Want a single entry for alarms in the "AlarmsWindow"

[dsmdave]

Hi,

I have an alarm in Lookout that comes in fairly frequently.  This is normal for this alarm, it comes in and out of alarm by itself.  After the alarm clears itself it becomes blue (the unacknowledged color).  When the alarm goes back into alarm it is displayed in the "AlarmsWindow" on a new line.  So after getting this alarm eight times I will have 8 entries in my AlarmsWindow. 

How can I make it so that I will only get a single entry in the AlarmsWindow per alarm?

I have tried the following paramenters in the Lookout.ini file, but they don't seem to do anything.

[Alarms]

MostRecent=1

OldAlarmsLimit=0

I edited the file in my Lookout4 directory and then restart lookout.  I have also tried restarting all the the Lookout services...  with no lock

Please help,

Thanks.

[Rkdomer]

It sounds like you want to auto acknowledge that particular alarm.  It could be done programmatically, but that is more of a ‘global’ thing rather than specific alarms.  However if you change the ‘alarm priority’ in the alarm object’s properties to 1 Lookout will auto acknowledge the alarm.  I believe this will give you the results you are looking for.

[dsmdave]

Thanks for the reply!...

Actually, I'd prefer not to use auto acknowledge if it can be avoided... precisely for the reason you've mentioned.  (i.e. because it is a global thing...)  I don't want my other alarms to auto acknowledge. 

Ideally  I would like there to be a way for there to be just a single entry for an alarm, where the time stamp would update whenever the alarm is active.

The problem is that my customer has a pressure gauge that they monitor for low pressure... but at certain times of the day the pressure readings will bounce around the setpoint level for the low pressure alarm.  For example, if the pressure setpoint is 70 psi, then we might see a period of time where we get 100 alarms because during that time of the day the pressure fluctuates between 68 and 73 psi frequently.  All these alarms flood the "AlarmsWindow" making it hard to see other valid alarms.  So the customer would like to see just one alarm entry for ALL occurances of the pressure alarm.

It sounds like the .ini file entries I mentioned should do just that, but when I try it nothing different happens...  is there something different I have to do to get those .ini entries to work?  Has anyone had success with thise .ini entries?

please help... thanks!

[DimensionFinder]

Hi:

I just tried adding those settings to my INI file and could not get it to work either. I will look in to this issue tomorrow and get back to you.

Thanks,

Jaideep J.

[butler]

Hi dsmdave,

I thought RKdomer's suggestion was a good application for you. When you set the priority for that single alarm, it is not a global thing.

Also, have you tried a nuetralzone? It will maintain the original alarm until things settle down.

Butler

[dsmdave]

yeah...I guess I over looked the priority aspect of that suggestion. 

I still would prefer the .ini file settings to work, but will try RKdomer's suggestion if Dimension Finder cannot help me with that.

Thank you all for the suggestions and replies!

[dsmdave]

I have not heard back from DimensionFinder yet.  (hopefully I will).

Has anyone had success in getting these .ini file settings to work?

Please

[dsmdave]

I have not heard back from DimensionFinder yet. (hopefully I will).

Has anyone else been able to get these .ini file settings to work?

please help.  thanks. 😄

[andrew_t]

Hi there,

I believe the solution being sought after here is a method to suppress subsequent alarms if an alarm has not been acknowledged.  Should the .ini fix indicated above not fix this?

Regards,

Andrew

[dsmdave]

It doesn't seem like those .ini settings do anything.  When I add the entries in, I can see no difference in the behavior of my system.