Alarm History

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the new quick start guide on how to best use Movicon.NExT™.

In this technote, we are going to show you how to display the alarm and event logs and see what handy features the Historian Log Viewer object has to offer.

Alarm Log

Movicon.NExT offers a Historian Log Viewer object which allows messages recorded by the platform's I/O Data Server to be displayed in the application.
The Historian's job is to record all project events that occur during runtime chronologically. These events are:

• System operations, that is those actions performed in the system by the operator.
• System Diagnostics, which is an automatic diagnosis and the diagnosis on communication driver performances.
• Project alarms and alarm messages with four possible states: ON, OFF, ACK and RESET.
• User Logins and Logouts.
• Basic Script logic messages using the Debug.Print script function.
• Messages received from other applications at the discretion of the developer.

These events can be displayed at runtime using the Historian Viewer object.
In addition to viewing messages, this object also allows you to filter them:

• Based on time, day, month, week, or year.
• Based on type such as Alarm, Driver, and System.
• Needs-based custom filters created at runtime.

Data can also be exported in various formats: CSV, HTML, XLS, PDF.

Example

We shall now create an example to show you how to use this object.

Creating tags

Having already started up the software editor and loaded the project:

• Open the I/O Data Server in the project tree within the Project Explorer window.
• Go to the Tag List by selecting appropriate I/O Data Server tab.
• Right click on the workspace and select the Add New Tag from the menu that appears.
• Configure the tag using the Properties window in the following way:



Name	boolTest
Model Type	Variable
Data type	Boolean



• Confirm these changes by clicking on the Accept Changes icon on the toolbar at the top of the Properties window.

Creating and associating the alarm

We shall now create an alarm in the following way:

• Open the I/O Data Server in the project tree within the Project Explorer window.
• Go to the Alarms Tab by selecting the corresponding I/O Data Server tab.
• Expand the item in the Alarms tab until you reach the source item.
• Select the source and right click to open the contextual menu.
• Select the Add New Alarm Definition from the menu. Configure the alarm in this way:
• 
  

  Name	boolTestAlarm
  Alarm Type	Trip Alarm
  Activation Condition	Equals
  Activation Value	1

• Confirm the changes by clicking the Accept Changes button on the toolbar at the top of the alarm's properties window.

Now that the tag and alarm have been configured, we can associate them with each other:

• Select the alarm we have just created within the I/O Data Server's Alarms tab.
• Right click it and select the Assign Tag option from the menu that opens.
• Select the boolTest tag we have just created from the table that appears and press the OK button.

Creating the Screen

At this point we shall now create a screen:

• Look for the Screens resource in the project's tree structure in the Project Explorer window and select it.
• Right click it and select the New option from the menu which opens.
• A New Screen popup will appear which will allow you to set the screen's main properties. Configure the screen as follows:
• • Width: 1920
  • Height: 1080
  • Name: Main
• Click the OK button to confirm the configuration.

Once the screen has been created, we can now change the project's properties by inserting the screen as the project's Main screen to show when the project starts up. To do this:

• Select the name of the project from the application's tree structure.
• Open the Properties window.
• Change following project's properties as follows:
• • Startup Page Type: Main Screen
  • Startup Screen Name: Main

Once you have finished configuring the project startup page configuration, click on the Save All icon found in the toolbar at the top to save the project.

Make sure that the Main screen is open, and then click on the Toolbox tab on the far left of the editor, next to the Properties window, to open the Toolbox library provided by Movicon.NExT.
Drag the Vertical Switch from the Toggle Switches subfolder of the Switches group onto the screen.
Drag the boolTest tag on top of the object to assign it.
Open the Toolbox library once more and insert the Historian Log Viewer control, which is found in the Alarms Viewer group, onto the Main screen.

Save the project by clicking on the Save All icon located on the Movicon.NExT Editor's toolbar at the top.

Runtime Test

Now we are ready to test the object we have created by clicking the Start Runtime icon.
Once you have started the application and opened the screen, click on the switch to change the value of the boolTest tag from 0 to 1. In this condition, the alarm associated to the tag should activate.
The alarm will appear in the Historian Viewer's list of messages.
You will find a Best Fit Columns button at the top of the control that resizes the objects' columns automatically based on the length of the text contents. The time ranges are displayed next to this button and can be modified by changing the values in the Start Time and End Time fields.
The bar underneath shows the classical time ranges: Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year. The All button is used to load all the data from the UFUAAuditLogItem table.
Immediately next to this button, you will find a combobox which is used to select the message type to be displayed: All, Alarms, Drivers, System.
At the bottom, underneath the list of messages, you will find the filter bar, the control's data Refresh and Export buttons, and a combobox with a selection of the various export formats available.