Object ‘Alarm class’

An alarm class describes the general properties of an alarm. These include the type of acknowledgement of the alarm and the actions that are to take place automatically if a certain alarm status is attained. In the definition of the alarm class you can also define the font of the message in the visualization elements.

Priority Specification of the priority of the alarms in this class (0-255). The priority describes the priority of the alarm condition. 0 represents the highest priority, 255 the lowest.
Archiving : CODESYS records the alarms in this class. To do this you must create an object Alarm storage.
Acknowledgment
Acknowledgement method: Definition of how an alarm is acknowledged.

REP: Alarm inactive after rectification of the cause
 

ACK: Alarm inactive after acknowledgement; acknowledgement method for events
 

REP_ACK: Alarm inactive after rectification of the cause and acknowledgement
 

ACK_REP: Alarm inactive after acknowledgement and rectification of the cause
 

ACK_REP_ACK: Inactive after optional acknowledgement that the alarm was received, rectification of the cause and acknowledgement that the alarm situation was ended
 

Alarm status:

  • ① Normal: No alarm situation
  • ② Active: Alarm situation has occurred
  • ➂ Wait for confirmation: there is no longer an alarm; acknowledgement has not taken place yet
  • ➃ Active, Acknowledged: Alarm still exists; acknowledgement already completed
 

Status transitions:

  • ⑤ Activate: Alarm situation occurs (“alarm coming”)
  • ⑥ Deactivate: Alarm situation ended (“alarm going”)
  • ⑦ Confirm: Acknowledgement of an alarm that is already ended
  • ⑧ ACK: Acknowledgement of an alarm that still exists
 

Note: CODESYS displays this diagram in a tooltip if you position the mouse pointer over the selection box in the configuration editor.

You frequently have to ensure that the user notices the alarm during operation. Various actions are available in the alarm class for this. The user must confirm (acknowledge) the alarm in order for the alarm to be removed from the alarm list.
Acknowledge separately : During operation the user cannot acknowledge the alarm together with other alarms, but must acknowledge it separately. This prevents the user from inadvertently acknowledging an alarm together with other alarms.
Notification actions
You can assign a list of actions to each alarm class that are to be executed as soon as the alarm is subject to a status transition.
Action

Select one of the following actions by double-clicking the action column:

  • Variable: Value assignment of a variable
  • Execute: Execution of a program
  • Call: Call a function block instance

Activate

Deactivate

Confirm

ACK

The available status transitions depend on the selected acknowledgement method.

: The action is executed with the status transition.
Details Displays a summary of the action. You define the action below the table or edit the action directly in this row.
Deactivation: Variable via which an application can deactivate the action.
Variable/Execute/Call
You define the parameters of the action in the field below the table. The parameters depend on the selected action:
 

  • Variable:

    Variable: Variable to which you assign a value or an expression.

    In the field on the right: Assigned variable or expression. You can select the variables via the input assistant ().

    In the case of boolean variables you can use the placeholder ALARM, in the case of integer variables the placeholder STATE. In the case of string variables you can enter any IEC literal (e.g. ‘too high!’).

    • ALARM: Status (TRUE or FALSE) of the alarm of this alarm class that was last activated/deactivated
    • STATE: Status of the alarm of this alarm class that last changed its status. (0: Normal, 2: Active, 3: WaitingForConfirmation, 4: ActiveAcknowledged)

  • Execute:

    Executable file: Path and file name of the executable file on the controller.

    Parameter: One or more parameters that you add to the call. You separate several parameters by a space.

  • Call:

    Function block instance: Function block that is called. The function block must implement the interface IAlarmNotifiable (AlarmManager.library). The desired action on a change of state is implemented in the method Execute.

    Additional parameter structure: If the function block requires an additional parameter structure, the structure members are listed in this table and can be filled here. An additional parameter structure is defined in the function block with the attribute AlarmManagerAdditionalData.

    Example: The function block has the attribute {attribute 'AlarmManagerAdditionalData' := 'StructEmailParams'}.

    The structure employed must consist of scalar components or components of the type POINTER TO. CODESYS does not support the ARRAY data type or user-defined data types.

    Note: Using the attribute {attribute 'AlarmManagerMandatoryParameter'} you can identify structure members as mandatory parameters.
Presentation options for alarm table/alarm banner
Defines how CODESYS displays the individual statuses of an alarm in the alarm visualization element (alarm table, alarm banner).
Status Alarm status. The available statuses depend on the selected acknowledgement method.
Font The standard dialog for the selection of a font or color is opened with the button.
Background color Background color for the alarm message
Bitmap You can add a bitmap by entering the bitmap ID. If no image file is assigned to this ID yet, the standard file search dialog opens. After having selected a file, the bitmap definition of the image pool GlobalImagePool is added.
Transparent Activate this option if the bitmap has a transparent color.
Transparent color Color that is to be displayed transparently. Relevant only if the Transparent option has been activated.

See also