What is an alarm text?

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Definition

An alarm text is a general description of an error situation, for example, “High level exceeded”. An alarm text consists of a number of properties, including alarm priority, sound options and events on alarm. See detailed description below.

Use

An alarm text is linked to a specific atom of an IGSS object. For example, the alarm text “High level exceeded” would be linked to the High Limit atom of an analog object.

Note that one alarm text can be linked to multiple IGSS objects.

When the alarm situation arises during supervision, the alarm text will appear in the Alarm List allowing the operator to deal with it immediately. Furthermore, you can also define that the symbol of the affected IGSS object will blink on the process diagram and play a sound when the alarm occurs.

To learn how to define an alarm text, click How To.

Alarm text properties

An alarm text has the following properties which can all be defined from the Edit Alarm Description dialog box.

Property …	Description …
Alarm number	If you are creating a new alarm text, the next available number is automatically suggested, but you can change it, if required. If you are editing an existing alarm text, the field is greyed.
Priority	An alarm priority between 255 (highest priority) and 1 (lowest priority) can be defined. Tip It is recommended to associate each alarm priority used with a specific color to help the operator immediately understand the alarm priority. Be consistent and use only a limited number of alarm priorities.
Colors and blink	You can choose a color for IGSS objects in the alarm state and in the acknowledged state and enable blinking on process diagrams, if required.
Sound	When an alarm occurs, you can play a beep or a sound file (*.wav).
Events on alarm	You can define the following events to happen, when the alarm occurs. To WinPager Sends a notification of this alarm via WinPager to a mobile phone or personal pager. To PLC Sends an event message to the PLC. To Print Prints the alarm text on the alarm printer. Auto Acknowledge Automatically acknowledges the alarm when it occurs.
Copy alarm text	Allows you to copy the properties of an existing alarm text and then modify them, as required.