FTV ME Alarm acknowledge question?

[dginbuffalo]

Hello all,

I typically do an alarm acknowledge and trigger fresh alarms in the PLC but it's too late for that on this project sooo, I have to do it in FTV alarms. If I use the "remote ack all" connection in alarm setup, do i just set this bit high to ack all? Does it need to be one shotted? Will a "new" fresh alarm trigger another alarm signal and what is the "new alarm" tag in FTV alarming? Sorry for the 50 questions!

 

[arlenjacobs]

1. Remote Ack All needs to change to any new non-zero value (0 to 1, 1 to 6, 4 to 2, etc).
2. You do not need a one shot; just set it to a new non-zero value
If you wanted to clear it to zero, make sure you hold the Remote Ack All value for at least 2 seconds (per your screen shot) before clearing to zero.
3 & 4. Yes, a fresh alarm trigger will trigger a new alarm message into the history (1 message for every off to on transition of the alarm trigger); you end up with one "active and unacknowledged" alarm and one "inactive" alarm for each of the old messages.


Sounds like what you want is to ack all (fault reset) and then see what alarm messages are still remaining. Is that right?

When the PLC does an ack all, will the PLC also clear the alarm tags to zero (for the faults that have been cleared)?

 

[dginbuffalo]

Sounds like what you want is to ack all (fault reset) and then see what alarm messages are still remaining. Is that right?

When the PLC does an ack all, will the PLC also clear the alarm tags to zero (for the faults that have been cleared)?

Yay- a response-lol!

What i have is a situation where a control room gets a "new alarm" signal from an area. They call a guy in the area who walks up to the touchscreen and "acknowledge all" alarms. It doesn't necessarily have to "reset" the alarm. He then goes about his business. If a "new" alarm comes in, the control room is signaled and lets him know again.

So my question is, (1) will the "remote ack all" tag from the picture accomplish the acknowledgement in the field and (2) where do I setup the FTV tag that tells me there is a "new alarm"?

 

[arlenjacobs]

(1) yes, the remote ack all will work. That will let the PLC acknowledge all alarms.
If you just want a push button, use the Ack All button; Objects>Advanced>Alarm>AckAll

(2) you can't. There is no tag/feature that tells you have a new or active alarm.

There is the "Handshake" connection for each of the triggers. But that toggles between 0 and 1 every time the trigger changes. So, even if the trigger changes to 0 (no alarm) the handshake will toggle its value.

 

[arlenjacobs]

... but if you really want to, and don't mind a complicated mix of features you could try this:

(a) add a macro to your ALARM OVERVIEW display, on startup. That macro sets a tag call "NewAlarmTag".
(b) create Remote Macro (global connections) that clears NewAlarmTag to zero, triggered by your [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(c) make sure every alarm message has the "display" option checked on
(d) add a PLC controlled tag to the Alarm Setup>Advanced connection "Remote Close Display". Or, you could try NOT [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(e) make sure that no person can open the ALARM OVERVIEW display. If they need to open it manually, create a copy of that display without the startup macro. Let them open that one.


A new alarm is triggered, FTView will open the ALARM OVERVIEW screen automatically because a new alarm was triggered --> the startup macro sets the NewAlarmTag
When the Remote Ack fires, it will also trigger the remote macro --> clears the NewAlarmTag.


I have no idea if that will work; just thought of it.
Give it a try and let me know!

 

[dginbuffalo]

Ouch. This just burst my bubble

I may have a lot of logic to add for this...

 

[dginbuffalo]

... but if you really want to, and don't mind a complicated mix of features you could try this:

(a) add a macro to your ALARM OVERVIEW display, on startup. That macro sets a tag call "NewAlarmTag".
(b) create Remote Macro (global connections) that clears NewAlarmTag to zero, triggered by your [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(c) make sure every alarm message has the "display" option checked on
(d) add a PLC controlled tag to the Alarm Setup>Advanced connection "Remote Close Display". Or, you could try NOT [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(e) make sure that no person can open the ALARM OVERVIEW display. If they need to open it manually, create a copy of that display without the startup macro. Let them open that one.


A new alarm is triggered, FTView will open the ALARM OVERVIEW screen automatically because a new alarm was triggered --> the startup macro sets the NewAlarmTag
When the Remote Ack fires, it will also trigger the remote macro --> clears the NewAlarmTag.


I have no idea if that will work; just thought of it.
Give it a try and let me know!

That's a good thought! May have to try that. Have to weigh it against how long it will take to change my PLC logic. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[dginbuffalo]

... but if you really want to, and don't mind a complicated mix of features you could try this:

(a) add a macro to your ALARM OVERVIEW display, on startup. That macro sets a tag call "NewAlarmTag".
(b) create Remote Macro (global connections) that clears NewAlarmTag to zero, triggered by your [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(c) make sure every alarm message has the "display" option checked on
(d) add a PLC controlled tag to the Alarm Setup>Advanced connection "Remote Close Display". Or, you could try NOT [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag.
(e) make sure that no person can open the ALARM OVERVIEW display. If they need to open it manually, create a copy of that display without the startup macro. Let them open that one.


A new alarm is triggered, FTView will open the ALARM OVERVIEW screen automatically because a new alarm was triggered --> the startup macro sets the NewAlarmTag
When the Remote Ack fires, it will also trigger the remote macro --> clears the NewAlarmTag.

Arlen (or others),

Would this be the proper format for the expression for item B? It says it's valid but I've never really used if,then,else. I'm guessing you just end? And do I really need to do D if only the operator is going to ack all and close the window locally?

If {[PLC]ALARM_ACK}==1 Then {[PLC]NEW_ALARM}==0 Else END

 

[arlenjacobs]

ah, not quite. The macros don't work the way one might think.

In the right column (expression) you put all your logic. That needs to calculate a single value.
In the left column you assign a tag. That tag is where the value is written to when the macro is run.

macro named "Macro1"
left column = {[PLC]NEW_ALARM}
right column = 0

Global Connections
For the Remote Macro 1 expression, simply add the alarm ack tag
Macro1 = {[PLC]ALARM_ACK}


Every time the [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag goes from zero to non-zero, it will trigger the "Macro1" file. That Macro1 will simply write a 0 into the [PLC]New_Alarm tag.

Take note that the alarm_ack tag needs to be cleared to 0 and held long enough for the HMI to see that change (same for set to 1). I think the default in Global Connections for the update rate is 1 second.

 

[dginbuffalo]

In the right column (expression) you put all your logic. That needs to calculate a single value.
In the left column you assign a tag. That tag is where the value is written to when the macro is run.

macro named "Macro1"
left column = {[PLC]NEW_ALARM}
right column = 0

Global Connections
For the Remote Macro 1 expression, simply add the alarm ack tag
Macro1 = {[PLC]ALARM_ACK}


Every time the [PLC]Alarm_Ack tag goes from zero to non-zero, it will trigger the "Macro1" file. That Macro1 will simply write a 0 into the [PLC]New_Alarm tag.

Whoa-I was way off base. I guess I need another Macro for the "NewAlarm" to go high too when the Alarm display pops up? OK- I think I see how it all works. Thank you much!

 

[arlenjacobs]

no problem. Let me know how it works out

 

[dginbuffalo]

no problem. Let me know how it works out

Arlen,

Just wanted you to know this worked perfectly! Thanks for your help!

 

[arlenjacobs]

glad to hear it worked.