Operator's manual i

Argos runs in a web browser. Open it at the address your administrator gave you, on the control-room screen, a laptop or a phone. Every screen has the same three parts. The header and the bottom banner stay in view when you scroll a long page.

The header

The Argos logo takes you to the Live page. The links beside it are the seven sections: Live, Alarms, Maintenance, Trends & Reports, Configure, System and Help. Configure is shown only to those who can use something in it. System is shown to everyone, signed in or not, so Setup can always be reached (Restart Argos, the database). Under the header, a row of tabs lists the pages of the section you are in: under Alarms - Active, History, Shelved, Configure alarms, Notifications; under Maintenance - Requests, Calendar, Asset records, Set-up; under Trends & Reports - Trend, Reports, Energy, Billing; under Configure - Assets and drivers, Build, Driver guides; under System - Setup, Users, User log. A button anywhere that takes you to one of these pages carries that page's icon, so the picture is worth learning. Each section has its own icon and colour; the page you are on is shown in white, and its name is the coloured tag beside the logo. Once you have signed in, the round button at the far right shows your initials with a small gear on it, in your role's colour (red Administrator, blue Engineer, green Operator, grey Viewer). Press it for your name and role, Account, Sign out and the display settings. Before you sign in it is the gear, with Sign in beside it. The links stay in the same place whichever page you open.

The page

Long lists fold away under a heading with a blue arrow box. Click the heading to open or close it; the arrow points down while it is open. Argos remembers what you opened on this browser.

Saving changes

When you change a box, a tick or a list, the Save button for that part of the page flashes light green until you press it, so you can see that something is waiting to be saved. A Cancel button appears beside it: press it to put back what was there before, and nothing is saved. In the widget builder, the dashboard editor and on Configure alarms the Save flashes the same way while there are changes; there, Undo or Discard changes takes them back. On the Setup page each area's Save is at its lower right.

The bottom banner

Two rows are at the bottom of every page. The upper one is the alarm banner: the word Alarms, how many alarms are in alarm or not yet acknowledged, the newest one, and the Shelved alarms button. Its top edge is red while anything is in alarm. Press the blue arrow beside Alarms to open the three newest alarms with their Ack buttons and the link Open the Alarms page; press it again to fold them away. Your browser remembers which you chose; the Live page starts open.

The bottom row is the state of this station: the round DB symbol, green while the database answers, yellow with the time when it is slow, red and pulsing with DOWN when it does not answer - hold the pointer over it to read more, press it to open Setup, Database health. Then a symbol for each driver - a plug with the letters of its protocol, green when it is working, yellow with a ! when some of its devices are not answering, red and pulsing when it is DOWN (its name is then written beside it), and a yellow SIM when its values are simulated; click a symbol to open that driver on Configure. Then the computer symbol: press it to see the name of the Argos computer, the address to type on another PC, tablet or phone to open this Argos, and how many assets and parameters it reads. Last are the time and the revision that is running.

While anything is in alarm, the Alarms link in the header glows yellow with a small tag under it: ACTIVE, pulsing, while nobody has acknowledged them; 5 ACTIVE · 2 ACKED while some have been acknowledged; ACTIVE · ACKED, half green and steady, once every alarm that is up has been acknowledged - someone has acted, but the conditions are still there. If the whole header turns red with RESTART NEEDED written across it, an update has been copied in but Argos has not been restarted: press the red note Rev ... is on disk - restart Argos at the bottom, which opens the Setup page with Restart Argos lit up, and press it.

The small "i" buttons

Every section and most settings have a round i button. It explains that item in a few lines. Everything those buttons say is also in the second half of this manual, screen by screen.

The gear: light or dark, and hiding the "i" buttons

1. Press the gear at the right end of the header.
2. Under Theme, press Light for white pages with dark text, or Dark to go back. The page changes at once. The header stays dark in both.
3. Under Information buttons, press Hidden to take the "i" buttons off every page, or Shown to bring them back.

Both choices are kept in this browser on this computer only: each screen in the plant can be set the way the person at it likes, and nobody else's screen changes.

Anyone who can reach Argos can look at every screen. To change anything you sign in.

1. Click Sign in at the top right.
2. Type your user name and password, then Sign in.
3. When you finish at a shared screen, click Sign out.

What you may do depends on your role. The four roles that come with Argos are:

• Viewer: look only.
• Operator: acknowledge alarms and add notes, change values on equipment (setpoints, on and off commands).
• Engineer: everything an operator does, plus saving trend groups, adding and changing assets, and reading the user log.
• Administrator: everything, including users and roles.

Your site may have its own roles. A control you may not use is greyed out. Change your own password under Account.

Signing in with a code (two-factor sign-in)

Your site may ask for a second proof that it is you: a six-digit code from an authenticator app on your phone (Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, Duo, Authy or the like). The app works the code out by itself, so it needs no internet and no signal. Your role may require it, or you can switch it on for your own account.

Setting it up (once, about a minute):

1. Click Account at the top right. If your role requires a code and you have none, Argos brings you here by itself after your password.
2. Under Two-factor sign-in press Set up, type your password and press Continue.
3. On your phone open the authenticator app, choose to add an account and scan the picture on the screen. With no camera, choose to enter a key by hand and type the account name and the key shown beside the picture.
4. Type the six digits the app now shows for Argos and press Switch on.
5. Argos shows ten backup codes, this one time. Write them down or press Print, keep them away from the phone, then press I have kept them.

Signing in afterwards:

1. Type your user name and password and press Sign in. A box for the code opens.
2. Type the six digits the app shows and press Confirm the code. Without the phone, type one of your backup codes instead; each works once.
3. At a computer you use every shift you may tick Do not ask for a code on this computer first. Argos then asks you only for your password on that browser for the number of days shown. Do not tick it on a computer you are only borrowing.

Under Account you can also set it up again for a new phone, make new backup codes when few are left, and press Forget beside a computer that should ask you for a code again.

Lost the administrator password

When nobody can sign in as an administrator - the password is forgotten, the account is locked, or the only administrator lost both phone and backup codes - get back in at the Argos computer itself. It does not work from any other computer.

1. On the Argos computer open http://localhost:8085/login.html and press Lost the administrator password? under the Sign in box.
2. Press Write a recovery code. Argos writes a code to the file recovery-code.txt in the Argos folder and shows where the file is.
3. Open that file with Notepad. Type the code into the box and press Check the code. The code lasts 15 minutes and works once; after five wrong tries it stops working and you press Write a new code.
4. Choose the administrator account, type its new password twice and press Set the new password. If the phone for that account is lost too, tick Also switch off two-factor sign-in for this account first.
5. Sign in with the new password. If the role requires two-factor sign-in, set it up again with the new phone.

For whoever manages users: requiring a code

1. Set it up on your own account first (above). Argos will not let you require it of your own role until you have.
2. Open System, Users. On a role's card press Require beside Two-factor sign-in and confirm. Everyone with that role must set it up at their next sign-in before they can do anything else. Stop requiring undoes it.
3. Lower on the same page, under Two-factor sign-in, choose how many days a computer may be remembered (0 = a code at every sign-in), the clock tolerance, and whether the Argos computer itself asks for a code. Press Save.
4. For a lost phone: in the user list press Edit beside the person, tick Reset two-factor sign-in and Save. Make sure it really is them asking.

The Live page shows one widget for each asset: a tank, a pump station, a power meter, a single signal.

Choosing what you see

Press Dashboards at the top left and pick one. A dashboard is a set of widgets someone chose to show together, or a drawing (an electrical one-line, a site plan) with live values placed on it. "All assets" shows everything.

A group of dashboards

A dashboard marked ▣ is a group: a whole utility or plant, with its own dashboards listed under it, set in. Pick the group and its page shows one section for each dashboard inside it: the name, how many sites, how many are in alarm or not communicating, and every site as a coloured mark - green OK, red in alarm, red with a dashed edge not communicating, grey switched off.

1. Click a section's heading to open it: that dashboard's widgets appear right there, live. Click it again to close it. Expand all and Collapse all, in the row at the top beside Dashboards, open or close every section. Argos remembers which you left open.
2. Click a site's name to open that asset's page.
3. Press Open › to go to that dashboard on its own. The button with the group's name above it (‹ Consolidated Utility District, for example) takes you back up.

Reading a widget

• OK every value is being read and nothing is in alarm.
• HI ALARM or another alarm name: a value is past its limit. The widget has a red border and the value in alarm carries a small label.
• COMM FAIL the device has not answered for 10 seconds.
• BAD QUALITY some values cannot be read while others can.
• The small line beside a value is its last two hours, with the highest and lowest it reached. An on/off value shows as a square wave.
• The network symbol at the foot is green while the device answers and red when it does not. Beside it is the address Argos reads the device at, which is the first thing to check when it is red.
• At the right of the same line is the driver the asset uses: a plug symbol with the letters of its protocol, then the driver's name. The symbol shows the state of the whole driver - green when it is working, yellow with a ! when some of its devices are not answering or it cannot keep up, red and pulsing when it is DOWN. A yellow SIM beside it means the values are simulated. When one widget's network symbol is red and its driver symbol is green, look at that device; when the driver symbol is red, every asset on that driver is affected.
• A small cloud means the asset is published to ScadaBOSS: green while the cloud link is up, red when it is not.

On a drawing

Each value sits where it belongs on the picture and turns red in alarm. Use the + and − buttons or the mouse wheel to zoom, and drag to move around a large drawing.

The alarm strip

The last three alarms stay along the bottom of the Live page with an Ack button each. Open the Alarms page takes you to the full list.

Click a widget, or a value on a drawing, to open that asset's own page.

• The red Back to Live Dashboard button at the top left takes you back.
• The badge beside the name is the same status as on the widget. Point at the name to see its widget, driver, station address and dashboard.
• Trend, Records, Alarm history, Communication and Configure open those pages already set to this asset. Each of them then has the big red Back to button at the top left with the asset's name on it: press it to come straight back to this page.
• The faceplate shows the asset in full, as large as the window allows: a pump station is drawn to fill the screen, a little wider than tall on a wide screen, and the empty places kept for equipment the site does not have are left out. A power meter shows volts, amps, power, power factor, frequency and energy. A pump station shows the whole station on one screen.
• Below it are folding sections: Trend, Communication, Active alarms on this asset and All parameters. Click a heading to open or fold it; a folded heading still shows the response time, the number of active alarms or the number of parameters. Argos remembers what you leave open.
• In All parameters, type in the find box to narrow the list: part of a name, several words (booster run), or wildcards - pump*1 lists everything of Pump01. The list scrolls inside its own box.

