ISA-101 Quick Reference

9 motor states · canonical alarm palette · ISA-5.1 tag patterns. Print one-sided A4 and pin it to your panel.

The 9 Motor States

Stopped

Gray. Commanded OFF, feedback OFF. Default normal state.

Starting

Blinking green (~1 Hz). Commanded ON, awaiting feedback.

Running

Solid green. Never blinks. Confirmed running.

No feedback

Yellow + dashed border. Command/feedback mismatch.

Manual

Blue. Local/HOA bypass. HMI not the controlling authority.

Disabled

Dark gray. Intentionally out of service.

Running + P1

Green body + red P1 badge. Critical alarm during operation.

Running + P2

Green body + orange P2 badge. High-priority alarm.

Fault

Red. Tripped or P1 fault prevents operation.

Alarm Priority Palette

P1 critical#D32F2F

P2 high#F57C00

P3 medium#FBC02D

P4 low#1976D2

running#2E7D32

stopped#9E9E9E

disabled#616161

HMI bg#C8C8C8

Rule: color encodes state, not identity. Decoration in saturated color steals attention from real alarms.

ISA-5.1 Tag Cheat Sheet

Letter	Variable
`P`	Pressure
`T`	Temperature
`F`	Flow
`L`	Level
`A`	Analytical
`Z`	Position

Modifiers: I = indicator · C = controller · T = transmitter · S = switch · V = valve · H/HH = high/high-high · L/LL = low/low-low · Q = totalizer.

Examples: PIT-101, FCV-104, LSHH-401, PSV-201.

Mounting Bubbles

Field

DCS

PLC

Shared