Table of Contents
Configure Alarms
Updated
by Ragnar Tryggvason
Alarms are a powerful feature that simplifies the operation of a network of data loggers and eases the operators' workload.
Setting up alarms is simple.
Before setting up alarms, a Contact has to be created, which is then assigned to a Contact Group:
Go to Setup > Alarm :
NOTE: No alarm is sent out unless the Monitor check box is checked. It is unchecked by default. 
Select the Site to assign an alarm threshold to a variable. It is possible to set four thresholds for each variable:
It is possible to assign two different Contact Groups to receive alarms for each site. One group can receive Low and High, and another can receive Low Low and High High alarms or both:
- Deadband is the percentage in which the value needs to change from the threshold so the alarm will go off. The alarm limit is set to 100, and the Deadband is set to 2%. Then the value needs to go below 98, so the Alarm will be triggered.
- It is possible to set the Delay on Alarms. If the Delay is set to 60 minutes, an alarm is not triggered unless it has been active for 60 minutes. This feature comes in handy when data has spikes that go over the Alarm threshold but does not necessarily mean something is wrong.
- It is possible to Repeat the Alarms. If Repeat is set to 30 minutes, the Alarm is sent out again until someone logs in, goes to Alarms > Alarm Overview and Confirms the Alarm.
VDV is by default set to send out an email or a text message when Alarms go off, but with Skip Off Alarms, the user can skip that if desired.
Custom alarm message
At the end of the line, there is a button 
where the user can configure custom messages for each Alarm threshold and the Alarm Off message.
These messages can contain what needs to be done or who needs to be contacted if the Alarm goes off.
Configure Multiple Sensors
VDV users often have to set the same Alarm configurations for multiple sensors. In those cases, the Filter button can come in handy. Let's say that the user has 10 piezometers called PZ01 - PZ10. Then it is possible to write PZ into the filter and click the button:
Then it is possible to set the same Alarm Configurations for all the piezometers at once:
Select Contact Group
At the bottom, the user can configure which Contact Groups will receive the Alarms, how the repeat alarms go out and if NaN Alarms should be skipped:
When configuring the Repeat Type, it is possible to select Send to All Contacts or Send to All Contacts in Sequential Order. If the Send to All Contacts in Sequential Order option is selected, all Contacts in the group will receive the Alarm. When it is repeated, only the first Contact in the group will receive the first repeat, and then only the second Contact in the group will receive the next repeat and so on.