A pump station page

The station is laid out as one picture: remote and local wells on the left, the tank and its well setpoints in the middle, the booster pumps on the right, pressure and flows under them, and the last two hours of tank level and pressure along the bottom.

• A pump, well or valve is grey when stopped or closed, green when running or open, red when it reports a fault.
• The green recycling symbol with an A means the equipment is in automatic: its Local / Auto input is ON. The red hand means that input is OFF - the selector is in local or hand, or the input is not answering. Every booster, well and valve reads it the same way: ON = AUTO.
• The green running figure means the station has called that well or valve to run. The red standing figure means it has not.
• A modulating valve shows FDBK % (where it is), Manual % and AUTO % under it. Valves A and B show the same three boxes when the station says they are modulating; on the full page they then sit in the left column. Through HillTop they appear only once HillTop has read them from the station, and they cannot be changed there; read straight from the PLC, press Manual % or AUTO % to change it. A station read straight over Modbus does not show them yet.
• On a station read straight from its PLC (GSTo), every well the PLC polls over Modbus - local or remote - carries an antenna beside its name: green while the link reads every block, amber while connected with a failed block, red and pulsing with no communication (the alarm "... no communication" for that well is up at the same time). Press the antenna for that link's figures - answer time, requests sent, replies, no answer, read passes, reconnections and the error number. Press x to close it.
• On a GSTo station a well turns green only when its running signal comes on; while it is only called to start, the figure beside it shows that. A station read over Modbus or through HillTop still sends a called well as running until River Styx changes the station.
• Only equipment the station actually has is drawn.
• The two small trends name their lines in the heading. Move the pointer over one (or touch and slide) for a cursor: the time is shown under it and each value beside its name. The small button at the right of the heading opens the full trend page.

An alarm is raised when a value passes a limit someone set for it, changes too fast, cannot be read, or when a device stops answering.

1. Open Alarms. The Active list shows every alarm that still needs attention, newest first.
2. Read the message, the asset and the value that tripped it. Click the asset name to open its page.
3. Deal with the cause, or send someone.
4. Press Ack on the alarm to show you have seen it. To acknowledge several, tick them and press Ack selected.
5. Press Notes to write what you found and what you did. The next shift will read it.

What the states mean

• ACTIVE the condition is still there.
• RETURNED · UNACKED the value went back to normal by itself, but nobody has acknowledged the alarm yet.
• An alarm leaves the Active list only when it has both returned to normal and been acknowledged.

Looking back

History lists every alarm there has been. Narrow it by date, category, type or a word from the message. Each row shows who acknowledged it and when.

On Active and History the two lists All assets and All parameters narrow what is shown to one asset, one parameter, or one parameter of one asset. The Shelved tab has the same lists on its own list of alarms.

Shelving an alarm for a while

When an alarm is going to keep sounding for a reason you know - the tank is drained for cleaning, a meter is being replaced - you can shelve it: it stays silent for a time you choose, then comes back by itself.

1. On the Alarms page press Shelve on the alarm's row (the column between State and Duration). A row that has returned to normal has the button too: shelving it stops that alarm coming back for the time you choose.
2. Check the asset and the alarm, choose For how long (15 minutes to 7 days) and Why, and add a note for the next person.
3. Press Shelve this alarm. It leaves the Active list, and nobody is notified about it while it is shelved.

From a widget. On the Live page every widget has a yellow Shelve button beside Trend and Open. It opens the same box on that asset, set to Every alarm of this asset - for equipment that is out of service. Choose one alarm in Which alarm to shelve only that one. The asset's own page has Shelve alarms… in the heading of Active alarms on this asset. A widget with something shelved carries a yellow mark, for example 2 shelved.

Seeing and unshelving. Press Shelved alarms on the alarm banner at the bottom of any page (its number is yellow when anything is shelved). It opens the Shelved tab of the Alarms page:

• Shelved now lists which alarm, when it comes back, why, and who shelved it. Unshelve now brings one back at once; Unshelve all, above the list, brings back every one after asking.
• Every configured alarm lists every alarm Argos is watching, sounding or not - it is a list of what is set up. Only the Now column says whether one is sounding: ACTIVE NOW in red, SHELVED in yellow, or Not in alarm. Narrow it with All widget types, All assets, All parameters and All kinds of alarm, the find box, or Only active now (Show all clears them); tick the alarms (the box in the heading ticks every one shown), and press Shelve ticked…: one time and one reason for all of them. This is also how to shelve an alarm before it happens.
• Not communicating is the alarm for a whole asset: Argos has stopped getting answers from its device (it is off, a cable or the network is down, or its address is wrong), so the values on screen are old. Every asset has one.

When the time is up Argos looks at the alarm again straight away: if the condition is still there it sounds, and the people on its rules are told. Nothing on the equipment is changed by shelving, and every shelve and return is in the User log.

Who is on call, and covering for someone

Open Alarms, Notifications and unfold On call (you must be signed in to see names). The top lines say who an alarm on each rule would go to right now. Under them, The next seven days shows each person's hours as green bars, with holidays named under the date.

1. When someone is off sick, on holiday or swapping a shift, press Arrange cover….
2. Choose Who is away and Who covers (or Nobody: the others on each rule then get the alarms), and when it ends in Until. Leave From empty to start now.
3. Press Arrange cover. The absent person gets no alarm messages; whoever covers gets them during the hours the absent person would have worked. At the Until time everything goes back by itself. End cover now ends it early.

If nobody on a rule is on duty when an alarm comes, Argos tells everyone on that rule rather than nobody (unless the rule was set up to stay silent). If a rule has a second step, an alarm nobody acknowledges within its minutes is sent on to the people named there, marked NOT ACKNOWLEDGED: acknowledging on the Alarms page stops that.

Alarms on your phone

If your administrator has set you up as a contact, alarms reach you by e-mail, a push notification or a text message, depending on the rules for your site. Several alarms in the same moment arrive as one message. The message says which alarm, which asset, the value and the limit.

You need the right to change values (the Operator role or above). Controls you may not use are greyed out.

1. Open the asset's page.
2. For an on/off command press Turn ON or Turn OFF. For a number, type the new value and press Write. For a choice, pick it from the list.
3. Argos shows what will be written, to what, and what it reads now. Check it.
4. Under Why? tap the reason for the change if you can: Alarm response, Demand, Maintenance, Testing or Other. A box appears for a short note. This step is optional; tap the reason again to clear it.
5. Press Write it.

Argos refuses a number outside the range set for that value, and says so. Every write, including one that was refused or failed, is written in the user log with your name, your reason, and what the rest of that asset was reading at that moment.

If someone changes a setting at the equipment itself - on a local panel or with a hand switch - Argos notices and writes "Changed outside Argos" in the user log, so the log still shows every change.

Working on equipment

When an asset is being repaired, tested or commissioned, an engineer ticks In maintenance for it on the Configure page. Its page then shows IN MAINTENANCE. Alarms and controls work as usual; the mark only flags what is done meanwhile in the user log. Ask for it to be taken off when the work is finished.

Pump stations: Control Site

A pump station has a Control Site list at the top right of its page. It is how the station is told that commands are coming.

1. While Control Site reads POLL, Argos only reads the station. Every setpoint and command on the page is switched off.
2. Choose WRITE and confirm. The edge of the list turns green and the controls come to life.
3. Make your change: click a light-blue box to type a new setpoint, or pick from a list (Auto / OFF / Hand, Lead / Lag, and so on). Confirm it.
4. Watch the value on the page change to what you asked for.
5. Set Control Site back to POLL when you are done.

Argos records every value from the moment an asset is added. The Trend page draws any of them against time.

1. Open Trend. Pick a dashboard, then an asset, then a tag, and press Add Tag. You can have up to eight on one chart.
2. Or type in the Find tag box beside it: * stands for any letters, ? for one (*Level*, Rocky*, Pump0?_Running_DI). Click a tag in the list, or pick it with the arrow keys and press Enter, to add it.
3. Choose how far back to look: 15 minutes to 90 days, or type your own start and end.
4. Cursor reads the values at the point you hover over. Zoom lets you drag across the part you want to see closer, or use the mouse wheel. Fit shows the whole range again.
5. Back and Forward step through time. Now returns to the present.

Each tag's box above the chart shows its current, lowest, highest and average value for what is on screen. Click the coloured square to change its colour, the dot to hide it, the × to remove it.

To keep a set of tags you use often, type a name and press Save Group (Engineer role). CSV saves what is on screen as a file a spreadsheet can open.

The Energy page turns the power meters into answers: how much, what it cost, when the peak was, and where it went.

1. Open Trends & Reports, Energy and press Meters. Tick the meters or groups you want. All and None beside a feeder tick or clear everything under it.
2. Choose the period at the top: a preset such as "Last 7 days", or your own dates.
3. Pick a view:
   • Usage: bars of energy, cost or carbon per hour, day, week or month.
   • Demand: the 15-minute demand, the peak and when it happened.
   • Compare days: up to three days hour by hour.
   • Energy flow: where the energy went, from the service down to each load.

The top-most thing you ticked is what every view starts on, so the four views stay on the same meter as you click between them.

A total never counts energy twice: when a feeder and the meters under it are both ticked, the feeder is counted through those meters.

Billing, at the top right, is where departments or tenants are charged for what their meters show. It needs the right to configure Argos.

The Build page is where dashboards and widgets are made. Anyone who signs in can make a dashboard of their own; engineers and administrators also build widgets there (the next two chapters).

A page of widgets

1. Sign in and open Configure, Build. Under Dashboards press New dashboard.
2. The dashboard editor opens, still in Build: a blue bar across the top, a panel at the side, and the dashboard itself in the middle. Type a name and leave Kind at Widgets.
3. Under Add widgets, find each asset you want and press Add. It appears in the middle at once, with its live values. Use the arrows beside a name to change the order, and the cross to take it off.
4. Press Create dashboard in the bar. It is now a tab on the Live page, for you and for everyone else. You stay in the editor and can carry on.
5. Press Close editor to go back to Build.

A drawing with live values

1. Press New dashboard, type a name, choose the kind Visual and press Create dashboard.
2. The tools for the drawing appear in the panel at the side. Press Background drawing… and choose your one-line or site plan (a PDF or a picture).
3. Choose a value and press Place on picture, then click where it belongs; drag it to move it. The bar says Changes not saved.
4. Press Save. If you press a link or Close editor first, Argos asks: Save, Discard changes or Keep editing.

