| Paper | Title | Page |
|---|---|---|
FPO027 |
NICOS – the Instrument Control Solution for MLZ | |
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| At the MLZ, a unified instrument control solution was found in NICOS - the (N)etworked (I)nstrument (Co)ntrol (S)ystem. Primarily developed on and for the triple-axis machines for quite some time, it got enhanced and adopted to also support other instrument types reliably. The modular approach and the inherent flexibility allowed this easily. Feedback from users as well as instrument responsibles helped to improve the usability significantly. Long wished features like auto-detection of sample environment or enhanced scripting capabilities ease the setup phase of each experiment. A state-of-the art help system, a modern GUI and seamless integration with pluggable hardware modules (via TACO/TANGO) allow scientists to focus on the experiment and reduce distractions due to machine peculiarities. Since NICOS is written in Python, it is easy to implement new features or requests. Abstract device classes easy handling of different kind of hardware. Primarily developed for neutron scattering instruments, NICOS is also more than capable to control x-ray diffractometers or beamline instruments. We want to present its capabilities to extent its use outside our facility. | ||