TP700 Comfort Alarms: Configure Popup Separate from Warnings

Overview

The SIMATIC TP700 Comfort (6AV2 124-1GC01-0AX0 and related variants in the 6AV2 124 family) is a 7-inch widescreen HMI panel from the Siemens Comfort line. It runs WinCC Comfort / WinCC Advanced runtime and supports the full TIA Portal alarm model, including discrete alarms, analog alarms, alarm classes, group acknowledgments, and event logging. Because Comfort Panels expose both an Alarm View control and a separate Alarm Window control, you can display alarm classes on different screens or in different overlay contexts without duplicating tags or PLC logic.

This article solves a common engineering requirement: the operator must see both Alarms and Warnings on the main process screen, but the system should only raise a popup (modal overlay) when a real Alarm arrives. Warnings must remain passive so they do not interrupt operator workflow.

The technique is implemented entirely inside the HMI project — no PLC logic change is required. You assign Alarms and Warnings to two separate alarm classes in TIA Portal, place an Alarm View on the process screen bound to both classes, and place an Alarm Window on the global screen bound only to the Alarm class. The Alarm Window has built-in popup behavior and is automatically triggered by incoming alarms of its assigned classes.

Prerequisites

• TP700 Comfort panel (or any Comfort Panel: TP700, TP900, TP1200, TP1500, TP1900, TP2200) with firmware matching the TIA Portal version used for compilation.
• TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update 9 or later (V15.1, V16, V17, V18, V19, or V20 recommended for current firmware support). Original V13 without SP is not recommended for new projects.
• WinCC Comfort V13 or higher installed (must match TIA Portal major version).
• HMI tags already created in the project that trigger the discrete alarms (e.g., "Motor1_Running", "Tank_HighLevel").
• PLC connection configured (S7-300/400/1200/1500 or PROFINET/PROFIBUS to the panel).

Understanding the Alarm Display Elements

WinCC Comfort provides two visually similar but architecturally distinct elements for displaying alarms on a Comfort Panel. Understanding their differences is essential before configuring the split behavior.

The two elements read from the same alarm buffer; they only differ in which alarm classes they display and how they are presented. This is the foundation of the split-popup technique.

Alarm Class Configuration

Alarm classes are the filtering primitive that drives both elements. By default, WinCC Comfort ships with three classes:

• Errors (red) — typically requires acknowledgment, state-driven.
• Warnings (yellow) — informational, no acknowledgment.
• System — internal system messages.

For the split-popup requirement, define the assignment first. The PLC tag raises a discrete alarm; the alarm's class determines which display elements surface it.

1. Open the HMI device in the TIA Portal project tree.
2. Expand HMI alarms > Alarm classes.
3. Confirm the standard classes are present: Errors, Warnings, System. Add custom classes only if your site standard requires them (e.g., CriticalAlarm, InfoWarning).
4. Verify that Errors has acknowledgment enabled (default) and Warnings has acknowledgment disabled (default).
5. Open each discrete alarm you have configured (under HMI alarms > Discrete alarms) and assign it to either Errors (for true Alarms that must pop up) or Warnings (for advisory Warnings that should appear only on the persistent view).

Step-by-Step Configuration in TIA Portal

Step 1 — Add the persistent Alarm View on the process screen

1. Navigate to your main process screen (e.g., Process_Overview) in the project tree.
2. From the Tools pane, drag an Alarm View control onto the screen canvas.
3. Resize and position the control in a reserved area (e.g., bottom 30% of the screen).
4. Select the Alarm View, open the Properties panel.
5. Under General > Alarm classes, enable both Errors and Warnings (the default; leave as-is unless you have renamed classes).
6. Under Columns, verify that Time, Date, Alarm text, and Status columns are visible. Add Alarm class if you want operators to distinguish Alarms from Warnings at a glance.
7. Under Display > Allow operator acknowledgment, leave enabled for both classes (the operator must be able to acknowledge from the persistent list).
8. Under Sorting, set to Chronological descending (newest on top).

Step 2 — Configure the global screen with the Alarm Window

1. In the project tree, right-click the HMI device and select Screen management.
2. Open the Global screen. The Global screen in WinCC Comfort is the persistent overlay layer that sits on top of every process screen during runtime.
3. From the Tools pane, drag an Alarm Window control onto the Global screen canvas.
4. Position the window so it does not obscure critical process graphics (typically centered, with a fixed width and height).
5. Select the Alarm Window and open Properties.
6. Under General > Alarm classes, disable Warnings and System. Enable only Errors (or whatever class you have assigned to true Alarms).
7. Under Display, configure:
   • Window position: Centered (or fixed coordinates if your layout requires it).
   • Show as popup: Enabled (this is the default and the key behavior — the window opens automatically when an active alarm of the assigned class arrives).
   • Number of visible alarms: 5–10 typical for TP700 (screen height is limited).
   • Single-line display: Disabled for TP700 (multi-line gives better readability for operator action text).
8. Under Acknowledgment, confirm that Operator can acknowledge is enabled for the Errors class.