A group of dashboards

1. Press New dashboard, type the name (the utility or the plant), choose the kind Group and press Create dashboard.
2. Open each dashboard that belongs in it (Edit on Build), choose the group under Inside group and press Save. A new dashboard can be put in the group the same way before you press Create dashboard.
3. To take a dashboard out again, choose None - at the top of the list under Inside group and press Save.

Groups go two levels deep only: a group holds dashboards, never another group, and holds no widgets of its own. Deleting a group leaves its dashboards at the top of the list.

Changing or removing one

On Build, every dashboard is listed with who made it; yours are marked Yours. On a dashboard you may change, Edit opens it in the dashboard editor and Delete removes it after asking. On the Live page, Edit dashboard… above a dashboard you may change opens the same editor. Deleting a dashboard never removes an asset.

You can change the dashboards you made. An engineer or administrator can change any dashboard and sets the order of the tabs.

Taking a change back

Moved the wrong thing, or removed one you wanted? Press Undo in the blue bar at the top of the editor (or Ctrl+Z). Each press takes back one more change, as far back as how the dashboard was when you opened the editor. Redo (Ctrl+Y) puts back what you undid. One drag counts as one change. When you have undone everything, the bar says No changes yet. A background drawing you uploaded or removed is not undone.

A new kind of device (a pump station, a meter, a controller) is added to Argos once, as a widget in the gallery; after that you add as many assets of it as you have. The easiest way to make the widget is from a spreadsheet of its parameters.

1. Open Build. Under Widgets, in step 1, press Import spreadsheet…
2. For a new device, download the template (Excel (.xlsx) or CSV), fill in one row per value the device has, and save it. A legacy Argos type sheet (.xls) can be used as it is. Its addresses are converted as it is read: legacy FP: and DW: addresses (low-order register first) become 4X:n:CDAB, and FPSW: and DWSW: become plain 4X:n. The Modbus TCP guide has the whole table.
3. Choose the file. Argos shows what it read: the widget name, the parameters, and any warnings. Nothing is added yet.
4. Check the name (it must be new), and add a label, manufacturer and description for the gallery card.
5. Read the warnings. Tick Writable for every setpoint or command operators may change: legacy sheets only mark on/off commands.
6. Press Add to gallery. The widget appears under its manufacturer, and you can add assets from it.
7. To try it before the hardware exists: start the demo (Setup page), then Add an asset of the new widget and choose the driver Plant Sim. The station is filled in with the next free simulator test slot, and the asset shows moving values straight away. Change the station to the real device when you deploy.

The builder draws a widget's asset page and its card on the Live page from simple parts tied to the widget's own parameters.

1. Open Build. Under Widgets, on the widget's card, click Design. (A widget that came with Argos shows Copy and design: give the copy a name and press Make a copy and design it.) From Import spreadsheet…, Add and design goes straight to the builder.
2. The builder opens with everything the widget shows today already on the canvas, as parts: the rows of its card, the cards, tables, bars and ring of its page, or the whole pump station page. A widget that came with Argos shows them greyed until you make the copy; the copy opens with the same parts, and those can be changed. (A widget that already has a design of its own opens with that design.)
3. Choose Asset page or Widget card at the top.
4. On the Widget card tab you see the whole card as it is on the Live page. The heading (name, status badge, Trend and Open) and the connection line at the foot are greyed and marked Fixed: Argos draws them the same on every widget and they cannot be moved. Your design is the area between them. Choose how big that area is under Card size in Properties: the sizes are standard so cards line up, and the Wide sizes take two columns of the Live page.
5. To start from a ready-made layout, click an empty place on the canvas, choose one under Start from a template and press Use this template: rows with history lines, one big number, a dial gauge, a half dial, a ring gauge, level bars, a tank, a pump. It is filled from this widget's own parameters; change any of them in Properties. As it is now puts back what the widget shows today.
6. A copy of a default widget (Analog input, Analog output, Digital input, Digital output) has one value and works with whatever tag and driver each asset is given. Parts it cannot feed are greyed in the Parts list (a Status lamp on an analog value, a Dial gauge on an on/off value); every part you add is tied to its one value for you.
7. For an analog gauge, use the Dial gauge (needle) part or template. With nothing typed or tied for the marks, the dial shows each asset's own low and high alarm limits in red. Its scale runs from the value's minimum to its maximum unless you type other numbers under Scale starts at and Scale ends at, or tie each end to a parameter. Divisions of the scale sets the numbered steps. A Low mark and a High mark - a typed number, or a parameter such as a setpoint - paint that end of the scale red.
8. To change what is there: drag a part to move it, drag one of the blue squares on its corners and sides to resize it, click it and change its label or parameter in Properties, or press Delete part.
9. To tidy a layout, choose several parts: hold Shift and click each one, or press on an empty place (on the canvas or beside it) and drag a box over them. Then, in the bar of tools above the canvas (under Undo and Redo), use Left, Centre, Right, Top, Middle or Bottom to line them up, Space evenly (Across or Down) to make the gaps equal, and Width, Height or Size to make them the same as the part you clicked last (it has the heavier outline). Drag any one of them and they all move together. With one part chosen, the same buttons line it up on the card or page: Centre puts it in the middle. Group makes the chosen parts one - a pump with its label and values, say: a click on any of them then chooses them all and they move together; double-click one to change its own settings; Ungroup sets them free. In front and Behind decide which of two overlapping parts covers the other. Turn gives a part a quarter turn. Lock fixes a part in place - a background panel, say - until you click it and press Unlock. Each press is one step of Undo.
10. While you drag, thin pink guide lines show when the part is level with another part or with the middle or edge of the card, and it jumps onto the line. Hold Alt to drag without them, or untick Guide lines.
11. Copy and Paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) carry parts from the card to the page, or from one widget to another: copy, switch tab or open the other widget's builder, paste. A part keeps its parameter where the other widget has one of the same name and kind; otherwise it gets the amber outline until you tie it.
12. Drag a part from Parts onto the canvas, or click it. Drag parts to move them; drag a blue square to resize.
13. Click a part. In Properties, give it a label and choose which parameter feeds each slot (Running, Fault, Run command, Mode…). Leave a slot as "not used" to switch that feature off. A part with an amber dashed outline still needs a parameter.
14. For history on the page, add Small trend (last 2 hours) and choose up to four parameters as its pens. Its heading names each pen, values with different units get their own scale, and the operator gets a cursor showing the time and each value. The builder draws it with example history so you see what you will get.
15. Tick Simulate to watch the design move through its states: pumps off, starting, running and fault; drop-downs changing; levels moving.
16. Press Save design. Every asset made from this widget shows the new look.

The widget's assets keep the look they have while you work. When you press Save design they show what is on the two tabs. To go back to the starting layout of a tab, click an empty place on the canvas, choose As it is now under Start from a template and press Use this template; Undo brings back what was there.

The layout made from a look that came with Argos is close to it, not identical: the parts are the builder's own, so sizes and spacing differ a little. On the pump station page some equipment shares a place, as on the legacy screen (a site has one or the other): in the builder you see both, on a real asset only the one that is installed. On a phone a designed page is scaled to fit instead of being re-arranged into a list.

Modbus devices are set up by typing a station and addresses. An Allen-Bradley controller has its own chapter, the next one. An OPC UA server or an MQTT broker is set up by connecting to it and picking its values from a list. You need the right to change assets and drivers (the Engineer role or above).

Addresses: the driver guides

How to write a station and an address for each driver is in the Driver guides: one guide each for Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, MicroLogix / SLC, Mitsubishi MELSEC, OPC UA, MQTT and the simulator, and one on how addressing works. Each has examples of addresses Argos accepts and refuses, the driver's settings as this system has them, and a Try an address box that checks what you type before any equipment is connected.

1. Open Help. In the contents on the left, under Guides, press Driver guides: addressing.
2. Pick the driver in the list on the left.
3. Press Try beside any example, or type your own address under Try an address and press Check.
4. To send a guide to an integrator, press Print this guide and choose "Save as PDF" as the printer.

The same guides open from Configure: the link under a parameter's Address box, and the link at the top of a driver's settings.

Modbus: 32-bit values whose low-order register comes first

A 32-bit number takes two registers. Most devices send the high-order one first, which is the driver's setting ABCD. For a device, or one value of a device, that sends the low-order register first, add the order to the address: 4X:4000:CDAB. The order on the address wins over the asset's 32-bit byte order, and that wins over the driver's.

Try it first with a simulator

1. Open Configure. On the left, open Protocol simulators.
2. Press Start simulator beside OPC UA or MQTT. The first OPC UA start can take up to a minute.
3. Argos adds a demo driver, a widget, one asset and a dashboard. Open the Live page and choose the dashboard OPC UA demo or MQTT demo. The numbers are simulated.
4. Press Stop simulator when you are done.

Connect a real server or broker

1. On Configure press Add driver. Give it a name, choose OPC UA or MQTT, and type the Endpoint URL (for example opc.tcp://192.168.1.10:4840) or the Broker URL (for example mqtt://192.168.1.10:1883). Press Add driver.
2. The driver's page opens. If the server needs a user name and password or message security, open Driver at the top, fill them in and press Save driver.
3. Press Test connection. A green Connected line means the address and sign-in are right. A red line says what the server or broker answered.
4. Add the asset: Add asset, choose its widget, and choose this driver. Its parameters start with no address.
5. Back on the driver's page, in Scanner: for OPC UA press Open the tree and click folders open until you see the value; for MQTT press Listen for topics. Click the value or topic you want.
6. Press Read to check it is the right one.
7. Under Map to a parameter choose the asset and the parameter, and press Map ←. The next parameter is selected for you; pick the next value and press Map ← again.
8. Open Values with no good reading. It lists what is still not being read and why. When it says every parameter has a good reading, you are done.

Remove a driver you no longer need

1. On Configure, look at the driver in the Drivers list: it shows how many tags it reads. A driver can only be deleted when no asset uses it.
2. If assets still use it, open each one and either delete it, or choose another driver in its Driver box and save.
3. Click the driver, open its settings, and press Delete driver…, then Delete driver to confirm.

To stop a driver but keep it, untick Driver on and press Save driver instead.

Argos reads and writes the tags of a ControlLogix or CompactLogix controller by name, over EtherNet/IP. One driver is one controller. You need the right to change assets and drivers (the Engineer role or above).

