WINDOWS SCADA ALARM
DATABASE EDITING GUIDE
DB-402
PRESENTATION
DATE:
MARCH 23, 2015
PREPARED BY:
DINA HAMILTON
VERSION 1.3
WINDOWS SCADA ALARM DATABASE – EDITING GUIDE
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Version History
Version
Date
Author
Description
1.0
1.1
2012/10/17
2013/05/7
Biserka Mirochevic
Dina Hamilton
1.2
1.3
2014/01/27
2015/03/23
Dina Hamilton
Dina Hamilton
Initial version of document
Updated with new template, formatting and
screen captures.
Updated with editing comments.
Changes to some formatting and update SCADA
to STC.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT, NOTICES AND TRADEMARKS ....................................................................................... 4
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION .............................................................................................................. 4
ABOUT THIS MANUAL ..................................................................................................................... 5
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 5
1 Alarm Formats ........................................................................................................................... 6
1.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 6
1.2
Alarm Format Data Fields .............................................................................................. 8
1.3
Alarm Formatting ......................................................................................................... 12
1.4
Use of Application Data by the System........................................................................ 13
1.5
Examples of Alarm Formats ......................................................................................... 14
1.6
Default Alarm Formats ................................................................................................. 16
2 Alarm Priorities ........................................................................................................................ 17
2.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 17
2.2
Alarm Priority Data Fields ........................................................................................... 18
3 Master-Slave Alarm Suppression ............................................................................................ 23
3.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 23
3.2
Creating Master-Slave Relationships ........................................................................... 24
3.3
Operation of Master/Slave Alarm Suppression ............................................................ 25
3.4
Storm Alarm Suppression ............................................................................................. 27
4 External Bell ............................................................................................................................ 29
4.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 29
5 Remote Alarm Annunciation ................................................................................................... 33
5.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 33
5.2
Remote Alarms ............................................................................................................. 35
5.3
Remote Alarm Groups .................................................................................................. 38
5.4
Annunciations ............................................................................................................... 39
5.5
Annunciation Service ................................................................................................... 42
5.6
Recipient ....................................................................................................................... 56
5.7
Schedules ...................................................................................................................... 63
5.8
Operational Overview of Remote Annunciation .......................................................... 66
5.9
Remote Acknowledgement........................................................................................... 69
6 Unattended Mode ..................................................................................................................... 71
6.1
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 71
6.2
System Configuration ................................................................................................... 71
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
Copyright, Notices and Trademarks
Copyright © 2014 Survalent Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. The
software described in this document is furnished under license, and may only
be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. The content
of this manual has been carefully checked for accuracy. However, if you find
any errors, please notify Survalent Technology Corporation.
The software described in this document is furnished under license, and may
only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license.
Survalent Technology Corporation
2600 Argentia Road
Mississauga, Ontario L5N 5V4
(905) 826 5000
(905) 826 7144
support@survalent.com
www.survalent.com
About This Publication
This manual is intended as a “how to” reference for the STC Explorer Alarm
Database
It is intended to replace the previous version of the Alarm Database Editing
Guide.
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About This Manual
This manual provides information on how to configure the Windows SCADA
system’s alarm database.
The sections of information contained in the manual follow this order:
 Understanding alarm formats and how to define them in the system
 Handling alarm priorities (severities) and the color coding of alarm messages
according to priority
 Setting up the master-slave alarm suppression facility
 Defining external bells that can provide audible alarms - optional
 Setting up Remote Alarm Annunciation - optional
References
Database documents
The following table lists the Windows SCADA documentation.
Document
Number
DB-400
DB-401
DB-403
DB-404
DB-405
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Document Name
Database Editing Overview
Point Database Editing Guide
Calculation Database Editing Guide
Historical Database Editing Guide
Report Database Editing Guide
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1
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Formats
1.1
About this chapter
Introduction
This Chapter describes how to use the STC Explorer to define the format of
the alarm messages in your system.
When a program raises an alarm, it sends a request to the alarm processor
that includes the following fields:







Alarm request data
Timestamp (year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
Alarm Priority
Point ID number
Point State (if status point)
Alarm Format Number
Voice Message Number
Application Data
Timestamp
The Timestamp field in the request specifies the timestamp of the alarm
message. If the year field is -1, the alarm processor uses the current system
time as the alarm timestamp.
Alarm Priority
The Alarm Priority (also called Alarm Severity) is a number in the range zero to
10, which represents the alarm severity. See Chapter 2 Alarm Priorities for
more information.
Point ID
The Point ID field in the alarm request identifies the point associated with the
alarm. If the point is a status point, and the alarm represents a status change,
the Point State field specifies the new state of the point.
Point State
For status change, limit violation and rate-of-change alarms, the alarm priority
is taken from the Alarm Severity fields in the point’s definition. See Analog
Point and Status Point chapters of the Point Database Editing Guide, DB-401
for more information.
Alarm Format
An alarm format is a text string that defines the format of the text of the alarm
message. The alarm processor formats the text of an alarm message by
interpreting the particular alarm format referred to by the alarm request. It is
the content of this format string that is the principal subject of this chapter.
Alarm Format Number
In the case of an alarm associated with a status change, the alarm is
formatted using the Alarm Format field of the status point’s definition.
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See Status Point chapter of the Point Database Editing Guide, DB-401 for
more information.
In the case of analog limit violation, over range, or rate of change alarms, the
alarm format is one of fifteen pre-allocated alarm formats listed in the table
below.
Alarm Type
Lower Reasonability
Lower Emergency
Lower Pre-Emergency
Upper Pre-Emergency
Upper Emergency
Upper Reasonability
Overrange
Rate of Change
Format
Number
(without meter)
178
179
180
182
183
184
189
121
Format
Number
(with meter)
190
191
192
194
195
196
197
N/A
The type of alarm dictates which format the system uses. In the case of a limit
violation alarm, it also depends on which limit is violated, and whether the
point has an associated meter point or not. See Analog Point chapter in the
Point Database Editing Guide, DB-401 for more information.
Voice Message Number
The Voice Message field of the alarm request specifies an optional alarm
message for remote annunciation via e-mail or pager.
Application Data
The Application Data field of the alarm request contains application-dependent
data that can be included in the alarm message. There are special codes that
you can include in the alarm format string to specify how the application data
is to be used in the alarm message.
In some cases, the SCADA system uses the Application Data field to supply
additional information to be included in an alarm. See section 1.4 Use of
Application Data by the System for more information.
If you’re a programmer, and you write application programs using Survalent’s
NDA API, then your program can also use the Application Data area in the
alarms it needs to generate.
Additional
information
The SCADA system allows for a large number of formats, which can be
viewed and edited via the STC Explorer. See section 1.2 Alarm Format Data
Fields for more information on editing.
See section 1.3 for more information on how the alarm processor uses the
format string to format alarm messages.
See Database Editing Overview, DB-400 for more information on the default
set of alarm formats that come with the system.
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1.2
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Format Data Fields
The Alarm Format table is located under the Alarms branch where you find a
list of existing formats. These formats include the formats that are defined in
the default database, as well as those created or modified for your System.
Figure 1 – Alarm Formats Window
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Defining an alarm
message
STC EXPLORER 2.0
From the Alarm Formats window you can create a new alarm format by rightclicking to access the drop down menu. From this menu select New. This new
alarm format dialog box defines one alarm message format which is the
control string that defines one way for formatting an alarm message.
Figure 2 – Alarm Format Dialog box
Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields in the new alarm message dialog box.
Option
Name
System
Description
You give the alarm format a name to allow you to select it for
use when you are editing points. By convention, the formats
reserved for internal use by the system include asterisks (*) in
their names
This flag is set by default in the alarm formats that are
intended for use by the internal system alarms (those formats
with asterisks in their names). You should set it only for alarm
message formats that you do not want to use with your points
(for example, one that is intended for use by your application
program). Setting this flag prevents that alarm format from
appearing on the drop-down list that you use when editing a
status point.
Note: You cannot select “System” alarm formats when you are
editing your status points.
Description
Format
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This is a description of this format, and is optional. The
description appears in the STC Explorer when you are editing
alarm formats, so you may want to enter something here that
will help you identify this format.
This field contains a 64-character text string that defines the
format of an alarm message. When you make a change to an
alarm format, it takes effect immediately (on the next alarm
that uses it). Note that previously raised alarm messages are
not re-formatted.
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Control Strings
Control
Code
An
Bn
C
D
E
Fm[.n]
Gn
Im
N1
N2
P
S[n:m]
Tn
Vn
Xn
‘
“
Format Data
From
—
Application
data
Point data
(status only)
Point data
Point data
(analog only)
Application
data
Point data
Application
data
Point data
Point data
Request data
Point data
(text only)
—
—
—
—
—
Output pointer
Data pointer
STC EXPLORER 2.0
The following table describes the Control Strings used in an alarm format.
Description
Position application data pointer at offset ‘n’ in the application data area.
Display next ‘n’ bytes as string.
Display the point’s “state string” to indicate point’s current state.
Display the text description of point.
Display the engineering units string.
Format next 8 bytes from application data as a floating point number,
with total field width ‘m’ and number of digits ‘n’ after the decimal point. If
‘n’ is omitted, format as many significant digits as possible.
Display ‘n’ characters of point’s station’s description text.
Format next four bytes from application data as an integer, with total
field width ‘m’.
Display the point’s name.
Display point’s station’s name.
Display number of asterisks (*) to indicate priority (0–10 asterisks).
Display text point’s text value, characters ‘n’ through ‘m’. If ‘n:m’ is
omitted, display characters 1 through 30.
Position at character number ‘n’ in the alarm message being formatted.
Output alarm to remote alarm annunciator with voice code n
Advance ‘n’ characters. If ‘n’ is omitted, advance one character.
Delimit text, for example, ‘message’.
Delimit text, for example, “message”.
When formatting the alarm message to be output, the alarm processor uses
an “output pointer” to keep track of where in the line of the alarm message
output pointer is located.”
You can control the output pointer by using the “Xn” or “Tn” control codes.
The “Xn control code may be used to advance the output pointer by “n”
character positions. The “Tn” control code may be used to reposition the
output pointer to any place in the alarm message, including the timestamp
(which is further left than the text would normally be placed. “T0”, for
example, sets the output pointer to the position of the first timestamp
character).
