RD Controls Software Release Note 67.1<P> <b> Alarm Control</b>

RD Controls Software Release Note 67.1

Alarm Control

John DeVoy

August 16, 1996

The alarm control program is an X Window application that allows the user to create, modify, and delete alarm records in the alarm server that runs on WEBBY. Alarms are reported to the user in real time via the alarm display application. See RD Controls Release Note 80 for more details on displaying alarms.

Main Screen

The alarm records are displayed on the main screen in a hierarchical outline format. There are five levels in the outline, with each level revealing increasingly more information. For each entry on a given level of the outline, the information on the next level can be revealed or hidden by double-clicking on that entry. The five levels are as follows:

Users:
The first (topmost) level of the hierarchy is a list of users that have alarm records in the server's database. When an alarm record is sent to the server, the user name of the sender is recorded. The alarm records associated with a particular user are oganized into lists, which comprise the next level of the hierarchy. To see the lists associated with a user, double-click on that user's name.
Lists:
The second level of the hierarchy is a list of the lists associated with a particular user. Each alarm in the server is associated with a given list. The list is really just a text field within the alarm record; records with the same list name are considered to be on the same list. Lists created by different users are independent. Note that the concept of list as defined here has no relation to a list as defined by the data acquisition system. To see the devices associated with a particular list, double-click on the list name.
Devices:
The third level of the hierarchy is a list of the devices belonging to a particular list. The text from the display attribute of the device is printed next to the name, as a convenience to the user. For each device, there can be separate alarm records for various properties (reading, setting, and status), and various FTD's and severities. To see all of the alarm records for a particular device, double-click on the device name.
Properties:
The fourth level of the hierarchy is a list of the alarm records associated with a particular device. Each entry contains the following data: To see the current parameters and state of a particular record, double-click on the property name.
Parameters:
The fifth level of the hierarchy contains the parameters and state of a particular alarm record. The display is updated from the server at 5 second intervals.

The following information is shown for reading and setting alarms:

The following information is shown for status alarms:

Double-clicking on an alarm record entry will cause a dialog box to pop up, with which you may modify the alarm parameters.

Starting

To run Alarm Control, select ``Alarm Control'' (item 18) from the menu, select ``EPCR Alarm Control'' from the Epicure pull-down menu in the session manager, or type ``run epicure_programs:alcon'' in any DECterm or DCL window.

Quitting

To exit Alarm Control, select ``Exit'' from the ``File'' pull-down menu.

Adding an Alarm

To send a new alarm record to the server, select ``Add'' from the ``Edit'' pull-down menu. A dialog box will box will pop up containing the following controls:

After setting the above parameters, press either the ``OK'' or ``Apply'' buttons. This will create a new alarm record. Another dialog box will pop up that allows you to set the parameters for the new record. See the section describing how to modify an alarm record for a description of this dialog box.

Modifying an Alarm

To revise the parameters of an existing alarm record, first select the desired alarm record on the main screen by single-clicking on it (you may need to double-click on the user, list, or device name to make the desired record visible). Your selection will be shown in reverse video. Then select ``Modify'' from the ``Edit'' pull-down menu. A dialog box will pop up that allows you to set the parameters for the selected device. Note that this is the same dialog box that is popped up when you press ``OK'' or ``Apply'' in the add record dialog box. Certain fields of the modify dialog box are updated with the current values from the server every five seconds. If the modify dialog box was popped up from the add dialog box, however, then these fields are disabled until the apply button is pressed. The modify dialog box contains four regions:

The top region identifies the record that is being modified (or added). It contains the name of the device, the property, the FTD, the severity (reading and setting records only), the list name, and the user name. These fields are read only. To change them, you would need to first delete the alarm, and then add a new one.

The second region contains a status message associated with the device (for example, it might indicate that there is a problem with data acquisition, say a link timeout). Beneath the status is a slider with which you may set the tries parameter. To the right are the current tries needed and tries now counts being used by the alarm server. They are updated every five seconds (unless the dialog box was popped up from the add dialog box, see above).

The third region contains the limits for reading and setting alarms. This region is disabled if the alarm record is for a status alarm. There are two text fields with which you may set the minimum and maximum values. The current reading (or setting), and current minimum and maximum are shown to the right, updated every five seconds.

The fourth region contains the nominal bit values for status alarms. This region is disabled if the alarm record is for a reading or setting alarm. The region contains a list, with one line for each bit defined for the device. At the left of each line is an option menu allowing you to set the nominal value for that bit. The nominal value is the state in which the bit is not in alarm. Next to the option menu is a toggle button that controls whether the bit is monitored. If the bit is not monitored, then the alarm server will ignore the state of that bit. The current nominal value, the current state, and whether the bit is currently monitored or ignored are shown to the right, updated every five seconds.

Press the ``OK'' or ``Apply'' button to send the new or modified record down to the alarm server. Press the ``Reset'' button to reset the controls to the current values (these will be the values they had when the dialog box was first popped up, or since the ``Apply'' button was last pressed). Press the ``Cancel'' button to pop down the dialog box without making any changes.

Deleting an Alarm

To delete an existing alarm record from the alarm server, first select the desired alarm record on the main screen by single clicking on it (the same procedure as if you were going to modify the record). Your selection will be shown in reverse video. Then select ``Delete'' from the ``Edit'' pull-down menu. The alarm will be deleted from the alarm server.

You may delete groups of records by selecting on the main screen a user, list, or device name. In this case, when you select ``Delete'', all of the records associated with that user, list, or device name will be deleted. It is suggested that the reader check the section on saving device parameters to a file before exploring this particular feature.

Updating the Screen

Selecting ``Update'' from the main screen causes the program to flush its internal data structures and reinitialize itself from the alarm server. This is useful if two people are editing alarms at the same time, or if for any other reason you think that the application has gotten out of sync with the alarm server.

Saving Alarm Parameters to a File

Alarm parameters may be saved to files on a per-list basis. To save a list to a file, first select the list on the main screen by single-clicking on the list name. Your selection will be shown in reverse video. Then select ``Save List to File'' from the ``File'' pull-down menu. A dialog box will pop up asking for the directory and filename to use. The default filename is the name of the list, with ``.APL'' as the extension. Note: when downloading the list to the server, the filename will be used as the list name. Therefore, selecting a filename that is different from the list name is equivalent to renaming the list.

Downloading an Alarm Parameter File to the Server

To send a previously saved list of alarm parameters to the server select ``Download File to Server'' from the ``File'' pull-down menu. A file selection dialog box will pop up. You may then choose the file to be sent to the server. For each record in the file, the user name parameter will be set to the user name of the person running the program, and the list name parameter will be set to the name of the file. If the alarm server rejects any devices, for any reason, a list of the devices with the corresponding error messages will be popped up.

After the list has been sent to the alarm server, the program will re-read all of the records from the server, and update the main screen.

Note that this version of the alarm control program is backwards compatible with the alarm parameter files created by the previous verison of this program, used during the last fixed target run.

Keywords: RDCS, Alarms, X

Distribution: normal

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