CitectSCADA 5.5 Audible Alarms

Hi all,

I am fairly new to CitectSCADA 5.5 and I recently had to rebuild one of our client computers. The computer that I had to rebuild was the computer that was set up to announce audibaly allof our alarms. None of our other client computers are able to announce our alarms. I can see them when the come in and acknowlegde them, it is just that I cannot hear them when I happen to be away from the computer for a second. Does anyone know how to remedy this problem?

Thanks in advance.

If Citect is uasing audible alarms then it is using the Windows sound system, can you hear any sounds on that particluar PC ? I think the function that it is probably using (unfortunately I don't have manual or copy of Citect handy so the name may be incorrect) is something like DspPlaySound() in the function you would specify the name of the actual sound wav something like DspPlaySound("c:\mysounds\alarm.wav") if you have rebuild this PC is it possible that the sound files were not moved to the new pc ? Have a look thru Citect's online help they should ahve an example of correct syntax.

Yes Citect does use windows system to play sounds. The sounds are working fine on that computer. I have the wav file I want to use but any reference to that file in my citect.ini file are gone. I cannot seem to locate any online help dealing with this problem. If you know of a place online that can help me with the correct syntax, please post the link for me.

Thanks again.

This is copied form ver6.1 but it is the same in ver 5.5

DspPlaySound

Plays a waveform (sound). Wave form sound files *.WAV are provided with Windows and by third-party developers, or you can record them yourself to play long (and complex) sound sequences.

If you have a sound card, this function will return immediately and the sound will play in the background. If you do not have a sound card, this function will not return until the sound has finished playing - Citect will stop running, so you should not use this function unless you have a sound card.

This function searches the [Sounds] section of the WIN.INI file for an entry with the specified name, and plays the associated waveform. If the name does not match an entry in the WIN.INI file, a waveform filename is assumed. The function will then search the following directories for the waveform file (directories are listed in search order):

1. The current directory
2. The Windows directory
3. The Windows system directory
4. The directories listed in the PATH environment variable
5. The list of directories mapped in the network.

If the file is not in one of the aforementioned directories, you must include the full path to the sound file.

Syntax

DspPlaySound(sSoundname, nMode)

The waveform to be played. Predefined sounds (in the WIN.INI file) are:

• SystemAsterisk
• SystemExclamation
• SystemQuestion
• SystemDefault
• SystemHand
• SystemExit
• SystemStart
• nMode: not used - set to 0 (zero).

Return Value

TRUE if successful, otherwise FALSE (if an error occurs).

Related Functions

Beep

Example

DspPlaySound("C:\WINNT\MEDIA\Notify.wav",0);
DspPlaySound("SystemStart",0);

There are several ways to playback an audible alarm when it occurs, we first have to find out where and which function is called that opens the wav file.
If the programmer was smart he used the ready made Alarm sound functions of the CSV Include project. Have a look in the CSV_Alarms.ci file in the CSV project directory.

Anyway, this function automatically plays a wav file when an alarm is raised within a category specified by the parameter [Alarm]Sound# (#being the sound number) at a location specified with a path substitution parameter. See attachment.

The simplest way to call any "stand alone" function that plays back a wav is when an alarm in a specific or in all categories is raised, acked or lowered.
So, have a look at Project editor>Alarms>Categories.
Big change the alarm sound fucntion is called in one of the ON/OFF/ACK Action fields.

is citect scada 5.5 a freeware ????