WinCC Flexible 2007: Exporting Alarm Logs to USB Flash Drive

Overview

The WinCC Flexible 2007 HF4 engineering environment (now superseded by TIA Portal and WinCC Unified, but still in widespread service on legacy lines) supports exporting runtime alarm logs to removable media using the ArchiveLogFile system function. A common field failure mode is the ArchiveLogFile writes an empty CSV even though the operator has acknowledged the trigger and the function reports success at runtime. A second, related problem is the CSV containing valid records but with corrupted non-ASCII characters (e.g., Greek, Cyrillic, or Asian text rendered as ??G???S), caused by the ANSI code-page of the runtime export.

This reference walks through both fault paths, provides configuration-level root-cause analysis, documents the ArchiveLogFile parameter set, and closes with a cross-platform comparison so engineers migrating to TIA Portal / WinCC Unified / non-Siemens HMIs can map the equivalent workflow.

Affected Hardware and Runtime Versions

USB export of alarm archives is supported on the following Siemens panels when running WinCC Flexible 2007 RT (HF4 or later):

Verify the runtime image on the panel via Start > Settings > OP Properties > Version. Builds older than HF4 (V1.4.0.x) must be updated before reliable CSV export is possible. The official update utility is part of the SIMATIC ProSave toolkit described in the Siemens entry ID 18796994 for SIMATIC Panels operator-side commissioning.

Root Cause Matrix: Why the CSV File Is Empty

Field experience and Siemens support notes consistently attribute empty CSV output to one of five root causes. The matrix below ranks them by frequency and shows the diagnostic to confirm.

The most frequent offender on commissioned systems is root cause #1: in WinCC Flexible 2007, the per-class logging default is disabled. Selecting an alarm class (e.g., Errors, Warnings, System) and opening its property dialog shows a checkbox Logging that must be activated before any record is eligible for archival.

Configuring the Alarm Log for USB Export

Before the ArchiveLogFile function is wired to a button, the underlying data store must exist. The procedure below creates a CSV-compatible archive bound to the USB stick.

1. Open the WinCC Flexible 2007 project and select Project > Logs > Alarm Log.
2. Right-click and choose Add Log if none exists. Default name: AlarmLog_1.
3. Open Properties > Storage Location. Choose Storage Card (USB). The literal path the runtime writes to is \\Storage Card USB\\<File>.
4. Open Properties > Archive. Click Add and select Data log (not Tag log) — the alarm log must be tied to a data archive.
5. Set the File format drop-down to CSV (ANSI). The legacy format is fixed to ANSI code-page 1252; UTF-8 selection is not available in WinCC Flexible 2007 and is the root of the Greek-text corruption described later.
6. Open Project > Logs > Alarm Classes. For each class (Errors, Warnings, System, etc.) open the property dialog and tick Logging.
7. Set Logging active at runtime start in the alarm log properties — this is the parameter the original question referred to as "enable logging at runtime start".
8. Compile and transfer the project. Confirm in the panel control panel under OP > Information > Project Information > Alarms that each class is reported as "Logging active".

ArchiveLogFile Function Reference

The ArchiveLogFile system function is the operator-driven or scheduler-driven trigger that closes the active CSV segment and copies it to the target path. The full signature as documented in the WinCC Flexible 2007 help is:

BOOL ArchiveLogFile(
    LPTSTR  lpszLogName,        // Logical log name, e.g. "AlarmLog_1"
    LPTSTR  lpszFileName,       // Target file with path, e.g. "\\Storage Card USB\\alarms.csv"
    BOOL    bOverwrite          // TRUE = replace existing file
);

From the WinCC Flexible UI it appears as a script element under Functions > System Functions > Logs with three configurable fields:

Typical wiring: a button "Export Alarm Log" on a service screen calls ArchiveLogFile("AlarmLog_1", "\\Storage Card USB\\alarms.csv", FALSE) in the Press event. The runtime creates the file only after at least one record has been logged; calling the function on a freshly started panel with no events still produces an empty CSV with only the header row.

Solution: Step-by-Step Fix for an Empty Export

Apply the following procedure when the CSV header is created but no data rows appear.

1. Verify the USB stick is formatted as FAT16 or FAT32 (right-click in Windows > Properties > File system). NTFS-formatted drives are recognized by the panel but the file system filter rejects write operations; the panel returns error code 0x031C in the system log.
2. Insert the USB stick in the rear port of the panel and wait for the on-screen USB device detected toast.
3. Open Project > Logs > Alarm Log > Properties > Storage Location. Confirm the path \Storage Card USB\. If only \Storage Card2\ is offered, the active storage media is the SD slot, not USB; switch the storage media in the project to Storage Card (USB) and re-transfer.
4. Generate at least one alarm by simulating the trigger condition (e.g., force a tag that drives an alarm bit). Wait until the alarm view shows the new entry.
5. Click the button wired to ArchiveLogFile. The CSV file should now contain header + at least one data row.
6. If the file is still empty, open the panel System Log via Start > Control Panel > OP > Information > System Log and look for error codes 0x0301 (path not found), 0x0310 (write protect), 0x031C (filesystem error), or 0x0320 (archive not assigned).

