Paper | Title | Other Keywords | Page |
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MOMAU003 | The Computing Model of the Experiments at PETRA III | controls, experiment, interface, detector | 44 |
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The PETRA storage ring at DESY in Hamburg has been refurbished to become a highly brilliant synchrotron radiation source (now named PETRA III). Commissioning of the beamlines started in 2009, user operation in 2010. In comparison with our DORIS beamlimes, the PETRA III experiments have larger complexity, higher data rates and require an integrated system for data storage and archiving, data processing and data distribution. Tango [1] and Sardana [2] are the main components of our online control system. Both systems are developed by international collaborations. Tango serves as the backbone to operate all beamline components, certain storage ring devices and equipment from our users. Sardana is an abstraction layer on top of Tango. It standardizes the hardware access, organizes experimental procedures, has a command line interface and provides us with widgets for graphical user interfaces. Other clients like Spectra, which was written for DORIS, interact with Tango or Sardana. Modern 2D detectors create large data volumes. At PETRA III all data are transferred to an online file server which is hosted by the DESY computer center. Near real time analysis and reconstruction steps are executed on a CPU farm. A portal for remote data access is in preparation. Data archiving is done by the dCache [3]. An offline file server has been installed for further analysis and inhouse data storage.
[1] http://www.tango-controls.org [2] http://computing.cells.es/services/collaborations/sardana [3] http://www-dcache.desy.de |
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Slides MOMAU003 [0.347 MB] | |||
Poster MOMAU003 [0.563 MB] | |||
MOMMU001 | Extending Alarm Handling in Tango | database, controls, synchrotron, status | 63 |
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This paper describes the alarm system developed at Alba Synchrotron, built on Tango Control System. It describes the tools used for configuration and visualization, its integration in user interfaces and its approach to alarm specification; either assigning discrete Alarm/Warning levels or allowing versatile logic rules in Python. This paper also covers the life cycle of the alarm (triggering, logging, notification, explanation and acknowledge) and the automatic control actions that can be triggered by the alarms. | |||
Slides MOMMU001 [1.119 MB] | |||
Poster MOMMU001 [2.036 MB] | |||
MOPKN016 | Tango Archiving Service Status | controls, database, GUI, insertion | 127 |
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In modern scientific instruments like ALBA, ELETTRA or Synchrotron Soleil the monitoring and tuning of thousands of parameters is essential to drive high-performing accelerators and beamlines. To keep tracks of these parameters and to manage easily large volumes of technical data, an archiving service is a key component of a modern control system like Tango [1]. To do so, a high-availability archiving service is provided as a feature of the Tango control system. This archiving service stores data coming from the Tango control system into MySQL [2] or Oracle [3] databases. Tree sub-services are provided: An historical service with an archiving period up to 10 seconds; a short term service providing a few weeks retention with a period up to 100 milliseconds; a snapshot service which takes "pictures" of Tango parameters and can reapply them to the control system on user demand. This paper presents how to obtain a high-performance and scalable service based on our feedback after years of operation. Then, the deployment architecture in the different Tango institutes will be detailed. The paper conclusion is a description of the next steps and incoming features which will be available in the next future.
