In this tutorial we'll take a look at the Alarms tool and its operation.
This is the most complex para of the software since you have multiple paths to create an Alarm.
In that way, we will split the Alarms tutorial in several videos, so we can easily understand
the operation of each and everyone of them.
Let's start by creating our first Alarm.
The first that we see it's the main menu for an Alarm creation, where we choose
what type of Alarm we want to create.
You have General Alarms, Irrigation Alarms and Security Alarms.
This video is dedicated to the General Alarms, and in the next tutorials
we'll cover all other types of Alarms.
The next option to configure it's the Alarm Active time.
We can configure the Alarm to act exclusively during the day,
exclusively during the Night, or during the Day and Night.
The day and night assignment is defined by the light configuration on the Area menu.
So, if we create an Alarm with elements that belong to a particular Area,
this Alarm will use by reference the light schedule defined for that Area.
This is useful, since we can have different control temperatures
for the Day or for the Night.
It's possible that the temperatures go so low
during the Night that you need a different threshold to activate your air extraction.
Next we can see the Alarm basic panel.
We'll complete it as we advanced in the configuration.
In the top we have the buzzer configuration.
By default is deactivated, since it's more useful when we have a Security Alarm.
You can activate it manually, but when you do it, it will activate the GroNode buzzer
to alert us that the alarm is active.
The buzzer won't stop beeping until your alarm changes to the inactive state.
in this way, we should not use the buzzer for General/Irrigation Alarms,
since it will beep more often,
deceiving us if GroNode is warning us
of a real problem related to a Security Alarm and not a basic Alarm.
We also have the mail notification icon that we already saw in the Schedules.
We'll receive a notification e-mail when the alarms changes state.
Next we configure the name for the Alarm.
To it's right you have two icons that describe the type of the alarm and the time that is enabled.
In the configuration panel we see a text that says "IF",
To it's right a box followed by an "IS".
This means "IF the element on the Box IS"
"IS" makes reference to a condition
like Higher, Lower, ON or OFF
This is the beginning of an instruction that can end in various ways.
Let's click on the box to select our input element.
Here you can see two panels, to the left all the sensors you have,
each sensor has is own unit.
Humidity it's a percentage, temperature in Celsius,
the EC, associated with TankBot, in milisiemens.
The flood detector of SoilBot can be ON or OFF.
This last one we'll explain in the Security Alarms tutorials.
In the panel to the right you can see all devices that we have configured.
Using an actuator has an input for your Alarm,
provides you a lot of possibilities of automation, but we'll leave this for other tutorial.
Let's start by creating a simple Alarm by selecting the air temperature sensor.
Next we need to choose the condition for the Alarm.
Saying if the alarm should trigger "Higher" or "Lower" then the value that we'll configure next.
Let's select "higher" then.
Let's click on the value or next,
And a new panel shows that seems complicated but it's quite easy and useful.
Let's assume that the ideal temperature for our Grow is 26ºC,
so we introduce this value on the first field, 26.
Now you have to configure the hysteresis, that its no more then a tolerance range
around the central value of 26ºC we defined.
So, if we want our extraction to activate when we reach the 30ºC,
we should configure in the hysteresis field the value of 4ºC.
What will happen? Well,
when your sensor detects that the temperature exceeds the 26 + 4 ºC, so 30ºC,
the Alarm will activate the element that we'll configure further in the tutorial.
When the temperature gets below 26 - 4 ºC, equivalent to 22ºC,
the Alarm will Turn off the actuator, in this case the extraction fan.
We should be careful defining high ranges for the hysteresis,
since this can make your Alarm never to Turn On or Turn Off the device you selected.
Lets click on next to reach the end of the configuration.
In this panel we have three types of final actions.
"UNTIL",
a empty element that allows us to activate the device indefinitely.
If we use this mode, there's only two ways to turn off the device after an alarm activation.
Or you have another Alarm that turns it off, or you can turn it off manually from the Overview Panel,
your control centre.
You can see how in the Overview tutorials.
Finally, "FOR" it's the option that enables you to trigger a timer for an Alarm.
We'll leave this option for another tutorial.
To the right you have a panel that allows you to select the action
you want for your alarm.
Here we can select if our Alarm should Turn On or Turn Off the element when active.
We'll use the Turn On action.
We have a third option that won't take any action on our grow, and will simply send us an e-mail,
this is useful to create silent alarms for security or intrusions.
Just below we have the option of persistence that we already know from the Schedule Tutorial,
but remember that this is useful when we want to force a device persistently ON or OFF,
even if other Schedules or Alarms try to change it.
This Alarm will always have a higher priority.
Now we click on "SELECT DEVICE" or next to select the device we want to control.
here we select the extraction fan.
Our Alarm is finished.
You can read it like this:
"If the air temperature is higher then 30ºC,
then Turn On the extractor Until the air temperature is lower then 22ºC"
In the next tutorial we'll look at other ways to end an Alarm.