Try it first with the simulator

1. Open Configure. On the left, open Protocol simulators and press Start simulator beside EtherNet/IP.
2. Argos adds the driver EtherNet/IP Demo, a lift station and its two pumps, and the dashboard EtherNet/IP demo. Open it on the Live page. The numbers are simulated.
3. Click the driver EtherNet/IP Demo on Configure to try Test connection and the Scanner before you have a controller on the bench.

Connect a real controller

1. On Configure press Add driver. Give it a name and choose EtherNet/IP.
2. Type the Controller address: the IP address of the controller's Ethernet port, or of the Ethernet module in its chassis.
3. Type the Controller slot: 0 for a CompactLogix. On a ControlLogix chassis it is the slot the processor sits in, counted from 0 at the left - not the slot of the Ethernet module. Leave Port at 44818. Press Add driver.
4. Press Test connection. A green line names the controller, its revision, its serial number and whether it is in Run. A red line says what went wrong: no answer (address, cable, firewall) or the connection refused (most often the wrong slot).
5. In Scanner press Open the tree. The controller's tags are listed by name with their data type; programs are at the bottom. Click a structure or an array open to see its members.
6. Click a tag and press Read to check it is the one you mean.
7. Add the asset: Add asset, choose its widget, choose this driver. Then, back in the Scanner, choose the asset and parameter under Map to a parameter and press Map ← for each one.
8. Open Values with no good reading. A tag the controller refuses is listed with what the controller said; the other tags are not affected by it.

Record what the controller does: the driver test

The first time Argos meets a model or firmware of controller, run the driver test. It asks the controller a fixed set of questions and keeps every answer in a report.

1. On Configure, click the driver. Under Test connection press Driver test….
2. Under Tags to check type a few of your own tags, one on a line. To have them compared, add = and the value the controller's software shows: Tank_Level = 12.5.
3. Under Notes write what is on the bench: the controller's model and firmware, and how it is connected.
4. Leave Write check empty unless you have a tag that is safe to write. With a tag there, the test writes back the value it has just read, and asks you to confirm first.
5. Press Run test. A small controller takes seconds; one with thousands of tags can take up to two minutes.
6. Read the Report: each step says OK, LOOK, FAILED or NOT RUN with one sentence. Click a step for the detail.
7. Under Notes in the report, add what you saw that the test cannot see, and press Add note.
8. Press Download report to send it on. Every report is also kept in the logs\driver-tests folder inside the Argos folder, and listed under Earlier tests.

Addresses from legacy Argos

Legacy Argos wrote a data type in front of each tag and a slash before a bit: REAL:TANK_LEVEL, INT:STATUS/3, BOOL:PROGRAM:MAINPROGRAM.RUN. Argos 2.0 takes these as written; the type in front is not needed, because the controller says what the tag is. In legacy Argos the asset's Station was the controller's IP address and slot (192.168.1.10:0): in Argos 2.0 those belong to the driver, one driver for each controller, and the asset's Station is left empty.

Typing a tag yourself

An address is the tag exactly as it is written in the controller. Capitals do not matter.

• A tag: Tank_Level
• A member of a structure: Pump1.Speed
• One element of an array: Rates[3]
• A tag inside a program: Program:MainProgram.Step
• One bit of a whole number, for an on/off parameter: Status.5 (0 to 31)
• One element of a BOOL array: Flags[37]

Text (STRING) tags and whole structures are listed by the scanner but cannot be shown as a value: map their members.

Many pumps, one widget: the asset's Station

When the controller has one structure per device (Pump1, Pump2…), make the widget's addresses the member names only (Speed, Run) and type the structure's name in each asset's Station: Pump1 for the first asset, Pump2 for the second. Leave Station empty to type whole tags in every address.

Slow links

In the driver's settings, beside Fill in typical settings for:, press Radio or cellular link as a starting point, adjust it to your link and press Save driver. The response time and the count of failed requests are values you can trend: give a parameter the address diag:response or diag:failed. Between slow polls Argos sends a small request every ten seconds so the controller does not close the connection.

A MicroLogix 1100 or 1400 (and an SLC 5/05) has no tag names. Every value is a place in a numbered data file, written the way RSLogix 500 shows it: N7:0, B3:0/5, F8:2. Argos reads and writes them over the controller's Ethernet port. One driver is one controller.

Try it first with the simulator

1. Open Configure, open Protocol simulators and press Start simulator beside Allen-Bradley MicroLogix / SLC.
2. Argos adds the driver MicroLogix Demo, the asset BoosterPanel_ML and the dashboard MicroLogix demo. The numbers are simulated.

Connect a real controller

1. On Configure press Add driver. Give it a name and choose Allen-Bradley MicroLogix / SLC.
2. Type the Controller address: the IP address of its Ethernet port (channel 1 on a MicroLogix 1100 or 1400). Leave Port at 44818. Press Add driver.
3. Press Test connection. A green line names the controller and says data-file requests answered. If it says the device does not take data-file requests, it is not a MicroLogix or SLC: a ControlLogix or CompactLogix uses the EtherNet/IP driver.
4. Press Driver test… and run it once. It finds the controller's data files, reads one of each kind, and says the largest read the controller takes. Keep the report.
5. In Scanner press Open the tree. Files 0 to 9 are listed with their type and length; Look for files 10 to 19 searches further. Open a file to see its elements; open a timer, a counter or a bit word to see its parts.
6. Click an address and press Read to check it against RSLogix 500.
7. Add the asset (Add asset, its widget, this driver; no Station is needed), then in the Scanner choose the asset and parameter under Map to a parameter and press Map ←.
8. Open Values with no good reading. An address the controller refuses is listed with the reason; the addresses beside it are not affected.

Typing an address yourself

• An integer: N7:0. One bit of it, for an on/off parameter: N7:0/10
• A bit file: B3:0/5, or counted through the file: B3/17
• A float: F8:2. A long (MicroLogix): L9:0
• A timer or counter: T4:0.ACC, T4:0.PRE, T4:0.DN, C5:1.ACC. A control: R6:0.LEN, R6:0.POS
• The status file: S:1/5
• An input or output of a MicroLogix: I:0/3 (bit 3), I:0.2/4 (word 2, bit 4), O:0.1 (a whole word). The number after the colon is always 0; an expansion module's word is the one RSLogix 500 shows in its data file view.

Addresses from legacy Argos are taken as written: N7:W150/2, T4:S0.ACC, F8:F0, I:0.0/10. Strings (ST) and BCD values are not read.

What can be written

Integers, floats, longs, bits of integer and bit files, outputs, and the preset and accumulated value of a timer or counter. Not written: inputs, the status bits of a timer, counter or control (the controller's program sets those), one bit of a long, and text. A write is refused by the controller when the file is protected.

Slow links

Addresses close together in one file are read in one request, so keep the values you poll together in the controller: a hundred integers in a row are one request, a hundred scattered across files are many. Largest read in the driver's settings sets how much is asked for at once; the driver test says what the controller takes. The response time and failed requests can be trended with the addresses diag:response and diag:failed.

Playback replays a screen from the stored history, with controls like a video player. Every value, alarm badge and operator action is shown as it was at the time. It only reads: nothing is sent to equipment, and every control on the screen is switched off while it is on. Argos keeps reading, logging and alarming as usual, and nobody else's screen changes.

Replay a period

1. Open the screen you want to see: an asset's page, or a dashboard or one-line drawing on the Live page.
2. Press ▶ Playback.
3. Choose the period: a quick choice such as Last 1 hour or Yesterday, or type your own From and To (up to 31 days). The line under the times says how far back the history of this screen goes.
4. Press ▶ Start playback. An amber bar appears at the top and an amber frame around the screen: you are looking at the past. The big clock in the bar is the moment on screen.
5. Press the wide amber Play button. Press it again to pause. Choose a Speed from 1× (a minute takes a minute) to 1800× (a day in under a minute).
6. Drag the white line on the timeline, or click anywhere on it, to go straight to a moment.
7. When you are done, press ✕ Back to live.

Find the moment that matters

• ⏮ and ⏭ jump to the previous or next alarm or operator action.
• ◀ and ▶❙ step one stored reading back or forward, so a fast event can be walked through one change at a time.
• On the timeline a red band is an alarm, a grey band is a lost connection, a blue line is something a person did from Argos, and an amber line is a change made at the equipment.
• Open What happened under the bar for the list of alarms and actions in the period. Click a line to go to that moment. A reason the operator gave is shown under the line. An alarm that had come in several times and was acknowledged with one press is one line, with the count.
• Open Then and now to see which values read differently at that moment than they do right now.

Go straight from an alarm or a user log entry

1. On the Alarms page (either tab) or the User log, press the small amber ▶ in the row. Or open the alarm's details, or the moment of a log entry, and press ▶ Play back.
2. The asset's page opens already playing, from two minutes before the entry to ten minutes after.
3. Opened from an alarm, the big red Back button at the top left reads Back to Alarms and returns to the Alarms page. Open the live faceplate on the amber bar stays on the asset and shows it as it is now.

From a dashboard into one asset

While a dashboard or one-line is replaying, click a widget or a value: that asset's page opens replaying the same period at the same moment. On an asset's page the trend chart shows the same period and its cursor follows the playback clock.

The wiper on the trends

While a playback is on, every small trend on the screen (the two on a pump station page, the history line on each dashboard card) shows the playback period, with an amber line at the playback clock. What is still to come is dimmed, so you see the values on the screen and where they sit on the curve at the same time. The trend chart on an asset page has the same wiper, with the time on it.

Show someone else, or keep it

• Share this moment… makes a link. Whoever opens it sees the same screen, period and second. The link holds only the screen and the times.
• Save as a clip… keeps the period under a name, with a note if you like (needs the right to save trend groups and playback clips). Open it again from ▶ Playback, Saved clips. Deleting a clip never deletes history.

A report is a table with a row for each day and a column for each parameter you choose: the average level of a tank, the gallons a well pumped, the hours a pump ran. Argos makes it from the same history the trends use. You can open it, print it, download it, or have Argos e-mail it every morning.

Opening a report

1. Open Trends & Reports, Reports. Everyone can.
2. In Saved reports press Open. The report appears lower on the page for its latest period.
3. For an earlier period, pick the day it should end on under Period ending. Latest goes back.
4. Print / save as PDF puts only the report on paper. Download spreadsheet (CSV) gives the numbers as a file.