[1] http://www.tango-controls.org/ [2] http://www.mysql.com/ [3] http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/index.html |
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MOPKS028 | Using TANGO for Controlling a Microfluidic System with Automatic Image Analysis and Droplet Detection | device-server, controls, software, interface | 223 |
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Microfluidics allows one to manipulate small quantities of fluids, using channel dimensions of several micrometers. At CEA / LIONS, microfluidic chips are used to produce calibrated complex microdrops. This technique requires only a small volume of chemicals, but requires the use a number of accurate electronic equipment such as motorized syringes, valve and pressure sensors, video cameras with fast frame rate, coupled to microscopes. We use the TANGO control system for all heterogeneous equipment in microfluidics experiments and video acquisition. We have developed a set of tools that allow us to perform the image acquisition, allows shape detection of droplets, whose size, number, and speed can be determined, almost in real time. Using TANGO, we are able to provide feedback to actuators, in order to adjust the microfabrication parameters and time droplet formation. | |||
Poster MOPKS028 [1.594 MB] | |||
MOPMN003 | A Bottom-up Approach to Automatically Configured Tango Control Systems. | controls, database, vacuum, hardware | 239 |
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Alba maintains a central repository, so called "Cabling and Controls database" (CCDB), which keeps the inventory of equipment, cables, connections and their configuration and technical specifications. The valuable information kept in this MySQL database enables some tools to automatically create and configure Tango devices and other software components of the control systems of Accelerators, beamlines and laboratories. This paper describes the process involved in this automatic setup. | |||
Poster MOPMN003 [0.922 MB] | |||
MOPMN013 | Operational Status Display and Automation Tools for FERMI@Elettra | controls, operation, status, electron | 263 |
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Funding: The work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under grants FIRB-RBAP045JF2 and FIRB-RBAP06AWK3 Detecting and locating faults and malfunctions of an accelerator is a difficult and time consuming task. The situation is even more difficult during the commissioning phase of a new accelerator, when physicists and operators are still acquiring confidence with the plant. On the other hand a fault free machine does not imply that it is ready to run: the definition of "readiness" depends on what is the expected behavior of the plant. In the case of FERMI@Elettra, in which the electron beam goes to different branches of the machine depending on the programmed activity, the configuration of the plant determines the rules for understanding whether the activity can be carried out or not. In order to help the above task and display the global status of the plant, a tool known as the "matrix" has been developed. It is composed of a graphical front-end, which displays a synthetic view of the plant status grouped by subsystem and location along the accelerator, and by a back-end made of Tango servers which reads the status of the machine devices via the control system and calculates the rules. The back-end also includes a set of objects known as "sequencers" that perform complex actions automatically for actively switching from one accelerator configuration to another. |
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Poster MOPMN013 [0.461 MB] | |||
MOPMU006 | The Commissioning of the Control System of the Accelerators and Beamlines at the Alba Synchrotron | controls, database, booster, project-management | 432 |
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Alba is a third generation synchrotron located near Barcelona in Spain. The final commissioning of all accelerators and beamlines started the 8th of March 2011. The Alba control system is based on the middle layer and tools provided by TANGO. It extensively uses the Sardana Framework, including the Taurus graphical toolkit, based on Python and Qt. The control system of Alba is highly distributed. The design choices made five years ago, have been validated during the commissioning. Alba uses extensively Ethernet as a Fieldbus, and combines diskless machines running Tango on Linux and Windows, with specific hardware based in FPGA and fiber optics for fast real time transmissions and synchronizations. B&R PLCs, robust, reliable and cost-effective are widely used in the different components of the machine protection system. In order to match the requirements in terms of speed, these PLCs are sometimes combined with the MRF Timing for the fast interlocks. This paper describes the design, requirements, challenges and the lessons learnt in the installation and commissioning of the control system. | |||
Poster MOPMU006 [24.241 MB] | |||
MOPMU008 | Solaris Project Status and Challenges | controls, network, linac, operation | 439 |
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Funding: Work supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the frame of the Innovative Economy Operational Program: POIG.02.01.00-12-213/09 The Polish synchrotron radiation facility, Solaris, is being built in Krakow. The project is strongly linked to the MAX-IV project and the 1.5 GeV storage ring. A overview will be given of activities and of the control system and will outline the similarities and differences between the two machines. |
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Poster MOPMU008 [11.197 MB] | |||
MOPMU015 | Control and Data Acquisition Systems for the FERMI@Elettra Experimental Stations | controls, data-acquisition, framework, instrumentation | 462 |