To keep track of data taken from the Application Data field of the alarm
request, the alarm processor maintains an application data pointer that
points to the next available byte in the Application Data field. Whenever the
alarm processor encounters a control code that formats application data, it
takes an appropriate number of bytes from the portion of the Application
Data field pointed to by the application data pointer, formats the bytes as
specified by the control code, and then advances the application data
pointer by the number of bytes just used.
The number of bytes of application data used by each control code depends
on the control code itself. For the “Fm.n” control string, the number of bytes
used is eight and the bytes are treated as a double-precision floating-point
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
number. For control string “Im”, the number of bytes used is four and the
bytes are treated as an integer. For control string “Bn”, the number of bytes
taken is “n” and the bytes are treated as character data.
Delimit text
You can control the application data pointer, if you wish, by using the “An”
control string. The “An” control string allows you to skip data in the
application data area or to move the pointer back to previous data (“A0”, for
example, sets the application data pointer back to the beginning of the
Application Data field of the alarm request).
The single or double quotes (‘or “) are used to delimit text that is simply
inserted into the alarm message. If you want to include one type of quote
character in your string, be sure to use the other one as the delimiter.
If the alarm processor encounters a control code that it cannot interpret, it
outputs a question mark (?) in the alarm message and continues processing
the alarm message.
Use care to format alarm messages of reasonable length. Think about the
size of the point names and descriptions that you have created in your
database. A typical 80-character printer will only be able to show 60
characters of alarm text, after the time stamp and alarm clear indicator have
been printed.
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1.3
About this section
Alarm format string
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Formatting
Each alarm format contains a series of alarm format control codes
separated by commas. The alarm processor creates the text of the alarm
message by interpreting these control codes. Each control code is an
instruction to include one element in the alarm message.
Some of the control codes instruct the alarm processor to include a data
item such as the name or description of the point (recall that Point ID is
included in the alarm request). Other control codes instruct the alarm
processor to format data from the Application Data field of the alarm
request. Still other control codes insert fixed text into the alarm message, or
to move to any position within the alarm message.
The control codes that you can use in an alarm message skeleton are listed
in the table on page 10. For each code, the table indicates the source of the
applicable data:
 “Point data” means the control string formats a data item obtained from
the associated point’s database record, where the Point ID field of the
alarm request specifies which point to use.
 “Application data” means the control string formats a data item contained
in the Application Data field of the alarm request.
 “Request data” means the control string formats a data item contained in
some field of the alarm request other than the Application Data field.
Alarm format string
example
The basic format of an alarm message is:
mm/dd hh:mm:ss cccc text...
where:
mm/dd hh:mm:ss = timestamp of the alarm
cccc = alarm clear indicator
= blank for momentary and outstanding sustained alarms
= (CL) for cleared sustained alarms
text... = text of alarm message
It is the “text...” part of the alarm message that is formatted by the Alarm
Format.
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Cleared and sustained
alarms
STC EXPLORER 2.0
When a sustained alarm is cleared, whether it’s related to a status point or
an analog point, the alarm processor:
 marks the original alarm record as cleared but leaves the entire message
text unchanged
 adds a new alarm record with the same text as the original message
except that the timestamp (and the current state, if present) is updated,
and the character string “(CL)” is inserted between the timestamp and the
main text of the message (without the quotes)
In the case of sustained status alarms, this means that if the original alarm
included the state (for example, TRIP) the cleared alarm will include the
new state (CLOSED), and the (CL) means that the original alarm condition
cleared.
1.4
About this section
Use of Application Data by the System
Although you can use the Application Data field in any way you choose when
writing you own SCADA applications, the SCADA system uses it to supply
additional data in certain alarms.
The following tables describe the use of the Application Data for different
alarms. In each case, the data is floating point, and the Fm.n control string
should be used.
Application data for
alarms
Use of Application Data in Analog Limit Violation Alarms
Offset
Length Data Type
Description
0
8
Float
Current value
8
8
Float
Limit value
16
8
Float
Meter value (if a meter point exists)
Use of Application Data in Analog Overrange Alarms
Offset
Length Data Type
Description
0
8
Float
Meter value (if a meter point exists)
Use of Application Data in Analog Rate of Change Alarms
Offset
Length Data Type
Description
0
8
Float
Current value
8
8
Float
Limit value
16
8
Float
Meter value (if a meter point exists)
Use of Application Data in Status Change Alarms
Description
Offset
Length Data Type
0
8
Float
Meter value (if a meter point exists)
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1.5
About this section
Alarm format for a
status point
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Examples of Alarm Formats
This section provides examples of alarm formats.
An example of an alarm format that could be defined for a status point is:
 D,X2,C,X2,P,T60,F8.2
This format would be appropriate for a status point that has an associated
meter point. When the status point goes into alarm, the meter’s value is
included in the application data area of the alarm request that is sent to the
alarm processor.
Construction of the
alarm message text
For this format, the alarm processor constructs the text of the alarm
message as follows:
 The first 20 characters of the message are formatted to contain the time
stamp and space for the alarm clear indicator (CL)
 Next, the D code in the format causes the alarm processor to insert the
point’s description
 The X2 code in the format causes the alarm processor to insert two blanks.
 The C code in the format causes the alarm processor to insert the
appropriate state string based on the point’s state that was specified in the
alarm request
 The next X2 code causes the alarm processor to insert another two blank
characters
 The P code causes the alarm processor to insert a string of asterisks (*) to
represent the alarm priority. Four asterisks indicate priority four, three
asterisks indicate priority three, etc.
 The T60 code forces the output pointer to character position 60 in the
alarm message. This is being done because the P format code produces a
variable number of asterisks, and the user wants the stuff that follows the
asterisks to line up on displayed and printed alarms no matter how many
there were
 The F8.2 code causes the alarm processor to get a (double-precision)
floating point number from the application data area of the alarm request,
at the current offset (i.e. 0), convert it to an 8 character string with 2
fractional digits, and insert the string into the message
An example of an alarm message that might have been created from this
format is:
 04/18 09:42:00
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Tank #1 Drain Valve Closed ***
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Alarm format for an
analog point
STC EXPLORER 2.0
An example of an alarm format that may be defined for a limit violation for an
analog point is:

G10,X1,D,X1,“HI EMG”,X1,F8.2,X1,F8.2
In this case, the application data area of the alarm request must contain two
floating-point numbers at offsets 0 and 8 respectively. These numbers are
the point’s current value and the value of the limit violated. They are placed
in the alarm request by the program responsible for processing limit
violations.
Construction of the
alarm message text
For this skeleton, the alarm processor constructs the alarm message as
follows:
 The first 20 characters of the message are formatted to contain the time
stamp and space for the alarm clear indicator (CL).
 Next, the G10 code causes the alarm processor to insert the first 10
characters of the description string of the point’s station.
 The X1 code causes the alarm processor to insert one blank
 The D code causes the alarm processor to insert the point’s description
string
 The next X1 code causes the alarm processor to insert another blank
space
 The “HI EMG” code causes the alarm processor to insert the string HI
EMG into the alarm message
 The F8.2 code causes the alarm processor to get a (double-precision)
floating point number from the first 8 bytes of the application data area of
the alarm request, convert it to an 8 character string with 2 fractional digits,
and insert the string into the message
 The next X1 code causes another blank to be inserted
 The next F8.2 code causes the alarm processor to get a (double-precision)
floating point number from the next 8 bytes of the application data area of
the alarm request, convert it to an 8-character string and insert it into the
alarm message
An example of an alarm message that might have been created from this
format is:
 04/18 09:42:00
400.00
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Parker Sub Feeder 1 Amps A HI EMG
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1.6
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Default Alarm Formats
About this section
This section describes the default SCADA alarm messages.
Default SCADA alarm
messages
Your SCADA system comes with a default set of alarm message formats that
you can view and modify using the STC Explorer, as discussed earlier in this
chapter. These default message skeletons are listed in DB-400, Database
Editing Overview.
The first several formats are intended for you to assign to your status points
although you should customize those that you chose to use. You need at
least one for each different “style” of alarm message that you want.
It is recommended that all alarm formats used for point alarms contain
N2,",",N1 at the beginning, to cause the station and point names to be
included however, you can delete the record number embedded in the
formats by default.
Other pre-defined formats are reserved for use by the Windows SCADA
system, and are marked as such.
If the existing alarm formats are not sufficient for your needs, you can go
ahead and create additional formats.
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2
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Priorities
2.1
Introduction
About this chapter
Each alarm that can be raised in the system is assigned one of 11 priorities
(also known as severities). These allow you to differentiate between more
important and less important alarms when you design the points in your
database. Alarms raised by the system itself are assigned a priority by the
system.
Alarm priority
criteria
In addition to being useful as an alarm-sorting criterion, the alarm priority
also dictates:
 The color of the alarm message as seen in the WorldView alarm view
window. Schemes for coloring the different alarms according priority are
described section 2.2.
 Whether the alarm requires acknowledgment or not. A priority zero alarm
does not require acknowledgment. Alarms with priority two through 10 do
require acknowledgment. Alarms with priority one can be either preacknowledged or require acknowledgment (the system can be configured
for whichever you prefer by your system manager)
 How the audible alarms (both on the workstation and external) are
sounded. The operation of each workstation’s audible alarm is based on
the priority of the highest-priority unacknowledged alarm in the zones of
that workstation (as determined by the user who is currently logged in).
WorldView can be configured to play a different sound for each of the
alarm severities one through 10 (priority zero alarms do not play a sound).
Refer to the WorldView documentation for a complete discussion of this
feature. The operation of optional external audible alarms is described in
chapter 4.
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2.2
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Priority Data Fields
About this section
This section describes the alarm priority data fields.
Coloring schemes
There are 11 sets of alarm priority coloring rules in the system, sometimes
called coloring schemes. These are used by alarms of the different priorities,
when determining the color to use when displaying an alarm message. If you
don’t like the way a particular priority of alarm message is colored, you may
use the STC Explorer to modify the corresponding entry.
Select the Priorities branch to show the existing alarm priorities.
Figure 3 – Alarm Priority Window
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Alarm priority
coloring schemes
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Choosing one of these to be edited brings up the “Edit Alarm Priority” dialog
box. The data fields on the Alarm Color dialog are described below. You
cannot delete any of these coloring schemes, nor can you create a new one,
since there are exactly 5 a fixed number of alarm severities, and each
requires its own coloring scheme.
