The New Computer Control System of the Heavy Ion Accelerator at the Australian National University

Transcription

1 The New Computer Control System of the Heavy Ion Accelerator at the Australian National University Dimitrios Tsifakis Accelerator Computer Manager Department of Nuclear Physics, ANU

2 Talk overview Introduction: our facility Old system: what I inherited in 2009 Upgrade strategic plan New System: improvements and new features Future plans 2

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4 The Heavy Ion Accelerator at the ANU National Electrostatics Corporation 14UD pelletron Installed in 1973 Tandem accelerator On a good day, voltage up to 15 MV Mostly computer controlled The users are also the operators! 4

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7 Previous control system (2009) The previous system was a custom made application by the computer staff of the department Approx. 70 thousand lines of FORTRAN code 4 VME crates with rtvax computers running VAXELN RTOS Many Group3 I/O devices Two DEC VAXstations 4000/60 (early nineties vintage) running OpenVMS 7.2 (1999 vintage) and a few DEC Xterminals DEC serial terminals at all entrances (rad. Protection) DECnet (Not TCP/IP!) networking over 10 Mbps 10Base2 and 10BaseFX 7

8 Evaluation of the previous control system It provided good service for almost two decades It survived the harsh electromagnetic environment Spark energy: ET = 1 CT V 2T 2 Noise It relied on many obsolete-unobtainable-obscure devices It had limited documentation, however we had access to the creator and he has a good memory....it had to go! 8

9 The upgrade plan Hardware Group3 loops: reliable, keep VME crates: many VME I/O cards, including Group3 controllers: keep VME computer: replace with modern VME SBC (Motorola MVME3100) Display: replace with modern computer Radiation protection displays and Xterminals: replace with modern small form factor computers 9

10 The upgrade plan Software EPICS! Large number of similar facilities use it Enthusiastic community, happy to help Choice of RTOS RTEMS (low cost, more time fiddling) VxWorks (higher cost, probably less time fiddling)...but is an RTOS really needed? Easy to produce HMI using supplied tools...or roll your own! 10

11 The upgrade plan Execution strategy We cannot take the accelerator off-line for considerable amounts of time! Develop off-line database, IOCs, GUI, etc. Test by swapping old VME computer with new one Upgrade 10Base[2, T, FX] with gigabit ethernet Risk mitigation plan: don't throw away the old VAXes! 11

12 The result Computer control switched permanently to EPICS in 2012 Radiation protection terminals followed soon after Old VAX hardware was kept aside but was never used Maintenance has been easy so far Two engineers, but not spending all their time on it Ethernet proved very reliable, including VLANs Users initially a bit hesitant but very quickly embraced the new system 12

13 Some statistics 12 IOCs (4x MVME3100, 8x TS-7520) 3851 process variables This includes all real I/O plus calculated/derived PVs One Dell server Ubuntu LTS Boot server and EPICS development machine 7 radiation protection terminals and 6 general purpose terminals Linux Terminal Server Project - LTSP 13

14 Improvements and new features: TS-7520 Technologic systems TS MHz ARM9 CPU, 64 MB RAM, plenty of I/O, net-booted with Linux/EPICS US$249 per box (Qty 1) 14

15 Improvements and new features: ModBUS/TCP ModBUS/TCP (ModBUS over Ethernet) Native EPICS support Industrial strength isolation/protection Variety of manufacturers, and modules 15

16 ...for example: 8 tesla solenoid controller 16

17 Improvements and new features: EKI port serial to Ethernet converter Made by Advantech Used to enable connections to Danfysic power supplies and Pfeiffer vacuum gauges Redundant network and power (we don't use this feature) Once setup, easy to access ports via TCP/IP connections 17

18 Improvements and new features: GUI Decided that old EDM/MEDM is too old fashioned Python with WX and EPICS modules SVG dynamic graphics (inkscape) Still use EDM for some prototyping! 18

19 Archiver 19

20 Main control panel 20

21 LINAC control 21

22 Rad. Protection 22

23 ... not all UI is GUI: AMS scripts 23

24 Future plans Move I/O away from old VME cards ModBUS, Group3 or TS-7520 Re-visit the archiver Expand control to the rest of the accelerator New Pfeiffer vacuum gauges (double and maxi), via custom EPICS StreamDevice Faraday cup current measurements Self tuning accelerator? Cryoplant PLC? 24

25 1974 Questions? 25