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Funding: The work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under grants FIRB-RBAP045JF2 and FIRB-RBAP06AWK3 FERMI@Elettra is a single-pass Free Electron Laser (FEL) user-facility covering the wavelength range from 100 nm to 4 nm. The facility is located in Trieste, Italy, nearby the third-generation synchrotron light source Elettra. Three experimental stations, dedicated to different scientific areas, have been installed installed in 2011: Low Density Matter (LDM), Elastic and Inelastic Scattering (EIS) and Diffraction and Projection Imaging (DiProI). The experiment control and data acquisition system is the natural extension of the machine control system. It integrates a shot-by-shot data acquisition framework with a centralized data storage and analysis system. Low-level applications for data acquisition and online processing have been developed using the Tango framework on Linux platforms. High-level experimental applications can be developed on both Linux and Windows platforms using C/C++, Python, LabView, IDL or Matlab. The Elettra scientific computing portal allows remote access to the experiment and to the data storage system. |
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Poster MOPMU015 [0.884 MB] | |||
MOPMU020 | The Control and Data Acquisition System of the Neutron Instrument BIODIFF | controls, neutron, detector, software | 477 |
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The Neutron instrument BIODIFF is a single crystal diffractometer for biological macromolecules that has been built in a cooperation of Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Technical University of Munich. It is located at the research reactor FRM-II in Garching, Germany, and is in its commissioning phase, now. The control and data acquisition system of BIODIFF is based on the so-called "Jülich-Munich Standard", a set of standards and technologies commonly accepted at the FRM-II, which is based on the TACO control system developed by the ESRF. In future, it is intended to introduce TANGO at the FRM-II. The Image Plate detector system of BIODIFF is already equipped with a TANGO subsystem that was integrated into the overall TACO instrument control system. | |||
MOPMU023 | The MRF Timing System. The Complete Control Software Integration in Tango. | timing, device-server, GUI, controls | 483 |
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The deployment of the Timing system based on the MRF hardware has been a important part of the control system. Hundreds of elements are integrated in the scheme, which provides synchronization signals and interlocks, transmitted in the microsecond range and distributed all around the installation. It has influenced several hardware choices and has been largely improved to support interlock events. The operation of the timing system requires a complex setup of all elements. A complete solution has been developed including libraries and stand alone Graphical User Interfaces. Therefore this set of tools is of a great added value, even increased if using Tango, since most high level applications and GUIs are based on Tango Servers. A complete software solution for managing the events, and interlocks of a large installation is presented. | |||
Poster MOPMU023 [25.650 MB] | |||
MOPMU040 | REVOLUTION at SOLEIL: Review and Prospect for Motion Control | controls, software, hardware, radiation | 525 |
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At any synchrotron facility, motors are numerous: it is a significant actuator of accelerators and the main actuator of beamlines. Since 2003, the Electronic Control and Data Acquisition group of SOLEIL has defined a modular and reliable motion architecture integrating industrial products (Galil controller, Midi Ingénierie and Phytron power boards). Simultaneously, the software control group has developed a set of dedicated Tango devices. At present, more than 1000 motors and 200 motion controller crates are in operation at SOLEIL. Aware that the motion control is important in improving performance as the positioning of optical systems and samples is a key element of any beamline, SOLEIL wants to upgrade its motion controller in order to maintain the facility at a high performance level and to be able to answer to new requirements: better accuracy, complex trajectory and coupling multi-axis devices like a hexapod. This project is called REVOLUTION (REconsider Various contrOLler for yoUr moTION). | |||
Poster MOPMU040 [1.388 MB] | |||
TUAAULT02 | Tango Collaboration and Kernel Status | controls, CORBA, software, device-server | 533 |
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This paper is divided in two parts. The first part summarises the main changes done within the Tango collaboration since the last Icalepcs conference. This will cover technical evolutions but also the new way our collaboration is managed. The second part will focus on the evolution of the so-called Tango event system (asynchronous communication between client and server). Since its beginning, within Tango, this type of communication is implemented using a CORBA notification service implementation called omniNotify. This system is currently re-written using zeromq as transport layer. Reasons of the zeromq choice will be detailed. A first feedback of the new implementation will be given. | |||
Slides TUAAULT02 [1.458 MB] | |||
TUCAUST03 | The Upgrade Programme for the ESRF Accelerator Control System | controls, software, storage-ring, insertion | 570 |
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To reach the goals specified in the ESRF upgrade program [1], for the new experiments to be built, the storage ring needs to be modified. The optics must to be changed to allow up to seven meter long straight sections and canted undulator set-ups. Better beam stabilization and feedback systems are necessary for the nano-focus experiments planned. Also we are undergoing a renovation and modernization phase to increase the lifetime of the accelerator and its control system. This paper resumes the major upgrade projects, like the new BPM system, the fast orbit feedback or the ultra small vertical emittance, and their implications on the control system. Ongoing modernization projects such as the solid state radio frequency amplifier or the HOM damped cavities are described. Software upgrades of several sub-systems like vacuum and insertion devices, which are planned for this year or for the long shutdown period beginning of 2012 are covered as well. The final goal is to move to a Tango only control system.
