RD Controls Software Release Note 80.5
Alarm Display
RD Controls Software Release Note 80.5
Alarm Display
Kal H. Dabous John DeVoy
September 26, 1996
Alarm Display
is an X Window application
that displays lists of devices that are in alarm.
Main Screen
The main screen is divided into three panels:
the top panel displays a list of analog devices that are in alarm;
the middle panel displays a list of the binary devices that are in alarm;
and the bottom panel provides a summary of the status of the alarm system
(i.e., whether the ARDs (Alarm Report Distributors) and alarm servers are running).
The relative sizes of the panels are adjustable via the sash buttons on the right side.
Analog Display
The analog alarm panel displays the following information about each analog alarm:
-
The name of the device.
-
The reading from the device at the time that it went into alarm.
-
An icon indicating whether the alarm is a low or high alarm, and its severity.
The icon for a warning alarm is a shallow up or downward pointing arrow.
The icon for a severe alarm is a large up or downward pointing arrow.
-
The frequency time descriptor
(FTD)
that describes the rate at which the alarm is being monitored.
Double clicking on an entry will cause the entry to be expanded.
The following additional information will be displayed:
-
The time (and date) that the device went into alarm.
-
The account name of the person who set the alarm.
-
The display priority of the device.
This is obtained from the database,
and is optionally used to sort the alarms.
-
The contents of the DBTEXT property from the database.
Double clicking on the entry a second time will cause the entry to be collapsed.
Binary Display
The binary alarm panel displays the following information about each binary alarm:
-
The name of the device.
-
The state of the bit that is in alarm.
The text string is obtained from the database.
-
The frequency time descriptor
(FTD)
that describes the rate at which the alarm is being monitored.
Double clicking on an entry will cause the entry to be expanded.
The following additional information will be displayed:
-
The time (and date) that the device went into alarm.
-
The account name of the person who set the alarm.
-
The display priority of the device.
This is obtained from the database,
and is optionally used to sort the alarms.
- Text describing the bit that is in alarm.
This is also obtained from the database.
If a particular device has more than on bit in alarm,
each bit is reported as a separate alarm.
Double clicking on the entry a second time will cause the entry to be collapsed.
Alarm System Status
The status panel displays the following information about each part of the alarm system:
-
The name of the module in question;
either
``AMS'',
meaning the alarm server,
or
``ARD'',
meaning the alarm report distributor.
-
The state of the module.
Either
``up'',
or
``down''.
-
The node that this module is
(or should be)
running on.
Double clicking on an entry will cause the entry to be expanded.
When expanded,
the time that the module last came up or went down
will be displayed.
Double clicking on the entry a second time will cause the entry to be collapsed.
``AMS'' refers to the alarm server that runs on a front-end
.
It is the
alarm server
that does the actual monitoring of the devices.
If the
alarm server
on a front-end is down,
you will get no alarms from that front-end.
See RD Controls Release Note
147
for details on the design of the alarm server.
``ARD'' refers to the alarm report distributor that runs on either a front-end,
or a workstation
.
If an ARD is running on a front-end,
then it is referred to as a master ARD.
A master ARD talks to the
alarm server
on that node,
and sends the alarms over the network.
If a master ARD is down,
you will get no alarms from that front-end.
An ARD running on a node other than a front-end is referred to as a
secondary,
or local,
ARD.
A local ARD receives alarms over the net from the master ARD,
and sends them to any alarm display applications that are running on the same node as the local ARD.
If the local ARD goes down, the alarm display will pop up a dialog box to warn the user,
and will set a timer to try to reconnect with the local ARD.
In the meantime, the user may try to restart the local ARD using the EOPERATOR account.
See
Epicure Design Note
93
for details on the design of the ARD.
Starting
To run
Alarm Display,
select
``Alarm Display''
(item 16)
from the menu,
select
``EPCR Alarm Display''
from the
Epicure pull-down menu in the session manager,
or
type
``run epicure_programs:xalmdisp''
in any
DECterm
or
DCL window.
Quitting
To exit
Alarm Display,
select
``Exit''
from the
``File''
pull-down menu.
Beep Mode
By default,
whenever the alarm system status panel is updated,
the bell is sounded.
If this gets obnoxious,
it can be disabled by toggling the beep button in the
``options''
pull-down menu.
Sorting
By default,
the analog and binary alarms are sorted by priority
(highest priority on top),
and,
within each priority,
by time of arrival.
By selecting the
``Sort by Time''
option from the
``options''
pull-down menu,
one can cause the alarms to be sorted by time only.
Filtering
The user may control which alarms are displayed by setting the filter parameters.
There are two
(independent)
types of filtering available:
filter by category,
and filter by user.
By Category
To set the category filter,
select
``by Category''
from the
``filter''
pull-down menu.
A dialog box will pop up,
containing two lists:
one labelled
``exclude'',
and the other labelled
``include''.
The exclude list contains all of the categories that will
be filtered
out,
i.e.,
they will
not
be displayed.
The include list contains all of the categories that will be filtered
in.
One can move items from one list to the other by selecting the
item(s),
and then pressing the arrow button.
The items will move to the other list.
By default,
all categories are filtered in
(i.e., the exclude list is empty).
The new filtering will not take effect until you press the
``OK''
or
``Apply''
button of the dialog box.
By User
To set the user filter,
select
``by Username''
from the
``filter''
pull-down menu.
A dialog box will pop up,
containing a list of user names.
If the list is not empty,
then only alarms that were set by the listed users will be displayed.
All others will be filtered out.
If the list is empty,
then no alarms will be filtered out
.
This is the default.
One may add users to the list by typing the user name in the
text field provided,
and then pressing the
``add''
button.
To delete a user from the list,
select the user name,
and then press the
``garbage can''
button.
The new filtering will not take effect until you press the
``OK''
or
``Apply''
button of the dialog box.
Note:
Only the first twenty names on the list are used;
any extra are quietly ignored.
Saving
Once you have set your filter parameters,
you may save them to a file.
Select
``Save as''
from the
``File''
pull-down menu
to popup a file selection box
and specify a file name.
The category and user filter lists will be saved in the file.
By default,
the file will be located in the directory pointed to by the logical
``ALMDISP$FILES''
,
and will have the extension
``.AL$DAT''.
To load a previously saved file,
select
``Open''
from the
``File''
pull-down menu.
A file selection box will pop up,
with which you can select the file to load.
As a shortcut,
selecting
``Save''
from the
``File''
pull-down menu
will cause the lists to be saved using the file name specified in the last
``Save as''
or
``Open''.
When the program starts,
it will automatically open the file
pointed to by the logical
``ALMDISP$DEFAULT'',
if it is defined,
otherwise
the first file with the extension
``.AL$DAT''
will be used.
Setting Alarms
Alarms are set using the
alarm control application.
See RD Controls Release Note
67
for more details.
Keywords:
RDCS,
Alarm,
AMP,
AMS,
ARD,
Reading,
Setting,
Beamline,
X
Distribution: normal
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