Figure 4 – Alarm Priority Color Scheme Dialog Box
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Alarm priority
coloring schemes
continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields in the new alarm message dialog box.
Field
Description
Priority
The ID number of this priority.
Suppressed
When the Suppressed box is ticked, alarms of this
priority are suppressed. This means that they are
treated as though they were priority zero, which causes
no sound to be played, and the priority 0 color scheme
to be used instead of this scheme.
If you mark a priority as Suppressed here, operators see
it as Suppressed in their Storm Alarm Suppression
menu in WorldView.
If operators change Storm Alarm Suppression settings
from WorldView, you see the changes next time you edit
the priorities.
Description
This is a description of up to 128 characters The ID
number corresponds to the alarm severity that uses this
scheme, and cannot be changed.
Momentary
This group designates the colors to be used to display
momentary alarm messages. While an alarm is
unacknowledged, it will appear in the color shown under
Nak. Once the alarm is acknowledged, it will be
displayed in the color listed under Ack.
Sustained
Color rules for sustained alarms are as follows:
 First Message. Active – This group pertains to the first
message to appear, when the alarm is raised. While
the alarm is still active (i.e. before it returns to its
normal state), it will use one of these two colors.
o Ack
This is the color used once this alarm
has been acknowledged, provided it is
still active.
o Nak
This is the color used initially, while the
active alarm is still unacknowledged.
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Field Descriptions continued
Field
Sustained
continued
Description
 First Message – Clear
This group pertains to the first message (the “alarm
raised” messaged), once that alarm has cleared.
Therefore, this is the color the first message will
become once the second message has appeared
(because the second message tells us that the alarm
has cleared). This does not affect the color of the
second message (the “alarm cleared”).
o Ack
This is the color for the first message of
the sustained alarm pair, after the alarm
has cleared, and after you have
acknowledged the first alarm message.
o Nak
This is the color for the first message of
the sustained alarm pair, after the alarm
has cleared (i.e. there is a second
message), if you have not yet
acknowledged the first alarm message.
 Second message – Clear
This group designates the colors to be used for the
second (alarm cleared) message of a sustained alarm
pair of messages. So these are only used once the
alarm has cleared.
o
o
JANUARY 27, 2014
Ack
This is the color for the second
message of a sustained alarm pair after
you have acknowledged it.
Nak
This is the color for the second
message of a sustained alarm pair (the
one that has the (CL) in it), if you have
not yet acknowledged it (whether or not
you have acknowledged the first
message).
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Operating notes
STC EXPLORER 2.0
The alarm priorities defined above will dictate the color of any alarm
messages you see in WorldView’s alarm view windows. But which alarm
messages you actually see will depend upon the alarm view window’s criteria
settings. You may be viewing only alarms of a certain priority, or only active
alarms, and so forth.
Furthermore, alarms that are acknowledged, that are no longer active (this
includes all momentary alarms, plus those sustained alarms that have
returned to their normal state), will only remain in the system’s alarm file for a
short time. After this configurable “alarm timeout” they will no longer be seen
in any window. So you may not get to see very much of the “Ack” color you
have chosen for Cleared alarms.
If you take a look at the alarm priorities as they are defined in your system,
you may find that many of the colors are the same. This is a natural situation;
the SCADA system allows for more versatility in alarm coloring than many
users require. But it means that you can enhance your operators’ view of
alarms as their needs grow.
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3
Master-Slave Alarm Suppression
3.1
About this chapter
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Introduction
This chapter describes the the Master/Slave Alarms facility.
The Master-Slave Alarm Suppression software is not licensed in the base
SCADA system. This feature requires an additional software option license.
The Master/Slave Alarms facility allows you to define a hierarchy of
primary/secondary (master/slave) point relationships. These relationships may
be used for either or both of the following purposes.
 Alarm Suppression
If the alarm suppression function is enabled for a particular master/slave
relationship, then as long as the master point is in the alarm state, alarms on
its slave points are suppressed (i.e. the alarm severity is reduced to zero).
 Group Acknowledgement
If the group acknowledgement function is enabled for a particular
master/slave relationship, then whenever you acknowledge alarms on the
master point, all alarms on the slave points will also be acknowledged.
The Storm Alarm Suppression in section 3.4 describes an additional alarm
suppression feature that is included with the Master/Slave Alarms option but that
does not involve master/slave relationships.
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3.2
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Creating Master-Slave Relationships
This section describes how to define a Master alarm point with one or more
slaves.
A master/slave relationship is defined from the Status or Analog point editing
dialog of the Master point.
The following procedure describes how to add Slave points to a Master.
Step Action
1
2
3
Select Edit from the right-click drop down menu on the status or
analog point.
Result: The Status Point dialog box displays the Master point.
Click on the Alarms tab.
Click on the Alarm Suppression button.
Result: The Master-Slaves Alarm Suppression dialog box displays.
4
Click on the Point Browser button.
Result: The Drag and Drop window displays.
5
Drag and drop the points to the suppression list.
Result: All points that you add to the list will be considered slave
points to this master. The point ID and Name will automatically appear
on the list. By default, the point will be configured for suppression and
not for group acknowledgement (these terms are discussed in the
following sections)
You can make status or analog points slaves of this point. Also, a given point
may be made a slave to any number of master points. This allows a slave point
to be suppressed by any one of many master points.
A point that is specified as a slave to one master can itself be a master point. In
its edit dialog, it has its own list of slaves defined. The resulting suppression is
hierarchical. That is, a master suppresses not only its slaves but also the slaves
of its slaves.
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Suppress
Group Ack
STC EXPLORER 2.0
This flag specifies that alarms on this point will be suppressed, when the master
point is in its alarm state. This suppression will continue as long as the master
point remains in its alarm state, up to the maximum Suppression Delay configured
for your system.
This flag specifies that group acknowledgement is enabled for this master/slave
relationship. In this case, alarms will be generated as usual. But when the
operator acknowledges the alarm on the master point, the alarms on these slave
points will be automatically acknowledged as well.
You may select both Suppress and Group Ack for the same slave point. This
means the alarm on the slave point will be suppressed. Later, if the Suppression
Delay expires, the alarm on the slave point will be raised. If the operator then
acknowledges the master point, the slave alarm will be automatically
acknowledged.
3.3 Operation of Master/Slave Alarm
Suppression
About this section
This section describes how Master/Slave alarm suppression operates.
Abnormal state on a
maser point
When a Master point goes into its abnormal state, alarms on the Slave points
are still generated as they occur, but their severity is reduced to zero. This
means that the alarms are logged and added to the alarm database as usual
(where they are viewed on alarm displays), but they:
 Do not require acknowledgement
 Appear at the bottom of priority-sorted alarm lists
 Do not appear at all on unacknowledged alarm lists
Alarm suppression
Suppression of these Slave alarms continue until the Master point returns to its
normal state, or until the maximum Suppression Delay configured for your
SCADA system expires.
When the Master point returns to normal, the alarm suppression is cancelled,
even though the maximum suppression time may not have run out. If the Master
point returns to an alarm state again, it causes alarm suppression to resume
and the maximum suppression timer is re-started.
Suppression raise
delay
The alarm suppression system has a delay built in to allow for all status changes
to come in before deciding whether or not to suppress the alarm. This
Suppression Raise Delay has a default value of 5 seconds, but it can be
customized for your SCADA system if necessary.
If you have a fast communication system, the default value of 5 seconds may be
fine. If your poll cycle (time required to poll all RTUs) on any communication line
is longer than 5 seconds, then you need a longer Suppression Raise Delay.
Contact your system manager or technical support contact for assistance.
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Suppression
re-annunciation delay
STC EXPLORER 2.0
If the Suppression Re-annunciation Delay for your SCADA system is non-zero,
then after the Master point clears, any Slaves that do not also clear within this
time are re-annunciated.
This alarm re-annunciation consists of two things:
 The original Slave alarm, which was annunciated at priority zero (and preacknowledged), is left in the alarm file with its original timestamp. But it is now
updated to have the priority that it would have had were it not suppressed.
This alarm also becomes unacknowledged, if dictated by its updated priority
 A single momentary alarm is raised to indicate to the operators that some
previously suppressed alarms have been re-annunciated. A separate such
alarm is raised for each Master point that has one or more Slave alarms reannunciated. The form of this alarm is:
o mm/dd hh:mm:ss SLAVE ALARMS REANNUNCIATED FOR
NNNN,NNNNNN where NNNN,NNNNN is the point name of the
master point
Alarm types
The types of alarms that can be suppressed are the following:
 Analog limit violation alarms
 Analog rate of change alarms
 Status change alarms
Control and setpoint failure alarms are not suppressed.
Master alarm
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The severity of the Master alarm does not affect alarm suppression. Even a
severity zero master alarm can be configured to suppress Slave alarms. But in the
case of analog master points, the type of alarm does affect suppression.
Pre-emergency alarms do not cause alarm suppression, only emergency alarms
or reasonability alarms do.
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3.4
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Storm Alarm Suppression
This section describes an alternate type of alarm suppression.
Storm alarm suppression is a type of alarm suppression that does not involve
master/slave relationships. The purpose is to allow the operators to suppress all
point-related alarms of certain priorities.
Note: The Master/Slave alarms option is a prerequisite for storm alarm
suppression. If this is not enabled, the WorldView menu items discussed below
are dimmed.
Storm alarm
suppression in
WorldView
In the Alarm menu of the WorldView alarm viewer, there are menu items that
allow you to suppress alarms of any priority.
Figure 5 – Storm Alarm Suppression Drop Down Menu
These menu items have a toggle action: selecting once suppresses, selecting a
second time un-suppresses. The presence of a check mark beside any of these
menu items indicates that the corresponding alarm priority is currently
suppressed.
The priorities that are currently suppressed are also shown in the column
heading labeled ALARM. In the example above, priorities 0, 1 and 2 are
suppressed.
Priority suppression
flags
There are also priority suppression flags visible in the Alarm Priorities editing
dialog. These boxes appear ticked when the priority is suppressed, and unticked when the priority is not suppressed. Clicking on any of these targets
causes the corresponding priority suppression status to be toggled.
When you use WorldView to suppress the alarms, any alarms that are already
present when you start suppression are unaffected.