[1] http://www.esrf.fr/AboutUs/Upgrade |
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Slides TUCAUST03 [1.750 MB] | |||
TUDAUST02 | Status Report of the FERMI@Elettra Control System | controls, real-time, electron, FEL | 589 |
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Funding: The work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under grants FIRB-RBAP045JF2 and FIRB-RBAP06AWK3 FERMI@Elettra is a new 4th-generation light source based on a seeded Free Electron Laser (FEL) presently under commissioning in Trieste, Italy. It is the first seeded FEL in the world designed to produce fundamental output wavelength down to 4 nm with High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG). Unlike storage ring based synchrotron light sources that are well known machines, the commissioning of a new-concept FEL is a complex and time consuming process consisting in thorough testing, understanding and optimization, in which a reliable and powerful control system is mandatory. In particular, integrated shot-by-shot beam manipulation capabilities and easy to use high level applications are crucial to allow an effective and smooth machine commissioning. The paper reports the status of the control system and the experience gained in two years of alternating construction and commissioning phases. |
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Slides TUDAUST02 [8.064 MB] | |||
WEAAUST01 | Sardana: The Software for Building SCADAS in Scientific Environments | controls, interface, synchrotron, GUI | 607 |
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Sardana is a software for supervision, control and data acquisition in large and small scientific installations. It delivers important cost and time reductions associated with the design, development and support of the control and data acquisition systems. It enhances Tango with the capabilities for building graphical interfaces without writing code, a powerful python-based macro environment for building sequences and complex macros, and a comprehensive access to the hardware. It scales well to small laboratories as well as to large scientific institutions. It has been commissioned for the control system of Accelerators and Beamlines at the Alba Synchrotron. | |||
Slides WEAAUST01 [6.978 MB] | |||
WEMAU012 | COMETE: A Multi Data Source Oriented Graphical Framework | software, controls, toolkit, framework | 680 |
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Modern beamlines at SOLEIL need to browse a large amount of scientific data through multiple sources that can be scientific measurement data files, databases or Tango [1] control systems. We created the COMETE [2] framework because we thought it was necessary for the end users to use the same collection of widgets for all the different data sources to be accessed. On the other side, for GUI application developers, the complexity of data source handling had to be hidden. These 2 requirements being now fulfilled, our development team is able to build high quality, modular and reusable scientific oriented GUI software, with consistent look and feel for end users. COMETE offers some key features to our developers: Smart refreshing service , easy-to-use and succinct API, Data Reduction functionality. This paper will present the work organization, the modern software architecture and design of the whole system. Then, the migration from our old GUI framework to COMETE will be detailed. The paper will conclude with an application example and a summary of the incoming features available in the framework.
