Alarm Management

Alarms are used to alert the operator to a potential issue within a facility. For example, a camera that has lost its connection to Runtime. While Designer projects do come with preset Alarm Types, you can add new ones, or change the existing Alarm Types. Creating different alarm types will assist in providing context surrounding an alarm event which is displayed in the Alarm Grid. Alarm postings may then be used to allow only alarms for certain assets to be displayed based on the Workstation.

Designer provides two preset Alarm Types:
  • Fault — This is normally used to indicate that there has been an issue detected with an asset connected to Runtime.
  • No Communication — This is normally used to indicate that Runtime is unable to connect to an asset.
Important: There must always be at least one Alarm Type.

Add a New Alarm Type

To add a new Alarm Type:
  1. Go to Alarm Management. The page that opens shows the Alarm Types settings.
  2. Under the list of Alarm Types, click Add.
  3. Set the alarm Configuration. The available settings are below.
Table 1. Alarm Type Configuration Settings
Alarm Type The name to use for this Alarm Type.
Priority The order this alarm will be pushed if multiple alarms have been triggered. The smallest numbered priority alarm will be pushed first, the largest, last.
Color and Flash Color The colors the asset Background and Text flash between when the alarm is active.
Sound File Click the ellipsis (...) button to select a sound file to play when this alarm is active.
Time Between Sounds Add a pause in seconds after the sound file ends and before it loops again.
Note: Text to Speech and higher or same priority Play Sound Commands will play regardless.

Link an Alarm Type to an Asset

By default, Designer will use either the Fault or No Communication Alarm Types. To apply a non-default Alarm Type, you will need to bind it to the asset type via a Status Table.

To link the alarm created to an asset:
  1. In Project Explorer go to Integrated Systems and right-click the system to update. Click Configure.
  2. Under Status Tables, click the table to update.
  3. Select the Status (or create a new one) to add the Alarm Type to.
  4. Check Bind to Alarm.
  5. Select your Alarm Type from the Alarm drop-down.
Note: An asset can only have one alarm active at a time. The alarm shown in the Alarm Grid is the one with the highest priority.