Add a Double Point Status Alarm
- Last UpdatedFeb 06, 2024
- 8 minute read
A double point status alarm responds to eight states in a field device that are represented in Plant SCADA as a single integer tag.
For each of the eight states you can specify the following properties:
-
State Name <n> — a name that identifies the condition that the state represents.
-
State Type <n> — the action that occurs when the device transitions to the defined state. The options are:
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"Alarm" - an alarm is added to the Active Alarms page and an event is logged to the SOE page. The State Name will appear in the State field.
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"Event" - indicates an OFF state has occurred. An event is logged on the SOE page, even if an alarm state transition did not occur. The State Name will appear in the State field.
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"None" - indicates an OFF state has occurred. The State Name will appear in the State field on both the SOE and Active Alarms pages when an alarm transition occurs.
Note: If an alarm is currently in an "Event" or "None" state, a further transition to a "None" state will not be reported.
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This means when the value of the integer tag is 0, the alarm will go into "State Name 0". When the value of the tag is 1, it will go into "State Name 1", and so on. Out of range values will be ignored.
Note: Double point status alarms are timestamp based and designed to work with the Driver Runtime Interface (DRI). For a list of supported drivers, see Retrieving Time-stamped Data from I/O Devices. Alternatively, you can trigger a double point status alarm using the Cicode function AlarmNotifyVarChange as it notifies the alarm server of any value changes for the associated variable. It also passes the timestamp with the notification message.
Example
The following table demonstrates the configuration of a double point status alarm associated with a single integer tag that represents four states.
|
Tag Value |
Alarm Property |
Value |
Alarm |
Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
0 |
State Name 0 |
Unknown |
Yes |
No |
|
State Type 0 |
Alarm |
|||
|
1 |
State Name 1 |
Open |
No |
Yes |
|
State Type 1 |
Event |
|||
|
2 |
State Name 2 |
Closed |
No |
Yes |
|
State Type 2 |
Event |
|||
|
3 |
State Name 3 |
Jammed |
Yes |
No |
|
State Type 3 |
Alarm |
This configuration will result in following:
-
An alarm will be triggered whenever the device transitions to an "Unknown" or "Jammed" state. This is determined by the State Type <n> property, which is set to "Alarm" for these two states. When an alarm occurs, the associated State Name <n> value will display in the State field on the Active Alarms page and the SOE page.
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If a transition occurs between two states that both have State Type <n> set to "Event" (for example, a transition from "Open" to "Closed"), this will be recorded on the SOE page without an alarm being raised.
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If the alarm transitions between two states that both have State Type <n> set to "Alarm", the state of the alarm will change to reflect the new state, and the time of the alarm will be updated.
-
If an alarm transitions from "Alarm" state to an "Event" state, the alarm will be moved to an OFF state on the Active Alarms page and an event will be logged on the SOE page.
To add a double point status alarm:
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In the System Model activity, select Alarms.
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On the menu below the Command Bar, select Double Point Status Alarms.
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Add a row to the Grid Editor.
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Type the required information in each column, or in the fields in the Property Grid.
For a description of the properties, see below.
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Click Save.
Note: Configure the [Alarm]UseConfigLimits parameter to force the Plant SCADA alarms server to use double point alarm property values from the RDB, rather than using the values which may be stored in the database file.
Double Point Status Alarm Properties
Note: If an alarm was generated by the Equipment Editor, a number of fields on the properties form will be shaded. To configure these fields, you will need to use Equipment Editor (see Use Equipment Editor to Configure Alarms).
