PCaPAC2012 - List of Authors (Kumar, A.)

Paper

Title

Page

The IUAC Tandem-LINAC Control System

94

A. Kumar, B.K. Sahu, K. Singh
IUAC, New Delhi, India

The 16MV Tandem Van de Graff accelerator at IUAC is one of the earliest machines to go for a PC based control system. The PDP11, supplied with it, was replaced by an IBM PC running DOS before the accelerator was commissioned in 1989. The present system, commissioned in 1997 to include the LINAC, runs on a network of PCs under the GNU/Linux operating system. We have followed a distributed approach by grouping the signals, around 1000 in total, based on the location. Each group is connected to a server computer, by hardware interfaces like CAMAC, VME and custom hardware. The signals connected to each server PC are handled by a server program and they are accessible to the outside world, over a TCP/IP network, using a unique identifier consisting of a Label, Function and Unit. The features like a user interface, monitoring for alarm conditions, data logging and partial automation are handled by several client programs, communicating to multiple servers to access the hardware. The communication is done by passing a message packet and waiting for the reply. The message consists of the unique signal identifier and commands for setting/reading analog and digital parameter values. The development of the control system also resulted in low cost equipment for science education[1]. It also helped further development of the control system by additions like client programs in Python language. This feature enabled accelerator users to write simple scripts for tasks like setting the LINAC resonator parameters based on calculations, writing routines for partial automation etc. The system is cost effective, scalable and simple. It has shown very high reliability and ease of use during the past two decades of operation.
[1] http://expeyes.inhttp://expeyes.in

Slides THIA03 [4.121 MB]

Paper	Title	Page
THIA03	The IUAC Tandem-LINAC Control System	94
	A. Kumar, B.K. Sahu, K. Singh IUAC, New Delhi, India
	The 16MV Tandem Van de Graff accelerator at IUAC is one of the earliest machines to go for a PC based control system. The PDP11, supplied with it, was replaced by an IBM PC running DOS before the accelerator was commissioned in 1989. The present system, commissioned in 1997 to include the LINAC, runs on a network of PCs under the GNU/Linux operating system. We have followed a distributed approach by grouping the signals, around 1000 in total, based on the location. Each group is connected to a server computer, by hardware interfaces like CAMAC, VME and custom hardware. The signals connected to each server PC are handled by a server program and they are accessible to the outside world, over a TCP/IP network, using a unique identifier consisting of a Label, Function and Unit. The features like a user interface, monitoring for alarm conditions, data logging and partial automation are handled by several client programs, communicating to multiple servers to access the hardware. The communication is done by passing a message packet and waiting for the reply. The message consists of the unique signal identifier and commands for setting/reading analog and digital parameter values. The development of the control system also resulted in low cost equipment for science education[1]. It also helped further development of the control system by additions like client programs in Python language. This feature enabled accelerator users to write simple scripts for tasks like setting the LINAC resonator parameters based on calculations, writing routines for partial automation etc. The system is cost effective, scalable and simple. It has shown very high reliability and ease of use during the past two decades of operation. [1] http://expeyes.inhttp://expeyes.in
	Slides THIA03 [4.121 MB]