Specifications

Reference Guide 3-17
System Configuration and Operation Alarms and Alarm Filters
3.5.2 Alarm Modifiers
Each alarm may also be designated as
info
,
minor
,
major
or
crit
. The filter modifier shows
on both the active alarm and alarm history screens.
If the system has an External Alarm card (optional), the occurrence of any alarm designated
as
crit
will trigger a form-C relay contact on the External Alarm card. The relay contact action
sets off an annunciator or lamp at the equipment site. Similarly, the occurrence of any alarm
designated as
major
triggers a different contact and activates another external indicator. Refer
to the Alarm Card Reference Guide for more information on the External Alarm cards.
3.5.3 Alarm Cutoff (ACO)
The ACO (Alarm Cutoff) security feature is used by the system to alert an operator to alarms
that clear themselves while the system is unattended. The ACO option settings are
aco-on
and
aco-off
. If ACO is set to report or log alarms, any alarm set to report or log with a major
modifier brings up an additional alarm message on the screen. You must manually clear this
message, which is the ACO alarm message. The ACO is used with the node port of the
Interface card. It can also trigger an external alarm device, such as a bell or lamp, that must
also be manually cleared.
All ACO alarms must be cleared from the Interface card screen. ACO alarms can be cleared
automatically or manually.
3.5.4 Alarm Handling
The
report
alarm function attempts to send alarm information to a remote printer, network
management system (NMS), or other device, in addition to recording the alarm in the Alarm
History log. These features use the built-in serial port and modem on the Interface card. You
also need to change the settings in the Printout Alarms Screen or TCP/IP Screen of the
Interface card to activate the alarm reporting functions.
Alarms set to either
log
or
report
record occurrences automatically to the Alarm History
Screen. To view that screen, press
“h”
(
History
command) in the Alarm Screen. Figure 3-9
shows a typical Alarm History Screen, in which you can update the log with any new alarms
that occur. To do this, press “
r
” to select
Refresh
in the Alarm History Screen. Or, to delete
all entries in the log, press “
c
” to select
Clear
in the Alarm History Screen.
The alarm log may contain more than one screen (page) of data. To scroll through the log,
press “
u
” or “
d
” (
pgUp
or
pgDn
) to move up one page or down one page at a time. The latest
alarms appear at the beginning of the log, which is on Page 1.