Equipment Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Equipment |
The name of the equipment associated with the double point status alarm. Select a name from the drop-down list of existing equipment definitions, or enter a name. There is a limit of 254 characters across the Equipment and Item Name fields, including any separating periods (.). |
|
Item Name |
The name of the item with which the alarm is associated. Items form part of an equipment hierarchy. They can be used to associate tags, alarms and trends with a particular attribute of a physical piece of equipment (see Items). There is a limit of 254 characters across the Equipment and Item Name, including any separating periods (.). If you leave this field blank, the last 63 characters of the Alarm Tag field will be used for the Item Name. Be aware that the Alarm Tag allows 79 characters, while Tag Item has a maximum of 63 characters. This may result in compiler errors if the combination of '<Equipment>.<TagItem>' is not unique. Note: When defining an item name, avoid using the Reserved Words. If you use any of these, an error message will display when you compile your project. |
General Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Alarm Tag |
The name of the alarm tag. The name needs to be unique to the cluster and adhere to Tag Name Syntax rules. If your project includes a large number of tags, a naming convention can be helpful when searching and debugging tags (see Structured Tag Names. |
|
Alarm Name |
A meaningful description of the alarm, for example, a name that includes the physical device associated with the alarm. The name is used when details of the alarm are displayed on the screen or logged to a device. This field does not support variable data. |
|
Cluster Name |
The name of the cluster that runs the alarm. This field needs to be defined if your project has more than one cluster. You can leave this field blank in a multi-cluster system if cluster replication is enabled (see the parameter [General]ClusterReplication). |
|
Category |
The alarm category to which the alarm is assigned, defined as either a category number or a label (see Categorize Alarms). If not specified, the category defaults to category 0. |
|
Alarm Desc |
A meaningful description of the alarm condition. This description is used when details of the alarm are displayed on screen or logged to a device. This field can support variable data (by enclosing an expression in braces). For example: "Line Broken Alarm at Line Speed {LineSpeed1}" |
|
Delay |
The alarm delay period (see Use Alarm Delay). An alarm becomes active when the state of the triggering condition remains true for the duration of the delay period. The delay period needs to be entered in the following format: HH:MM:SS (Hours:Minutes:Seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00). |
|
Help |
The name of the graphics page that displays when the AlarmHelp() function is called by a user-defined command. If not specified no action occurs when the Alarm() function is called. |
|
Comment |
Any useful comment. |
Source Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Variable Tag |
An integer tag that represents up to eight different states in a field device. |
State Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
State Name <1> to State Name <7> |
Enter a name that describes the associated state. If an alarm or event is triggered for this state, this name will appear in the State field of the Active Alarms page and/or the SOE page. |
|
State Type <1> to State Type <7> |
Determines the action that occurs when the device transitions to the defined state. The options are:
|
Note: The State Type is stored as a numeric value in the alarms database. In some circumstances, you will
need to use a numeric value to represent a particular State Type. This will include:
• When using Equipment Editor to associate a double point status alarm with an Equipment Type item.
• When using the Project DBF Add-in to manually edit the alarms database.
• When using filtering in Plant SCADA Studio.
• When using the Export All / Import All feature in the Alarms activity.
When a numeric value is required, use one of the following: 0 = None; 1 = Event; 2
= Alarm.
Custom Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Custom 1 to Custom 8 |
A user-defined string for filtering active alarms (maximum 64 characters). Used in a custom Cicode query function as search criteria, the custom alarm filter enables operators to identify and display a subset of active alarms. Note:
|
Paging Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Paging |
A read/write property that indicates whether the alarm will be paged. When the value is 1 (TRUE) the alarm will be paged. The default value is 0 (FALSE). This property can be read using alarm tag browsing and read or modified when tag properties are enabled using the tag name "myCluster.myAlarm.paging". |
|
Paging Group |
A read only text string that indicates the paging group to which the alarm belongs. Maximum length is 80 characters. See your third-party paging system documentation for information on how to use this Paging Group string. This property can be read using alarm tag browsing or when tag properties are enabled read using the tagname "myCluster.myAlarm.paginggroup". For example, assign the value of PagingGroup to a variable: myString = myCluster.Alarm_1.paginggroup |
Security Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Area |
The Area the alarm belongs to. If an operator does not have access to an area, the alarm is not visible on the alarm display. For example, if you enter Area 1 here, operator need to have access to Area 1 (plus any necessary privileges) to acknowledge or disable this alarm. The area and privilege fields defined here needs to be designed to work in conjunction. A privilege defined on a button (say) will ignore the alarm defined area. |
|
Privilege |
Privilege necessary by an operator to acknowledge or disable the alarm. If you assign an acknowledgment privilege to an alarm, there is no need to assign a privilege to the command(s) that acknowledge the alarm. If you assign a different privilege to the commands, an operator needs to have both privileges to acknowledge the command. More importantly, the area defined here may be ignored. |
Historian Properties
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Historize |
This field enables you to automatically historize and publish the specified analog alarm in CitectHistorian. If you set this field to "TRUE", the variable will be included in an automated configuration process within the Historian environment. If you set the field to "FALSE" (or leave it blank), the variable will not be included. |
Project Properties
|
Property |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Project |
The project in which the time-stamped digital alarm is configured. |
See Also