Alarms
Alarms
Alarms monitor the system at runtime and notify the operator when something requires attention. Each alarm evaluates a set of trigger conditions every update cycle and, when active, broadcasts its message through dedicated system channels.
Alarm List and Priority
Alarms are processed in list order — position 1 is the highest priority, position 2 is lower, and so on. When multiple alarms are active simultaneously, only the highest-priority active alarm (lowest list index) is shown on the alarm channels at any given time.
The alarm list can be reordered by dragging, and individual alarms can be exported to .alarm files for reuse.
Settings
Identity
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Message | The text displayed on the alarm message channel. |
| Enabled | When unchecked the alarm is permanently disabled and will never fire. Disabled alarms are indicated by “(Disabled)” in the list. |
Trigger Conditions
Defines when the alarm becomes active. Uses the standard condition editor — see Conditions for full details on comparisons, CH mode, and logic operators.
The alarm activates on the first update cycle where all conditions evaluate to true (subject to the hold-off timer — see Timing below).
Acknowledgement
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto Acknowledge | When enabled, the alarm clears itself automatically after a fixed duration. |
| Auto Acknowledge After (s) | Duration in seconds before the alarm auto-clears. Only visible when Auto Acknowledge is on. |
| Acknowledge on Event | An event channel that, when it fires, immediately clears the alarm regardless of whether the trigger conditions are still true. |
Manual and automatic acknowledgement both set the alarm inactive and clears the auto-acknowledge timer.
Timing
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Repeat Hold Off (s) | Minimum time (seconds) before the same alarm can fire again after it clears. Prevents rapid re-triggering if the condition oscillates around the threshold. |
With Auto Acknowledge: the hold-off starts from when the alarm auto-clears.
Without Auto Acknowledge: the hold-off starts the moment the alarm first fires, so the alarm can only re-fire this many seconds after it was last triggered.
Output
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Value From | A channel whose live value is formatted and written to the alarm value channel alongside the message. Useful for showing e.g. “Water Temp: 102.4 °C”. The format respects the channel’s configured decimal places and units. |
| Active Status Channel | A channel that is set to 1 while this alarm is active and 0 otherwise. Wire this to anything that needs to react to one specific alarm independently of priority. |
Channels
While any alarm is active, the device writes the winning alarm’s data to system-wide channels every update cycle:
| Channel | Content |
|---|---|
| Alarm Message | The message string of the highest-priority active alarm. Set to "No Alarms" when all alarms clear. |
| Alarm Value | The formatted value of the alarm’s “Show Value From” channel, e.g. "102.4 °C". Empty string if no value channel is set. |
| Alarm Priority | 1-based index of the highest-priority active alarm. Set to (total alarms + 1) when all clear. |
| Alarm Begin | An event fired once when the system transitions from no active alarms to one or more active alarms. |
| Alarm End | An event fired once when the last active alarm clears. |
These channels can be used to drive displays, overlays, logging triggers, or any other part of the system.
Tips
- Order matters. If two alarms can be active at the same time, place the more critical one higher in the list so it takes priority on the alarm channels.
- Use Hold Off to avoid flicker. If a channel is noisy near a threshold, set a hold-off of a few seconds to prevent repeated firing.
- Active Status Channel for independent reactions. The alarm channels only show the highest-priority alarm. If you need a specific lower-priority alarm to also drive an output (LED, relay, log trigger), use its Active Status Channel.
- Always False / Always True conditions. An alarm with a single “Always True” condition fires immediately on startup — useful for testing the notification pipeline. An “Always False” condition is equivalent to disabling the alarm but leaves the configuration intact.