Retrieving Siemens HMI Alarm History

I am working on an installation of a machine in Silao, Mexico and the customer wanted to run an unannounced 24 hour dry cycle (our original contract specifically stated that it was not required). Since I had everything else in place and was waiting on other items to continue on another machine, I obliged and ran the machine in dry cycle for 24 hours. The customer was told they would be responsible for monitoring the status.

They now want me to extract the Alarm History (showing the faults, or rather the lack of faults) from the HMI to use as electronic documentation of the dry run. I am using a Siemens MP270 HMI which was programmed with ProTool.

Does anyone know of a way to extract the alarm history that is being held on the HMI? I looked in pro-tool and didn't find anything and their help files are atrocious...

To be honest, I don't even know if it is possible to do or not.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Im not sure about ProTool but in WinCC Flexible I would just setup a log for the alarms. I don't know if you could get old alarms but it would get everything that was new.

I always make an alarm screen showing current and past alarms. If you had this you might be able to do a screen shot of the past alarms. I don't work with panels enough to know how to do screen shots on them.

Others here are much better at ProTool than I am. Im sure some of these other guys will be able to help more.

SpartanNate.

As you describe it, the customer has already finished the dry run test, and you now have to provide a log file from the MP270 panel.

1st. It is possible to archive alarms to a flash card. You can quickly check if this has been programmed. If there is a flashcard inserted in the rear of the panel, then MAYBE alarm logging has been programmed. You can read the contents of the card with any card reader.
If there is no flashcard, then alarm archiving has NOT been programmed.
It is too late to try and add this functionality after the test.

2nd. For the regular alarm system, MAYBE you can print from the screen with the alarm events, if this has been programmed. It requires that a printer has been configured on the panel, and a print screen function has been added to the alarm view screen.

3rd. Regardles of the above, if I were you, I would refuse to let the customer dictate me the conditions after the test.
And you didnt have to do a test according to the contract, so it sounds like you are being dragged around in the circus by the customer.
Such test must be carefully agreed upon before the test. What is to be tested. Who does what. How is it documented. What are the fail/pass conditions.
If you agreed that the customer should monitor the test, then it is the customers problem how to document what he has monitored. As I see it, if they cannot document anything else, then you have passed the test.

JesperMP

I do know that there is a memory card in the HMI and I do believe that it has been programmed to save the alarm history. I do not have a card reader on my laptop... I believe that it is a compact flash card, but I don't have a PCMCIA adapter with me. Maybe I can find someone who has either a PCMCIA adapter or a memory card reader on their computer.

I do know that a printer has not been configured and I don't think I would be able to get one from anyone here. I could add a button to the HMI screen, but without a printer, I don't think this will matter.

Lastly, I totally agree with your 3rd statement. I think this is total BS, but I would like to oblige if it isn't too much of a hassle. The customer doesn't really understand controls very well and just assumed it would be an easy thing to do. Another issue of mine is that the Project Manager for this project from my company has a bad habbit of giving in to the customer (most often at my cost and headache) all too often.

Thanks for the advice! Also, I failed to mention that the HMI program is based off of GM's revision of Siemen's "Transline" (I believe it was originally developed for Ford, but Chrysler and GM use slightly different variations of it as well). Now that I think about it, I we didn't even create the alarm history screen...and as I see it, GM specified the Siemens hardware and the use of the "transline" like interface, so they should support it (or at least be able to support it)...thanks for letting me rant.

IF it was Siemens Transline the Alarm History screen should already be programmed and accessible.

If you have the HMI screens with two rows of menus on the bottom of the screen, open the Diagnosis Screen Group, then Alarm History should be an option displayed in that group.

Or, you can exit RT by going to the Maintenance - System screen, pressing the Exit Runtime button, entering 248 for the password, and pressing the Exit Runtime button again. Open explorer, go to Sorage Card2, then AlarmHistory. There should be a CSV file in there that you can pull out of the panel and open with excel, but it's definitely easier just to go to the alarm history screen. All of the data should still be there.

tim2

Yes...it was pre-programmed and in the location you talked about. I knew that already...the problem was that I was trying to extract the history from the HMI itself to save somewhere else. I ended up finding someone who had a compact flash compatible card reader and was able to get the CSV file that you were talking about off of the card. I guess I am still searching for a way to "upload" that data so that I don't need to rely on removing the card.

Problem solved! ...still looking for a quicker/easier way. I am looking into the use of "ProSave", but I don't know if it will just get the actual HMI program, or the data saved to the card as well...

Thanks for the help!

I don't think that ProSave is going to help. You can backup and restore with it, but when you do a backup it just gives you one large .psb file with all of the projects components. For next time I think you're stuck with either getting a card reader on your laptop, finding a printer, getting a USB drive moving the file from the panel to there, ...

I would have thought that showing them the alarm history after the tests would have satisfied them.

tim2

Correct you are! ProSave did not help...just a big file for backup/restore. Now I know (and G.I. Joe would reply, "...and knowing is half the battle!").

I agree that showing them the history should have been sufficient...especially since there are numerous ways that I could have faked the alarm history log if I had really wanted to do so.

Thanks for the help!