Alarm Setpoint Administration - How to create a new Alarm Setpoint
Accessing Alarm Setpoint Administration
If your left hand menu is only showing icons click on the Administration icon to pop out the menu
Then select Alarm Setpoint Administration from the menu.
This will open the Alarm Setpoint Administration page on the last group you were working in. You will see a screen similar to this:
Creating a new Alarm Setpoint
To Create a new Alarm Setpoint click on the Add Alarm Setpoint button in the top bar.
Step 1: Logic
Let’s fill out the form from top left to bottom right.
Data Type
The first field is Data Type using the drop down select if the new Alarm Setpoint is to be applied to tags with Numeric values or Text values. Since most data in the system is numeric in nature that is the default. If you change the type to Text the screen will change slightly as the information needed to setup the alarm is different.
Comparison
The second field is Comparison and only applies to Numeric data types. There are three options available:
- Value Comparison - Is the value greater or less than a threshold.
- Variance (Percentage) - Is the value greater or less than the average over some period of time (as a percent of the average)
- Variance (Amount) - Is the value greater or less than the average of some period of time by a fixed amount.
Each of these selections will change the Alarm when line as necessary to gather the information necessary to create the Alarm Setpoint We will cover all the variations on that line in the next section, but lets look at that last option on the first line.
Type
This field has two options Database Alarm and Field Alarm. The most common type of alarm is the Database Alarm where you fill in the criteria in the Alarm when line. You only use Field Alarm if you are trying to setup Alarm Setpoints for eLynx hardware devices like the i8D, WellLynx XI, and other similar devices where the alarm condition is determined by the hardware in the field.
Alarm when
Variation 1, Numeric - Value Comparison
There are 4 fields that need setup for this type of alarm.
- First select whether the Alarm is when the value is Greater Than, Less Than, Not Equal To, or Equal To then entered value.
- Enter the threshold value in the next field.
- Next select the Unit Classification that the alarm will be applied to (i.e. Pressure, Temperature, Volume (Gas), Volume (Liquid) etc.
- Finally select the Unit of Measure to be used to interpret the setpoint (i.e. PSIA, PSIG, Degrees F). Please note that the alarm can only be applied to tags using the selected Unit of Measure or a Unit of Measure for which we have a built in conversion. So, you can set an alarm for greater than - 20 - Temperature - Celsius and if you then apply that alarm to a tag with a native Unit of Measure of Fahrenheit it will alarm at a value greater than the equivalent temperature - 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Variation 2, Numeric - Variance (Percentage)
There are 5 fields that need setup for this type of alarm.
- First select whether the Alarm is when the value is Greater or Less Than, Greater Than, or Less Than the comparison period (Greater or Less than will alarm for any change either up or down)
- The next two columns allow you to enter a comparison timer period. Set both the value and the period in Hours, Days, or Months. (i.e. 10 days, 5 hours, 3 months)
- Next you can select whether we are checking to see if it has gone up too much, or dropped too much by selecting More Than or Less Than in the by field.
- Finally set the Percent change for the Alarm.
As an example, let’s say we want an alarm that detects if line pressure changes by more than 15% compared to the last 12 hours average, we would end up with a Alarm when line that looked like this.
Variation 3, Numeric - Variance (Amount)
There are 7 fields that need setup for this type of alarm.
- First select whether the Alarm is when the value is Greater or Less Than, Greater Than, or Less Than the comparison period (Greater or Less Than will alarm for any change either up or down)
- The next two columns allow you to enter a comparison timer period. Set both the value and the period in Hours, Days, or Months. (i.e. 10 days, 5 hours, 3 months)
- Next you can select whether we are checking to see if it has gone up too much, or gone down by selecting More Than or Less Than in the by field.
- Next set the Amount of change for the Alarm.
- Finally use the two selectors at the end to select the Unit Classification and the Unit of Measure.
In this example we want an alarm if a pressure value changes by more than 25 PSI up or down over the previous 12 hour average.
