I have two identicle plants that one operator runs. Certain Operator Stations control its particular plant but can only view the other. When an alarm is triggered I would like one plants alarms to sound different than the others. I am using version 11.3. Please help.
There are two sets of alarm sounds available in DeltaV v11. You can set the sound via the Alarm Priority properties. Look in Books Online for the topic "System Alarm Management" for the detailed instructions, but the pertinent section is copied below.
Setting Alarm Priority Properties Window
The alarm priority properties include the following:
Value - Determines the priority value of the alarm priority. The higher the number, the greater the importance of the alarm.
Auto Acknowledge New Alarms - Determines if alarms of this priority are automatically acknowledged at the time of alarm detection. The acknowledgment state of an alarm can affect flashing and the order in which alarms are presented in DeltaV Operate.
Auto Acknowledge when Inactive - Determines if alarms of this priority are automatically acknowledged when the condition causing the alarm clears. This means that the alarm would no longer be shown in the Alarm Banner or Alarm List pictures even if the operator never acknowledged the alarm.
Alarm Banner shows - Determines when alarms of this priority are displayed in the Alarm Banner. The choices are Not Hidden, Unit, and Module. Not Hidden specifies that active alarms of this priority are always shown in the Alarm Banner identified by its module (or device) name. The Module selection specifies that alarms of this priority should be identified by their module names and are not shown in the Alarm Banner if there is a more important alarm in Alarm Banner already showing this module name (the module would be identified at most once in the Alarm Banner). The Unit selection specifies that alarms of this priority should be identified by the name of the unit associated with this module, and these alarms are not shown in the Alarm Banner if there is a more important alarm in Alarm Banner already showing this the name of this unit (the unit would be identified, at most, once in the Alarm Banner).
Wave file - Determines the sound associated with active alarms of this priority. When an alarm goes into the active state, the system plays a WAV file in a loop-back mode so that it sounds until the operator acknowledges the horn. You can disable the sound for alarms of a certain priority by deleting the WAV file reference. Alarms that are auto-acknowledged still play their wave files.
Files that include the string, ©2009HCS are licensed for use by the system owner and are subject to the end-user System Software License Agreement. These HCS Alarm Sounds for Multi-Console Control Rooms™ represent third-party licensed content furnished with the system and are owned by Human Centered Solutions, LLP (www.applyHCS.com).
HCS Alarm Sounds for Multi-Console Control Rooms™ simultaneously differentiate between console locations as well as alarm priority and have been designed using effective human factors principles with respect to human audition and hearing. There are two collections of sounds for high, medium and low priority alarms. This enables you to provide differentiation between two workstations near each other.
WS1-High ©2009HCS.wav, WS1-Medium ©2009HCS.wav, and WS1-Low ©2009HCS.wav files are specifically designed as the default selections for critical, warning and advisory priority alarm sounds on a first workstation. For a second workstation in the same control room, you may want to use WS2-High ©2009HCS.wav, WS2-Medium ©2009HCS.wav, and WS2-Low ©2009HCS.wav. The WS2 sounds are easily distinguishable from the WS1 sounds. Contact your local Emerson sales office or business partner for more information.
As Brian's response states, the Alarm sound is dictated by the Alarm Priority (eg. CRITICAL, WARNING, etc.) and is specified in the Setup > Alarm Preferences > Alarm Priorities section in DeltaV Explorer. I'm not sure how to configure the HCS Alarms for different consoles, so I'm suggesting another solution.
I think you are saying that the different plants alarm on different operator stations. If this is true you can rename the .wav file for the sound you want on the second console. The alarm sound .wav files live in the D:\DeltaV\DVData\Sound directory and are not replicated with YellowPages. So if your CRITICAL alarm is "alert_tone.wav" and you want the second operator station CRITICAL alarm to sound like "aooga!.wav", then you rename the aooga!.wav file to alert_tone.wav.
It would be a lot of work to implement a different alarm priority throughout your second plant, but that is another alternative. If the second plant alarms are already different (I suspect they are not) then simply change the .wav file for that alarm priority in Setup > Alarm preferences section and download the setup data for your nodes.
Kathy Pate
Toray Carbon Fibers America
Decatur, AL 35601
kathy.pate@toraycma.com
In reply to kathrynpate:
If the plants are separate DeltaV systems, you can update the priority definitions of the second system to reference the second set of WAVs. But if they are different areas in the same system, Kathy is correct that you can just replace the WAV files on the second console to get different alarms.