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Operation of storm
suppression
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Storm Alarm Suppression involves hiding the suppressed alarms from all
displays. The alarms are still submitted to the alarm file, however, and can be
viewed as soon as the suppression is removed. You don’t have to acknowledge
these alarms; they appear already acknowledged when you remove the
suppression.
Alarms that are suppressed by Storm Alarm Suppression are also not printed,
but they are included in the operations message file. This means that they can
be reviewed in the operator's summary (oprsum) display, and reported if desired
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4
External Bell
4.1
About this chapter
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Introduction
This chapter describes the operation of the external alarm bell handling
program, and how to configure it.
Note: The External Bell software is not licensed in the base SCADA system.
This feature requires an additional software option license.
External alarm bell
handler
The external alarm bell handler is a program that drives a number of external
alarm devices. You can define the number of external alarms, and which zones
they are in. You can also decide which alarm priorities each bell operates for.
If you do not choose to configure any external alarm bells, audible alarms are
still sounded at each workstation by the WorldView operator interface. Refer to
your WorldView documentation for a description of this standard capability of
the base SCADA system.
Figure 6 – Bell Selection Window
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
Selecting Bells (located under the Alarms branch in the left pane of STC
Explorer) shows a list of existing external alarm bell definitions. Choosing one of
these to be edited, or selecting New, brings up the “Edit Bell” or “New Bell”
dialog, as shown below.
Figure 7 – Bell Dialog Box
Define an external
bell
For an external bell to function, it requires certain hardware. You need an audible
or visible annunciation device of some kind, and some means of connecting it to
the SCADA system. Usually this takes the form of a small RTU connected via a
simple communication line. The communication line, RTU, and the points
mentioned later in this chapter all need to be created in the database in the usual
way, before you can define the external bell.
You may create as many external bells as you need in your SCADA system.
Each bell operates according to the definition you give it. Workstation audible
alarms (in the form of Windows sounds) are also played, even if no external bells
are defined.
External Bell Data Field Descriptions
The definition of an external bell is described in the table below.
Field
Name
Description
You must assign a name to each external bell you define.
The system automatically assigns an ID number for internal
purposes. Although you may change the name at any time,
you cannot change its ID number.
Description
You should provide a description for each external bell,
which will help you remember its function. The description
only appears in the STC Explorer window
Select the zone group this bell will operate in. The bell will
sound only for alarms that are in this group, or in any other
group that has at least one zone in common with this one.
Zone Group
For more information on zones and zone groups, see the
chapter on this subject in DB-401, Point Database Editing
Guide.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
External Bell Data Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Control Point
The external bell is operated by means of an RTU, usually
one connected locally. It operates the actual bell or other
audible device using a control command. There must be a
status point in the SCADA database that represents this
output.
Using the point browser (the button marked “…”), select the
point in the database that is used to control this bell. The
external bell handler program issues a:


CLOSE (1) control to turn a bell on
OPEN (0) control to turn a bell off
If you do not define a control point, then no controls are
produced for this bell definition (and the bell does not
sound).
Silence Point
This is a status point which, when set (i.e., its value is set to
a 1), causes the bell program to silence this external bell
(and then reset the silence status point to 0). You must
create this point in the database if you want to use this
feature.
This point is typically a telemetered point wired to a
pushbutton in the vicinity of the external bell (so that people
don’t have to come to the control room to silence it). Since
a normally open contact would typically be used for this
button, it is possible to have several of them wired in
parallel to service several locations.
Disable Point
If you do not specify a silence point, it will not be possible to
have an external pushbutton to silence this bell.
This is an optional status point that you can manually set to
enable or disable this external bell:
 1 = disable the external bell
 0 = enable the external bell
Priorities
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Of course, this could be a telemetered point if it was
necessary to disable the external bell from a remote
location, from a switch wired into a local RTU.
This is a list of the ten defined alarm priorities Select one
or more of them to have this external bell sound for alarms
of the desired priority. If you do not select any, this external
bell will not sound.
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Operation of the
external bell
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Once you have defined the bell, the SCADA system will attempt to send control
commands to the designated point to operate the bell. A Close command is sent
to turn on the bell in response to alarms of the indicated priorities, if the points are
in a corresponding zone group. An Open command is sent to turn off the bell,
when the alarms are silenced or acknowledged.
Note: The correct operation of the bell requires the communication line, RTU, and
its related hardware to function properly.
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5
Remote Alarm Annunciation
5.1
About this chapter
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Introduction
This chapter describes the Remote Alarm Annunciation facility.
Note: Remote Alarm Annunciation is not licensed in the base SCADA system. It
requires an additional software option license.
The Remote Alarm Annunciation subsystem is designed to forward specified
alarm messages to operators or other responsible personnel who are away
from the control room. The remote alarm annunciation system can use any
combination of the following messaging mechanisms:
 It can call a central paging computer and submit a digital alphanumeric page
request
 It can send e-mail, via your e-mail server
 It can send a “trap” message to a compatible network management station
 It can make a voice announcement, using your PA system, radio, or a
telephone dialer
 It can send a text message to your cellular telephone
Communication
protocols
In each case there is communication between the SCADA Master and another
device, using the appropriate communication protocol:
 Paging uses the Telelocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP)
 E-mail relies on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
 Traps are sent using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
 Text messages are sent using the Short Message Service (SMS) provided
by your cellular company
 Voice messages are sent as plain text to an external speech synthesis
device
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Annunciation
messages
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Using STC Explorer, you can assign annunciation messages to any point-related
sustained alarm (e.g. analog limit violation or status alarm value). You can also
assign an annunciation message to the return to normal. Annunciation messages
are defined as text strings in the Remote Alarms table, found under the Remote
Annunciation branch in STC Explorer.
Figure 8 – Remote Alarms Window
Annunciation service
Specifying the personnel who receive the annunciations begins with one or more
Annunciation Services. Each such service defines a single method for reaching
your recipients, such as a paging system’s central computer, or an e-mail server.
Define recipients
Under each Annunciation Service, you must define the individual recipients. Each
of these usually represents a single pager, cellular phone, or e-mail address to
which annunciations are sent. If you are using SNMP traps, a recipient represents
a management station and SNMP community name that receives the trap
messages. In the case of the Voice type, specify only a single recipient to
represent the speech synthesis device itself. For the Phone type (which also used
the voice synthesizer), you may specify a number of recipients, each with its own
phone number.
Annunciation table
Also in the Alarms branch, you will find the Annunciations table. This allows you
to specify which alarm severities will be routed to particular Annunciation
Services, and at what times the remote annunciation system will be active.
Think of each place where you list an annunciation service against a particular
alarm priority you wish to send messages for as an individual “Annunciation”.
When an alarm (with an Alarm Voice specified) occurs, each Annunciation will be
processed, in order from highest priority to lowest. Within each alarm priority, the
individual annunciations will be processed in the order you have listed them in the
Annunciations table.
This causes the messages to be sent using each annunciation service, to each
recipient attached to that service. The services will each utilize their specific
messaging method; either alphanumeric paging, e mail, SNMP “trap”, SMS text
message or speech synthesis.
Each service can further filter the messages to be sent to individual recipients
according to the particular alarm. This can include the point’s zone group and the
alarm voice’s group.
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5.2
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Remote Alarms
About this section
This section describes how to define the text of an annunciation message for
remote alarms.
Define a remote alarm
A remote alarm defines the text of an annunciation message. The data entry
fields of the editor are described below.
Figure 9 – Remote Alarms Dialog Box
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
Remote Alarm Dialog Box Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields in the Remote Alarm dialog box.
Field
Name
Description
Enter a name for your remote alarm, which you will use to
select this from a list (when you are editing the points that
will use it). The ID is assigned automatically by the system,
and cannot be changed.
This is a description you may enter to more clearly identify
this voice. It is only visible in STC Explorer.
Description
Group
Membership
This drop-down list allows you to optionally organize your
remote alarms into “groups” that you define for yourself.
These groups can be used to control which recipients
receive a particular annunciation.
If you have created one or more groups, and you want this
remote alarm to be sent only to recipients who are
“listening” for voices in a particular group, select that group
name from the drop-down list. Otherwise, select <All> to
allow this voice to be used to send annunciations to all
recipients.
Represents the text the message will use when being sent
to pagers, e-mail addresses, SNMP trap receivers, or cell
phones (via text messaging).
Text Format
Speech Format
Formats
String is used only by speech-synthesis annunciation
services, i.e., only services of the Voice Messenger and
Phone types.
In both of the above strings, the message format consists
of any desired text, plus embedded control codes that
indicate where you want SCADA data to be inserted. In the
Voice string, you can make adjustments to improve the
pronunciation of the speech synthesis device, such as
spelling changes, and inserting spaces between letters that
you need to have spelled out (rather than pronounced as a
word).
Note: The Voice Messenger device has built-in logic to
handle many common cases correctly, such as time, date,
and many acronyms.
In the case of control code &A, the text excludes the timestamp.
Control code &C applies to sustained alarms only.
In the case of the Voice string, you can also insert any special characters that
can be used to modify the operation of the speech synthesizer (see the
documentation for the speech synthesis device).
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Remote alarm
example
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Alarm Voice Example
For example, if you have a point named STN1,BRKR06 with a description string:

FEEDER 6 PRIMARY BREAKER
and a remote alarm used for state 0 that includes the following text:

&S &D TRIPPED AT &T
When the breaker trips you will see an alarm on the SCADA system, which is
formatted by your choice of Alarm Format (see chapter 1).
It might look like this:

09/22 10:35:23 STN1,BRKR06 FEEDER 6 PRIMARY
BREAKER TRIP
But because of the Remote Alarm, the following would be sent by the alarm
annunciator:
STN1 FEEDER 6 PRIMARY BREAKER TRIPPED AT 10:35
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5.3
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Remote Alarm Groups
About this section
This section describes how to create a new remote alarm group. In addition to
zone groups and the alarm priorities, Remote Alarm Groups provide a way to
limit remote annunciations so that particular alarms are only annunciated to
specific recipients. See Group Fillers in section 5.6.
Remote alarm group
dialog box
The table of Remote Alarm Groups is located under the Remote Annunciation
branch of STC Explorer as displayed in figure 8.
To create a group, right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New. The
Remote Alarm Group displays allowing you to create the group by giving it a
name, and optionally a short description.
Figure 10 – Remote Alarm Group Dialog Box
The group you create can be used in Recipients and in Remote Alarms to
control who sees certain annunciations.