[1] http://www.tango-controls.org [2] http://comete.sourceforge.net |
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Slides WEMAU012 [0.083 MB] | |||
WEPKN002 | Tango Control System Management Tool | controls, status, device-server, database | 713 |
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Tango is an object oriented control system toolkit based on CORBA initially developed at the ESRF. It is now also developed and used by Soleil, Elettra, Alba, Desy, MAX Lab, FRM II and some other labs. Tango concept is a full distributed control system. That means that several processes (called servers) are running on many different hosts. Each server manages one or several Tango classes. Each class could have one or several instances. This poster will show existing tools to configure, survey and manage a very large number of Tango components. | |||
Poster WEPKN002 [1.982 MB] | |||
WEPKN003 | Distributed Fast Acquisitions System for Multi Detector Experiments | detector, experiment, software, distributed | 717 |
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An increasing number of SOLEIL beamlines need to use in parallel several detection techniques, which could involve 2D area detectors, 1D fluorescence analyzers, etc. For such experiments, we have implemented Distributed Fast Acquisition Systems for Multi Detectors. Data from each Detector are collected by independent software applications (in our case Tango Devices), assuming all acquisitions are triggered by a unique Master clock. Then, each detector software device streams its own data on a common disk space, known as the spool. Each detector data are stored in independent NeXus files, with the help of a dedicated high performance NeXus streaming C++ library (called NeXus4Tango). A dedicated asynchronous process, known as the DataMerger, monitors the spool, and gathers all these individual temporary NeXus files into the final experiment NeXus file stored in SOLEIL common Storage System. Metadata information describing context and environment are also added in the final file, thanks to another process (the DataRecorder device). This software architecture proved to be very modular in terms of number and type of detectors while making life of users easier, all data being stored in a unique file at the end of the acquisition. The status of deployment and operation of this "Distributed Fast Acquisitions system for multi detector experiments" will be presented, with the examples of QuickExafs acquisitions on the SAMBA beamline and QuickSRCD acquisitions on DISCO. In particular, the complex case of the future NANOSCOPIUM beamline will be developed. | |||
Poster WEPKN003 [0.671 MB] | |||
WEPKN020 | TANGO Integration of a SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture SCADA System at ANKA | controls, synchrotron, software, Linux | 749 |
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The WinCC OA supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system provides at the ANKA synchrotron facility a powerful and very scalable tool to manage the enormous variety of technical equipment relevant for house keeping and beamline operation. Crucial to the applicability of a SCADA system for the ANKA synchrotron are the provided options to integrate it into other control concepts even if they are working e.g. on different time scales, managing concepts, and control standards. Especially these latter aspects result into different approaches for controlling concepts for technical services, storage ring, and beamlines. The beamline control at ANKA is mainly based on TANGO and SPEC, which has been expanded by TANGO server capabilities. This approach implies the essential need to provide a stable and fast link, that does not increase the dead time of a measurement, to the slower WinCC OA SCADA system. The open architecture of WinCC OA offers a smooth integration in both directions and therefore gives options to combine potential advantages, e.g. native hardware drivers or convenient graphical skills. The implemented solution will be presented and discussed at selected examples. | |||
Poster WEPKN020 [0.378 MB] | |||
WEPKS019 | Data Analysis Workbench | data-analysis, experiment, interface, synchrotron | 823 |
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Funding: ESRF Data Analysis Workbench [1] is a new software tool produced in collaboration by the ESRF, Soleil and Diamond. It provides data visualization and workflow algorithm design for data analysis in combination with data collection. The workbench uses Passerelle as the workflow engine and EDNA plugins for data analysis. Actors talking to Tango are used for sending limited commands to hardware and starting existing data collection algorithms. There are scripting interfaces to SPEC and Python. The current state at the ESRF is prototype. [1] http://www.dawb.org |
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Poster WEPKS019 [2.249 MB] | |||
WEPKS022 | Mango: an Online GUI Development Tool for the Tango Control System | controls, GUI, interface, device-server | 833 |
