Enter Alarm Message Text - Allen-Bradley Logix5000 Reference Manual

Chapter 1 FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Logix-based Instructions (ALMD, ALMA)

Enter Alarm Message Text

Option
Message string
Associated tags
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Enter appropriate message text to display when an alarm condition is active
(InAlarm). For an ALMD instruction, you enter the message information on the
Configuration tab. For an ALMA instruction, you enter the message information
on the Message tab.
To define an alarm message, specify this information.
Description
The message string contains the information to display to the operator regarding the alarm. In addition
to entering text, you can also embed variable information. In the alarm message editor, select the
variable you want and add it anywhere in the message string.
The message string can have a maximum of 255 characters, including the characters that specify any
embedded variables (not the number of characters in the actual values of the embedded variables). For
example, /*S:0 %Tag1*/ specifies a string tag and adds 13 characters towards the total string length,
but the actual value of the string tag could contain 82 characters.
You cannot programmatically access the alarm message string from the alarm tag. To change the
alarm message based on specific events, configure one of the associated tags as a string data type
and embed that associated tag in the message.
You can have multiple language versions of messages. You enter the different language via the
import/export utility. For more information, see
You can select as many as four additional tags from the controller project to associate with the alarm.
The values of these tags are sent with an alarm message to the alarm server. For example, a digital
alarm for a pressure relief valve might also include information such as pump speed and tank
temperature.
Associated tags may be any atomic data type (BOOL, DINT, INT, SINT, or REAL) or a STRING. They may
be elements in a UDT or an Array. Variable array references are not allowed. If the alarm is controller-
scoped, the associated tags must also be controller-scoped.
Optionally, embed the associated tags into the message text string.
Associated tag values are always sent with the alarm, viewable by the operator, and entered in the
history log, regardless of whether you embed them in the message string.
Rockwell Automation Publication 1756-RM003N-EN-P - October 2011
page 76.