What is the difference between acknowledging and resetting an alarm?
Perhaps we should take a step back and ensure we start with a common definition of an alarm. Here is mine:
- If the prerequisite condition (e.g. high temperature) for an alarm exists, then the alarm state is active
- Even if that alarm is acknowledged before the prerequisite condition is removed, the alarm state remains active, because the prerequisite condition still exists.
- If that prerequisite condition, which previously existed, then ceases to exist (e.g. the operator sees the alarm, investigates and finds a cooling fan not running; the fan is fixed, put back into service and turns on; the temperature drops below the alarm limit), then the alarm state remains active
- The point of remaining active is that the operator might otherwise miss an alarm's prerequisite condition of short duration, and it is preferred that they eventually be aware of it even if they do not see it while the condition exists.
- If the alarm is acknowledged after the prerequisite condition no longer exists, then the alarm state changes to inactive.
That is what I think of as fairly typical definitions for an alarm's state and behavior.
I don't see a place for the term "reset" in that definition, other than as perhaps an alternate term for "acknowledge."
Is there another way to define "alarm?"