Configuring Discrete Alarms

A discrete alarm corresponds to a discrete tag. You can configure whether the alarmed state corresponds to the discrete tag’s true (On, Yes, 1) state or false (Off, No, 0) state.

To define alarm conditions for a discrete tag

1. Open the Tagname Dictionary.

2. Select an existing discrete tag or create a new discrete tag.

3. Click either Alarms or Details & Alarms at the top of the Tagname Dictionary dialog box to show the discrete alarm details dialog box.

   

4. In the ACK Model area, select the alarm acknowledgement model for the tag.

   • Click Condition for acknowledgment to count against all transitions into the alarmed state or a sub-state up to the time of the acknowledgement. This is the default acknowledgement model.

   • Click Event Oriented for an acknowledgment to only be for a particular transition to the alarmed state or a sub-state; an acknowledgment is accepted only if it refers to the most recent transaction.

   • Click Expanded Summary for an acknowledgment to only be for a particular transition, whether to an alarmed state, to a sub-state, or a return to normal. Each transition from the normal state marks the beginning of a new "return to normal" (RTN) group. All transitions in an RTN group must be acknowledged individually before the overall RTN group is considered acknowledged.

5. In the Alarm Comment box, type an alarm comment up to 131 characters.

   Note: The Alarm Comment box should not contain the double-quote character ("). A process that uses the double-quote as a delimiter will fail if it is fetching an alarm comment that includes a double-quote.

6. In the Alarm State area, select the active alarm state to be the discrete tag’s On or Off value.

7. In the Priority box, assign an alarm priority number between 1 to 999. The default priority number is 1, which is the highest alarm priority.

8. Optionally assign an alarm inhibitor tag for the discrete alarm.

   1. In the Alarm Inhibitor box, click the button to show the Select Tag dialog box containing a list of defined tags.

   2. Select a tag from the list and click OK. The name of the tag you selected as the inhibitor tag appears in the Alarm Inhibitor box.

   For more information on inhibiting alarms, see Inhibiting Alarms.

9. Click Save.

10. Click Close to close the Tagname Dictionary dialog box.