Analog Alarm Properties

The name of the alarm. The name needs to be unique to the cluster. Alarm Tag names needs to adhere to the Tag name syntax. If the name is not unique or is not syntactically correct it may not be recognized. If you have many tags, use a naming convention (see Using structured tag names). This makes it easier to find and debug your tags.

Note: Where Cluster Name is left blank, the name needs to be unique for defined clusters.

The name of the cluster that runs this alarm. If the Cluster Name is not set, then this alarm will run on defined clusters.

The name of the physical device associated with the alarm.This is an optional properties. It is only used when details of the alarm are displayed on the screen or logged to a device.

An analog variable tag or base value that determines if a deviation alarm

is to be triggered. This property is optional. If you do not specify a setpoint, it will default to 0 (zero).

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.)

The delay period for High High Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period.

This property is optional. If you do not set a value, 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).

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.

The delay period for high alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period.

This property is optional. If you do not set a value, 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.

The value used as the triggering condition for a Low Alarm. A Low 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.

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 you do not set a value, 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).

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.)

The delay period for Low Low Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period.

This property is optional. If you do not set a value, 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).

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 you do not specify a deviation, no Deviation Alarm is activated.

The delay period for Deviation Alarms. The alarm will only activate if its triggering condition is met for the duration of this period.

This property is optional. If you do not set a value, 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).

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.

This property is optional. If you do not specify a value, no Rate of Change Alarm is activated.

The value that Variable Tag needs to return to before the Alarm becomes inactive.

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).

This property is optional. If you do not specify a format, the format defaults to the format specified for Variable tag.

The alarm category number or label. This property is optional. If you do not specify a category, the alarm defaults to Category 0.

The name of the graphics page that displays when the AlarmHelp() function is called by a user-defined command. This property is optional. If you don’t specify a help page, no action occurs when the AlarmHelp() function is called.

Note: If you assign an acknowledgment privilege to an alarm, do not assign a privilege to the command(s) that acknowledge the alarm. If you do assign a different privilege to the commands, then an operator needs to have both privileges to acknowledge the command.

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, operators needs to have access to Area 1 (plus any necessary privileges) to acknowledge or disable this alarm.

Used in a custom Cicode query function as search criteria, the custom alarm filter

enables operators to identify and display a sub-set of active alarms.

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). See Alarm Paging Properties. 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".

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