Non-ASCII Text Corruption in the CSV

The original poster observed the panel rendering Greek text correctly on screen but the exported CSV containing question marks and stray Latin glyphs. This is a code-page mismatch: WinCC Flexible 2007's CSV writer hard-codes Windows-1252 (ANSI Latin-1). Any character outside code-page 1252 — Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, CJK — is replaced by a ? placeholder at write time. The Greek word ΣΦΑΛΜΑ therefore becomes ?G???S S???FO?.

Three practical workarounds exist for legacy systems where an upgrade is not feasible:

1. Pre-process in Excel via VBA. Read the CSV as ANSI, then transcode the column to UTF-8 using ADODB.Stream with Charset = "windows-1253" (Greek) and re-save as UTF-8 with BOM. This is the route most field engineers eventually adopt.
2. Switch the panel to English alarm text for the export. Use a separate Alarm Class whose Text Library is English; export that class only and maintain the Greek mapping in the engineering database.
3. Add a VBScript wrapper. In WinCC Flexible 2007 a VBS procedure can read the CSV via FileSystemObject, write a parallel _UTF8.csv using Stream.Type = adTypeText, Stream.Charset = "UTF-8". Note that this only re-encodes what is left of the original; characters already destroyed by the ANSI writer cannot be recovered.

The clean long-term remedy is migrating to WinCC Unified (TIA Portal V21), which exports alarms as UTF-8 with an explicit Unicode Byte Order Mark. The Unified alarm control exposes an Export button directly in the runtime HMI; engineers no longer need a separate ArchiveLogFile-style trigger. See the Siemens TIA Portal help entry "Exporting alarms (RT Unified)" for the canonical procedure.

Storage Layout on the Panel

The WinCC Flexible runtime writes alarm archives to one of three logical mount points. The mapping differs by panel family and must be selected during project engineering.

The runtime resolves the logical prefix to the first mounted media of the matching type. If the engineer specifies \Storage Card USB\alarms.csv but the operator has inserted an SD card into the front slot, the runtime silently selects the first available mount that satisfies the prefix, leading to "export appeared to succeed but file isn't on the USB" complaints. Always confirm in the panel's File Browser under Start > Programs > File Browser before relying on the operator workflow.

Cross-Platform Equivalent Procedures

Engineers moving between vendor stacks can use the following mapping when porting an alarm-export workflow:

The dominant pattern across vendors is the same: a runtime trigger function or UI button, a CSV file format, and a USB or removable-media sink. The two implementation differences that bite engineers in mixed fleets are (a) ANSI vs UTF-8 encoding, and (b) trigger placement (script-driven vs UI-driven).

Verification Checklist

After applying any of the fixes above, run the following verification on the live panel before signing off the change.

1. Force at least three alarm events of different classes (Error, Warning, System).
2. Click the export button. The CSV must contain one header row and at least three data rows with timestamps in the configured format (default yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss).
3. Remove the USB stick and reinsert it in a Windows PC. The CSV must open in Notepad without NUL bytes and in Excel with correct column alignment.
4. Repeat step 2 with a 1-second scheduler trigger; confirm the Append mode in HF4 creates one CSV per cycle rather than overwriting.
5. Open the panel system log and confirm no error codes 0x0301, 0x0310, 0x031C, 0x0320 are present since the change.
6. For Greek / non-ASCII sites: open the CSV in Notepad++, switch the encoding to ANSI > Greek (1253), and verify the column reads back cleanly. If not, schedule a migration to WinCC Unified.

Field-Proven Edge Cases

The following conditions have been reported by maintenance teams on installed bases and are worth pre-empting:

• USB stick with multiple partitions. The WinCC Flexible runtime binds to the first FAT partition only. Use single-partition sticks under 8 GB to avoid confusion.
• USB stick with LED activity indicator that never blinks. Indicates a power-management issue on MP 277 panels manufactured before 2009 — use a self-powered hub or a stick under 4 GB (lower inrush current).
• Export succeeds but file is locked. The runtime holds a write lock for up to 30 seconds after ArchiveLogFile. Pulling the stick too early truncates the file. Add a 5-second wait or an Eject USB button that calls the DisableUSB system function before physical removal.
• Scheduled daily export with date-named file. WinCC Flexible 2007 supports $(date), $(time), and tag-substitution placeholders in the File Name field. Combine with a daily scheduler to produce rolling CSVs without manual intervention.
• Project re-transfer wipes the existing log. Backup the \Storage Card MMC\ or \Storage Card USB\ archive before each transfer; otherwise alarm history accumulated between transfers is lost.

Migration Path to Modern Platforms

When the pain of ANSI-only CSV export, the absence of Unicode, or the lack of remote diagnostics forces an upgrade, the migration matrix below helps scope the effort. WinCC Flexible 2007 projects migrate to TIA Portal via the Port Project wizard; WinCC Unified requires a partial rewrite of alarm scripting but accepts the same logical alarm model. Reference the Siemens Industry Online Support portal for migration guides tied to specific panel replacements, and the WinCC Unified alarm export documentation for the target-side procedure.

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