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Has anyone had issues when trying to unsuppress an alarm?

I am running into a growing list of alarms which were suppressed, and for which I cannot unsuppress.

The common thread is that the are device alarms from smart instruments. The parameters for these are Comm_ALM, Advise_alm and Failed_alm.

Not all device alarms have this issue. The majority behave as they should when unsuppressed, yet I have three tags that I cannot remove from the suppression list.

Am I missing something, Any ideas?

MPHymel
  • mastermadhawa
    Are the three tags still existing in the system? If the tags were deleted before the alarms were cleared or unsuppressed this could happen.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to mastermadhawa:

    I was aware of that being a potential issue, but these tags do still exist.
  • mastermadhawa

    In reply to MPHymel:

    I am guessing that you already checked the area assignments for these tags and device alarms and the areas assigned to the workstation and user that you are trying to unsuppress these from.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to mastermadhawa:

    Had not thought about that, and this may play into the solution somehow. The area associated with this CIOC was not actually assigned to my station. It was however assigned to a coworker, yet could not unsuppress these alarms. I then added the area to my station, and downloaded changed setup to the proplus, my station, and the CIOC but no joy.
  • mastermadhawa

    In reply to MPHymel:

    On your CIOC go to the charm where the device is and look at the Properties of the device. Is the correct area assigned in the "Alarms & Displays" tab for this device?
  • Kim Van Camp

    In reply to MPHymel:

    The problem could possibly be related to a documented issue that goes by the informal name “phantom alarms” affecting DV v9.3.x until v12.3. A software update is available if this is your problem. But it could also be related to recent changes done on the configuration, logic, or on the device itself, or be related to area assignements which you're looking into now. So if you don't find the joy, you may want to contact the Global Service Center to check on these possibilities.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to MPHymel:

    OK, figured something out. May end up with a guardian ticket on this one. I have been addressing incorrect suppression timeout settings as I find them.

    Lets say for example I have the following HART device alarms: COMM_ALM, FAILED_ALM and MAINT_ALM.
    I can initially suppress any or all of the three. If before attempting an unsuppress, If I modify the alarm suppression timeout and download the charm module, then the alarm cannot be removed from the suppression list. What is worse, is that if I set the suppression back to 999,0,0 and repeat the download, I can still not remove the suppression.

    Each of these tags were the result of a modification to the alarm suppression timeout prior to attempting the unsuppress.

  • MPHymel

    In reply to mastermadhawa:

    Yes, that was where I looked first and I did have that area assigned to my station. Also, the CIOC level assignment was a different area that I originally did not have assigned, but do now.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to Kim Van Camp:

    We are running 12.3.1, but I will look into the phantom alarm topic now that you mention it.
  • TexasDV

    In reply to MPHymel:

    Have you tried setting the Timeout time to 2 minutes and letting the alarms unsuppress themselves?
    then you can set TimeOut back to where you would like it to be.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to TexasDV:

    Yes, actually, some of these have been changed from 999 days to 4 hours and have remained on the suppression list for the last three weeks. Searching some KBAs at present, if anything smacks of this problem, ill post it for any future user finding this thread.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to MPHymel:

    FYI, for the benefit of anyone finding this thread in the future, I was able to get rid of the suppressed alarms by running the CHARM firmware update (though firmware was current, the process reset the CHARM in some way, and the alarms were removed from the suppression list. I also discovered that this is a repeatable problem. The steps below detail how the issue sets itself up. Guardian support team is looking into this, while not a show-stopper, the inablilty to remove a suppressed alarm has the effect of disabling the alarm permanently.

    The following steps demonstrate how an alarm can become suppressed, with no means of unsuppressing....

    1. Set up some HART device
    2. Set the alarm suppression timeout for COMM, MAINT, ADVISE, and FAILED to 999 d, 0 hours, 0 minutes
    3. Cause the device to produce a COMM, MAINT, and FAILED_ALM
    4. Suppress all three alarms.
    5. Unsupress MAINT alarm (you will notice that it works)
    6. Change the alarm suppression timeout to 0 days, 4 hours, 0 minutes for COMM alarm
    7. Try to unsupress the COMM alarm (you will notice that you cannot)
    8. Wait 4+ hours for the suppression timeout to occur. (you will notice that alarm is still suppressed)
    9. Change the alarm suppression timeout back to 999 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes for COMM alarm
    10. Try to unsupress the COMM alarm (you will notice that you cannot)

    Nothing will clear the suppression status for the COMM alarm unless the CHARM is reseated or firmware upgrade process repeated.
  • Kim Van Camp

    In reply to MPHymel:

    Thank you for the detailed write-up. This information has been passed to the DeltaV technology organization at Emerson for duplication, investigation and repair in a future release.

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