Alarm Handling

Join Date
Aug 2002
Location
Manchester
Posts
527
Hi
Seen this problem for a while.
Using the alarm function on, say, a PanelView or a Siemens TP.
When an alarm occurs it's displayed with its own ACKnowledge button. All is well. ACKnowledging the alarm removes that alarm latch ONLY.
If the alarm condition comes back momentarilty after ACKnowledging, the PLC latches the alarm again, but the HMI never saw the alarm disappear/re-appear and therefore doesn't class the alarm as a new instance, and doesn't give me the ACK button again. Result is alarm is latched in plc with no 'proper' way of removing.
I can use an ACK ALL button, but I do like to ensure every alarm is individually ACKed, so I can prevent process starting until Mr. Operator has seen every alarm.
The 'press reset, press start' cycle isn't acceptable.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thank you
 
Fighting with stuff like this is why I rarely use the "built-in" alarm handling (on any brand HMI). Handy when they work as planned, but they don't always handle every scenario. You've just discovered a scenario they don't handle well... :rolleyes:

Yes, it's more work, but "rolling your own" alarm handler allows you to customize it for your specific application.

That being said, a possible workaround would be to delay the re-triggering of the alarm(s) for a short time after they've been reset.

You say "But I might miss an alarm!"...

If your alarm latches are directly read by the Panelview, then setup an additional group of bits (that mirror the alarms) to be read by the Panelview. Your "real" alarms still latch immediately, but you can delay the update of the new "mirrored" bits.

Your alarms ARE in nice neat groups, aren't they? (meaning sequential bits). Or, are they scattered all over the place using whatever free bit you could find?... (n)

If the latter, it's now time to get organized. This will just make it a LOT easier to mirror the bits...

I suck at explaining stuff, so if you don't understand, let us know. Someone else will get the gist of what I proposed and explain it a different (and hopefully clearer) way... :D

beerchug

-Eric
 

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