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Mango is an online tool based on QTango that allows easy development of graphical panels ready to run without need to be compiled. Developing with Mango is easy and fast because widgets are dragged from a widget catalogue and dropped into the Mango container. Widgets are then connected to the control system variables by choosing them from a Tango device list or by dragging them from any other running application built with the QTango library. Mango has also been successfully used during the FERMI@Elettra commissioning both by machine physicists and technicians. | |||
Poster WEPKS022 [0.429 MB] | |||
WEPKS030 | A General Device Driver Simulator to Help Compare Real Time Control Systems | EPICS, device-server, software, controls | 863 |
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Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems (SCADA) such as Epics, Tango and Tine usually provide small example device driver programs for testing or to help users get started, however they differ between systems making it hard to compare the SCADA. To address this, a small simulator driver was created which emulates signals and errors similar to those received from a hardware device. The simulator driver can return from one to four signals: a ramp signal, a large alarm ramp signal, an error signal and a timeout. The different signals or errors are selected using the associated software device number. The simulator driver performs similar functions to Epic’s clockApp [1], Tango’s TangoTest and the Tine’s sinegenerator but the signals are independent of the SCADA. A command line application, an Epics server (IOC), a Tango device server, and a Tine server (FEC) were created and linked with the simulator driver. In each case the software device numbers were equated to a dummy device. Using the servers it was possible to compare how each SCADA behaved against the same repeatable signals. In addition to comparing and testing the SCADA the finished servers proved useful as templates for real hardware device drivers.
[1] F.Furukawa, "Very Simple Example of EPICS Device Suport", http://www-linac.kek.jp/epics/second |
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Poster WEPKS030 [1.504 MB] | |||
WEPMN034 | YAMS: a Stepper Motor Controller for the FERMI@Elettra Free Electron Laser | controls, power-supply, software, interface | 958 |
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Funding: The work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under grants FIRB-RBAP045JF2 and FIRB-RBAP06AWK3 New projects, like FERMI@Elettra, demand for standardization of the systems in order to cut development and maintenance costs. The various motion control applications foreseen in this project required a specific controller able to flexibly adapt to any need while maintaining a common interface to the control system to minimize software development efforts. These reasons led us to design and build "Yet Another Motor Subrack", YAMS, a 3U chassis containing a commercial stepper motor controller, up to eight motor drivers and all the necessary auxiliary systems. The motors can be controlled locally by means of an operator panel or remotely through an Ethernet interface and a dedicated Tango device server. The paper describes the details of the project and the deployment issues. |
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Poster WEPMN034 [4.274 MB] | |||
WEPMS025 | Low Current Measurements at ALBA | controls, data-acquisition, diagnostics, Ethernet | 1032 |
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High accuracy low current readout is an extensively demanded technique in 3rd generation synchrotrons. Whether reading from scintillation excited large-area photodiodes for beam position measurement or out of gold meshes or metallic coated surfaces in drain-current based intensity monitors, low current measurement devices are an ubiquitous need both for diagnostics and data acquisition in today's photon labs. In order to tackle the problem of measuring from various sources of different nature and magnitude synchronously, while remaining flexible at the same time, ALBA has developed a 4 independent channel electrometer. It is based on transimpedance amplifiers and integrates high resolution ADC converters and an 10/100 Base-T Ethernet communication port. Each channel has independently configurable range, offset and low pass filter cut-off frequency settings and the main unit has external I/O to synchronize the data acquisition with the rest of the control system. | |||
Poster WEPMS025 [0.797 MB] | |||
WEPMU025 | Equipment and Machine Protection Systems for the FERMI@Elettra FEL facility | vacuum, electron, controls, linac | 1119 |
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Funding: The work was supported in part by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under grants FIRB-RBAP045JF2 and FIRB-RBAP06AWK3 FERMI@Elettra is a Free Electron Laser (FEL) based on a 1.5 GeV linac presently under commissioning in Trieste, Italy. Three PLC-based systems communicating to each other assure the protection of machine devices and equipment. The first is the interlock system for the linac radiofrequency plants; the second is dedicated to the protection of vacuum devices and magnets; the third is in charge of protecting various machine components from radiation damage. They all make use of a distributed architecture based on fieldbus technology and communicate with the control system via Ethernet interfaces and dedicated Tango device servers. A complete set of tools including graphical panels, logging and archiving systems are used to monitor the systems from the control room. |