A dash in the table means Argos has no history for that parameter on that day.

Making a report

You need a role that may manage reports: Operator, Engineer or Administrator as delivered.

1. Press New report and type a name. Or open How to build a report and press one of the examples: Argos fills in the set-up from the parameters it has.
2. Choose How often: Day, hour by hour (yesterday, a row each hour), Daily (yesterday), Weekly (the last 7 days), Monthly (the month, day by day) or Year, month by month (this year so far, a row each month).
3. Each group is one table. Name it, press Add parameter, choose the asset and the parameter, and choose how to summarise each day. Any parameter of any asset can be in a report. Click a group's heading to fold it; the groups sit in a window that scrolls.
4. Press Preview. The report is built from the real history; nothing is saved or sent.
5. Press Save.

Which way to summarise

• Average, Lowest, Highest, Last value: for levels, pressures, flows, temperatures.
• Total: for a value that only counts up - gallons, kWh, run hours, starts. It shows how much the counter grew each day.
• On time: for an on/off value. It shows about how many hours of each day it was on, worked out in 15-minute steps.
• Volume from a flow rate: for a flow in gallons a minute (or litres a minute) where there is no counter: the rate times the time, so the gallons that passed. Worked out in 15-minute steps.

A well run-time sheet

A report can also be laid out like a water system's monthly well workbook: one row a well with its rated GPM, the most it could pump in a day (GPM x 1,440), what it pumped a day on average and its run time in hours a day and in the month; then each station's gallons for the month against the month before, and the change. Run time comes from the well's running signal in the history. Gallons are run time x the well's GPM, the way the workbook works them; where a station has a flow meter into the tank, the metered gallons are shown beside them. Such a report covers a month (it is Monthly); it is made for a site when its demo is set up. To change a well's GPM or address, press Change: each well's row has a GPM box and an Address box in place of How to summarise, and its name in place of the column heading. A well with no GPM shows its run time only. Making a new sheet of this kind from this page is not built yet.

Having it e-mailed

1. In the set-up type the addresses under E-mail it to, with a comma between them, and choose the hour under Send at.
2. Leave Send it on schedule ticked and press Save.

A daily report and a day hour by hour go out every day, a weekly one on Monday, a monthly one on the 1st (it then covers the whole month before), a yearly one on January 1st (the whole year before). The hour and the days are those of the Argos computer's clock. A report you have just made waits for its next sending time; Send now sends it at once, after asking. If Argos was not running at the sending time, the report goes out when Argos is next running.

Reports use the e-mail channel under Alarms, Notifications, Channels. If that is not set up, the page says so and nothing can be sent. Every report sent, or not sent, is written in the User log.

Kept runs

Each time a report is e-mailed Argos keeps it as it was. Open the report and choose one under Kept runs to see exactly what went out that day; the tag beside the title says KEPT RUN. Choose the first line of the list, or Latest, to go back to the report worked out fresh.

Demo reports

To show reports on a demonstration system, press Demo reports. Argos makes up to three reports named "Demo: …" from the parameters that have history and keeps a few past runs of each. The figures come from the stored history - on a demo system, the simulator's. If there is no history yet, add it first on the Setup page (Add 35 days of history).

A one-line diagram shows how power reaches the plant: the utility service, the transformers, the switchgear and each breaker with what it feeds. In Argos you draw it from standard electrical symbols, and it becomes a tab on the Live page where the breakers show closed, open or tripped and the meters show their values.

Looking at a one-line

1. On the Live page press Dashboards and choose the one-line. Its tab has the ground mark ⏚.
2. A breaker drawn as a solid square is closed; a hollow square is open. The key above the one-line shows the colour your site uses for each. A symbol that flashes amber has tripped or is in fault. A symbol that nobody has tied to a parameter is a plain outline: it is a sketch and says nothing about the equipment.
3. A red value box and a red ring around a symbol mean it is in alarm: a parameter it shows is in alarm, or the connection to its asset is lost. Hold the pointer on it to read which alarm.
4. To look closer, use +, − and Fit at the top right of the sheet, roll the mouse wheel, or double-click a spot. When zoomed in, drag the sheet to slide it.
5. Click a symbol or its value to open that asset's page. Back to Live dashboard brings you back to the same one-line.

A one-line only shows. To switch something, open the asset's page (chapter 6).

Drawing one

1. Open Build, unfold One-line diagrams and press New one-line. Give it a name. The builder opens on an empty sheet.
2. To start from a finished drawing instead, choose the template that starts Example on the right and press Use this template, then change it.
3. The symbols are on the left in groups that fold: Switching, Protection, Transformers, Sources and drives, Loads and equipment, Metering, Wiring. Click one, or drag it onto the sheet. Find a part searches all of them.
4. Draw conductors with Line and Bus: stretch one by its handles, and press Turn to stand it upright. Every line is the same thickness and every bus is twice that, whatever its length.
5. The tools of chapter 11 all work here, in the bar above the sheet: line up, space evenly, same size, turn, group, lock; and copy and paste, guide lines.
6. Press Save one-line. Nothing changes on the Live page until you do.

Tying a symbol to the equipment

You can draw the whole one-line first and tie nothing: it is a correct picture with no live status. When a breaker or meter is connected to Argos, click its symbol and, under Parameters, choose the asset and then its parameter for each feature:

Closed

An on/off parameter: on means closed. The symbol is then drawn closed or open.

Tripped / fault

An on/off parameter. While it is on the symbol flashes amber.

Value shown beside it

Any parameter - amps, kW, volts. It is written beside the symbol with its unit.

Running / energised

For a motor, generator, transformer, line or bus: the symbol is dim while the parameter is off.

Colours for closed and open. Your site chooses once which colour means closed: in Build, under One-line diagrams, Breaker colours on every one-line. Closed is red is the practice of electrical utilities (red = energised = danger) and is how Argos starts; Closed is green is the practice of many plants (green = running). An Engineer or Administrator makes the choice; Argos asks first, changes every one-line at once and writes it in the User log. Whichever you choose, a closed breaker is a solid square and an open one a hollow square, and the key above each one-line on the Live page says which colour is which. A single symbol can be set to shape only in the builder; it cannot have colours of its own.

Label and value sit right, left, above or below the symbol. Letters inside the symbol changes the device number in a relay or breaker (52, 51, 27) or the letters in a meter or load.

A line that changes colour with its voltage

A line, a bus, a transformer, a motor or a meter can take its colour from a value, so a dip or a loss of voltage shows on the drawing itself.

1. Click the line or bus. In Properties, find the box Change colour by a value.
2. Choose the asset and its parameter - usually the voltage of the meter that feeds this line. An on/off parameter works too.
3. Fill in the states you want. LOW: when the value is below 456, for a 480 V line. OFF: when the value is below 50. HIGH: when the value is above 504, if you want it.
4. Each state has a colour: grey for OFF, amber for LOW, purple for HIGH unless you choose another. The list shows each colour beside its name.
5. Tick Simulate to watch it step through normal, low, off and high, then Save one-line.

On the Live page the whole part changes colour, and a line or bus that is OFF is also dashed. While the value is not being read the part keeps its own colour. Each line and bus is its own part: tie each one to the meter that feeds it (Copy and Paste carry the tie). Breakers and switches are not coloured this way: their colour always means closed or open.

Checking it before you save: View live

In the builder, beside the word Canvas, press View live. The drawing is shown as it is now, with the real values. Above it Argos lists what it found: how many parts are tied, how many are still only a sketch, which parameters are being read, and which have given no value or are not being read right now. A line that follows a value but has no OFF, LOW or HIGH number is listed too. Nothing can be changed while you look; press Back to editing or Esc. Simulate is the other way to look: made-up values that step through every state.

Who may

Anyone who signs in can make a one-line and change the ones they made. Engineers and Administrators can change any. Deleting a one-line removes only the drawing. If a parameter a symbol used is later removed from Argos, the symbol stays on the drawing and goes back to "not used".

Already have the one-line as a PDF or picture? Make a Visual dashboard instead (chapter 9) and place values on it. Values and links on such a drawing now grow with the drawing when you zoom in.

For an Engineer or Administrator. Everything is on the Notifications page (Alarms, Notifications). Until a schedule is made, every contact is on duty all the time, exactly as before.

Make the shifts

1. Unfold 2 · Schedules and press Add schedule. Give it a name, for example Night shift.
2. For each shift tick the days it starts on and set from and to. A shift whose end is at or before its start runs past midnight: Monday 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM ends on Tuesday morning and is ticked as Monday. Add a shift adds another row (weekdays and a short Saturday are two shifts).
3. Choose On a holiday: an ordinary day, not on duty, or on duty all day. Press Save.
4. Unfold Holidays under the list, pick the day, type its name and press Add holiday. Add next year's when you know them.

Put people on them

1. Unfold 3 · Contacts, press Edit on a person and choose their schedule in On duty (or leave Always). Press Save.
2. Unfold On call at the top of the page and read The next seven days: look for hours when every bar is empty.

Which alarms a rule covers

1. Unfold 4 · Rules and press Add rule (or Edit on a rule).
2. Under Alarm categories, Alarm kinds and Assets, All is ticked to start with: the rule covers every one, and All assets includes assets added later.
3. To narrow the rule, untick All and tick only the ones it covers. Ticking every one by hand ticks All again. Each list needs All or at least one tick; Save says so if one is empty.

When nobody acknowledges

1. Unfold 4 · Rules and press Edit on a rule.
2. Under If nobody acknowledges type the minutes to wait and tick who is told as well - usually a supervisor. Leave the minutes empty for no second step.
3. When nobody above is on duty, send to nobody is for alarms that can truly wait for the next shift. Leave it unticked and everyone on the rule is told when nobody is on duty.
4. Press Save. The 5 · Delivery log shows every message, and under the name why that person got it ("covering for ...", "nobody was on duty ...", or the reason "not acknowledged").

For an Engineer or Administrator. Open Alarms and press Configure alarms in the menu under the header (Active, History, Shelved, Configure alarms). Every parameter of every asset is listed with its four limits.

