Supported alarm properties

Using CitectSCADA > Configuring and Processing Alarms > Using Alarm Properties as Tags > Supported alarm properties

Supported alarm properties

The following properties can be used for every alarm type. Remember, the return value relates to the description. For example, for a digital, if 1 is returned, that means the description is TRUE, whereas 0 (zero) means it is FALSE.

Property

Description

Return Type

.On*

Alarm active

Digital

.Ack

Alarm acknowledged

Digital

.Category

Alarm category

Integer

.ComBreak

For Multi-Digital alarms, the property is set to 1 if the device cannot read data from the underlying tag at start-up for a time greater than [Alarm]ArgyleTagValueTimeout value. The property is set to 0 and re-alarms the corresponding alarm, when the alarm server receives valid data from the device.

For every Disabled and Display Disabled alarms (except Time Stamped Digital and Time Stamped Analog alarms) the property is set to 1, when they are being Enabled. The property is set to 0 and re-alarms the corresponding alarm, when the alarm server receives valid data from the device.

Digital

.Custom1
.Custom2
.Custom3
.Custom4
.Custom5
.Custom6
.Custom7
.Custom8

Custom Field.

String(64 bytes)

.Disabled

Alarm disabled (see note below)

Digital

.Millisec

The milliseconds part of the time the alarm was triggered

Long

.Name

Alarm name

String (80 bytes)

.Paging

Alarm paged

Boolean

.PagingGroup

Paging group alarm belongs to.

String (80 bytes)

.Priority

Alarm priority

Integer

.State

Alarm's state value. An alarm state value is a combination of state enumeration and action bit masks described below:

State enumerations

Alarm OFF state or state 000 for Multi-Digital alarm	0
Alarm ON state or state 00A for Multi-Digital alarm	1
state 0B0 for Multi-Digital alarm	2
State 0BA for Multi-Digital alarm	3
State C00 for Multi-Digital alarm	4
State C0A for Multi-Digital alarm	5
State CB0 for Multi-Digital alarm	6
State CBA for Multi-Digital alarm	7
Analogue deviation from set point High	8
Analogue deviation from set point low	9
Analogue rate of change alarm state	10
Analogue low limit alarm state	11
Analogue high limit alarm state	12
Analogue low low limit alarm state	13
Analogue High High limit alarm state	14

Alarm action masks

Unable to get the status of underlying tag at start-up	32
Alarm cleared bit mask	64
Alarm acknowledged but held	128
Alarm unacknowledged bit mask	256
Alarm disabled bit mask	512
Argyle type alarm bit mask	1024
Argyle type alarm ON bit mask	2048
Analogue alarm threshold value changed	4096
User generated event	8192
Event already logged	16384
Disable the alarm display	32768

For Example: A digital alarm called "AlmDigital1" that is ON and unacknowledged, the value of the state property will be: AlmDigital1.State = 1 (ON state) + 256 (Unacknowledged alarm) = 257

Short

.Tag

Alarm tag

String (80 bytes)

.Time

32-bit value of the time the alarm was triggered

Long

* The .On property for Analog alarms is true if any alarms associated with the alarm tag are active.

Note: Once an alarm is disabled, it cannot be re-enabled unless you use the function AlarmEnable() or AlarmEnableRec()

For digital alarms, time-stamped digital alarms, and advanced alarms, the following properties can also be used:

Property	Description	Return Type
.Desc	Alarm description	String (128 bytes)
.Delay	Alarm delay	Long

Note: Desc exists for every alarm type but will not return meaningful data for analog or time-stamped analog alarms. Desc returns an empty string that indicates whether the read succeeded; the write indicates that the tag was resolved and that the write request was sent.

For analog alarms and time-stamped analog alarms, the following properties can also be used:

Property	Description	Return Type
.DevDelay	Deviation delay	Long
.DeadBand	Deadband	Real
.Deviation	Deviation	Real
.HighHigh	High High	Real
.High	High	Real
.LowLow	Low Low	Real
.Low	Low	Real
.HHDelay	High High delay	Long
.HDelay	High delay	Long
.LDelay	Low delay	Long
.LLDelay	Low Low delay	Long
.Rate	Rate	Real
.Setpoint	Setpoint	Real
.Value	Alarm tag Value	Real

For the digital properties below, only one can be true at any point in time for each alarm. They are arranged in order of priority, from lowest to highest.

.DVL	Deviation alarm triggered (Low)	Digital
.DVH	Deviation alarm triggered (High)	Digital
.R	Rate of Change alarm triggered	Digital
.L	Low alarm triggered	Digital
.H	High alarm triggered	Digital
.LL	Low Low alarm triggered	Digital
.HH	High High alarm triggered	Digital

Note: DVL and DVH are only evaluated if Deviation > 0. R is only evaluated if Rate > 0.

Some alarm properties return configuration data. If the user has not defined this information, the following defaults are provided:

Property	Default
.Setpoint	0
.HighHigh	3.4e+38
.High	3.4e+38
.LowLow	-3.4e+38
.Low	-3.4e+38
.Rate	0
.Deviation	0
.Deadband	0
.Category	0
.Priority	0