I meant to add something about the CAG. I don't like it very much because it's operations are broadcast based. In one large system with a heavy number of broadcasts, we found that 75% of the broadcasts were CAG broadcasts. Since this customer is using the CAG to silence the horns only, I suggested that they move to shared external horns. The WP is supposed to "optimize" the sets to those horns and that should result in a much lower number of broadcasts. Regards, Alex Johnson The Foxboro Company 10707 Haddington Houston, TX 77043 713.722.2859 (v) 713.722.2700 (sb) 713.932.0222 (f) [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----Original Message----- From: Johnson,Alex [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 3:30 PM To: Foxboro DCS Mail List Subject: RE: External Horn For Process Alarms The CAG is good for two things: 1) Silencing all horns on the WPs in the CAG when the horn is silenced on any WP in the group. 2) Clearing an alarm from all WPs in the CAG when the alarm is cleared from any other WP in the group. When the horn silence button is pressed on an annunciator keyboard (it's sometimes (mis)labeled ACK), all horns on that WP (internal and external) are silenced regardless of priority. So, to get to your questions: 1) what happens [to the horns -ed] when one of the WP's [in the CAG -ed] is turned off? Basically, the answer is nothing special. Internal horns are silenced because they are now off too. External horns shared with another WP continue to be driven by that WP. External horns driven uniquely by the WP that is now off, remain in their last state - blaring away perhaps. 2) If they are all members of the same Common alarm group, will the backup WP take over for the downed WP and sound its alarms for it? The surviving WP will sound the horns that it is configured for when it receives an alarm. If the WPs share external horns, the surviving WP will of course drive them. If the WPs have a disjoint set of horns, the "dead" WPs horns just hang there. 3) Or do I lose 5 of my alarm horns? Well, not literally, but they will no longer be driven assuming that on the "dead" WP works with them. 3) [I -ed] want to have 64 different external horns, is it possible to do this through the horn.cfg file [? -ed] No, the system supports only six external horns (5 for process alarms and 1 for system alarms). 4) or do I have to come up with something else? You need something else. Can you explain what you want to accomplish? Maybe there is another route. Regards, Alex Johnson The Foxboro Company 10707 Haddington Houston, TX 77043 713.722.2859 (v) 713.722.2700 (sb) 713.932.0222 (f) [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 2:55 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: External Horn For Process Alarms I have a question about the horn.cfg file when used to sound an external horn. I am going to use an example to pose my question. If I have 3 WPs, each specifying different external horns to sound on Priority 1 -5 alarms (so I have a total of 15 digital outputs), what happens when one of the WP's is turned off? If they are all members of the same Common alarm group, will the backup WP take over for the downed WP and sound its alarms for it? Or do I lose 5 of my alarm horns? Another related question: If I have 3 WPs, but want to have 64 different external horns, is it possible to do this through the horn.cfg file or do I have to come up with something else? BTW, I am not the nutjob who thinks having 60 different external horns in one building is a good idea. I unfortunately, was asked to try to implement it. Thanks- Marci Sewell Process Automation and Control 115 Bldg, Mail 032 ph: (517)496-5071 page: (517)926-1487 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Duc M Do [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 3:06 PM To: Foxboro DCS Mail List; Foxboro DCS Mail List Subject: RE: Process Alarms At 02:48 PM 5/2/00 -0400, Johnson,Alex wrote: >2) Use a PC as your "alarm printer" and one of several 3rd party >packages to capture the alarms. We do something similar. We feed all the process alarms (and system alarms, too, for that matter) to a VAX. Our friendly VAX guru sets up automatic capturing and parsing of the alarms into process area specific files (text files, one file per day) and put them on a web server. The process people can grab them at their leisure and do whatever with them. These files are kept on the web server for 3 months and then archived to CD-ROM for who knows how long. Duc M. Do Dow Corning Corp. Carrollton Plant Carrollton, KY, US ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by the Foxboro Company. All postings from this list are the work of list subscribers and no warranty is made or implied as to the accuracy of any information disseminated through this medium. By subscribing to this list you agree to hold the list sponsor(s) blameless for any and all mishaps which might occur due to your application of information received from this mailing list. 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