Hey we have a situation where all of a sudden our low-priority alarms are no longer (or very infrequently) sounding the alarm horn on the operator console. The wav files are still there and the threshold for audible alarms seems to be correct. Anyone have any ideas?
And one other question. Is there a way to configure a view-only user (for a remote station) that can see alarms yet not acknowledge them?
To your second question, the ViewOnly user needs to have a single key for the alarm area to see alarms for the area. To ensure they have only the ability to see alarms, assign User Lock 01 to this user PROVIDED you have not used User Lock 01 for any other custom access definition. Make sure to add a comment to User Lock 01 specifying what it is used for so nobody assigns other functions to it in the future.
In reply to Youssef.El-Bahtimy:
To your first question, have you confirmed that the alarm is being triggered (verify through event chronicle that the alarm ACK/INACT state is triggering). You may be expecting an alarm but it does not occur because of hysteresis and or delay configuration.
We are indeed getting the alarms. They are visible on the alarm banner, on graphic displays, on the faceplates, and in the alarm list. But the horn only goes off infrequently. I put the horn.cv parameter on the graphic and it stays at zero except when the horn does activate, it goes to a non-zero value. It's very frustrating. Any other ideas?
In reply to Chris Harvey:
From BOL - www3.emersonprocess.com/.../c_troubleshootingthealarmsystem.html
When alarms do not activate the horn, perform the following steps:
1. (we'll skip this one since you see the alarm) Alarms must be in THISUSER/ALARMS before a horn can be active for them
2.Determine the effective priority of the horn. Alarms with a priority of Log do not sound the horn. Also, remember that the ALARMS.PRIAD value can change the effective priority of an alarm.
3.Make sure that a .WAV file has been specified for the alarm priority. Make sure that the file specified is in the \SOUND directory. Also, note that SILENCE.WAV must be in the directory for the sound card to work.
4.Make sure that DeltaV Operate is using the standard DeltaV alarm banner. This banner provides access to the HORN parameters. Make sure that the horn is enabled (THISUSER/HORN.HENAB=1).
Now, apart from the standard canned answer, can you describe your setup. I assume you have modified
frsVariables.gn_ProcessAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue,.gn_DeviceAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue,.gn_HardwareAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue,.gn_SISProcessAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue,
.gn_SISDeviceAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue,.gn_SISHardwareAlarmThreshold.CurrentValue
to make your low priority alarms annunciate (since they appear in the banner). Now the alarms themselves; are they auto-acknowledge, or are they only momentarily active? I realize that Alarms that are auto-ack still play their wave files.
Which .wav files are you using? Are they standard?
Yes in our usersettings.grf file we set the thresholds to 8 for everything on the operator console. And the low priority alarm is 10 on our system. They are not auto-acknowledge - the operator does acknowledge the alarms after seeing the blinking in a variety of places.
I believe we are using a wav file called alrmlow.wav but I don't think it is the standard alrmlow.wav which has the guy saying "low alarm" after the buzzer. I think it sounds like the buzz.wav file in the sounds directory. Will have to check again to be sure. Can modifying the standard wav files (like renaming them) cause a problem?
HI,
"Can modifying the standard wav files (like renaming them) cause a problem?" YES it can.
You define the wav-files in the DV explorer under system configuration and setup, if the system doesn´t find the right file name you will not get a sound:
"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."
Niklas Flykt
Klinkmann Oy
Key Account Manager safety products
nikfly@gmail.com
In reply to Niklas Flykt:
Well that's not quite what I meant. I believe the WAV files have been renamed, as another wav file was renamed to one of the standard wav files, and the standard file was renamed to something else. The files are still there with the configured names, but they are different files. I was wondering if this naming/renaming could cause an issue.
In reply to Jeff Swennumson:
Hey Jeff, thanks for the heads-up on the hotfix. That may in fact be the issue - We will check the hotfix log and the version info in Diagnostics to see if the hotfix has been applied.