Add a Time Stamped Analog Alarm in Citect Studio

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

Add a Time Stamped Analog Alarm

Time stamped analog alarms use notifications from the alarm server to determine when an alarm is triggered. This provides an accurate time stamp of when an alarm condition occurs.

For this process to function correctly, you need to configure the Cicode function AlarmNotifyVarChange, as it notifies the alarm server of any value changes for the associated variables.

To configure an alarm that triggers when the associated tag value reaches a specified limit, you use the following properties:

High
High High
Low
Low Low

To configure an alarm that triggers when the tag value moves away from a predefined set point, you use:

Setpoint
Deviation

To configure an alarm that monitors the rate of change for a tag value across a set period of time, you use:

Rate

For more information, see Time stamped analog alarms.

Note: For time stamped analog alarms to function correctly, you need to configure 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. The alarm server maintains a queue for notification messages and runs a separate task to check this queue.

To add a time stamped analog alarm:

In the System Model activity, select Alarms.
On the menu below the Command Bar, select Time Stamped Analog Alarms.
Add a row to the Grid Editor.
Type the required information in each column, or in the fields in the Property Grid.

For a description of the properties, see below.

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 Analog 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

Field	Description
Equipment	The name of the equipment associated with the digital 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.

Field

Description

Equipment

The name of the equipment associated with the digital 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

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 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.
Setpoint	An analog variable tag that determines if a deviation alarmTriggered when the value of a variable deviates from a setpoint by a specified amount. The alarm remains active until the value of the variable falls (or rises) to the value of the deadband. is to be triggered. This property is optional. If no value is set, it will default to 0 (zero). Note: If set to an analog variable tag, it needs to a different tag to the Variable Tag property of the alarm.
High High Delay	Delay period for High High Alarms. Alarm will activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of the delay period (see Using Alarm Delay). If no value is set, the high high alarm will be activated as soon as the tag exceeds the high high value. Note: The delay period needs to be entered in the format HH:MM:SS (hours:minutes:seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00).
High Delay	The delay period for high alarms. Alarm will activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period. If no value is set, the high alarm will be activated as soon as the tag exceeds the high value. Note: The delay period needs to be entered in the format HH:MM:SS (hours:minutes:seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00). When a tag value increases from high to high high within the high delay period, the delay timer is reset. The high high alarm is only activated if the value remains in the high high range for the delay period. When the value increases from high to high high after the high delay period has expired, a high alarm is activated and then the delay period for the high high alarm begins. If the tag value exceeds the high high value and then falls below it before the high high delay period expires, at the time it falls, the high alarm is triggered immediately. It has an ON time of when the tag value exceeded the high high value. These points also apply to tag values traveling between Low and Low Low ranges.
Low Delay	The delay period for Low Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period. This property is optional. If no value is set, the Low Alarm is activated as soon as the tag drops below the Low value. Note: The delay period needs to be entered in the format HH:MM:SS (Hours:Minutes:Seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00).
Low Low Delay	The delay period for Low Low Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period. If no value is set, the Low Low Alarm is activated as soon as the tag drops below the Low Low value. Note: The delay period needs to be entered in the format HH:MM:SS (Hours:Minutes:Seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00).
Deviation	The value used as the triggering condition for a Deviation Alarm. A Deviation Alarm is activated when the value of the Variable Tag remains outside the deviation range (determined by the Setpoint) for the duration of the Deviation Delay period. This property is optional. If no deviation is set, no Deviation Alarm is activated.
Deviation Delay	The delay period for Deviation Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period. If no value is set, the Deviation Alarm is activated as soon as the Variable Tag falls outside the deviation range. Note: The delay period needs to be entered in the format HH:MM:SS (Hours:Minutes:Seconds). The value needs to be between 0 seconds (00:00:00) and 24 hours (24:00:00).
Rate	By dividing this value by the alarm period, the "maximum rate" at which the value of the variable tag can change is determined. At each Scan Time, the value of the tag is checked. If its rate of change is greater than the maximum rate, a Rate of Change Alarm is triggered. For example, to verify that a tank does not fill too quickly, you might configure a rate of change alarm, using a Rate of 300 liters, an [Alarm]Period of 60 seconds, and an [Alarm]ScanTime of 1 second. This means that the maximum allowable rate of change for the tank level is 5 l/sec (300 liters / 60 seconds). The actual rate of change at each ScanTime is calculated. That is, every second, it checks the current level of the tank and compares it to the level recorded a second earlier. If the actual rate of change is, say, 8 l/sec, a Rate of Change Alarm is triggered immediately. The variable tags deadband % needs to be less than the alarms rate divided by the engineering scale of the variable tag. Otherwise, the rate of change alarm will only go off when the change in the variable tag exceeds the deadband value. If no value is set, no Rate of Change Alarm is activated.
Deadband	Value the variable tag needs to return to before the Alarm becomes inactive.
Format	The display format of the value (of the variable) when it is displayed on a graphics page, written to a file or passed to a function (that expects a string). If no format is specified, it defaults to the format specified for Variable tag.
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	The analog variable tag that triggers the alarm.

Limits Properties

Field	Description
High High	The value used as the triggering condition for a high high alarm. The high high alarm becomes active when the value of the variable tag exceeds this value for the duration of the high high delay period. The active alarm has an ON time of when the tag exceeded the high high value. Because a high alarm needs to precede a high high alarm, when the high high alarm is triggered it replaces the high alarm. If you want an analog alarm to display more than one state on the alarm page at the same time, configure a separate alarm for each state. (Each alarm would monitor the same tag.)
High	The value used as the triggering condition for a high alarm. The high alarm becomes active when the value of the variable tag exceeds this value for the duration of the high delay period. The active alarm has an ON time of when the tag exceeded the high value.
Low	The value used as the triggering condition for a Low Alarm. Alarm becomes active when the value of the Variable Tag drops below this value and remains there for the duration of the Low Delay period. The active alarm has an ON time of when the tag fell below the Low value.
Low Low	The value used as the triggering condition for a Low Low Alarm. A Low Low Alarm becomes active when the value of the Variable Tag drops below this value and remains there for the duration of the Low Low Delay period. The active alarm has an ON time of when the tag fell below the Low Low value. Because a Low Alarm needs to precede a Low Low Alarm, when the Low Low Alarm is triggered it replaces the Low Alarm. If you want an analog alarm to display more than one state on the alarm page at the same time, configure a separate alarm for each state. (Each alarm would monitor the same tag.)

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 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: 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.

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 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:

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

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

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	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.

Field

Description

Area

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 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.

Field

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 time-stamped digital alarm is configured.