RD Controls Software Release Note 110.3<P> Alarm State Block Report (ASBR) Application<P>

RD Controls Software Release Note 110.3

Alarm State Block Report (ASBR) Application

Larry Lee

Introduction

The Alarm State Block Report (ASBR) is an X Window application which works in conjunction with the alarm system (ALCON and AMS ) to allow users to request a report of devices being monitored.

Getting Started

The default output is to the screen only (see Figure 1). The user may at any time start or stop generating a file output by making the appropriate choice from the Output menu. To generate an alarm list, select the desired display from the View menu. For example, if the user chooses the menu item All Devices, from the View menu, a dialog box will appear, informing the user of the number of alarms retrieved from each node as well as the total number of alarms retrieved (see Figure 2). Acknowledging the dialog box is required to continue. This uncovers the returned alarm list information (see Figure 3).

Double clicking on a list item will produce a detailed display of that device (see Figure 4). From the file menu you may return to the previous display or exit the application. Please read carefully the following sections for detailed explanations.

Menu Structure and Contents

Menu selections are by clicking the leftmost mouse button once on the desired option. As a user makes menu choices, the new selections appear on the screen. This allows the user to know at all times what they are actually viewing.

File Menu

The File menu choices are Alarm List or Exit. Selecting the Alarm List option, will return the previous alarm list display. This option is available only after the detailed information about an individual device has been requested. Selecting the Exit option terminates the program.

View Menu

The View menu choices are All Devices, Analog Devices, Binary Devices, Select Devices, Select Analog and Select Binary Devices. These choices are not active while viewing the details of an individual alarm.

If the user selects the All Devices option, the application will display a listing of all the alarms. If the user selects the Analog Devices option, the application will display a listing of all the analog alarms. If the user selects the Binary Devices option, the application will display a listing of all the Binary alarms.

By selecting any of the remaining three choices, a dialog box will prompt the user for a device name to search for in the selected category (see Figure 5). The device name may contain one or more wildcard characters. The percent wildcard, %, may be used to replace a single character while the asterisk wildcard, *, may be used to replace zero or more characters in a string pattern. For example, the string pattern %00* may return device names such as M00U, M00U.L4, P00H and P00V.

Similar to the first three choices, by selecting the Select Devices option, the application will display a listing of all alarm matches based on the user's input. Selecting the Select Analog Devices option, the application will display a listing of analog matches based on the user's input. Selecting the Select Binary Devices option, the application will display a listing of all binary alarms matches based on the user's input.

A dialog box will appear informing the user of the number of alarms retrieved from each node as well as the total number of alarms retrieved (see Figure 2).

Output Menu

The Output menu choices are Report, Screen and File & Screen. The default output is to the screen only.

If the user selects the Report option, the application will display a listing of all the AMS databases available (see Figure 6). The user must first select the desired database. Upon selection a default output file name will appear. The default output file name will be extension .LOG concatenated to the database name. However, the user has the option of editing the output file name. The user now clicks on the OK button. A new display will appear listing the three types of report (see Figure 7). The user may select the All Devices option to report of all the alarms, the Analog Devices option to report the of all the analog alarms, or selects the Binary Devices option to report of all the Binary alarms. The user now clicks on the OK button to generate a report. The output file will be in the directory from which the user executed ASBR. However, if the user clicks on the Cancel button in the either display, no report will be generated.

If the user selects the File & Screen option, the application will prompt the user for an file name, the default is asbr.log When the user clicks on the OK button, the application will generate a trace file of the screen output to the file in the directory from which the user executed ASBR. Selecting the Screen option, will close the output file. New reports may be generated at any time by reselecting the File & Screen option in the output menu. Upon exiting the application the file will be closed.

There is no limit to the number of generated reports. However, after creating more than five reports with the same filename, older versions will begin to be deleted. To avoid deletions, rename the files and/or set the file version limit higher. For example, the user may choose to invoke the DCL command set file asbr.log/version_limit=100. Please note that all .LOG files will be purged by the MAD_DELETER every four days. If the user chooses to keep their output files they must rename them, or they will be lost.

Help Menu

The three menu choice provide on-line help for the novice user. The Help menu choices are On Window, On Version, and On Help. If the user selects the On Window option, the ASBR Help Facility will display general information about the application (see Figure 8). The On Version option provides the name and version of the application. The On Help option provides information on how to use the ASBR Help Facility.

Displays

ASBR features two display screens, the Alarm List Display and the Detailed Device Display.

Alarm List

The Alarm List displays the device name, property, node, alarm status and ftd (see Figure 4). This list is updated only via the View menu. To request detailed information about an individual device, double click the leftmost mouse button on the row listing the desired device.

Detailed Device

The first line of the screen will display the device name (see Figure 5). The third line displays the (property), (ftd), (whether or not the device is in alarm), (current status), and (previous status). The fourth line displays the (data acquisition status), (creation date), and (modification date). The fifth line displays all the (data acquisition flags). The sixth line begins the detail of each individual alarm. Output consists of the (alarm number), (user id code), (current number of failures, failure needed to report alarms), (severity), (minimum and maximum values for analog readbacks or nominal and scanned bits for status readbacks), and (alarm status flags).

The extended status for each individual alarm status (binary devices only) will appear as pairs of bitnames with their corresponding state whenever the status is bad (see Figure 5).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Distribution: Normal

Security, Privacy, Legal

rwest@fsus04.fnal.gov