Alarm and events archives are called “Messages” in the VisXpert system. These are events registered in an database that reflect the occurrence of certain events in an system. The events can be triggered based on signals form an PLC or any other application.
The Message System also includes an customizable “Alarm Viewer” that allows you to view, monitor and evaluate the registered alarm messages. It also allows the user to assign “Causes” and view “Help Messages” about the error and event messages.
View and Archive
The task of the reporting system (messages) is to record faults and messages (e.g. based on a specific bit in the PLC) and processing. “Processing” in the broadest sense means processing, logging, displaying the operator and archiving them in a database. The operator receives a clear description of the message, he can retrieve a help text for the message (e.g. instructions for rectification of a fault) and enter the exact cause (cause).
Messages are always described by coming (start of disturbance) and gone time (end of the fault). New messages are called current messages and can be archived after the fault ends. In the reporting system display, the messages are displayed tabularly. There are the two views Current Messages and Archived Messages.
Depending on the message type, different processing types can be defined. This makes it possible, for example, to require manual message acknowledgment by the user or to automatically acknowledge the message after the fault is finished and thus transfer it from the current table to the archive.
Duration
Based on the coming and outgoing time of a message, the duration of interference is determined. A distinction is made between the gross duration, which is simply the difference between the coming time and the walking time, and the net duration, which takes into account the working time model in the calculation (effective duration of interference). The maintenance of the working time model is carried out with the VisXpert module Scheduler.
The net duration is then determined by the gross duration minus the break times. If, for example, a fault resulted in a production shutdown, the net duration reflects the purely fault-related downtime.
Filters
The reporting system provides powerful filter functions that enable a detailed and meaningful evaluation of the current and archived messages. The evaluations can be printed in custom reports. Setting filters, starting the report output, etc. can also be remotely controlled via scripts, so that automatic report generation can be implemented flexibly.
Architecture overview
The functions of the VisXpert reporting system are divided into three functional areas, which are available as separate modules:
- Capture via MessageCapture (evaluating interference bits in the PLC) or the message simulation (simulation of faults for testing during configuration).
- Processing with the posting module MessageControl (evaluating the message telegrams and posting them to the database tables).
- Viewing with MessageView (displaying current and archived messages).
This functional division makes it possible to run all programs together on a PC or on a network, distributed on multiple PCs. This means that in a client/server environment, for example, a PC can record and edit (post) the messages, and other PCs can display the messages.
