Monitoring and Alarms

Event Recording

Records of equipment operation or other events are very useful when considering maintenance or reviewing equipment performance or reliability. With the Argus system, you can configure event records to track any system parameter or sensor value. For example:

• track operating hours on fans evaluate belt wear or motor failures on fans

• count how often a unit heater is cycled on and off

• track natural gas consumption (operating times) for fixed-firing-rate heating appliances, such as infrared or unit heater heating systems.

Alarms

The Argus System includes a comprehensive Alarms feature that let you set up very specific alarm conditions for almost any variable. Careful use of these alarms enables "Management by Exception", where the system is constantly looking for 'out of bounds' conditions and let's you know as soon as a problem occurs.

• Alarms can be configured for any measured parameter.
• All alarms can be chained or linked to other alarms to enable more sophisticated multi-parameter alarm conditions.
• Powerful alarm configuration programming is provided to specify how and when each alarm should annunciate depending upon its user assigned priority. For example, non-urgent alarms can be configured to annunciate silently as a software message in the operator program while more important alarms can be set to ring audible local devices or to activate phone dialers for remote alarm messaging.
• Modem alarm lists are provided in the software for emergency callouts.

Some of the features include:

• High and low absolute alarms - if the alarmed value rises above or falls below a set value. An examples of this type of alarm would be a high temperature or low temperature alarm in a climate.

• High and low floating alarms - if the alarmed value rises above or falls below another value that varies, for example, a climate setpoint. An example of this type of alarm would be an alarm that will activate whenever the temperature drops to far below the current heating set point. This type of alarm will "track" the heating setpoint automatically.

• Linked alarm conditions- a master alarm is raised when pre-defined combinations of other minor alarms are also active. An example of this type of alarm would be a low greenhouse temperature alarm that will activate only if it is also cold outside.

• Deviation alarms - alarmed value exceeds a given deviation, plus or minus, from another value. Examples of this type of alarm include applications where two sensors are used to "guard" each other. Excessive deviation might indicate a sensor or equipment failure.

• High and low sensor failure alarms - these alarms are used to warn when a sensor is producing readings that fall outside of the possible range, indicating a probable failure of the sensor.

All alarms have selectable annunciation priorities, and programmable time delays to reduce false alarms. Alarms annunciate only while active, and can be temporarily disabled to allow time to correct the problem, before automatic re-arming of the alarm. All alarms must be acknowledged by the operator, ensuring that the operator will always be aware of alarm conditions, including those that correct themselves without operator intervention. Each control function can be programmed to take alternate action when associated sensor failures are detected. Alarm conditions can be coupled to alarm outputs on the system for audible alerts such as bells and sirens and to operate emergency dialers.