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[KB1582]Enumerated Alarms

Tags: Alarm, Alarm sythesis, Alarming

Alarms
9 years ago
By RM
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Applies to:

This article is for PcVue 11.2. However, this feature has existed for some time and the information may also be applicable to earlier versions.
Summary:

The EnumAla mechanism is used to change the label, priority and value of an alarm variable (bit variable with the Alarm property ticked) as a function of an analog value. This type of alarm is called an enumerated alarm.
Enumerated alarms can only be used in very specific ways.

  1. By mapping the enumerated alarm variable to a word frame of a PLC.
  2. With the Alarm Synthesis feature.
Details:

Enumerated alarms are configured using a file, EnumAla.dat, found in the project’s C folder. The file must be manually edited. The format of this file can be found in Enumala_ENU.pdf attached to this article. To use enumerated alarms with Alarm Synthesis you must also manually edit the variable treatment configuration file VARTREAT.DAT.

Configuring an enumerated alarm variable
To configure an alarm variable as enumerated you add the identity of a NameList (as configured in EnumAla.dat) to extended attribute 11 in the variable’s configuration.

attribute67

Using an enumerated alarm variable with a PLC word frame
To use an enumerated alarm variable with a word frame you must manually map it to the frame. The easiest way to do this is to first use the Manual Mapping in the variable’s configuration dialog Source tab. But then you have to manually change the variable configuration file VAREXP.DAT to change the field 34 (Format) to U (integer 16 bit unsigned) and field 43 (Size in bits) to 16.

mapping67

varexp67

An example of this configuration can be found in the project EnumAla(1) attached to this article.

Using an enumerated alarm with Alarm Synthesis
Alarm Synthesis allows you to create sophisticated alarm statistics using a filter that can combine variable branches, domain and nature, and extended variable attributes using logical operators. Alarm Synthesis is configured in the AE where the alarm statistics can be mapped to register variables.

However you can also add to an Alarm Synthesis three enumerated alarm variables that represent the highest alarm level from the filter that is:

  • On and not acknowledged
  • On and acknowledged
  • Either of the above

You can only do this by manually editing VARTREAT.DAT. The three enumerated variables are added in fields 16,17 & 18. For example:

TREATMENT,GROUPALARM,AlarmSynthesis01,0,,,,0,BRANCH01,,0,29,,,,BRANCH01.SYNTH.ONACKPRIO,
BRANCH01.SYNTH.ONNOACKPRIO,BRANCH01.SYNTH.ONPRIO,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

An example of this configuration can be found in the project EnumAla(2) attached to this article.

Displaying enumerated alarms in the HMI
Enumerated Alarms can be displayed in the Alarm Viewer the same as any other alarm. However there are some special format strings that can be used.

  • #@**A11 displays the enumerated label from EnumAla.dat.
  • #@A16 displays the value of the enumerated alarm (from extended attribute 16)

alarmviewer67

Enumerated alarms can also be displayed using the Format option in a Label animation.

  • #**A11 displays the enumerated label from EnumAla.dat.
  • #A16 displays the value of the enumerated alarm (from extended attribute 16)

Known issues

1. When there are no alarms the two registers which report the highest priority alarm are set to 31. (29 is the highest alarm priority you can configure.)

incon2

However the three enumerated alarm variables show a priority of 29 and an alarm value of 255.

incon1

2. Problem with accented characters. It has been observed that some versions of PcVue are unable to correctly display any accented characters entered in EnumAla.dat.

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Created on: 21 Sep 2016 Last update: 13 May 2024