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5.4
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Annunciations
About this section
This section describes how to specify some general characteristics of the
Remote Annunciation System.
Annunciation enabled
Remote annunciations are not performed unless the Annunciation Enabled box
is checked in the Annunciation Properties dialog box. This action turns the entire
Remote Annunciation system on or off in one step
Figure 11 – Annunciation Properties Dialog Box
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
Annunciation Properties Dialog Box Field Descriptions
The following table describes the Annunciation Properties fields in the dialog
box.
Field
Annunciation
Delay, sec, min
Description
This is a time delay, in seconds, which the annunciator
program is to wait before sending a message to anyone
when a new alarm occurs. This gives the local
operators, if any are present, a chance to acknowledge
the alarm before anyone outside of the control room is
bothered.
Carefully choosing this delay might make it possible for
you to leave Remote Annunciation enabled all the time.
Whenever the SCADA operator is present, and able to
handle the alarms within this time delay, no
annunciations are made. But if the operator is not
available to acknowledge the alarm in time, it is
annunciated to the personnel you have determined.
Re-annunciation
Interval, min
This is the time interval, in minutes, following remote
annunciation of alarms, after which the annunciator
program is to re-transmit any alarms that are still
unacknowledged.
Annunciation Timing Example
Suppose the Annunciation Delay is 120 seconds and
the Re-Annunciation Interval is 30 minutes. Then when
an alarm of a particular priority occurs (and if it has a
Remote Alarm defined), the annunciator program first
waits 2 minutes to give any people in the control room a
chance to handle the alarm. If the alarm is still
unacknowledged at the end of the 2 minutes, the
program begins sending messages. It works through the
recipient list of each annunciation service that is
specified to handle alarms of this priority.
Once all messages are sent, the annunciator starts the
re-annunciation timer. If the alarm is still
unacknowledged when this time expires, the
annunciator starts sending the messages again.
Schedule
Select the name of the schedule to use for the
Annunciation System. This schedule determines the
time periods during which remote annunciations are
made. Outside of this time, annunciations are not
made.
Schedules allow you to set up the Remote Annunciation
system to automatically be active during times when
nobody is in the control room.
Note: There is only one schedule controlling the entire
Remote Annunciation System, but individual recipients
can have their own schedules. See section 5.6.
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Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Test Voice
Leave this set to None; it is not presently used by the
Remote Annunciation System.
Enable/Disable
You may optionally specify a status point that will control
status point
remote annunciation: whenever its value is 1, remote
alarm annunciation is disabled.
You may use a non-telemetered point, if you want to
allow a command sequence or calculation to inhibit
annunciation, or if the operator will set it manually. If you
provide a switch wired into a local RTU, you can use a
telemetered point to easily disable remote alarm
annunciation when you walk into the control room, and
re-enable it when you leave (simply by operating the
switch).
Note that this switch point only serves to disable remote
alarm annunciation if it would otherwise be enabled. It
does not, by being in state 0, enable remote alarm
annunciation if it would otherwise be disabled (e.g.,
scheduled to be off).
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5.5
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Annunciation Service
This section describes how to create an annunciation service.
You must create at least one Annunciation Service in order to make use of the
remote annunciation feature. An annunciation service represents a computer
system or device that your messages are sent to. Each service has a list of one
or more recipients attached to it; typically, the annunciation service is
responsible for forwarding the message to these recipients. Each such
annunciation service can be used to annunciate alarms of one or more priorities.
Annunciation service
dialog box
Under some circumstances you can create more than one annunciation service
that uses the same paging system or e-mail server. For example, all alarms of
one priority can be e-mailed to a different list of recipients than the alarms of
another priority, even though the same mail server would be used in both cases.
This is easily done by creating two annunciation services with the same server
information, each with its own list of recipients and its own priority selections.
Annunciation Services is located under the Remote Annunciations branch. To
access the Annunciation Service dialog box right-click on the right pane window
and select Edit or New from the drop down menu. The following dialog box
displays.
Figure 12 – Annunciation Service Dialog Box
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Annunciation Service Dialog Box Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields on the General Tab of the Annunciation
Service dialog box.
Field
Name
Description
Enabled
Type
Description
Give the service a name that makes it easy to identify when you
are editing your Annunciations. The ID number is assigned by
the system automatically.
Add a description to clarify its purpose.
This box must be checked if this service is to be used by the
system. If you want to define a service, but not to use it for
annunciations at the present time, clear this checkbox.
This drop down menu provides a set of tabbed pages
corresponding to the service types available. They are:
 Pager
 Email
 Traps
 Voice
 SMS
 Phone
See the following section for more information.
Annunciation
service types
A different tab displays on the Annunciation Service page depending on the Type
selected. Each tab contains the fields which define the characteristics of an
annunciation service of that type. Typically this consists of the information required
to establish a connection to the annunciation service.
Pager
This page contains the items that define a connection to your paging company’s
central computer. This uses a dial-up modem connection, and the Telelocator
Alphanumeric Protocol, TAP. It is used to send annunciations by alphanumeric
pager.
Figure 13 – Annunciation Service Pager Tab
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Annunciation
service types
continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Pager Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the Pager tab.
Field
Initialization
Phone #
Retries
Password
Answer
Delay, sec
Connection
Switch Point
Description
If the modem you use to connect to the paging central computer
requires setup or initialization commands, enter them here.
Include one complete command string, including any prefix
characters (such as “AT”).
Note: If the modem’s configuration can be programmed into its
non-volatile memory, it is usually better to do so, rather than
require a complex initialization string.
Enter the phone number of the paging central computer that you
will dial into to send pages. Enter the digits exactly as they must
be dialed. Do not include modem command characters or
punctuation, such as “AT” or “–“. The appropriate dialing
command will be generated for you.
Enter the maximum number of times the call should be tried, if
the paging computer does not connect. After this, the system will
consider this annunciation attempt to have failed, and will raise
an alarm. The default value of 3 will help cope with busy phone
lines or other transient connection difficulties.
Leave this blank unless your paging company requires a
password for this connection.
Enter the number of seconds the system should wait, after
dialing, to establish the connection to the paging central
computer. If this time runs out, the modem will be hung up, and
the call will be tried again.
Select one of these two types of communication ports. Choose
TCP/IP if the modem is connected to a port on a device that is
connected via the network, such as a terminal server. Choose
comm if the modem is connected to a serial port on your
SCADA host computer.
If your system includes redundant connections to the speech
synthesizer, or redundant synthesizers, the annunciation
program can automatically switch between the two. Enter a
status point here, which will be used to indicate which port is
currently in use (0 = the primary port, 1 = the alternate port).
If you manually set this point’s value, it will force the program to
use only the port you select.
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Annunciation
service types
continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Pager Tab Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Primary
You must specify at least the Primary connection information If
Host/Port
you have selected TCP/IP communications. Enter the Host
Name or IP address of the device, and the port number that the
modem is connected to. Note that this port must be configured
(in the terminal server) to use the correct baud rate, parity and
number of data bits, as required by the central computer.
If you enter a name here, your network configuration on the
SCADA hosts must include some means to resolve the name
into an IP address, such as a HOSTS file, WINS lookup, etc.
If you have selected a comm connection enter the name of the
serial port.
Alternate
Host/Port
If you have redundant communications, and have specified a
Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should enter the
Host Name and Port for the alternate connection, as well.
If you have redundant communications, and have specified a
Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should enter the
Host Name and Port for the alternate connection, as well.
Email
These items define a service that will send your annunciations by e-mail, using
the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). You can control certain
characteristics of the email messages, and you must define how to connect to
your SMTP (outgoing) mail server, in order to send the messages.
Figure 14 – Annunciation Service Email Tab
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E-Mail Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the Email tab.
Field
Subject
Description
You may enter text that is to appear in the “Subject:” field of
all e-mail messages sent by this service. This information is
optional, although it may be required for correct operation of
your mail server or the recipient’s mail program.
From
Enter the e-mail address you would like to appear in the
“From:” field of the annunciation e-mail messages. Since the
SCADA system does not receive e-mail, it has no address of
its own. We recommend you use a valid address that can
receive any error reports that might be sent by your e-mail
server (or any replies your recipients might send). However,
SCADA does not impose any requirement for a valid From
address (although your mail server may).
HELO
Domain
Communication with your SMTP server begins with an
exchange of information called HELO (or EHLO if
Authenticatino is enabled), which can optionally include the
domain name your e-mail comes from (whether it is the
same as shown in the From address or not). Some mail
servers will only deliver mail if a valid domain is specified in
the HELO phase (and this domain may even need to agree
with the IP address the mail is actually coming from, in which
case you will need the help of your IT department to set up
the mail server and select the domain name to use here).
Unlike other types of Remote Annunciation servicing, if there
are multiple alarm annunciation messages for it to send, this
e-mail service will add the subsequent messages to the body
of the first e-mail message (one alarm message per line).
Alarms Per
Message
Host Name/IP
Port Number
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Enter a number here to limit the maximum number of alarms
that will be sent in one e-mail message. Additional e-mail
message(s) will be sent if required, to annunciate all the
alarms that are required.
Enter the IP address or name of the mail server that will be
used to send e-mail annunciations. This server must accept
SMTP connections from the SCADA host(s), and it must be
willing to relay mail to all of your recipients.
If you enter a name here, your network configuration on the
SCADA hosts must include some means to resolve the
name into an IP address, such as a HOSTS file, WINS
lookup, etc. In any case, the SCADA hosts must be able to
reach the mail server via your network, using routers,
gateways, etc., that you have configured.
SCADA will use port 25 to connect to the SMTP server by
default. If you require a different port, you may enter the
number in the Port Number field.
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E-Mail Tab Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
SMTP
Check this if your mail server requires you to use
Authentication authentication to send email. Then be sure to specify the
Enabled
user name and password. The authenticaitno method to use
will be negotiated with the mail server (only PLAIN or LOGIN
are supported).
User Name
A user name is required if authentication is selected.
Password
A password is required if authentication is selected.
Confirm
Enter the password again to ensure you have entered it
Password
correctly.
Retries
Enter the maximum number of times connection to the mail
server should be tried, if it does not succeed. After this, the
system will consider this annunciation attempt to have failed,
and will raise an alarm. The default value of 1 should be fine
in most cases.
Annunciation service
types continued
Traps
Select this tab if you want your annunciations to be made in the form of “trap”
messages using the Simple Network Management Protocol, SNMP. In this case,
these fields specify how the messages are sent, but not the destination they are
sent to.
