Alarm configuration, Overview¶
The alarm system allows to detect critical process states, to record them and to visualize them for the user with the aid of a visualization element. The alarm handling can be done in Automation_Builder or alternatively in the PLC. For alarm handling in the PLC please see the target settings in category Target Settings in Category Visualization.
If supported by the target system, the dialogs for ‘Alarm configuration’ are available in the ‘Resources’ tab.
Here you define Alarm classes and Alarm groups. An alarm class serves for the typing of an alarm, that means it assigns certain parameters to the alarm. An alarm group serves for the concrete configuration of one or several alarms (which get assigned a certain class and further parameters) for the use in the project. Thus a class is useful for structuring the available alarms. The different alarm groups are defined by the user by inserting appropriate entries below the header ‘System’ in the configuration tree.
For the visualization of alarms the Alarm table element is available in the IEC 61131-3 editor visualization. Using this table the user can watch and acknowledge alarms. The language of the displayed alarm message texts might be switched dynamically.
If a History, i.e. recording of General information on alarms, Terms should be written to a log-file, such a file must be defined and for each alarm group the Alarm saving must be defined.
When you open the ‘Alarm configuration’ in the Resources tab, the dialog ‘Alarm configuration’ opens with a bi-partited window, which concerning the mode of operation is similar to that of the PLC Configuration or Task configuration. In the left part the configuration tree is displayed, in the right part the appropriate configuration dialog will be opened.
Example of an Alarm configuration :
Open by a mouse-click on the plus sign at the entry ‘Alarm configuration’ the currently available configuration tree. If you are going to create a new configuration, this tree only will show the entries ‘Alarm classes’ and ‘System’.
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