RD Controls Software Release Note 80.5<P> <b> Alarm Display</b>

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: Double clicking on an entry will cause the entry to be expanded. The following additional information will be displayed: 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: Double clicking on an entry will cause the entry to be expanded. The following additional information will be displayed: 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: 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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