Figure 15 – Annunciation Service Traps Tab
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Traps Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the Traps tab.
Field
Object ID
Description
All traps sent by this service are identified as coming from
the Object Identifier you enter here. Therefore this OID
means only “a SCADA Alarm”, and not a particular SCADA
point or event. This trap object’s value (i.e. which alarm it is)
is sent as an SNMP “octet stream” (a string of bytes) that
consists of the characters of the message, as dictated by the
specified Remote Alarm.
Enter an OID that the network Management Station (the one
that is receiving these traps) will know is a text message
from SCADA. You can use an existing OID that corresponds
to an octet stream that your Management Station processes,
or you can create a new OID for these alarm messages.
If your Management Station permits it, you can create a new
Management Information Base (MIB) extension where you
can define a new OID for your SCADA alarms. Usually, this
involves writing a text file to define the new OID(s), and
compiling it into a form the Management Station can
understand. It may only be necessary for the file to reference
an existing MIB file, and define the new object(s) in relation
to an existing branch of the MIB “tree”.
Object ID
continued
Note: Creating and using MIB files with the Management
Station is beyond the scope to this manual. The “tree” of
OIDs in use is subject to registration by ISO.
Enterprise
Specific Type
JANUARY 27, 2014
All traps from this annunciation service are sent as
“Enterprise Specific”, i.e., type 6. Enter a sub-type number in
this field to identify the trap as a SCADA remote alarm
annunciation message. The SNMP annunciation service
sends the traps as Object ID .1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.x, where x is
the sub-type you enter here.
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Annunciation service
types continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Voice
This type of annunciation service sends your message using the Speech format
defined in the Remote Alarm (instead of the text format) directly to an external
speech synthesizer. This device may be configured to speak your messages via
a radio or PA system, or it may have a pre-configured list of telephone numbers
to call in order to annunciate your message to off-site personnel.
This page in the Annunciation Service editor defines the connection to the
external device. Enter the information described in the sections that follow.
Figure 16 – Annunciation Service Voice Tab
Voice Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the Voice tab.
Field
Description
Initialization
If the speech synthesizer you use requires setup or
initialization commands, enter them here. Include one
complete command string, including any prefix characters
(such as “AT”).
Retries
TCP/IP COMM
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Note: If the device’s configuration can be stored in nonvolatile memory, it is usually better to do that, and leave
this field blank.
Enter the maximum number of times the connection to the
speech synthesizer should be tried if it does not connect.
After this number of tries, the system will consider this
annunciation attempt to have failed, and will raise an alarm.
The default value of three helps cope with transient
connection difficulties.
Select one of these two types of communication ports.
Choose TCP/IP if the speech synthesizer is connected to a
port on a device that is connected via the network, such as
a terminal server. Choose comm if it is connected to a
serial port on your SCADA host computer.
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Voice Tab Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Switch Point
If your system includes redundant connections to the
speech synthesizer, or redundant synthesizers, the
annunciation program can automatically switch between the
two. Enter a status point here, which will be used to indicate
which port is currently in use (0 = the primary port, 1 = the
alternate port).
Primary
Port/Host
Name
Alternate
Port/Host
Name
Baud Rate
Parity
Data Bits
JANUARY 27, 2014
If you manually set this point’s value, it will force the
program to use only the port you select.
If you have selected communication by Comm port, above,
then you must enter the name of the primary port (for
example, COM2). If you have selected TCP/IP enter the
host name or IP address for the primary connection,
If you have redundant communications, and have specified
a Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should
enter the information for the alternate port as well.
Select a baud rate to use in the configuration of the serial
port(s), if you are using Comm ports. This setting must be
compatible with your speech synthesizer’s configuration.
Select the parity to use in the configuration of the serial
port(s), if you are using Comm ports. This setting must be
compatible with your speech synthesizer’s configuration
Select the number of data bits to use in the configuration of
the serial port(s), if you are using Comm ports. This setting
must be compatible with your speech synthesizer’s
configuration
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Annunciation service
types continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
SMS
This page defines the connection to your cellular company’s network, using a
cellular modem. Annunciations are sent as “text messages” using the Short
Message Service (SMS), directly to the cellular telephone number you enter for
each recipient.
Figure 17 – Annunciation Service SMS Tab
The following modems have been tested and are supported:
 For "GSM" carriers, use the MultiTech MTCBA-G GSM modem, with a SIM
card provisioned by your carrier.
 For most "CDMA" carriers, use a pre-approved version of the MultiTech
MTCBA-C CDMA modem. Contact MultiTech for details regarding which
carriers have currently pre-approved configurations which may be provisioned
over the air.
 For those "CDMA" carriers without an approved CDMA modem (above), use
the MultiTech MTCMR-H HSPA modem. (This may also be used with some
"GSM" carriers). It requires a SIM card provisioned by your carrier.
In all cases the modem must be provisioned by the carrier, registered on their
network, with a service plan that supports the quantity of text messages you
expect to use.
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SMS Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the SMS tab.
Field
Initialization
Description
Typical setup of the GSM modem is done automatically by
the program, but if you find that a special piece of
initialization is needed by your modem, you can enter the
string here. It is sent to the modem after all the standard
configuration commands have been sent.
You may include one complete command string, including
any prefix characters (such as “AT”).
Modem Type
Note: If the modem’s configuration can be stored in nonvolatile memory, it is usually better to do that, rather than
insert a complex initialization string here.
Select the type of SMS modem from the list of options:
 Detect
This should be used only with the original MTCBA
modems (-C or -G). It will automatically select CDMA or
GSM depending on which modem is connected. It should
not be used with MTCMR modems. Manually selecting one
of the choices below is preferred.
 GSM
Suitable for modems compatible with MTCBA-G or
MTCMR-H, when used on GSM networks
 CDMA
Suitable for MTCBA-C only. Used on CDMA networks
 HSPA on CDMA
Must be used for modems compatible with MTCMR-H4,
when used on CDMA networks (only)
 HSPA
Suitable for modems compatible with MTCMR-H5 (on
either GSM or CDMA networks). May also be used for
MTCMR-H4, when used on GSM networks (only)
Retries
Answer
Delay, sec
Allow Alarm
Ack
JANUARY 27, 2014
Enter the maximum number of times the text message
should be attempted, if the network does not confirm
transmission. After this, the system considers this
annunciation attempt to have failed, and raises an alarm.
The default value of 1 is fine for most situations
Enter the number of seconds the system should wait after
submitting a text message, for confirmation that it has been
accepted by the network. If this time runs out, the modem is
disconnected, and the SMS message tries again.
Select this option if you want the recipients on this service to
be permitted to acknowledge alarms remotely.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
SMS Tab Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
TCP/IP
Select one of these two types of communication ports.
COMM
Choose TCP/IP if the modem is connected to a port on a
device that is connected via the network, such as a terminal
server. Choose COMM if the modem is connected to a local
serial port on your SCADA host computer.
Switch Point
If your system includes redundant connections to the GSM
modem, or redundant modems, the annunciation program
can automatically switch between the two.
Primary Host
Name and
Port number
Enter a status point here, that is used to indicate which port
is currently in use (0 = the primary port, 1 = the alternate
port).
If you have selected TCP/IP communications, you must
specify at least the Primary connection information. Enter the
Host Name or IP address of the device, and the port number
that the modem is connected to.
Note: This port must be configured (in the terminal server) to
use the correct baud rate, parity and number of data bits, as
required by the GSM modem.
Alternate Host
Name and
Port number
Annunciation service
types continued
If you enter a name here, your network configuration on the
SCADA hosts must include some means to resolve the
name into an IP address, such as a HOSTS file, WINS
lookup, DNS, etc.
If you have redundant communications, and have specified a
Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should enter
the Host Name and Port for the alternate connection, as well.
Phone
The Type Phone uses the same external speech devices that are used by the
Voice annunciation type. However, this does not require a list of phone numbers
to be programmed into the 3010 and it allows more than a single recipient to be
defined in the SCADA database. Each SCADA Recipient record represents one
of the people being called, and therefore must contain its own phone number (in
the Address field).
When an alarm is to be annunciated, the Phone annunciation type builds the list
of recipients from a group of users that:
 are Enabled
 have a Zone match
 are within their scheduled time
 are configured for the specified voice code group, if any
Once the first four recipients are collected it stops building the list. These
recipient phone numbers are then automatically programmed into the device.
Then it is placed on-line, and the text of the message is sent. The device then
manages the placing of phone calls according to its internal logic. This includes
(re)calling the numbers until somebody agrees to hear the message, even after
the SCADA alarm has been acknowledged.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
This entire process is repeated for each new alarm. The following list provides
recommendations you should follow to ensure the feature works correctly:

Only have a maximum of 4 recipients who will be receiving messages at
any given time (as determined by schedule, or by the Enable flags, for
example)

All four recipients should have the same zone and voice code groups,
in order to avoid a situation where one alarm would select particular
recipients, but the next alarm would select different ones (which could
result in re-programming the device’s number list while it was still
making the previous calls)
Since the device manages calling and re-calling on its own timetable, avoid
setting a re-annunciation interval in SCADA, which could lead to the same
message being sent to the 3010 more than once. Always use alarm voices that
include the timestamp of the alarm, so that the spoken messages will always
contain the time and date, to avoid confusion.
Figure 18 – Annunciation Service Phone Tab
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Phone Tab Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields found on the Phone tab.
Field
Initialization
Description
If the speech synthesizer you use requires setup or
initialization commands, enter them here. Include one
complete command string, including any prefix characters
(such as “AT”).
Note: If the device’s configuration can be stored in nonvolatile memory, it is usually better to do that, and leave this
field blank.
Retries
Enter the maximum number of times the text message
should be attempted, if the network does not confirm
transmission. After this, the system considers this
annunciation attempt to have failed, and raises an alarm.
The default value of 1 is fine for most situations
Select one of these two types of communication ports.
Choose TCP/IP if the modem is connected to a port on a
device that is connected via the network, such as a terminal
server. Choose COMM if the modem is connected to a local
serial port on your SCADA host computer.
If your system includes redundant connections to the
modem, or redundant modems, the annunciation program
can automatically switch between the two.
TCP/IP
COMM
Switch Point
Primary Host
Name and
Port number
Enter a status point here, that is used to indicate which port
is currently in use (0 = the primary port, 1 = the alternate
port).
