TIA Portal How To save alarms to file

Alarms can be saved to a file stored on the HMI’s SD card as well as view them on the panel itself. These files can be later accessed by reading the card on a PG or via web browser – by typing in the HMI’s IP address in the address bar.

In this tutorial you’re going to learn:

• How to create a PLC Alarm Word in TIA Portal
• How to map them to Alarm Word in TIA Portal
• How to connect HMI’s Alarms to PLC’s in TIA Portal
• How to configure TIA Portal project to store them on SD Card
• How to configure TIA Portal project to display current alarms
• How to configure TIA Portal project to display historical (stored) alarms

1. Hardware used in TIA Portal project

TIA Portal help on logging : Help » Content » Visualize processes » Working with alarms » Logging alarms

2. PLC Alarm Word in TIA Portal (0:00)

First we need to create a Word variable, that will contain our alarms and will be read by alarm facility in our HMI.

I’ve chosen to place my Word in a Data Block:

Each Word contains 16 bits, therefore you can map 16 discrete alarms to a single Word variable. Create as many Word variables as you need.

2. Mapping Discrete alarms to Word variable in TIA Portal (0:50)

For the purpose of this tutorial I’ve created 5 five discrete alarms in local PLC memory as markers.

Now We’re going to map them to Word variable in a Function:

Do no forget to call this Function as i forgot to show this in the video!

3. Creating HMI Alarm log in TIA Portal (3:35)

Go to: HMI » Historical data » Alarm logs » <Add new>

Lets explain some of the properties here:

• Storage locations: this is actually a file type 😉 in which the log will be stored. I usually choose .CSV as it can be opened with Excel or even a notepad.
• Number of data records per log: Maximum number of records in a file. Max is 500000 and I recommend setting it to this value. .CSV files are relatively small and HMI data SD cards are not ridiculously expensive so you can easily buy a bigger one.
• Path: storage location of your log (can get confused with the first one due to odd terminology)
• Logging method: Specifies how the log behaves when getting full.
• Restart behavior: What happens with the log at HMI power on.

4. Create HMI Alarms in TIA Portal (4:12)

Go to: HMI alarms » Discrete alarms » <Add new> » ‘…’ on trigger tag » PLC_1 » Expand ‘DB_AlarmsHMI’ » AlarmsWord_1 » OK

• Change Alarm Text to whatever message you want displayed when alarm occurs
• Adjust the trigger bit to correspond to the selected bit in your alarm word

  

  5. Connect Alarm Class with Alarm Log (5:25)

Go to: Alarm Classes » Errors (as the ones we created were errors) » ‘…’ on Log » HMI_1 » Historical data » Alarm_log_1 » OK

6. Display current and historical Alarms (5:47)

No lets create two screens on our HMI. One will display current alarms, the second historical.

1. Current ones on HMI in TIA Portal: Go to Toolbox » Controls » drag and drop ‘Alarm view’ object to your window » Properties and make sure ‘Current alarm states’ is selected

   

2. Historical ones on HMI in TIA Portal: Go to Toolbox » Controls » drag and drop ‘Alarm view’ object to your window » Properties and select ‘Alarm log’ » click ‘…’ in Alarm log » HMI_1 » Historical data » Alarm_log_1 » OK

   

7. Links:

Example 1 from Siemens: Configuration of Messages and Alarms in WinCC (TIA Portal) Example 2 from Siemens: Logging Process Values and Alarms with WinCC (TIA Portal)