# Alarm on Device Connection Status

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-on-device-connection-status/52033>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [October 17, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-on-device-connection-status/52033 "2021-10-17T11:37:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wch705](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e0b2c6/32.png) [@wch705](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/wch705)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-on-device-connection-status/52033/1 "2021-10-17T11:37:31Z")

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Say I have a tag from an **OPC device** and the device is **unreachable** which could be caused by **power outage, network outage or other unforeseeable factors**. And the **Quality** of the tag is bad.

 ![Screenshot from 2021-10-17 22-08-47](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/0/d0853e3097f44f1cb78789c81400854ea7790372.png)

Of course I can set up an alarm on the particular tag and get a notification when the quality is bad, but I don’t feel it is the right approach for monitoring device failure.

I am trying to set an alarm on the **System Tag**  
**Gateway \> Devices \> {Device Name} → Status**  
But it is not working as I would expect.

 ![Screenshot from 2021-10-17 22-24-55](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/4/348218af4addb90c446dc207564ae3bc35f3e8f1.png)

I believe this is a general and common problem and wondering how would you get a notification when a device is not reachable.

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**Author:** ![bschroeder](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bschroeder/32/13260_2.png) [@bschroeder](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bschroeder)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-on-device-connection-status/52033/2 "2021-10-17T12:39:12Z")

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We use a rolling number in the PLC and then use the hasChanged expression and drive an alarm if it hasn’t changed.

Specifically for ControlLogix we use the timestamp LINT.

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**Author:** ![alarratt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@alarratt](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/alarratt)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarm-on-device-connection-status/52033/3 "2022-06-01T14:00:26Z")

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What I just did was change the “Alarm Type” to “On Condition” then write an expression. I used {[.]Status}!=“Connected”