Set limits

1. Narrow the list with All widget types, All assets, All parameters, the find box, or Only with an alarm on.
2. Look at the Now · last 7 days column: the top line is what the value reads now; below it are the lowest, the average and the highest of the last 7 days. Set the limits against those figures - a high limit just above max would not have alarmed in that week.
3. Tick an alarm to switch it on and type its limit. Low-low and Low alarm at or below the limit; High and High-high at or above.
4. Under each limit, after … s is its delay: how many seconds the value must stay past the limit, without a break, before the alarm is raised. Leave it at 0 for at once. A value that only touches the limit for less than the delay raises nothing. While a value is past the limit and the delay is running, the row shows PAST LIMIT counting down the seconds to the alarm. The alarm returns to normal at once when the value comes back.
5. Press More on a row for the category, the message and the rate-of-change alarm (it has its own delay: raised after … s). Less on the row, or Collapse at the foot of the open part, folds it again; Expand all / Collapse all at the top do every parameter shown.
6. Changed boxes are edged yellow and the bar above the list counts them. Press Save changes. If a change is refused nothing is saved: the reason is shown and the page goes to that parameter.

Copy to the same widgets

1. Set one parameter the way you want it, then press Copy to same… on its row.
2. The other assets of the same widget type are listed, all ticked. Untick any that should keep their own. Tick Also copy the alarm messages only if the message does not name the asset.
3. Press Copy - then check and save. The copies show as changes; look them over and press Save changes.
4. To copy every alarm of a whole asset, choose it in All assets and press Copy this asset's alarms to the same widgets….

Test an alarm

1. Press More on the parameter, then Test alarm… beside the alarm (it must be switched on and saved).
2. Read who will be messaged. Untick Send the messages to test the screens only. Choose how long to keep it up.
3. Press Start the test. The alarm appears everywhere as a real one would, with TEST - in front of its message, and the messages go out.
4. It returns by itself when the time is up, or press End test now. Acknowledge it on the Alarms page like any alarm.

Each asset keeps what you need when you are standing at it. On the Live page press the blue Records button on the asset's widget (it is filled in, with a number, when the asset has records). The asset's own page has Records too, and so do an alarm's details. You must be signed in to see records; if you are not, the page shows a Sign in button and brings you back to the same asset.

Look something up

1. Unfold Manuals and documents, Wiring diagrams, Photos or Parts. The number beside each heading says how many it holds.
2. Press a title to open it. A PDF or a picture opens in a new tab; other files download.

Add a photo

1. On a phone or tablet open the asset's Records and press Take a photo. The camera opens; take the picture and accept it. It is kept at once under Photos.
2. Press Edit under the photo to give it a title and a note.

Add a manual or a wiring diagram

1. Press Add a document… or Add a wiring diagram… and choose the file (several at once is fine).
2. Under Keep it for choose this asset only, or every asset of its widget type - one manual then serves every meter of that model.
3. Press Add.

The parts list

1. Unfold Parts and press Add a part…. Only the part's name is needed; choose Its manual from the asset's documents if it has one.
2. To bring in a spreadsheet press Import a list…. Its first row must be headings, with one called Component.
3. ↓ Download the list gives the list as a CSV file.

A file to open from an alarm

An Engineer or Administrator opens Alarms, Configure alarms, presses More on the parameter and chooses a file in the What to do list beside the alarm. From then on the alarm's row on the Alarms page has a What to do button that opens it.

When an asset needs attention, ask for maintenance from Argos. The request is e-mailed to the maintenance crew, stays on the Maintenance page until someone marks it done, and turns the asset's Records button purple - Work requested - so everyone can see it has been reported. You must be signed in.

Ask for maintenance

1. Press Request maintenance. It is beside every alarm on the Alarms page, on the asset's own page, on its Records page, and at the top of the Maintenance page.
2. Under What is wrong pick the nearest reason, and say more in the box below it. From an alarm, the alarm's message, value and limit are already filled in.
3. Choose Urgent, Normal or When there is time, and the day it is wanted by if there is one.
4. Press Send the request. Argos says who the e-mail went to. If it says E-mail NOT sent, the request is still kept - tell maintenance another way.

Do the work

1. Open Maintenance. What is to do is listed with the overdue and urgent ones first.
2. Press the asset's name to see its manuals, wiring diagrams, photos and parts.
3. Press Start work so others can see you have taken it (you can skip this).
4. When it is finished press Done… and write what was done. Those words are kept with the request and in the User log under your name.
5. For a request made by mistake, press Cancel request… and say why.

The calendar

Maintenance, Calendar shows the requests by the day they are wanted - a month or a week at a time. Purple is requested, blue is in progress, green is done; a red line round an entry means it is overdue. Press an entry to open it; press + on a day to ask for work wanted by that day.

Set-up (Engineer or Administrator)

1. Open Maintenance, Set-up and type the maintenance e-mail address. A group address reaches the whole crew.
2. E-mail itself is set up once under Alarms, Notifications, Channels, E-mail.
3. Change the list of reasons to your plant's own words.
4. To give the maintenance crew their own sign-ins, make a role for them on the Users page (System, Users) with the permission Start, finish, change or cancel a maintenance request.

Alarms, then Communication, shows every asset with its link to its device, says in words what went wrong, and keeps a list of what happened. You must be signed in. The number on the Communication tab is how many assets are not answering. Nothing on these pages writes to equipment.

See which sites are in trouble

1. Open Alarms, then Communication.
2. Read the counts at the top: not answering, with some values bad, answering, switched off or waiting. Press a count to see only those assets; press it again for all.
3. Or tick Only the ones with a problem.
4. The last column, Last problem, says what went wrong at each one and how long ago.

Find out what is wrong at one site

1. Press the asset's name in the list. From the Live page you can also press the address at the foot of its widget, or Communication on its asset page.
2. The box at the top says the state and the last problem in words, with what to check. Could not reach means the connection could not be opened: the address, the power, the network or radio. No answer means the device is connected but silent: a slow link, a wrong unit number, a stopped controller. Refused means the device answered and said no: an address is wrong, the link is fine. Refused the user name or password (an OPC UA server, an MQTT broker) means the far end is there and will not let Argos in.
3. The four boxes under it are the counts since the driver last started: Reads, Answer time, Writes, Connection.
4. An OPC UA server and an MQTT broker send values by themselves, so there is nothing to time: for those the first box is Values - how many are watched, how many cannot be used now, how many updates have arrived - and there is no Answer time box.
5. Trend answer time opens the history of the answer time and of the requests that failed.

A device refuses a read: which register?

Argos reads many registers in one request, and a device that lacks one of them refuses the whole request. On Modbus TCP Argos then asks again at once in parts, down to single registers, and What happened says what it found:

• refused by itself - 4X:57 (Pump03_Speed_FDBK): the device has no such register. Check that parameter's address, or switch it off under Configure if this device does not have it. It is left out of the reads, so the rest keep reading, and asked again by itself once a minute - after a fix at the device it reads again by itself.
• the device has no 4X:101 - a register between parameters: no parameter is wrong; a register Argos read only because it sat between two parameters is missing. Argos reads round it from then on. Nothing to fix.
• every part answered: the device turned the whole request away for a moment, then answered every part. Not an address to fix. If it keeps happening, look at the device: it may be busy, or its program is being changed or downloaded.

See what happened, and when

What happened lists, newest first, every time a device stopped answering, answered again, refused a request or was written to. It is kept for 30 days and is still there after Argos is restarted. Choose what to see in the list above it; Show older lines goes further back. A thing that keeps happening is one line a minute with a count.

Check that a write reached the device

1. Make the change on the asset's page as usual.
2. Open Communication for that asset. Writes shows the last write: which parameter, accepted or FAILED, and how long the device took.
3. What happened has a line for it with the register and the raw number that was sent. Refused by the device means the device will not take it; did not get through means no answer came, and Argos cannot say whether the device took it - read the value before trying again.

A change Argos refuses itself (the page is in POLL, the value is out of range, you may not write) is never sent and is not listed here. It is in the User log.

See the numbers exactly as the device sent them

1. On the asset's Communication page, under The last requests, press Read them now. Tick Keep reading every 2 seconds to follow the device.
2. Press a Read row. Every register it brought back is shown: its address, the raw number, the parameter that reads it and the value Argos makes of it.
3. On an Allen-Bradley controller a Read row shows each tag or address of this asset with the value the controller gave. On MQTT each row is one message as it was heard. On OPC UA the rows are the connection, the writes and any variable the server would not give.
4. Type part of a parameter's name in the find box to see only that one.

Use this when a value on a page looks wrong: a right raw number with a wrong value means the parameter's scaling under Configure; a wrong raw number means the device.

Is it polling? Which station has the radio?

1. On every widget and at the left of a pump station page's title bar are two turning arrows. Green: new data is coming in, and they give a turn each time some arrives. Yellow: some values are not read, or nothing new came for a while. Red and blinking: not answering - the values shown are the last ones read. Grey: communication is off. Point at them to see when new data last came.
2. On an asset's page, beside its name (on a pump station, in the title bar left of the station's name), Reading · answered 2 s ago (or Connected for an OPC UA server) says the same in words. Press it to open Communication for that asset.
3. On a pump station read over Modbus, the title bar shows Modbus replies: every answer from the station since the driver started, and the answer time. While the number climbs, the station is answering.
4. On a station read through HillTop there are two links, and the title bar shows both. On the left, Argos ⇄ HillTop: Argos to HillTop over OPC UA. On the right, HillTop ⇄ site: HillTop to the station over Modbus by radio, with the number of replies HillTop has had from the station. Both green means live all the way to the station. Left red: Argos cannot reach HillTop, and the right box says not known. Left green and right NOT READING: HillTop is fine but the station is not answering it over the radio. If the replies number stops going up, HillTop is not getting answers.
5. Alarms, then Polling, lists every station and device under WHO polls it. For the HillTop stations it shows HillTop's own counts: sent, replies, no answer, replies a minute, answer time, last reply, and HillTop's state in words; the station being polled at that moment is marked POLLING. For devices Argos reads itself it shows the driver's requests, failures and answer time.

The code from my authenticator app is refused

Compare the time on the phone with the Argos computer's clock, shown under the code box. They must agree to within the site's tolerance (a minute either way unless it was changed). When the code was a real one for another minute, the message says how far out the clock is and which way. Set the phone to automatic time where it has a signal, and have the Argos computer's clock set. If the message says the code was used already, wait for the app to show the next one: each code works once. Five wrong codes lock the account for five minutes, like five wrong passwords.

A widget says COMM FAIL, or its network symbol is red

Argos is not getting answers from that device. Press the address at the foot of the widget: Communication opens for that asset and says in words what went wrong and what to check (chapter 22). Other widgets being fine means Argos itself is working.

