# Printing of Alarms/Alerts

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [July 22, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124 "2011-07-22T19:03:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Curlyandshemp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@Curlyandshemp](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Curlyandshemp)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/1 "2011-07-22T19:03:15Z")

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would be nice to have ability to optionally send alerts/alarms to a line printer with a customizable message.

Many plants with SCADA have a dot matrix printer used as an audit trail for a hard copy of alarms .

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**Author:** ![Colby.Clegg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/colby.clegg/32/3282_2.png) [@Colby.Clegg](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Colby.Clegg)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/2 "2011-07-26T18:06:08Z")

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Sounds like a good idea for a module someday. If you happen to have some programmers running around, point them to the [Developer Program](https://inductiveautomation.com/developers/register)😃

If not, we’ll have to come back to it when we start focusing more on peripheral functionality. Unfortunately, that could be a while…

Regards,

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**Author:** ![Robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e95f7d/32.png) [@Robert](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Robert)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/3 "2011-07-27T02:12:53Z")

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> [@Curlyandshemp](#):
>
> Many plants with SCADA have a dot matrix printer used as an audit trail for a hard copy of alarms .

I've seen this many times so I know exacted what your talking about, but I have to ask, Do they still make dot matrix printers?

Can anyone suggest a more modern solution/technology? In the past I have seen worm drives used for this sort of audit trail. Again I don't know if you can still buy them. How about Mysql's archive engine? It only allows inserts.

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**Author:** ![Curlyandshemp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@Curlyandshemp](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Curlyandshemp)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/4 "2011-07-27T15:10:31Z")

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Dot Matrix printers are still available, put pricing relative to laser printers is quite high. Average 9pin dot matrix is $700-$1000.  
Many plants still use them for maintenance logs

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**Author:** ![nathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nathan](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nathan)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/5 "2011-10-16T16:34:06Z")

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How are dot matrix printers connected? Are we talking about the old style “parallel” printer connected to “LPT1” on a computer?

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**Author:** ![Duffanator](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/duffanator/32/3560_2.png) [@Duffanator](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Duffanator)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/printing-of-alarms-alerts/3124/6 "2011-10-16T22:04:34Z")

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We have some Okidata dot matrix printers that we use (not for alarming stuff though) that are connected with simple DB-9 serial and also can be USB.