | Unacknowledge" state. Conversley, an alarm which is not active and has already been acknlowledged and reset will have the "Inactive" state and its message will disappear from the window by simply executing the Refresh command.
Details: shows alarm details relating to the alarm.
Severity: shows the alarm's severity.
Icon: This replaces the names of columns with a graphic icon.
Change State Time: indicates the instance in which the alarm changed state (e.g. from a High threshold to a High-High threshold, or alarm cause switches from ON to OFF).
Branch: indicates which branch the alarm belongs to.
Quality: indicates the alarm's quality.
Comment: shows any comments associated to the alarm.
Area/Source: indicates the alarm's Area or Source.
Active Time: see Time ON column.
Acknowledgement Time: indicates when the alarm was acknowledged.
Confirmation Time: indicates when the alarm was confirmed.
Shelving Time: indicates when the alarm was shelved.
Child Project Name: indicates any child project which the alarm belongs to.