Variation 4, Text
There are only two fields to setup for alarms for tags with text values. For matching text there are several choices in the Alarm when field, let’s look at them one by one.
- Contains will match if the value in the tag has the text entered into the value field anywhere in it’s current value. So if the value field is set to “- alarm” then any value received for the tag that has “- alarm” anywhere within it’s value it will alarm. This means it will match “low pressure - alarm”, “flow rate - alarm”, and “battery - alarm”, but would not match “pressure alarm”, “flow alarm”, or “battery alarm” as they don’t have the dash in them.
- Does Not Contain is the exact opposite of the previous test, the alarm will trip any time the tags current value does not have the alarm value in it.
- Exactly Matches the value in the tag must be an exact match for the value field.
- Does Not Exactly Match the value in the tag must not match the setting in the value field. This can be used when you have a tag that has one value that is used to indicate normal operations and any other value indicates an issue has been detected.
- Begins With the value in the tag must start with the characters entered into the value field.
- Ends With the value in the tag must end with the characters entered into the value field.
As an example, let’s say I have a PLC that sends a value that indicates the current state of a pump in a text field. And that field can contain the values “Starting”, “Running”, “Stopped - Manual”, “Stopped - Fault”, or “Disabled” and I want an alarm any time the pump is stopped. I can set a text alarm for Begins With Stopped and it will alarm any time the pump is stopped.
Alarm Setpoint Name
The last item to fill out on this step is the name of the setpoint.
Once you have entered a name for the Alarm Setpoint the Usage button will be enabled.
Usage
For this example we will use a high pressure alarm which we have named “High Tubing Pressure”, the setup is shown below.
When you click through to the Usage step you will be presented with a screen that allows you to select from the tags which have a Unit of Measure that is either the Unit of Measure you selected, or one that can be converted to the Unit of Measure selected.
The card presented for each object will show the number of tags that currently have the alarm applied, since this is a new alarm the Usage counts will all show zero. Clicking the Expand Arrow next to the object name will show a list of tags on that object that have appropriate Units of Measure for the current alarm you are creating.
In this example we see that there are four pressure tags on the device which are either in, or can be converted to PSIG which was the Unit of Measure we set for the Alarm Setpoint. When we created this Alarm Setpoint we named it High Tubing Pressure so we probably don’t want to apply it to all four of these tags. There are filtering options we can use to quickly narrow the list down.
Filtering Options
Object Types
A set of Tabs allows you to quickly switch among the different object types to which alarms can be applied, you will see tabs for Devices, Wells, Tanks, and Tank Batteries.
As you select each of these tabs a list of objects will appear below that have tags with any appropriate Units of Measure. If no tags are available on that object type you will see an empty list with the note "There are no devices/wells/tanks/tank batteries available for this Alarm Setpoint.
Name Filters
There are two name filters available to the right of the Tabs that allow us to search object names and tag names quickly.
The first filter allows us to only show objects whose name contains the text we enter into the Filter.
I can now use the Expand Arrows on each of these devices to select the tags I want the alarm on.
For this example though it might be quicker to use the Tag Name filter since I want to apply this filter to all Devices in the current group that have a Tubing Pressure tag.
If I clear the Device Name filter and type Tubing into the Tag Name filter I now see cards for every Device that has a tag with Tubing in the name. The cards will now be automatically expanded to show all the matching Tags.
Select and Clear All Visible buttons
Since I can now see all the Tubing Pressure tags on all of the Devices which have tubing pressure transmitters connected I can use the Select All Visible button to quickly attach this new setpoint to those Devices with just one click.
Now that all those tags are selected I have decided that I don’t want this alarm on the three plunger lift devices, if I type PL into the Device Name box and click the Clear All Visible those three tags will be unchecked
If I clear the text out of the two filter boxes and click the View Selected checkbox I can now see that the four Devices in the current group that are not plunger lift devices have the Tubing Pressure selected for this alarm.
