How to create an Alarm

Introduction

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

In this technote we will show you how to create an alarm in Movicon.NExT™.

The alarms

An alarm is the state in which a tag is placed after its value reaches or exceeds a predefined condition.
In Movicon.NExT, an alarm can be defined within a source which will then be instantiated in an area. In simpler terms, alarms are organized in a tree structure with the Alarm Manager at the top subordinated by areas.
These areas contain one or more sources in which alarms can be created and assigned to tags. The developer can create, modify, delete, and reassign alarms by using the Movicon.NExT I/O Data Server module’s Alarms tab.

Example

We shall now create an example to give you a better idea of how this works.

Creating the tag

First, start up the software's editor, load a project, or create a new one, then:

• Open the I/O Data Server in the project tree within the Project Explorer window.
• Go to the Tag List by selecting the 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	UWord
  Model Type	Variable
  Data Type	UInt16

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

Creating and assigning alarms

We will now assign an alarm to the tag we have just created 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 as follows:
  • Alarm Type: Trip Alarm
  • Activation Condition: Greater Then
  • Activation Value: 5
• Once you have finished configuring the Alarm, select and right-click it.
• Click the Assign Tag option and then select the UWord Tag from the table that shows.

Creating the screen

After having configured the tag and its alarm, create a screen in this way:

• 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 through which you can 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, you can then change the project's properties by inserting the screen as the project's Main screen which will 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 the following project properties:
• • Startup Page Type: Main Screen
  • Startup Screen Name: Main

Once you have finished configuring the project startup page, click on the Save All icon located on 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. Expand the Display folder and select and drag the Display object onto the screen.
Select the Display object on screen to open its Properties window. Go to its Tag property and click on the corresponding three dots to configure it.
A window will show allowing you to select a project tag, a local client, a system tag, or an item from a third-party OPC UA Server.
Select the I/O Data Server tab and choose the UWord tag we previously created.

Next, place an alarm viewer on the screen. To do this:

• Open the Toolbox library once again and expand the Alarm Viewers folder.
• Select and drag the Alarm Window onto the screen to add it.

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

Runtime Test

Launch the project into runtime by clicking on the Start Runtime button to test what you have created. The value of the UWord tag can be changed by using the Display object.
If the entered value exceeds 5, a row will display in the Alarm Window showing the configured alarm that the tag was assigned to.