The Soft-GRAF HMI object- "g_Alarm" will show the event message on the PAC screen when an alarm event occurs. The message including date, time and description of the event (it will also show the confirmation date and time if it is confirmed).

Unlike other brands of HMI would limit the number and type of events, the Soft-GRAF HMI has no restrictions on the type of event. So designers can use Ladder, ST, FBD and so on in the ISaGRAF program to define different event and then trigger it. When the Soft-GRAF HMI receives the event signal from the ISaGRAF SoftLogic program, it will show the event message on the PAC screen.

There are two kinds of Soft-GRAF alarms, one is emergency alarm, and the other is general alarm. For emergency alarm, it will show the alarm message in the "g_Alarm" listed window and also pop up an "Alert" window with a blinking "Alert" words (this "Alert" text can be replaced with any user’s familiar language) to attract the operator’s attention. For general alarm, without a pop-up "Alert" window, it just shows an alarm message in the "g_Alarm" listed window.

Alarm notification and send SMS
When an alarm occurs, the "g_Alarm" object can trigger a pre-assigned Boolean variable to True and it will reset as False after confirming the alarm. This design allows the system use this Boolean variable to output an alarm notification to some device to enhance the attraction of informing on-site operators. For example, to control a trumpet sound, to control certain lights start blinking and so on. In addition, designers can also design an ISaGRAF program to send a short message to some operator’s mobile phone when some emergency occurs. (Please refer to FAQ-160)

Alarm recording and query
The "g_Alarm" object can record up to 3,000 daily happened events to a file (one file per day) and the retaining time of these alarm files is one year. The operator can query the historical alarm records on the PAC screen, for example, to query an alarm that occurred on one day in last week, or one day in a few months ago.

Export alarm files to PC
The "g_Alarm" object provides the FTP functionality to actively export the alarm file to one or two remote PC. Users can set up one to three daily hour to actively send the previous day's (or today’s) alarm file from the PAC to a folder on a remote PC. For example, you can set up to export the previous day's alarm file at 00:00 daily. To do that, the PAC requires an Ethernet connection and the PC is configured as an FTP Server. If the PAC has plugged in a 2G/3G wireless card, it can take advantage of wireless networks to send alarm files to a PC via FTP.

Export alarm files to a USB pen drive
The "g_Alarm" object supports sending alarm files to a USB pen drive. Users can export alarm files with a specified date range to a folder in the USB pen drive.