Using Alarm Properties as Tags

System Model > Alarms > Using Alarm Properties as Tags | System Model

Using Alarm Properties as Tags

Alarm properties can be used wherever variable tags can be used (except in alarm descriptions). For example, you can provide the operator with a visual indication when the alarm CV110_ERROR is active:

CV110_ERROR.On will be TRUE when the alarm is active
CV110_ERROR.On will be FALSE when it is inactive.

This means CV110_ERROR.On could be entered as the fill color expression in a graphics object. When the conveyor becomes inoperative, the graphics object will change color.

Note: If you want to use time-stamped digital or time-stamped analog alarm properties as variable tags, you will need to verify that they are configured correctly with the necessary data being pushed to the relevant variables via the Cicode function AlarmNotifyVarChange. See Time Stamped Digital Alarms and Time Stamped Analog Alarms for more details on how these alarms operate.

Alarm reference syntax

You can reference alarm tags in the following ways:

Refer to an alarm property by tag name
Refer to an alarm using an 'equipment.item' reference

Refer to an alarm property by tag name

You can refer to an alarm's properties (and an optional tag extension) using the following syntax:

[Cluster.]Alarm.AlarmProperty[.ExtItem]

Where:

Cluster	The cluster name (optional).
Alarm	The alarm tag name.
AlarmProperty	The alarm property name. This part of the reference is not optional as it is for variable tags. There are different available properties for different categories of alarms. See Supported Alarm Properties.
ExtItem	The tag extension item name (optional). Available items are the same as for tags: Value = V Value Timestamp = VT Quality = Q Quality Timestamp = QT Overall Timestamp = T See Tag Extensions. If the item name is not specified, the value of the alarm property is referenced.

For example, "Alarm1.On" will enable you to see and control alarm states. If you want to know the timestamp of the On state, you can use the tag extension "T" (for example, "Alarm1.On.T").

Such references can appear in Cicode and on graphic pages.

Refer to an alarm using an 'equipment.item' reference

You can use "equipment.item" instead of an alarm tag name to refer to an alarm's properties. To do this, use the following syntax:

[Cluster.]Equipment.Item.AlarmProperty[.ExtItem]

Where:

Cluster	The cluster name (optional).
Equipment.Item	A substitution for a tag name using an "equipment.item" reference. See Items.
AlarmProperty	The alarm property name. This part of the reference is not optional as it is for variable tags. There are different available properties for different categories of alarms. See Supported Alarm Properties.
ExtItem	The tag extension item name (optional). See Tag Extensions. If the item name is not specified, the value of the alarm property is referenced.

This syntax means you can:

Use equipment.item in place of an alarm tag name in expression fields in graphic pages.
Use equipment.item to reference alarms in Genie and Super Genie substitutions.
Used equipment.item in the value field to represent an alarm when associating Super Genie substitutions via metadata.
Pass equipment.item to Cicode functions in which an alarm tag name is an argument.