A widget is yellow with COMMS DISABLED across it

Communication is switched off for that asset: Argos does not read it or write to it, the values shown are the last ones read, and it raises no alarm of any kind - high, low, rate of change or not communicating. An alarm it had up when it was switched off goes off the list without a "returned" message. Use it for equipment that is out of service, so it does not fill the Alarms page.

To switch it back on (whoever looks after the configuration): Configure, choose the asset, tick Communication on, press Save. Reading and alarms start again at once.

Adding an asset or changing a dashboard says building is locked

The demo or licence period has ended. Everything else keeps running. Get a licence as chapter 24 says.

Every widget went red at once

The trouble is between Argos and the whole network, not one device: a switch, a radio or the Argos computer's own network connection.

A value is wrong on every station of the same kind

The widget is the template of all of them. For whoever looks after the configuration: Configure, Build, find the widget and press Edit. Change the address, the divide-by or the label, press Review the changes, read what it lists, then press the Change button. The change is made on every asset of that widget at once. A station that is built differently needs its own widget: press Copy and design and edit the copy.

Which register is that value?

On the asset's page press the tag symbol at the end of the row of links (point at it and it says Show registers). Every value, picture and control on the widget gets a small label with its parameter name and the address it is read from or written to. A pump, well or valve that is drawn carries its Installed or Enable bit on its own tag card, first, so you can see the bit that makes it show. Equipment that is not drawn because that bit is off (or has not been read yet) is listed under the widget with that bit's address. Click a tag icon: the card shows each value the item follows, with what it is reading now on the left - ON in green, OFF in red, a measurement with its unit in blue, NO READING in amber when the device does not give it. Press it again (it says Hide registers) to take the labels away. The same button, with its words, is on the Live page and in the widget builder (where the values are examples, so none is shown).

A widget says BAD QUALITY

The device answers, but some of its values cannot be read. Tell whoever looks after the configuration: an address may be wrong, or the device may not have that reading.

For whoever looks after the configuration: on Configure, click the driver and open Values with no good reading to see which addresses fail and why. The Driver guides list what to check for each driver, under When values do not read.

The bottom line says "Reconnecting…"

This browser has lost its link to Argos. The page keeps the last values and tries again by itself every few seconds. If it stays that way, check that the Argos computer is on and on the network.

The page sends you to Setup

Argos cannot reach its database. That needs the person who looks after the Argos computer. The Setup page says what is wrong.

The bottom line says "Database slow" or "Database not answering"

Argos keeps its settings and its history in a database. Slow means it is there but taking long to answer: pages are slow. Not answering means Argos cannot reach it: live values keep moving, but nothing can be changed and history waits in the Argos computer's memory until the database is back - Argos carries on by itself, it does not need restarting. Tell the person who looks after the Argos computer.

The database does not fill up: when it nears its limit Argos deletes the oldest history first, so the newest is always kept. Setup, History shows how much there is, how far back it goes and when it was last trimmed.

For that person: open Setup, Database health. The box says what is wrong and what to check. What happened lists, for the last 30 days, when the database stopped answering and why, when it came back and how long it was gone, and when it was slow. Run the checks times a new connection, compares the clocks, shows how full the database is and tries a write. Slowest queries shows what took the database more than a second.

A control is greyed out

Either you are not signed in, your role does not allow it, or the asset's write lock is off (on a pump station: Control Site is in POLL; set it to WRITE first).

A widget shows a yellow note: "the ... look could not be drawn here"

That one widget's own look has a fault, so Argos shows its values as a plain list instead. Everything else on the page is unaffected and the values are still live. On the Build page, under Widgets, press Test all widgets: the widget test area shows which widgets fail and why. Report it with the widget's name.

The revision at the bottom is red: "Rev ... is on disk - restart Argos to use it"

An update has been copied in but Argos is still running the old revision, so new features may be missing or look broken. Click the red note and press Restart Argos on the Setup page.

A value will not change after you write it

Look at the message beside the control. If Argos wrote it and the value still reads the old one, the equipment did not accept it: it may be in hand or local at the panel. Alarms, Communication, the asset, shows the write as it went to the device and what the device answered (chapter 22).

A new Argos runs as a demo for 14 days from its first start. Everything works during the demo. The status line at the foot of every page says how many days are left.

When the demo ends, Argos keeps running: live values, alarms, notifications, history, trends, reports, maintenance and the controls on the asset pages all carry on, and everyone can still sign in and see every page. What stops is building: adding or changing assets, drivers, widgets and dashboards. The status line then says Demo ended - building locked.

Getting a licence

1. Open System, Setup, and open Licence.
2. Under Network card it is tied to, leave the built-in wired network card chosen if it is listed.
3. Under 1. Send this request code, press Copy.
4. Enter the code on the Licences page of scadaboss.com, or send it to whoever sold you Argos.
5. When the licence comes back, paste all of it into the box under 2. Enter the licence you get back, or press Open a .lic file… and choose the file.
6. Press Enter licence. The heading of Licence turns green and says who it is licensed to.

A licence is entered at the Argos computer itself, or by someone who manages users. It is written in the User log.

What a licence holds

A full licence normally has no end date. A demo licence has one; entering a new demo licence moves the end date. A licence can also allow a number of assets and a number of parameters: Licence on the Setup page shows how many are in use. When the number is reached, adding another asset, or adding a parameter to a widget, is refused with the reason beside the button. Nothing that is already there stops.

A new computer

A licence works only on the computer it was made for. On a new computer, open Licence on its Setup page, send the new request code, and ask for the licence to be moved.

When this computer reaches its sites through a VPN that its own VPN client (OpenVPN) keeps open, Argos can watch the VPN and raise an alarm when it goes down. Argos does not connect the VPN or sign in to it: the VPN client does that, as before. Argos checks, every 10 seconds, that the VPN's adapter on this computer is connected and that a device on the far side answers.

Set it up once

1. Connect the VPN with the VPN client as you do now, and set the client to connect by itself when Windows starts.
2. Open Configure and press Add driver. Name it (for example Camp Minden VPN), choose VPN link, and type the Device to check: the router on the far side, for example 192.168.5.1. Press Add driver.
3. Add an asset on that driver with the widget VPN link, and put it on a dashboard.
4. Open Alarms, then Communication, and press the asset. The VPN box must show the adapter it found, for example OpenVPN Wintun at 10.8.0.6. If it says NONE while the VPN client says Connected, find the VPN in Every adapter and type its name in the driver's Adapter name.
5. Under Alarms, Notifications, make sure category 1 alarms reach the people who must know.

What you see

• The widget's VPN link reads UP or DOWN. Under it: Uptime - the hours the link has been UP without a break (0 while it is down; it starts again from 0 each time the link comes back), VPN adapter (Connected, Not connected, or Not checked), Far device answers, the Answer time and how many times it went down. A VPN link asset made before 0.81.0 gains Uptime when Argos restarts.
• The VPN's symbol in the status line at the bottom of every page turns red with DOWN while the VPN is down.
• DOWN comes after the driver's Down after number of failed checks in a row (3 checks of 10 seconds: about 30 seconds), so one lost packet is not an alarm. It comes back UP at the first good check, and the alarm clears. When Argos starts while the VPN is down, it says DOWN at the first check.
• The alarm is VPN link is DOWN - the sites behind it cannot be reached, category 1. Acknowledge, shelve and add notes to it like any alarm.

When it says DOWN

1. VPN adapter: Not connected: the VPN client is not connected. Open it and connect.
2. VPN adapter: Connected and Far device answers: No answer: the tunnel is up but the far site does not answer - look at the far router's power and cellular signal.
3. Communication, for the asset, says the same in words and keeps every time it went down and came back.

A Mitsubishi PLC - an FX5 / iQ-F, a Q, an L, an iQ-R, or an FX3 through its Ethernet adapter - has no tag names that Argos can read. Every value is a device and its number, written the way GX Works shows it: D100, M0, X17. Argos reads and writes them with MC protocol (SLMP) over TCP or UDP. One driver is one PLC.

Try it first with the simulator

1. Open Configure, open Protocol simulators and press Start simulator beside Mitsubishi MELSEC.
2. Argos adds the driver MELSEC Demo, the asset LiftStation_MC and the dashboard MELSEC demo. The simulator behaves like an FX5: its inputs and outputs are numbered in octal. The numbers are simulated.

Before you start: open a port in the PLC

The PLC answers only on a port opened for MC protocol, set to binary. In GX Works3 for an FX5 this is the Ethernet Port's External Device Configuration (an SLMP connection); for a Q, L or iQ-R, the Ethernet settings of the CPU or the Ethernet module; for an FX3 with an FX3U-ENET-ADP, the Open Setting (MC Protocol). Write the parameters to the PLC and reset it. The driver guide has each one. A port set up for one connection takes one client: open a second one if you want the Scanner or the Driver test while Argos polls.

Connect a real PLC

1. On Configure press Add driver. Give it a name and choose Mitsubishi MELSEC.
2. Type the PLC address and the Port you opened, choose TCP or UDP to match, and choose the PLC family. Press Add driver.
3. Press Test connection. A green line names the frame and says D0 answered. No answer at all usually means the wrong PLC family (an FX3 needs FX3) or a port set to ASCII.
4. Press Driver test… and run it once. Under Tags to check type a few addresses with the value GX Works shows, one on a line: D10 = 60, X17 = true. Keep the report and send it with any problem.
5. In Scanner press Open the tree. The devices that answer are listed; open one to see how far it goes, and a block to see its addresses.
6. Click an address and press Read to check it against GX Works.
7. Add the asset (Add asset, its widget, this driver; no Station is needed), then in the Scanner choose the asset and parameter under Map to a parameter and press Map ←.
8. Open Values with no good reading. An address the PLC refuses is listed with its end code; the addresses beside it are not affected.

Typing an address yourself

• A data register: D100. A decimal number or a 32-bit number takes D100 and D101: choose float32 or int32 as the parameter's data type.
• One bit of a word, for an on/off parameter: D100.5 (read only)
• An internal relay: M0. An input: X17. An output: Y20
• A timer or counter: TN0 its current value, TS0 its contact, CN10, CS10
• Link devices, numbered in hexadecimal: W1A, B1F

X and Y follow the driver's PLC family: octal on an FX (X7, then X10), hexadecimal on a Q, L or iQ-R. Addresses from an AVEVA Edge project are taken as written: D:10, D:DW10, D:F10, M:15.

