Send control when unack alarm is raised

[HMIdeveloper123]

Afternoon,

I was wondering what the best method would be for activating a control output when there are unacknowledged alarms standing in the system.

In my case I would like to activate an external alarm (eg a Klaxon) by sending a control to my RTU (via DNP3 in this case, but I imagine the same applies for other protocols), which will then latch on / off a relay.

I understand that I can create a variable for unacknowledged alarms. I can then link a reaction matrix to that so if the value is > 0 I can send a function. I'm just not sure the best way to send the control. Should I use a 'driver specfic command' to write a value directly to the DNP3 driver? Should I do it via 'command processing'?

As a follow up question.. can I do something similar but based on certain alarm groups rather than just any unacknowledged alarm?

Appreciate your inputs on how to go about this in the best way.

Thanks,

Dave

[ursulak]

In 'Alarm Areas' you can link in each area an own internal variable for 'Number of unacknowledged alarms'. And your RM variable can be assigned to the area using variable properties: Alarm Handling -> Alarm area 1 (,2,3,4).

[HMIdeveloper123]

Ok, I have half answered my own question now.

I used 2 functions to 'write set value' directly to my variable. I had to set the value to 3 (latch on) for alarm on & 4 (latch off) once acknowledged. These are linked to a RM which has limits of =0 (off) and >0 (on).

Still not sure how do the same for a certain alarm group, as my linkable variable for alarms dont seem to exist in the system driver for alarm groups.

[HMIdeveloper123]

Ok, more rambling...

I can set up the alarm group to trigger my 'on' function when any alarms in that group are activiated via the function option for the group. I can then change my R.M. for unack alarms to switch the sounder off when there are zero unacknowledged alarms (but this applies to ALL alarms). So still not sure how to determine that it is zero unack alarms int the specific alarm group only..

[ursulak]

In 'Alarm Areas' you can link in each area an own internal variable for 'Number of unacknowledged alarms'. And your RM variable can be assigned to the area using variable properties: Alarm Handling -> Alarm area 1 (,2,3,4).

[HMIdeveloper123]

In 'Alarm Areas' you can link in each area an own internal variable for 'Number of unacknowledged alarms'. And your RM variable can be assigned to the area using variable properties: Alarm Handling -> Alarm area 1 (,2,3,4).

Ursula,

Thanks for the feedback. I can see now how to assign a variable for no unacknowledged alarms, and I have linked my reaction matrix which contains the functions for On & off to this variable.

What I cant seem to get working is how I link any of my chosen inputs to this alarm area. If I take one of my boolean points where I have a RM which says that a 1 is an alarms & it is assigned to either an alarm group or class... there is no option to add it to an alarm area.

The alarm area has the abilty to be linked to an alarm class (but cant see how I would like an alarm group to it), but even if my boolean's RM is set to use the alarm class, my variable for counting unacknowledged alarms in the alarm area never goes up from zero. I also tried to add the alarm area directly in the 'alarm handling' of the bollean variable itself, but that doest cause the unack alarm count to increase either.

Do you have any worked examples of how the alarm area should be used anywhere?

Thanks,
Dave

[HMIdeveloper123]

Thanks, I went back through my project & realised I was missing something (I had put it in ealrier for testing & then deleted as I thought it wasnt working), which is why it did not work as expected.