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Poster WEPMU025 [0.506 MB] | |||
THBHMUST02 | Assessing Software Quality at Each Step of its Lifecycle to Enhance Reliability of Control Systems | software, controls, monitoring, factory | 1205 |
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A distributed software control system aims to enhance the evolutivity and reliability by sharing responsibility between several components. Disadvantage is that detection of problems is harder on a significant number of modules. In the Kaizen spirit, we choose to continuously invest in automatism to obtain a complete overview of software quality despite the growth of legacy code. The development process was already mastered by staging each lifecycle step thanks to a continuous integration server based on JENKINS and MAVEN. We enhanced this process focusing on 3 objectives : Automatic Test, Static Code Analysis and Post-Mortem Supervision. Now the build process automatically includes the test part to detect regression, wrong behavior and integration incompatibility. The in-house TANGOUNIT project satisfies the difficulties of testing the distributed components that Tango Devices are. Next step, the programming code has to pass a complete code quality check-up. SONAR quality server was integrated to the process, to collect each static code analysis and display the hot topics on synthetic web pages. Finally, the integration of Google BREAKPAD in every TANGO Devices gives us an essential statistic from crash reports and allows to replay the crash scenarii at any time. The gain already gives us more visibility on current developments. Some concrete results will be presented like reliability enhancement, better management of subcontracted software development, quicker adoption of coding standard by new developers and understanding of impacts when moving to a new technology. | |||
Slides THBHMUST02 [2.973 MB] | |||
THDAULT04 | Embedded Linux on FPGA Instruments for Control Interface and Remote Management | FPGA, Linux, embedded, controls | 1271 |
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Funding: This work was part-funded by the RCUK Energy Programme under grant EP/I501045 and the European Communities under the contract of Association between EURATOM and CCFE. FPGAs are now large enough that they can easily accommodate an embedded 32-bit processor which can be used to great advantage. Running embedded Linux gives the user many more options for interfacing to their FPGA-based instrument, and in some cases this enables removal of the middle-person PC. It is now possible to manage the instrument directly by widely used control systems such EPICS or TANGO. As an example, on MAST (the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, a new vertical feedback system is under development in which waveform coefficients can be changed between plasma discharges to define the plasma position behaviour. Additionally it is possible to use the embedded processor to facilitate remote updating of firmware which, in combination with a watchdog and network booting ensures that full remote management over Ethernet is possible. We also discuss UDP data streaming using embedded Linux and a web based control interface running on the embedded processor to interface to the FPGA board. |
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Slides THDAULT04 [2.267 MB] | |||
FRBHMUST01 | The Design of the Alba Control System: A Cost-Effective Distributed Hardware and Software Architecture. | controls, database, software, interface | 1318 |
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The control system of Alba is highly distributed from both hardware and software points of view. The hardware infrastructure for the control system includes in the order of 350 racks, 20000 cables and 6200 equipments. More than 150 diskless industrial computers, distributed in the service area and 30 multicore servers in the data center, manage several thousands of process variables. The software is, of course, as distributed as the hardware. It is also a success story of the Tango Collaboration where a complete software infrastructure is available "off the shelf". In addition Tango has been productively complemented with the powerful Sardana framework, a great effort in terms of development, which nowadays, several institutes benefit from. The whole installation has been coordinated from the beginning with a complete cabling and equipment database, where all the equipment, cables, connectors are described and inventoried. The so called "cabling database" is core of the installation. The equipments and cables are defined there. The basic configurations of the hardware like MAC and IP addresses, DNS names, etc. are also gathered in this database, allowing the network communication files and declaration of variables in the PLCs to be created automatically. This paper explains the design and the architecture of the control system, describes the tools and justifies the choices made. Furthermore, it presents and analyzes the figures regarding cost and performances. | |||
Slides FRBHMUST01 [4.616 MB] | |||