What can be written

Word devices (D, W, R, ZR, SD, SW, TN, CN) and on/off devices such as M, L, B, S and Y. Not written: inputs, the contacts and coils of timers and counters, and one bit of a word (use an M bit for a command). A PLC can be set to refuse writes through its port while it runs.

Slow links

Addresses close together on one device are read in one request: keep the values you poll together in the PLC. Largest read in the driver's settings sets how many words are asked for at once; the driver test says what the PLC takes. The response time and failed requests can be trended with the communication statistics, as on every driver.

The GSTo widget is the pump station page you know (GSTm) read straight from the station's own PLC over OPC UA, with no HillTop and no radio poll in between. The page, the names and the alarms are the same; the figures are the PLC's own.

Add a station

1. On the Argos computer, in PowerShell, in the Argos folder, run node scripts\add-station.js <Site> --plc opc.tcp://<PLC address>:4840. It adds a driver of its own for that PLC ("<Site> PLC", OPC UA, no security) and a GSTo asset with the Station Application.
2. Restart Argos: System, Setup, Restart Argos.
3. Open Configure, click the new driver, and in Scanner press Open the tree. Open Application and Read one value. Its NodeId starts with the PLC's prefix (for example ns=4;s=|var|B-Fortis CC-Prime S09 Duo.). If that is not what the driver's NodeId prefix says, type it there and save.
4. Open the station's page. Under the asset's name, Connected should be green, and every value should have a reading.

Change a setpoint or a mode

1. Use the station page's controls as usual. There is no Control Site (POLL / WRITE) on GSTo: the value is written to the PLC variable itself, as the PLC's own screen writes it. You still confirm it, and it is in the User log.
2. If the value goes back to what it was, a Modbus master (HillTop or old Argos) has Control Site at WRITE for this station: while it has, the PLC takes its setpoints from the Modbus words on every scan. Set that master's Control Site to POLL first.

Is the PLC program running?

1. The title bar of the station page shows PLC heartbeat and the scan time. The heartbeat counts up on every scan of the PLC program.
2. If the PLC is in STOP (or its application is being downloaded) it still answers but nothing moves: the turning arrows beside the station's name turn red, the line under the asset's name says program is STOPPED, and Alarms, Polling says PROGRAM STOPPED. Start the program on the PLC.
3. An analog the PLC has switched off (its input not enabled) is not drawn: no tank, pressure, flow, chlorine or pH box shows 0.00 for an input the station does not have. The pressure-control setpoints (PID Mode, Fill Normal, Normal and Fill Setpoint, PID CMD) are not drawn while no booster is enabled - on every pump station page, not only GSTo.
4. Its alarms are off too. While an analog is switched off in the PLC, it raises no high, low, rate-of-change or "not being read" alarm, and an alarm that was up when it was switched off goes off the list without a "returned" message. Switch it on in the PLC and its alarms work again at once, with the limits you set. On Alarms, Configure alarms, its row says alarms only while … is on.
5. The faults the station used to send as one coil are separate here: a well's failed to start and a valve's failed to open / failed to close are their own parameters with their own alarm.

Open System, Setup, Diagnostics. Everything support needs to see what is wrong with this Argos is there.

Send support a bundle

1. Press Download support bundle. A file named argos-support- and the date and time is saved to the downloads folder. E-mail it to support, or carry it on a USB stick from a computer with no internet.
2. Or, when this computer has internet, press Send to ScadaBOSS. After a moment it says Sent. Give support this reference: and a short code. Read the code to support.
3. Open What is in the bundle to see every file it holds. Passwords, keys and e-mail addresses are taken out before anything goes in, and no readings from the plant are in it.

Health reports

1. Every 15 minutes Argos sends ScadaBOSS a short report of counts and states - no readings, no names, no addresses. The box at the top of Diagnostics says when the last one went.
2. The first time you open Diagnostics a blue box asks about it. Press OK, keep it on, or Turn it off. You can change it at any time with the tick Send a health report every 15 minutes.
3. Open Show exactly what is sent to read a report as it would go now.
4. A report also goes at once when Argos crashes, the database is away for 2 minutes, a backup fails, alarm messages fail, or the disk is nearly full.
5. A red box saying the last report was not sent usually means this computer has no internet. Nothing else is affected.

Open System, Setup, ScadaBOSS cloud.

Link the site once

1. On the ScadaBOSS portal, add this site as a device, approve it and press Issue claim code.
2. Type the 8-character code into Claim code and press Claim. The box turns green and says Connected to ScadaBOSS.

Choose what is sent

1. To send everything: tick Publish every asset and press Save. Every parameter of every asset goes, and every asset you add later. The green line then says how many parameters on how many assets are published.
2. To send only some: leave Publish every asset unticked. On Configure, open an asset and press Publish all or Publish none beside the ScadaBOSS cloud, or tick Publish to ScadaBOSS on one parameter. Copy to all ... assets gives every asset of the same widget the same choice.
3. Switching Publish every asset off again goes back to the choices made on Configure - they are kept.
4. On the Live page a small cloud on a widget shows it is being sent: green while the link is up, red when it is not.

Open System, Setup, Palantir Foundry.

Before you start

1. The Foundry side makes an HTTPS listener with Basic authentication and gives you three things: the endpoint address, a user name and a password.
2. They must also allow this computer's internet address on their network ingress list. Until they do, Foundry refuses every message ("Network Blocked").

Set it up once

1. Paste the address into Endpoint, and type the User name and Password. Give the site a Site name if more than one Argos sends to the same listener.
2. Press Save, then Send a test message. A green line under the buttons says Foundry took it and how long it took. Red says why not, in words.
3. Choose what goes: leave Send every asset ticked for everything, or untick it and tick the assets in the list (the find box narrows it).
4. Tick Foundry link on and press Save. The box turns green and says Sending to Palantir Foundry, with how many parameters and when the last message went.

When it goes red

1. Read the line under Foundry is NOT taking readings: no internet, a wrong user name or password, an address the Foundry side has changed, or a fault at Foundry.
2. Readings wait and go by themselves when Foundry answers again. Waiting shows how many.
3. If the Foundry side gives you a new address or password, type it and press Save: Argos tries again at once.

Open Trends & Reports, Supply. Every material is listed with the most urgent first.

Reading it

1. Each line shows the material, its state, what is ON HAND, when it is NEEDED BY and when to ORDER BY. A time in red has passed.
2. ORDER NOW (red): order today. ORDER WITHIN A DAY (yellow). ON ORDER (blue): something is on its way - make sure it arrives before the needed-by time. ENOUGH (green).
3. Open a line with its arrow to see how much is used a day, when it would run out, the low mark, the lead time and how the use is measured.
4. The pace follows the week: once Argos has seven days of history, each hour ahead uses what that hour of the week used before, so nights, weekends and shifts are counted as they happen. PACE FROM says whether it is the week's pattern or, before seven days, an average.
5. When the last 24 hours ran faster or slower than usual for those hours, the line says so and gives both dates. The earlier one sets the order-by time.

Adding a material

1. Press + Add a material and type its name.
2. Under On hand choose the asset, then the parameter that says how much is in stock. Under On order choose one if a parameter says how much is on its way; otherwise leave (none).
3. Under Use is measured by leave What on hand falls, or choose A production counter, then the counter and the Amount one unit uses (5 for tyres a car).
4. Type the Low mark (the safety stock), the supplier's Lead time (hours) and the Supplier, and press Save.
5. The first date appears after half an hour of history; a full week gives the steadiest pace.

Remote access lets people open Argos in a browser anywhere, with no port opened at the plant, no VPN and nothing to install. Argos connects out to a relay; people open the site's address, for example https://yoursite.scadaboss.com.

Switch it on (at the Argos computer)

1. Ask ScadaBOSS to add your site. They send you the site's site key once - keep it until it is typed in.
2. On the Argos computer itself, open System, Setup, Remote access.
3. Set Remote access to Through the ScadaBOSS relay, paste the key into Site key and press Save.
4. The box turns green and says Reachable from outside at and the site's address. That is the address to open from outside.

Choose who may come in

1. Open System, Users. Each role has From outside the plant: None, View only or Full. Administrators start at View only, every other role at None.
2. Pick the level and press the button in the question that follows. Setting a role to None signs out anyone of it who is signed in from outside.
3. Everyone who will sign in from outside needs two-factor sign-in set up first, at the plant (chapter 2).

Signing in from outside

1. Open the site's address. Type your user name and password, then the code from your authenticator app - it is always asked from outside.
2. After 30 minutes without using it, or 8 hours after signing in, you are signed out and sign in again.

Switch it off

1. On System, Setup, Remote access, press Switch remote access off now. The link closes at once and everyone signed in from outside is signed out.
2. Someone at the Argos computer can do this, or anyone signed in on the plant network who manages users. ScadaBOSS can also cut a site off at its relay.

ScadaBOSS runs Argos on its own server so people can try it before anything is installed: the online demo at https://demo.argos.scadaboss.com, and a demo of a customer's own system - their stations, dashboards and reports exactly as quoted - at an address of its own, for example https://yourcity.argos.scadaboss.com. It is the same Argos a plant installs; every reading comes from a simulator.

Opening the online demo

1. Open https://demo.argos.scadaboss.com. The page shows a large ARGOS and Sign in to continue.
2. Press Try the demo. Argos opens on the Live page, signed in as the demo visitor.
3. Look at anything: dashboards, an asset's page, alarms, trends, playback, reports, energy, one-line drawings. Nothing can be changed with this sign-in - no setpoints, no acknowledging, no dashboards, no settings.
4. The demo is put back to its starting state every night.

Opening a demo of your own system

1. Open the address ScadaBOSS gave you. The sign-in page shows your name under ARGOS.
2. Sign in with the user name and password ScadaBOSS gave you. The first time, Argos asks you to choose your own password.
3. With an Operator sign-in you can run the simulated stations: start and stop pumps, change setpoints, acknowledge alarms (chapters 5 and 6). Everything you do is in the user log, as at a plant.
4. Nothing can be seen without signing in. Sign out from the round button at the top right when you are done.

What is different from an installed Argos

• Nothing at all is shown before signing in - not even the Live page.
• The Setup page shows the database, backups, the licence and diagnostics, but nothing on it can be changed: ScadaBOSS runs the computer.
• A lost password is set again by ScadaBOSS or your administrator; there is no recovery code (that is written on the Argos computer itself).
• Drivers reach only the simulators on ScadaBOSS's server. Equipment at a plant is read by the Argos installed at the plant.