If you have selected TCP/IP communications, you must
specify at least the Primary connection information. Enter the
Host Name or IP address of the device, and the port number
that the modem is connected to.
Note: This port must be configured (in the terminal server) to
use the correct baud rate, parity and number of data bits, as
required by the GSM modem.
If you enter a name here, your network configuration on the
SCADA hosts must include some means to resolve the
name into an IP address, such as a HOSTS file, WINS
lookup, DNS, etc.
If you have redundant communications, and have specified a
Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should enter
the Host Name and Port for the alternate connection, as well.
Alternate Host
Name and
Port number
JANUARY 27, 2014
If you have redundant communications, and have specified a
Port Switch point as discussed above, then you should enter
the Host Name and Port for the alternate connection, as well.
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5.6
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Recipient
This section describes how to create recipients for an annunciation service.
For each annunciation service, you should create one or more recipients that
can be reached by that service. Typically, each recipient has an identifying
address that receives a message if the service they belong to is annunciating an
alarm.
Services and
recipients table
The following table lists the address information needed for recipients on each
type of Remote Annunciation service, and seeks to clarify the differences
between the types of Remote Annunciation services.
Service
Type
Pager
Protocol
TAP
Annunciations
To
Paging Company
E-mail
SMTP
Mail Server
Trap
SNMP
Voice
SEL-3010
Text
SMS
Net. Monitor
Station
Voice Messenger
Device
Cellular Company
Phone
SEL-3010
Voice Messenger
Device
Connected by
Serial, to dialup
modem
TCP network
TCP network
Serial, direct
Serial, to
cellular modem
Serial, direct
The Service
represents
Paging company.
connection
Mail Server
connection
Sending OID &
Type
Voice device
connection
Cellular Network
Voice device
connection
The Recipient
represents
Each individual’s
Pager
Each individual’s
e-mail
Each network
mgmt station
The single voice
synthesis device
Each individual’s
cell phone
Each individual’s
phone
In the case of a Voice Messenger service, only one recipient is required (or
allowed). It represents the speech synthesis device itself. It does not require any
ID, but you may insert something if you like (it will appear in ScanMon logging,
for example. For an SNMP Trap service, there also will often be only one
recipient defined.
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Creating recipients
STC EXPLORER 2.0
The following procedure describes how to create or edit your recipients.
Step
1
2
3
Procedure
Open the Annunciation Service tree in the left hand side of the STC
Explorer.
From the list of annunciation services that appears, select the desired
service.
Result: The right hand pane displays the list of recipients for that
service.
Right-click on any of these to edit it.
Result: The following Recipient dialog box displays.
Note: You can more precisely control which messages are sent to each
recipient using two features discussed later:
 the Zone Group
 the Voice Group filter
Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields that define a recipient.
Field
Name
Description
The name should identify the person or device that will be receiving
these messages. For pager and e-mail recipients (and the single
Voice Messenger recipient), you may use any name you like.
For SNMP recipients (i.e., management stations), the name you
choose will be the SNMP “community name” that the annunciations
will be sent with. Therefore you must choose a name your
management station will accept as the desired SNMP community.
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Recipient Dialog Box Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Enabled
Select this check box if this recipient is to receive any
annunciations, otherwise this recipient will be skipped. This
is an easy way to remove a recipient temporarily, such as
during vacation periods.
Description
Enter a description to clearly identify this recipient, or to
provide additional information about it.
Address
Enter the unique identification of this recipient, depending on
the kind of annunciation service in use:
 For e-mail recipients, this must be the e-mail address to
which the annunciation will be sent. It can be more than
one address if needed, separated by semicolons.
 For pager recipients, this is the pager ID that will receive
the page. This is usually different from the telephone
number that you would dial to page the device. Contact
your paging service provider for more information.
 For SNMP trap recipients, this is the host name (or actual
IP address) of the management station that is to receive
the traps. The SNMP traps will typically be sent to the
default port for SNMP, 162. To specify an alternate port,
you may append it to the address, separated by only a
colon (e.g, nms.example.com:2000)
 For SMS text message recipients, this must be the cellular
phone number the messages will be sent to. Do not
include any punctuation (spaces, hyphens, etc) in the
number. The preferred format will depend on the
requirements of your cellular provider, but usually the full
international version is recommended (e.g.,
19058265000). If you are going to use the Remote
Acknowledgment feature then this must exactly match the
cellular number transmitted by the device when it sends its
reply. For North America, this will usually include a “1”
before the telephone number depending on your cellular
provider. (The leading “+” symbol is optional.)
Service
Zone Group
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 For Voice unnunciations, no Address is required.
Destination telephone numbers (if any) are programmed
into the voice synthesis device externally.
Select the Annunciation Service that this Recipient will
belong to, from the drop-down list of services you have
created. This will determine which annunciations will be sent
to this recipient. All recipients in a given service will receive
the same annunciations, except as determined by your
choices in Zone Group, Voice Group Filters and Enabled
settings.
Select the zone group this recipient will belong to. Only
alarms in a zone group that has at least one zone in
common with this recipient’s group will be sent to this
recipient. This does not affect the alarms to be sent to other
members of the same Annunciation Service.
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Recipient Dialog Box Field Descriptions continued
Field
Description
Schedule
In addition to the schedule that controls the Remote
Annunciation feature you might add a separate schedule for
each recipient, which you can create with one or more
schedule ranges, in the same way. This recipient’s schedule
is optional, but if you specify one, the recipient will only
receive annunciations during the hours you have chosen.
Ack Password This field only applies when the Remote Acknowledgement
feature is being used. It specifies a password that the
recipient must use when acknowledging an alarm. If this
recipient is not allowed to acknowledge alarms remotely,
leave this field blank.
The password may be any combination of letters and
numbers, with no “white space” or punctuation characters
included. It is case-sensitive.
Group Filters
The password is not displayed to you. If you have any doubt
about the current password, simply enter a new one, and
press OK.
Each recipient may have one or more optional Voice Groups
specified. If all filters are set to <None> then the recipient will
receive all annunciation messages (subject to the Zone
Group and Enabled settings you make).
If you want only certain annunciations to be directed to this
recipient, ensure that those alarms are configured to use an
Alarm Voice that you have placed in an Alarm Voice Group
that you created for this purpose. Then, select that group
using one of the drop-down lists provided here. Recients
without a matching group will not receive that alarm
annunciation.
Note: Each recipient can receive annunciation from up to 3
groups of alarm voices (or all annunciations, if all 3 filters are
set to <None>).
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Example recipients
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Carefully designing your Annunciations, Services, and Recipients will let you
ensure the right alarms are seen by the right personnel, at the right time.
The following section provides examples of how to fill in the fields on the
Recipient dialog box.
TAP Pager Recipient
The figure below shows a pager recipient; notice that a pager ID has been
entered. This recipient is connected to a pager service that defines the
connection to the paging company’s central computer.
E-Mail Recipient
Notice that it is connected to an e-mail service (an SMTP server), and includes
an e-mail address.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
SNMP Trap Recipient
For an SNMP management station, the figure below shows an example of the
Recipient configuration. It is connected to an SNMP annunciation service, and
designates the management station’s “host name” as the Address. In addition,
the SNMP community name (SCADA, in the example) is listed as the recipient
name.
Note: If you enter a name rather than an IP address, the SCADA host must
have a means to translate the name into its corresponding IP address (such as
WINS, DNS or a HOSTS file).
Voice Recipient
For a Voice Messenger service, the single recipient requires no Address.
All messages will be sent to the device using the connection information defined
in the annunciation service, as described on page 49, subject only to the Zone
Group, Group Filters, Schedule and the Enabled flag.
If the device has any telephone numbers programmed into it, it will make the
required phone calls.Otherise it will simply speak the annunciation message
directly.
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Phone Recipient
By contrast, a recipient for an annunciation service of type Phone is shown
below. This recipient is connected to a service that represents the voice
messenger device, but does not rely on phone numbers programmed into the
device. Instead, the recipient’s phone number must appear in the Address field.
SMS Recipient
The figure below shows an example of a recipient for an SMS text messaging
service. The Address contains the cellular phone number that text messages will
be sent to.
You can create a duplicate recipient under more than one service if that person
needs to receive the annunciations destined for both services. For example, a
certain individual may need to receive the annunciations of high-priority alarms,
as well as the annunciations of low-priority alarms (where you have created
different services for the two groups concerned with these alarms). Or you may
want a person to receive annunciations both by e-mail and by pager.
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5.7
About this section
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Schedules
This section describes how to create schedules.
The remote annunciation system is activated on a schedule. The system is
active whenever the schedule indicates it should be On, provided it is Enabled
and the Disable status point is not set to a 1.
Schedule dialog box
A schedule is simply a collection of time periods called ranges and is located in
the Systems branch in STC Explorer.
Adding a schedule
The following procedure describes how to add a Schedule.
Step
1
2
3
Right-click in the right side window.
Result: A drop down list displays.
4
Select New.
Result: The Schedule dialog box displays.
5
Add a name and description for the Schedule.
6
7
8
9
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Procedure
Open the System tree in the left hand side of the STC Explorer.
Select Schedules.
Result: The right side window displays the list of Schedules.
Right-click under Ranges and click on New.
Result: A line is added in the Ranges window.
Click on the Type field
Result: A drop down menu displays allowing you to select a type.
Double-click in the From and To fields to select the hours, minutes
and seconds.
Click OK.
Result: The schedule is saved, the dialog box closes and the
schedule name displays in the right window.
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Field Descriptions
The following table describes the fields that define a schedule.
Field
Name
Description
The name identifies the schedule.
Description
The description clarifies the purpose of the schedule.
The ranges indicate the time ranges for the schedule. You
need to have at least one, however you can add as many as
you want.
Select from the list of available types of time ranges, such as
daily, weekly, etc.
Ranges
Type
Scheduling example
From/To
Specify the start and end times of this time range, which will
occur each day that matches the Type you have chosen,
above. If both time ranges are zero it means “all day” (it does
not mean “never”).
State
Choose On. No other state is meaningful to Remote
Annunciation.
Consider a typical Remote Annunciation scenario, where you would like alarm
annunciations to be performed outside of normal business hours. Assume that
this means you need them between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays and all day
on the weekends.
