Alarm Viewer Tab
- Vinodhraj DP
Alarms provide the necessary instructions for further processing. The instructions are useful to the user as an operator/administrator on how to proceed, what process to use, or who to call for a specific alarm.
Viewing Alarm Instructions
Click the Alarm Viewer tab, the Alarms and Acknowledged Alarms panel is displayed.
Alarms | This panel contains the column details of each Unacknowledged Alarm. |
Action
| From this menu the user can perform the task of acknowledging individual alarms or all available alarms, and also be able to add Operator Notes. This removes the alarm from the Alarms panel and moves it to the Acknowledged Alarms panel. |
Icon | The available alarm status icons are:
|
Instructions
| There are two different views to see the instructions. Always have instructions displayed: In this method, the instruction notes can be viewed in the table to read the instructions related to this alarm. If the instruction is too long, a "see more" link which will redirect to the full instruction page.  No instructions displayed: In this method, the instruction notes will not be displayed, as in the table as shown below. If you click on the instructions icon a full instruction page will appear with the full instructions. This view depends on how an Administrator has their System Wide Settings configured in Alarm Viewer under menu settings |
Operator Notes | There can be multiple notes added to the same alarm by different users. By clicking on the operator note icon a modal window will show all available notes for this alarm with the most recent note on top of the list. For more details, please refer to Operator Notes Operator Notes cannot be edited or deleted. |
Count | If you have checked Stack Alarms of similar type option in Settings→ Alarm Viewer → System Wide Settings, this column displays all occurrences of alarms for this device that are still unacknowledged. The earliest alarm is marked as 1 and each subsequent alarm is incremented. This is a Global Setting for all operators, only Admins can change this. |
Host Time | The date and time this alarm occurred as recorded by the Velocity host. |
Controller Time | The date and time this alarm occurred as recorded by the controller experiencing the alarm. This value will be different from the Host Time only if the controller is located in a different time zone, or if there is a delay between the time the alarm occurs on the controller and the time when it is received by the Velocity host. |
Description | A brief description of the alarm. This should supply a message indicating what the alarm was. |
Address | The unique address assigned to this alarm. This indicates the exact point where the alarm took place. |
Level | The priority level assigned to this alarm. Initially, all alarms have the same level 1 priority. |
Alarm ID | The ID associated with this alarm. Each alarm type has a unique Alarm ID. |
Acknowledged Alarms | This pane contains the column details of each Acknowledged Alarm. |
Action
| From this menu the user can perform the task of clearing individual alarms or all available alarms and also be able to add Operator Notes. This removes the alarm from the Acknowledged Alarms panel. |
Icon | The available alarm status icons are:
|
Instructions | There are two different views to see the instructions. Always have instructions displayed: In this method, the instruction notes can be viewed in the table to read the instructions related to this alarm. If the instruction is too long, a "see more" link which will redirect to the full instruction page. No instructions displayed: In this method, the instruction notes will not be displayed, as in the table as shown below. If you click on the instructions icon a full instruction page will appear with the full instructions. |
Operator Notes | There can be multiple notes added to the same alarm by different users. By clicking on the operator note icon a modal window will show all available notes for this alarm with the most recent note on top of the list. For more details, please refer to Operator Notes |
Count | If you have checked Stack Alarms of similar type option in Settings→ Alarm Viewer → System Wide Settings, this column displays all occurrences of alarms for this device that are still unacknowledged. The earliest alarm is marked as 1 and each subsequent alarm is incremented. |
Host Time | The date and time this alarm occurred as recorded by the Velocity host. |
Controller Time | The date and time this alarm occurred as recorded by the controller experiencing the alarm. This value will be different from the Host Time only if the controller is located in a different time zone, or if there is a delay between the time the alarm occurs on the controller and the time when it is received by the Velocity host. |
Workstation | The Workstation name from where the alarm was acknowledged. |
Acknowledge Time | The date and time when this alarm was acknowledged. |
Description | A brief description of the alarm. This should supply a message indicating what the alarm was. |
Address | The unique address assigned to this alarm. This indicates the exact point where the alarm took place. |
Acknowledged By | The name of the operator acknowledging the alarm. |
Acknowledging Alarms
To acknowledge a single alarm:
Click on the Alarm Viewer tab.
From the Alarms panel, click to select at least one alarm (or you can select all available from the top checkbox).
Click the Action menu and select Acknowledged Selected from the Action pop-up menu.
The alarm is moved to the Acknowledged Alarms panel and the alarm sound, if assigned, for that alarm is halted.
Clearing Alarms from Acknowledged Alarms
To clear a single alarm:
Click on the Alarm Viewer tab.
From the Acknowledged Alarms panel, click to select at least one alarm (or you can select all available from the top checkbox).
Click the Action menu and select Clear Selected from the Action pop-up menu.
All alarms in the Acknowledged Alarms panel are cleared but a record of the alarms remains in the database for reporting purposes.
Operator Notes
When you add a note related to alarms, it is displayed on the left side column of the table.
To add an Operator Note to acknowledged or unacknowledged alarms:
Select Alarms/Acknowledged Alarms panel.
Click on the checkbox of the desired alarm. If you need to write the same note to several alarms you can multi-select different alarms from here.
Click the Action menu and from the drop-down select Add Operator Note.
The Operator Notes dialog appears.
Enter your notes in the section and Save Changes
The Operator Notes are generally made as a:
Response to a specific deviation from an expected alarm
Required response to an alarm
Description of how a specific alarm was resolved
The notes appear in the left column. The text is wrapped automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears, if necessary. Use plus sign on the left to view the rest of the information.