Step 3 — Configure the alarm acknowledgment behavior

1. Open HMI alarms > Alarm classes.
2. Select the Errors class.
3. Confirm Require acknowledgment = enabled.
4. Confirm Display as popup = enabled (this is the default and is what triggers the Alarm Window on the global screen).
5. Select the Warnings class.
6. Confirm Require acknowledgment = disabled (this is the default).
7. Confirm Display as popup = disabled. This is the critical setting: if popup is enabled on the Warnings class, the Alarm Window on the global screen will also raise on Warnings, defeating the split.

Step 4 — Compile and download

1. Right-click the HMI device > Compile > Software (rebuild all).
2. Check the Info pane for compile warnings or errors. Common warnings: missing alarm text translation, tag length mismatch.
3. Download to the TP700 Comfort via PROFINET, PROFIBUS, or USB/Ethernet direct.
4. Perform a Restart (not Stop-Run) so the alarm buffer is reinitialized with the new class assignments.

Configuration Reference Table

Verification

After download, perform these verification steps on the live TP700 Comfort panel:

1. Trigger a Warning: Force the PLC tag that drives a Warning-class discrete alarm (e.g., set a bit in the watch table). Verify:
   • The alarm appears in the Alarm View on the process screen.
   • No popup appears over the current screen.
   • No acknowledgment is required.
2. Trigger an Alarm: Force the PLC tag that drives an Errors-class discrete alarm. Verify:
   • The alarm appears in the Alarm View.
   • The Alarm Window opens automatically as a modal popup on top of the current screen.
   • The operator can acknowledge from the popup, after which the window closes (if no further active alarms remain).
3. Concurrent events: Trigger a Warning and an Alarm within one second. Verify:
   • Only the Alarm triggers the popup.
   • The Warning is queued and visible in the persistent Alarm View only.
4. Screen change test: While the Alarm popup is open, navigate to a different process screen. Verify the popup persists (it is anchored on the global screen).
5. Acknowledgment persistence: Acknowledge the Alarm. Verify the popup closes, the alarm remains visible in the Alarm View with an acknowledged state icon, and no further popup occurs for the same event.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Advanced Notes and Field-Proven Caveats

Firmware / runtime version compatibility. The TP700 Comfort originally shipped with WinCC Comfort V13 firmware. If the panel has been reflashed to V14, V15, V16, V17, V18, V19, or V20 firmware, the compiled HMI project must match. TIA Portal enforces this at download — a V13 project will not download to a V17 panel. Either upgrade the TIA Portal project or downgrade the panel firmware. The alarm-class and popup behavior described here is consistent across V13 SP1 through V20.

Alarm buffer size. The TP700 Comfort has a finite alarm buffer (default 1024 entries, configurable under HMI alarms > Settings). When the buffer is full and no logging is enabled, oldest events are discarded silently. For production lines, configure circular logging to a USB stick or network share so post-event analysis is possible.

Multiple popups at once. The Alarm Window on the global screen can display multiple simultaneous alarms (controlled by the Number of visible alarms property). If your process can raise several Alarms within one second, raise this value to 8–10 on a TP700 to prevent scroll-cutoff. The window will not expand beyond the screen; remaining alarms are accessible via the scroll bar inside the window.

Multiple screens. If you have several process screens that all need the persistent Alarm View, place the Alarm View on each screen, or use a template screen (in WinCC Comfort, screen templates support shared layouts but the Alarm View instance is still per-screen). For large projects, prefer screen templates to reduce maintenance.

PLC-triggered versus HMI-triggered alarms. This article assumes discrete alarms are triggered by PLC tags (the recommended pattern). If you are using HMI-side tags or scripts to trigger alarms, the same class assignment rules apply — but be aware that HMI-side discrete alarms require the alarm bit to be toggled (edge) for some TIA Portal versions and held (level) for others. Consult the Comfort Panels manual for the version in use.

Authorization. To prevent operators from clearing or modifying alarms via the Alarm View, configure operator authorization under Runtime settings > Authorization and assign a password-protected user role. Acknowledge-only roles are common in regulated industries.

Migration from WinCC flexible. Projects migrated from WinCC flexible 2008 SP3 to TIA Portal V13 preserve alarm classes, but the global screen concept is new in TIA Portal — migrated projects must have an Alarm Window manually added to the global screen after migration. The migration tool does not infer this requirement.

For the official Siemens procedure to configure alarms on Basic Panels, Panels, Comfort Panels, and PC Runtime, refer to the TIA Portal documentation: Configuring alarms (TIA Portal V20 documentation).

FAQ