Alarm Tag Configuration
To configure a simple alarm tag, follow the instructions provided below.
Note: Analog status, digital status, and pump status tags have built-in alarm capabilities, and do not require the configuration of an alarm tag. In most applications, these built-in alarm properties are sufficient, but you may add additional alarms and either disable the built-in alarm or leave it enabled to add extra alarm triggers (perhaps a notification alarm at one setpoint and a critical alarm at a higher setpoint)
1. Click the Configure button to open the Configuration Toolbox.
2. Click the Browser button to open the Tag Browser.
3. Select Alarm from the Types drop-down list.
4. Click the New button.
A new tag properties folder will open as shown below.
5. Enter a name for this alarm tag in the Name field.
Often alarm tags are named the same as the trigger tag with the characters "ALM" appended to the beginning or end of the name, and an incremental number appended to the end of the name (to keep alarm tag names unique in the event that a trigger tag has multiple alarm tags associated with it).
6. Enter an area for this alarm in the Area field, or select an existing area from the Area drop-down list.
Often alarm areas are the same as that of the associated trigger tag.
7. Enter a description for this alarm in the Description field.
This description will be displayed on the Alarm page when this alarm has been triggered.
8. Click the Trigger tab.
The properties of the Trigger tab will be displayed.
9. Click the tab browser button to the right of the Triggered by tab.
The Tag Browser will open and will display all tags that have a numeric value.
10. Locate and select the trigger tag whose value you wish this alarm tag to monitor.
11. Select a function from the Function drop-down list.
Note that Equal To is a poor choice since tag values are rarely exactly equal to a specific value
12. Enter a set point value in the Setpoint field.
13. Click the Actions tab. The properties of the Actions tab will be displayed.
14. Select a priority for this alarm from the Priority drop-down list.
15. (optional) Select the Trip checkbox if you wish this alarm to be a trip alarm.
16. (optional) Select the Popup Enable checkbox.
If the configuration variable, AlarmPopupsEnable, has been set to 1 then a pop-up dialog will appear on the screen whenever this alarm is triggered. NOTE: Use this feature sparingly!
17. Click the OK button. You will be returned to the Tag Browser.
18. Close the Tag Browser.
If your application is a local application (i.e. one that runs only on the local workstation and not on multiple workstations), this concludes the steps.
19. Click the Remote Configuration button in the Configuration Toolbox to open the Remote Configuration dialog.
20. Select the newly created alarm tag in the Remote Configuration dialog's list of resource items.
21. Click the Update Item button to propagate the new alarm tag to all workstations running the application.
22. Close the Remote Configuration dialog.
23. Close the Configuration Toolbox.
Note: Alarms can be as simple or as complicated as required. See Alarm Tags for detailed information on the properties of alarm tags.
Overriding Built-in Alarms