The Displacement and Tilt Alarms option in SAARecorder allows you to set alarms that are activated whenever the horizontal displacement of any part of a vertical ShapeArray (SAA) (or the vertical displacement of any part of a horizontal ShapeArray) exceeds some user-defined limit or whenever any of the ShapeArray's accelerometers exceed some pre-defined limits.

In SAASuite 3.0 or higher, the SAARecorder application is launched by clicking the Manual Data Collection button.

Figure 1: Launch SAARecorder from SAASuite by clicking the Manual Data Collection button

Step 1 - Select ShapeArrays

You must first select the ShapeArrays for which you wish to set alarms. In SAARecorder, open the SAA Setup menu and select the Displacement and Tilt Alarms option. 

Figure 2: The SAA Setup menu in SAARecorder

If there are two or more arrays connected, the Choose Array window will appear with a dropdown menu for selecting the arrays. Select the appropriate option in this dialog and click the OK button. 

Step 2 - Set Displacement Alarms

To set a displacement alarm, in the Set Displacement and Tilt Alarms For dialog, select the Use Displacement Alarm checkbox. Displacement alarms trigger if the displacement of a ShapeArray goes beyond the specified value. The values are in millimetres (mm) from either Straight or Base Reference. If Base Reference is chosen, then a valid XYZ Cartesian "Text" file as the base reference for the ShapeArray must be selected. The XYZ Cartesian test file can be created by clicking the Save New Base Reference button or it could have been previously created by selecting the File | Save text snapshot of SAA data menu item. For more information on Displacement Alarms, refer to the SAARecorder Manual's Displacement Alarms section.

Figure 3: Setting a displacement alarm

Step 3 - Alternatively, Set Tilt Alarms

Alternatively, to set a tilt alarm in the Set Displacement and Tilt Alarms For dialog, select the Use Tilt Alarms checkbox. Tilt alarms trigger if the acceleration of one or more of the ShapeArray sensors goes beyond the specified range of values. Values can be set for Upper and Lower X, Y, or Z Accelerations.

Figure 4: Setting tilt alarms

Step 4 - Optional, Configure Notifications

When an alarm is triggered, multiple notifications options are available. A sound can be played if an alarm occurs. To configure this, select the Play sound (Alarm.wav) if alarm occurs checkbox. 

Figure 5: Play a sound when alarm is trigger

An email can also be sent if an alarm occurs by selecting the Send email if alarm occurs checkbox, shown in Figure 4 above, and clicking the Email Settings button to configure email settings, shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 6: Email Settings dialog

Step 5 - Set the Joint Range for Alarms

Finally, you can specify a range of joints over which the alarms will be applied. Enter a range of joints in the Joint range for alarms textbox as digits for the beginning and end of the range separated by a hyphen (e.g. 0-40) or the word All for all joints. Click the OK button to save the alarms configuration.

Figure 7: Specifying the joint range