Add a Time Stamped Alarm in Citect Studio

System Model > Alarms > Configure Alarms > Add a Time Stamped Alarm

Add a Time Stamped Alarm

Time stamped alarms use a counter to provide an accurate time stamp of when a triggering condition occurred, rather than the time the variable was polled. They can be associated with a single digital variable.

For more information, see Time stamped alarms.

To add a time stamped alarm:

In the System Model activity, select Alarms.
On the menu below the Command Bar, select Time Stamped Alarms.
Add a row to the Grid Editor.
Type the required information in each column, or in the Property Grid (see below for a description of the properties).
Click Save.

Note: Configure the [Alarm]UseConfigLimits parameter to force the Citect SCADA alarms server to use digital alarm property values from the RDB, rather than using the values which may be stored in the database file.

Time Stamped Alarms 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

Property	Description
Equipment	The name of the equipment associated with the time stamped 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 entering an Item Name, there are a number of reserved words that you need to avoid. These reserved words relate to syntax that is used for tag extensions. They are: • field • valid • override • overridemode • controlmode • status • v • vt • q • qt • t If you use one of these reserved words, an error message will display when you compile your project.

Property

Description

Equipment

The name of the equipment associated with the time stamped 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 entering an Item Name, there are a number of reserved words that you need to avoid. These reserved words relate to syntax that is used for tag extensions. They are:
• field
• valid
• override
• overridemode
• controlmode
• status
• v
• vt
• q
• qt
• t
If you use one of these reserved words, an error message will display when you compile your project.

General Properties

Property

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 Using 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}

See Add Variable Data to Alarm Messages.

Timer Expr.

The variable tag or Cicode expressionA statement (or group of statements) that returns a value. An expression can be a single variable, a mathematical formula, or a function. that represents the counter (or millisecond timer) configured in the I/O Device. The counter needs to be configured and maintained by the program in the I/O Device; it is read only when the alarm is triggered.

You can use one of three types of counter or timer to record the triggering of time-stamped alarms:

Continuous counter - A continuous counter is read in the unit to determine the sequence in which the alarms are triggered. The alarms are sorted based on the value of the counter when the alarm was triggered (the exact time is not recorded). Program the counter (in the unit) to count continually to its limit, reset, and again count to its limit.

Millisecond counter - If your unit supports a millisecond counter, program a counter (in the unit) to count (in milliseconds) for 24 hours, and then reset (at midnight). The value of this timer variable (in the unit) is read to determine the exact time when the alarm was triggered.

LONGBCB timer - Using a LONGBCD timer, you can log the exact time when a Time-stamped alarm becomes active. This variable is read, along with the alarm tag when the alarm activates. You need to program the LONGBCD variable in the following format with the range specified as hexadecimal numbers, excluding numbers containing alphabetic characters:

BYTE	Meaning	Range
1^st	Hours	00-23 (most significant byte)
2^nd	Minutes	00-59
3^rd	Seconds	00-59
4^th	100^th/sec	00-99 (least significant byte)

Use 'Timer' to handshake with the PLC code: The PLC is informed that it has read the timer register and now the PLC can overwrite the last value. For example, with the following code saved in a Cicode file:

INT
FUNCTION
AlarmTimerReset(INT iTimer, STRING sTimerTrigger)
TagWrite(sTimerTrigger, 0); 
//Reset the trigger
RETURN iTimer; 
//Return the timer value to the alarm system
END

Example:

where Variable Tag is AlmTrigger1 AND Timer is AlarmTimerReset(AlmTimer1, "AlmTrigger1")

In this example AlmTimer1 is the PLC register that stores the alarm time, and AlmTrigger1 is the alarm trigger bit.

When AlmTrigger1 is set to 1, the alarm is triggered, and the Cicode function is called. On calling the function, the AlmTimer1 register is read. The function resets the trigger bit (handshaking), and the value of AlmTimer1 is returned.

Note: AlarmTimerReset() is a user function that does not exist in Citect SCADA.

Timer Group

This field is only applicable if the parameter [Alarm]HresType is set to 1 (continuous counter).

It allows you to group alarms so that the alarm server can keep track of the counter sequence for each group independently. This may be useful if your system requires multiple alarm count sequences (to support multiple devices).

Help (Optional)

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 AlarmHelp() function is called.

Comment

Any useful comment.

Source Properties

Property	Description
Variable Tag	The variable tag that triggers the alarm.

Property

Description

Variable Tag

The variable tag that triggers the alarm.

Custom Properties

Property	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 filterCustom alarm filters provide a way to filter and display active alarms. Up to eight custom filter strings can be assigned to a configured alarm. In conjunction with a user-defined query function, the custom filters enable operators to identify and display active alarms of interest. enables operators to identify and display a subset of active alarms. Notes: • Custom filters are visible only when the MultiDigital Alarm form is open in Extended mode. • The fields are not case-sensitive and can contain 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', '0'..'9', and the underscore '_'. • A custom filter cannot start with a digit.

Property

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 filterCustom alarm filters provide a way to filter and display active alarms. Up to eight custom filter strings can be assigned to a configured alarm. In conjunction with a user-defined query function, the custom filters enable operators to identify and display active alarms of interest. enables operators to identify and display a subset of active alarms.

Notes:

• Custom filters are visible only when the MultiDigital Alarm form is open in Extended mode.
• The fields are not case-sensitive and can contain 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', '0'..'9', and the underscore '_'.
• A custom filter cannot start with a digit.

Paging Properties

Property	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

Property

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

Property	Description
Area	The Area to which the alarm belongs. 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, you should also check the privilege that is assigned 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.

Property

Description

Area

The Area to which the alarm belongs. 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, you should also check the privilege that is assigned 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

Property	Description
Historize	This field enables you to automatically historizeAn object ID associated with every tag in a project that uniquely identifies the tag for use by tag-based drivers, automatically generated at compile. It is used instead of the actual address of the register (which is what most other drivers use to read from and write to I/O devices). and publish the specified digital alarm in Schneider Electric's Historian application. 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. See Integration with Historian.

Property

Description

Historize

This field enables you to automatically historizeAn object ID associated with every tag in a project that uniquely identifies the tag for use by tag-based drivers, automatically generated at compile. It is used instead of the actual address of the register (which is what most other drivers use to read from and write to I/O devices). and publish the specified digital alarm in Schneider Electric's Historian application.

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.

See Integration with Historian.

Project Properties

Property	Description
Project	The project in which the alarm is configured.