Alarms and Filters
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The Alarm Indicator icon is not displayed next to the entries, since all
alarms must have been acknowledged in order to archive the database.
3.6 Reading the database from other applications
The PCNC Alarm Database can be saved as a text file for examination
by other applications. To save the database in this format, use the
Alarms | Export Alarm Database... command. This will invoke a
dialogue box where you can enter a name for the file. When you have
entered a name (up to 8 letters long), click on
Ok or press Enter. The
file will be saved with a .CSV extension. Exporting the Alarm Database
has no effect on PCNC and does not clear the database.
Once the alarms are saved in this way, they can be read into other
applications, such as Microsoft
Excel 5. This allows you to manipulate
the data collected by PCNC in many ways. For example, you can
perform detailed analysis of the alarm information or include alarm
tables in reports. See Section
13.3.1
for details of the format of the
exported database.
3.7 Hardware alert disabling
Any recognised alert messages cause alarms. You cannot stop PCNC
producing alarms for new messages by filtering - you can only hide them
in the various Alarm Log windows. However, most devices will allow you
to prevent certain alert messages from being sent at all. Consult your
hardware documentation for information about this facility.
NB: Turning messages off at the device can be a disadvantage. If a
message is hidden by a filter, it remains in the database and can still be
examined at a later date by simply removing the filter. However, if the
message was never sent, you have no record of it at all.