Now that I have the correct tags selected I’ll click on the Notifications button to setup who gets notified when this Alarm Setpoint is tripped.
Notifications
There are a lot of options when it comes to Notifications on Alarm Setpoints.
We’ll cover the basics here, and where appropriate, link to other help articles to go into some of the details for things like Tiered Alarm Schemes and Notification Lists
When we click through to Notifications we are presented with a screen that allows us to setup who will receive notifications.
At the top of the screen you can select One Time Notification, or Tiered Alarm Schemes.
One Time Notifications
One Time Notification means that an alarm notification is sent to everyone selected to receive a notification both at the start and the end of an alarm event. You’ll notice to the right of this area on the screen are check boxes that allow you to over-ride the default behavior and selectively enable / disable notifications at the start (Send Notification on Alarm), or the end (Send Notification on Clear) but by default both boxes are checked so that notifications are sent at both times.
One time notifications can be sent either to individuals, or to a Notification List by checking the boxes on the bottom portion of the screen.
The area on the left allows us to select from a variety of e-mail, text, and voice phone numbers to notify. Please note that voice calls are a billed service and you will be invoiced for voice calls. Text messages are included with the service, however, there can be invoicing for text messages if usage exceeds what is covered in your contract. E-mail messages are always free.
The area on the right allows us to select from any Notification Lists setup in the system. Please see Creating and Editing Alarm Schemes and Notification Lists for help creating notification lists.
At the top of each of these lists you have several options for how the list is displayed.
Entering text into the filter allows you to search for particular Recipients or Notification Lists, the View Selected checkboxes update the lists to only show Recipients or Notification Lists already selected.
Each of these lists also has a More Actions button
that allows you to create new Recipients, create new Notifications Lists, or further filter the lists by other criteria like recipient type (i.e. e-mail addresses only.)
Finally, each of the displayed Recipient and Notification List cards also displays a more options button when clicked that allow you to edit the Recipients or Notification List.
Tiered Alarm Scheme
Tiered Alarm Scheme means that alarm notifications are sent based on a set of rules, these rules allow you to delay the initial notification until the alarm has persisted for some period of time, repeat alarms on an interval, and/or escalate alarms to other personnel until someone acknowledges the alarm to indicate they are taking action, or that no action is necessary.
For details on creating Tiered Alarm Scheme please see Creating and Editing Alarm Schemes and Notification Lists
When you select Tiered Alarm Scheme for the notifications the bottom portion of the window changes to show a card for each Tiered Alarm Scheme that has been created.
You may only select a single Tiered Alarm Scheme for any Alarm Setpoint you are creating.
Each card displayed has an Expand Arrow next to the name of the scheme, clicking the arrow will enlarge the card and show a text description of rules for that Tiered Alarm Scheme
In addition each card, if selected, will display a More Actions button that will allow you to edit the Tiered Alarm Scheme. Please note that when you edit an alarm scheme it affects ALL of the Alarm Setpoints and Rules Engine Notifications that use the selected Tiered Alarm Scheme
To select a Tiered Alarm Scheme for this Alarm Setpoint just click the Radio Button next to the name.
Notifications are not required for Alarm Setpoints therefore the Actions button is enabled as soon as you enter the Notifications step.
Actions
The Actions step allows you to select highlight colors for Tags that are in violation of the Alarm Setpoint and to change the messaging that is used for e-mail or voice notifications. Text message notifications are not editable to help ensure messages are kept as short as possible to minimize the chances of overage billing.
Highlight Colors
To select Highlight Colors for use in Summary Listing and Device/Well Details use the Drop Down selectors next to the sample color swatches to select the colors you would like to use.
Custom Messaging
If you select the Use Custom Messaging radio button the bottom portion of the screen switches from displaying samples of the built in messages and adds an editor to allow you to change the messages.
Summary
Once any changes to the colors and the messages have been made click the Summary button to review your new Alarm Setpoint before saving it.
If everything looks correct, click the Create Alarm Setpoint button to save your settings.
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