Add a Time Stamped Digital Alarm in Citect Studio

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

Add a Time Stamped Digital Alarm

Time stamped digital 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.

A time stamped digital alarm activates in response to the state of one or two digital variables (specified in the alarm's Variable Tag A and Variable Tag B properties). When you define the variable tags, you can precede a tag name with the logical operator "NOT". This specifies that the OFF state (0) is the triggering condition for the variable tag.

The alarm becomes active when the triggering condition spans the amount of time specified in the Delay property.

For more information, see Time stamped digital alarms.

Note: For time stamped digital 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 digital alarm:

In the System Model activity, select Alarms.
On the menu below the Command Bar, select Time Stamped Digital Alarms.
Add a row to the Grid Editor.
Type the required information in each column, or in the fields in the Property Grid (see below for a description of the fields).
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 Digital 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 message 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 message 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.
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.
Delay	The alarm delay period (see Using Alarm Delay). A time stamped digital 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 AlarmHelp() function is called.
Comment	Any useful comment.

Source Properties

Field	Description
Variable Tag A / Variable Tag B	Configure time stamped digital alarms to activate based on the state of a single or multiple digital variable tags. For a single variable tag use field Var Tag A. For multiple variable tags use fields Var Tag A and Var Tag B. See Time Stamped Digital Alarms for more information.

Field

Description

Variable Tag A /
Variable Tag B

Configure time stamped digital alarms to activate based on the state of a single or multiple digital variable tags. For a single variable tag use field Var Tag A. For multiple variable tags use fields Var Tag A and Var Tag B.

See Time Stamped Digital Alarms for more information.

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	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, 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

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, 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.