Setting Up Alarm Processing

You can set up the alarm processing with the Alarm Properties dialog box. In this dialog, you can determine the required memory for the alarm logging buffer, choose the default color and font for the alarm message, specify how to save the alarm history records to a text file and configure the global alarm marquee if you want to display it on the screen. To open the dialog box for alarm processing, please double click the node named Alarms in the Project Manager tool window. The following is an example of the Alarm Properties dialog box.

The table below describes each property in the Alarm Properties dialog.

Property		Description
Alarm Logging Buffer	Size	The maximum number of records that the alarm logging buffer can hold. For example: 100 means that when the 101st alarm occurs, the 1st record will be overwritten.
	Maximal number of data values to be recorded for alarm messages	Displays the maximal number of data values to be recorded. It can be set in the properties dialog box of discrete alarm block and analog alarm block.
	Required non-volatile memory	The size of the alarm logging buffer. The unit is byte. The formula to calculate the size is: Alarm Logging Buffer Size = Number of Records * (20 + Maximal Number of Data Values to be recorded * 4) + 28.
Save Alarm History To File	Save Alarm History to file	Check this option so the most current alarm history record will be written to a specified file periodically. Each time the operation is performed, the panel writes only the record that has not already been saved to the file.
	File Type	The type of file to save the alarm history.
		File Type	Description
		.CSV	The alarm history is saved in CSV format. You can use any text editor or Microsoft Excel to view the file.
		.XLS	The alarm history is saved in XLS format. You can use Microsoft Excel to view the file. This type is available only when the target panel is the HMI Runtime.
	Operation Type	Specifies how to open a file to save the logged data.
		Operation Type	Description
		Create	Creates a new file with the specified filename to save the alarm history.
		Append or Create	If the specified file exists, appends the alarm history to that file; otherwise creates a new file with the specified filename to save the alarm history.
	Time to Save	Specifies the period to save the alarm history records. This item is available when the option Save alarm history to file is checked. There are nine periods available: Every hour on the hour ; Every 8 hours (00:00, 08:00, 16:00) ; Every 12 hours (00:00, 12:00) Every day at 00:00; Every day at 08:00; Every day at 12:00; Every Sunday at 00:00; Every Monday at 00:00; Every month's first day at 00:00, Every minute (For test only), Every 5 minutes, Every 10 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes.
	Save to the default folder	Check the option to save the file in the default folder. Please see Section 3.1.4 for details about specifying default folder.
	Variable filename	Check the option to specify the variable representing the filename to save the alarm records at runtime.
	File Name	The filename or the prefix of the filename of the file to save the alarm record as. The filename must be a null terminated ASCII character string and follows the rule of Windows filenames. The alarm records are saved in text format and the file extension name must be same as the file type. You can use any text editor or Microsoft Excel to view the alarm records directly. This item is available when the option Save alarm history to file is checked.
	File name Suffix	Available when the Operation Type is Create. This property guarantees that the created file has a unique name and no existing file will be overwritten. There are four kinds of filename suffixes available as shown in the following table.
		Filename Suffix	Description	Example
		_YYMMDD_hhmmss	YY: year (00-99) MM: month (01-12) DD: day (01-31) hh: hour (00-23) mm: minute (00-59) ss: second (00-59)	Log_090423_102358 (Assume that the specified Filename is "Log", the current date is April 23, 2009, and the current time is 10:23:58.)
		_YYMMDD_hhmm		Log_090423_1023
		_YYMMDD_hh		Log_090423_10
		_YYMMDD		Log_090423
	Include auxiliary data so the HMI can read back the files	Check this option to include auxiliary data when saving the file. And the saved file can be read by HMI. Without the auxiliary data, the saved file is not readable by HMI.
	Do not show file saving message	Check this option to hide the file saving message at runtime.
Save Alarm History to Database	Save Alarm History to Database	Check this option so the most current alarm history record will be written to a specified database periodically. Each time the operation is performed, the panel writes only the record that has not already been saved to the database. This item is available only when the target panel is the HMI Runtime..
	Table Name	Specifies a name as the table name in the database.
	Column Names	Click the edit button to bring up the following dialog box to specify the column names. Note that the name must comply with the rules for database identifiers
	Time to Save	Specifies the period to save the alarm history records. This item is available when the option Save alarm history to database is checked. There are nine periods available: Every hour on the hour ; Every 8 hours (00:00, 08:00, 16:00) ; Every 12 hours (00:00, 12:00) Every day at 00:00; Every day at 08:00; Every day at 12:00; Every Sunday at 00:00; Every Monday at 00:00; Every month's first day at 00:00, Every minute (For test only), Every 5 minutes, Every 10 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes.
Global Alarm Marquee	Show when there is any alarm	Check this option if you want to show the global alarm marquee on the current screen when there is any alarm.
	Position	Select one of the following 3 positions for the global alarm marquee to be displayed.
		Position	Description
		Top	The global alarm marquee shows up at the top of the screen.
		Center	The global alarm marquee shows up at the center of the screen.
		Bottom	The global alarm marquee shows up at the bottom of the screen.
	Properties	Click the button to bring up the Alarm Display dialog box to set up the properties of the global alarm marquee. Please see Section 12.6.4 for details.
Default Alarm Message Color	Level 1, Level 2… Level 8	Select a default color for alarm levels 1, 2…8. The alarm display for each alarm level will show an alarm message with the selected color.
Default Alarm Message Font	Language	Select a default language so you can view and edit the language dependent settings in the Text group for that language. The language dependent properties in the Text group include Font and Alarm Status Abbreviation.
	Font	Select a default font for the text of the alarm message.
Use the bit $S555.0 to indicate there is an active alarm		The system bit $S555.0 can be used to indicate there is an active alarm. When the bit is On, it indicates there is at least one active alarm. When the bit is Off, it indicates there is no active alarm.
Add a sequence number to each alarm record (Ineffective for appending operations)		Check this option to add a sequence number to each alarm record.
The color of the alarm message box's caption area is selected from Default Alarm Message Colors according to the level of the current alarm		Check this option to make the color of the caption area of the alarm message box associated with the level of the alarm that it displays.