You need a Schedule range like this:
Range 1 - Weekdays
Type
Every Weekday
From
17:00
To
07:00
In any schedule range, all the conditions in the Range must be true for the
range to be “active”. In this case, the system evaluates:
 Is the range status marked "ON"?
 Is today a weekday?
 Is it between 17:00 and 7:00
If ALL of the answers are "YES", consider this schedule to be “on”.
If used by Remote Annunciations, this schedl range by itself would not cause
paging between midnight Friday night and 7:00 a.m. Saturday, because that is
not a weekday. It does allow paging in the wee hours of Monday (00:00 to
07:00) however.
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Scheduling example
continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
To complete the example, you will also need a range like this:
Range 2 - Weekends
Type
Every Weekend
From
00:00
To
00:00
This is needed to cause paging all weekend. If the From and the To times are
both zero like this, the paging system assumes that you mean “All Day”. You
could try to use 00:00 and 23:59 to be clearer, but that would leave a oneminute “hole”. Not a big problem, but not quite right.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
5.8 Operational Overview of Remote
Annunciation
About this section
This section provides an overview of the remote annunciation feature.
Annunciator program
When a new alarm occurs and the alarm has Remote Alarm associated with it,
the annunciator program first checks to see if annunciations are enabled. If so, it
then executes the alarm annunciation delay specified in the Annunciations table.
This is to give the operators in the control room a chance to acknowledge the
alarm. It also means that several alarms that occur at nearly the same time may
be handled in a single pass. If an operator acknowledges before this delay
expires, the annunciator program does not contact anyone.
Annunciation delay
If the annunciation delay expires and alarms are still unacknowledged, the
program examines the list of annunciations for the priority of the highest-priority
alarm.
For each one that it finds, the program checks that service is configured for it
and that is has an active schedule. If so, it connects using the designated port
and the appropriate communication protocol. Alarms of that priority are then
sent to the recipients as described below.
This is repeated for each annunciation service that is handling the current alarm
priority. It is then repeated for each of the other alarm priorities that may be
configured, working from highest to lowest.
Annunciation service
types
Each annunciation processes the alarms according to its type.
Paging Service
If the service is defined as a paging service:
 The annunciator program connects to a modem via a serial port. It uses the
modem to place a call to the central paging computer. It logs in to the
computer using the TAP protocol.
 For each alarm of the specified priority that has a Remote Alarm and is
unacknowledged the program submits a page request to each enabled
recipient that has a corresponding zone group specified. If any group filters
are specified, messages using Remote Alarms that do not match one of these
groups are omitted.
 If multiple alarms are to be sent, all the required pages at this priority are sent
to all the corresponding recipients (pager IDs) before the modem is
disconnected from the paging computer.
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Annunciation service
types continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
E-Mail Service
If the service is defined as an e-mail service:
 For each enabled recipient, the annunciator program connects to the specified
e-mail server, using the SMTP protocol
 For each recipient, an email message is composed containing all
unacknowledged alarms of the specified priority that have a Remote Alarm
code and a corresponding zone group. If there are more alarms for one
recipient than the specified number, multiple e-mail messages will be sent. If
any group filters are specified, messages using remote alarms that do not
match one of these groups are skipped
 Each e-mail message to be sent by this annunciation (whether it contains one
or many alarm annunciations) involves a separate connection session to the
mail server
SNMP Service
If the service is defined as an SNMP service:
 No specific connection needs to be established
 For each unacknowledged alarm of the specified priority that has a Remote
Alarm the program generates a “trap” message (using the SNMP protocol) for
each recipient that has a corresponding zone group. The message is directed
to the recipient’s specified host name or IP address, and contains the
specified SNMP community name. If any group filters are specified, messages
using Remote Alarms that do not match one of these groups are skipped
 If multiple alarms are being sent by this service, each results in a separate
trap message being sent
Voice Service
If the service is defined as a Voice service:
 The program connects to the speech synthesis device via the defined serial
port
 For each unacknowledged alarm of the specified priority that has Remote
Alarm the program sends the voice message text to the device, provided that
the alarm’s zone group corresponds to the zone group of the recipient device.
If any group filters are specified, messages using Remote Alarms that do not
match one of these groups are omitted
 If this service is processing multiple alarms, all of the messages of this priority
will be sent to the synthesizer before disconnecting
 The voice messenger device will act on the alarm messages according to how
it is programmed. It may speak the messages to a radio or PA system, or
make pre-programmed phone calls
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Annunciation service
types continued
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Phone Service
If the service is defined as a Phone service:
 For each unacknowledged alarm of the specified priority that has a Remote
Alarm the program first connects to the phone device via the defined serial
port and sends the alarm's voice text to the device.
 For each recipient with a zone group corresponding to that of the alarm, and
which is enabled and within its scheduled times (if a schedule is specified), the
phone number is programmed into the device. If any group filters are specified
for the alarm, recipients that do not match one of these groups are omitted.
The list of recipients is limited to the first four that meet these criteria.
 The device is placed online to make the phone calls. If this annunciation is
processing multiple alarms, the entire process (including programming the
recipient phone number) is repeated for each one.
SMS Service
If the service is defined as an SMS text messaging service:
 The annunciator program connects to a cellular modem via a serial port. It
configures it to transmit SMS messages in text mode
 For each alarm of the specified priority that has a Remote Alarm and is
unacknowledged, the program submits a text message for each enabled
recipient that has a corresponding zone group specified. If any group filters
are specified, messages using Remote Alarms that do not match one of these
groups are omitted
 If multiple alarms are to be sent by this service, all the required SMS
messages of this priority are sent to all the corresponding recipients (phone
numbers) before the program disconnects from the modem
Re-Annunciation
For each message that was successfully sent, the alarm is considered to have
been annunciated. Otherwise, the process is repeated periodically until the
message is successfully sent. (Since SNMP trap messages are
“connectionless”, they are always deemed to be successful.)
If the alarm is still unacknowledged at the end of the defined re-annunciation
interval, the process is repeated.
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STC EXPLORER 2.0
5.9 Remote Acknowledgement
About this section
This section describes how operators can acknowledge alarms from a remote
location when notification is received using remote annunciation.
Configuration to allow
remote
acknowledgement
Alarms received using Remote Annunciation can be acknowledged from their
remote location. To support this feature, the Annunciation Service must be
configured with the Allow Alarm Ack flag selected (see section 5.5 Annunciation
Service) and the individual recipients must be configured with non-blank Ack
Passwords. The password is case-sensitive and must not include spaces or
other punctuation.
Annunciation service
type
The steps to acknowledge an alarm remotely depend on the type of
annunciation service used. Currently only the SMS type of service supports
Remote Acknowledgement.
Acknowledgements can be performed by any recipient attached to the
annunciation service as long as the recipient is marked as Enabled and has a
password specified. Anacknowledgment received is even processed if the
remote annunciation schedule is not on at the time. However, the address or
phone number that the acknowledgment comes from (and the Ack password)
must match the address in the SCADA database for that recipient.
SMS service type
When an alarm is annunciated by a service that has the Allow Alarm Ack feature
enabled, the text of the message includes two short code numbers inserted at
the beginning of the message.
The first number is a 1- to 5-digit alarm identifier, and the second is a 3-digit
code. A typical annunciation message that supports remote acknowledgement.
displays as follows:
 3857 285 11:54:28.123 MS12,BRK01 Trip
Acknowledging the
alarm
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To acknowledge the alarm, the recipient of the annunciation message replies to
the message, sending the reply to the phone number of the SCADA system’s
SMS modem. This is the phone number that the annunciation message
originated from. Most devices include a “Reply” function that sends the message
back to that number without the recipient needing to know what the number
was.
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Format for the reply
of alarm
acknowledgement
STC EXPLORER 2.0
The alarm identifier and code numbers are short making them easier to
remember for the recipient when replying to the alarm notification.
Some devices have a “reply with text” function that includes the text of the
original message in the response. In this case, it is only necessary to insert the
password after the numbers, before the remainder of the message text. (The
message text can be deleted, since it is ignored by SCADA.)
The following procedure describes how to format the reply message.
Step
1
Procedure
Enter the alarm identifier number.
2
Add a space.
3
Enter the short code number from the original alarm message.
4
Add a space.
5
Add the password.
6
Add a space.
7
Add message text if desired.
Note: Any text following the password is ignored as long as the
space is entered.
A typical response using the password “letmein” is as follows:
 3857 285 letmein
Alternatively, recipients can use their device’s “Forward” function, which then
may include the text of the message. All they need to do is insert the password
after the numbers at the start of the message (followed by a space) and then
send it to the SCADA modem. (This number can be stored in the recipient’s
“address book”, for convenience.)
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6
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Unattended Mode
6.1 Introduction
About this chapter
This chapter describes Unattended Mode and how to use it.
When the system is in unattended mode an operator is not required. This means
alarms do not require acknowledgement, and no audible alarms sound. When
you place the system in unattended mode, you are effectively suppressing all
alarms; all alarms are produced with severity zero.
This feature is for systems that do not require an operator to be on duty at all
times. It ensures that unacknowledged alarms do not create a back log of items
to be acknowledged when the operator is back on duty.
The alarms that occur during an unattended operation are not lost. They are
logged as usual, and appear (already acknowledged) on the usual displays.
However, momentary alarms, and sustained alarms that are no longer active,
may be cleared from the alarm file if the alarm timeout period is not set long
enough.
6.2 System Configuration
Configuring your
system to be in
unattended mode
continuously
If your system only operates in unattended mode your system can be configured
to run that way continuously.
Control point
If the operator must be able to decide when the system is in unattended mode a
special status point in the database can be created with the name SYS$,
UATTND. This point provides the operator the ability to put the system into
unattended mode, by setting its value to 1.
See your system manager, or contact technical support at Survalent for help
with this configuration.
The point’s value can be modified manually (by performing a Set/Manual
operation on it). If the system uses Command Sequencing you could make the
mode of the system follow a fixed schedule, or react to other conditions.
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Alarm timeout
STC EXPLORER 2.0
Among the system configuration parameters is an alarm timeout period. This
represents how soon an alarm is deleted from the alarm file, after it has been
both acknowledged and cleared.
This should be made longer than the period the system is typically unattended
for, to ensure that a new operator coming on duty sees everything that
happened in their absence. However, this long timeout applies to all alarms that
occur in the system. Contact your technical support person (locally, or at
Survalent) for help with this
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