Secondary Beam Line Control System: Available Programs

In List 1 follows an enumeration and short descriptions of the programs (Optima et al. for Windows) available on all 7 area PCs. They are all programmed in C++ using the WIN32-API and an own static class library [MyWPP.Lib, subset of Blaise Computing's WIN++ for MS Windows 3.1 (1991) ported to WIN32]. In order to add some additionally needed functionality to the WIN32-API, a few DLLs (Direct Link Libraries) have been created (see List 2). All presented programs and libraries run currently under Windows XP Professional.

• Set Point Program (DevoIP32.Exe). This program is the basic I/O control program, which allows the user to control the settings of all devices. Each device may be set individually via keyboard input or all devices together (or only a group of it) may be set from disk file. The display of the device parameters (name, DAC value and ADC value) is done via a page per page view (see Fig.1, 23 kB). One page contains up to 16 devices. The actual beam line settings may be stored on disk file or compared with similar settings saved on disk file previously.
• Optima Program (OptaIP32.Exe). This program allows the user to bring up an arbitrary experimental rate provided by the user to a maximum by changing the settings of magnetic elements, slits and/or other elements of a secondary beam line according to a script file given to the program as input. When running, some output is displayed in three different windows of which one is graphical with auto scaling capabilities (see Fig.2, 30 kB). The input script file can be created or modified either with a simple text editor or with a special GUI editor (see Fig.3, 21 kB).
• Combi Control Program (CoCoIP32.Exe). This program is specially designed for collecting more information about the current status of power supplies controlled via ROAD-C combi devices (DAC, ADC, remote switch and some diagnostics are in the same plug-in unit). Besides switching on and off the main power for the devices one has also the possibility to set a value, to increment or decrement it or to inspect each meaningful bit of the status word of a selected power supply. All devices of a secondary beam line having a combi are listed in a so called combo-box and may be selected by double-clicking at the desired name (see Fig.4, 20 kB).
• Magnet Cycling Program (MaCyIP32.Exe). Up to 20 magnets may be simultaneously passed through a programmable magnetic field cycling process. The input for the program is a selectable script file, which contains 1 line for each of the chosen magnets. Each input line may contain a series of up to 10 pairs of time and DAC-setting-values placed behind the name of the respective device. Once started, the progress of the cycling process - displayed as current settings and trend plots - is shown in 2 windows (a text and a graphic one). A typical output for a single magnet cycling process is shown in Fig.10 (17 kB).
• Interactive CAMAC Command Program (ICCTCP32.Exe). This program represents a debugging tool for CAMAC experts. It allows to perform interactively all possible Camac commands (single or in a loop). The most general commands like Dataway Z, C, I etc. may be done directly by clicking at a reserved button (see Fig.5, 22 kB). A list of up to 10 commands may be typed in, stored or loaded from disk file. When executed, besides the data input/output also Q and X are displayed for each Camac transfer. The data representation may be chosen to be binary, octal, decimal or hexa-decimal. All commands are recorded and may be reviewed on demand via a special window. An initialization of the Kinetics KS-3989 Camac Serial Crate Controller may also be performed (with some diagnostic output).
• 2-Dim Scan Program (2DScIP32.Exe). This program is capable of measuring and displaying experimental rates as a function of 2 varied device settings. During the data taking scans the rate profiles for each setting of the second device are plotted in a graphic window (similar to Optima). At the end, the result may be viewed via a contour, lego or surface plot. The input of the program is given via a script file which looks similar to one for the program Optima with only 2 devices to optimize. A picture of a test run is shown in Fig.11, (34 kB).
• Marquardt Gradient Search Program (MarsIP32.Exe).
• Proton Accelerator Status (AccSta32.Exe). This program receives the UDP/IP packages broadcasted at a rate of 1 Hz by a computer in the PSI proton accelerator domain (ACS). The information contained in these packages is analyzed, stored and displayed in different manner like analog or as history plot (see Fig.6, 31 kB). The user may choose himself which beam current(s) and which history time span(s) he wants to have displayed. Beam drop-outs, availability and charge are also summed up and displayed upon request. All operator's messages and all HE-beam dropouts are collected in the Ascii files AccStat.txt and AccStat.off and may be inspected on request. Every 5 minutes or when exiting, the history data collected so far are saved in a file (AccStat.dat) as backup information for a desired or forced restart of the program. This program has also proven to be a useful ad-hoc beam monitor during the commissioning of the neutron guides of the spallation neutron source (SINQ). There exists also a modified version of this program designed as a Java Applet startable from your Web Browser (no previous installation required). In order to try out the applet, please click here . The applet consists of about 66 kB of code and 70 kB of GIF files.
• Editor (Editor32.Exe). This editor resembles to the well known Notepad editor. (Under Windows 95/98 it can only handle files of up to around 50 kB in size.) But besides the menu bar it has also a tool bar and a status bar displaying the current line number (see Fig.7, 14 kB). The keypad may be used like with the DEC EDT editor well known to former or current VAX-VMS users.
• Serial Port I/O-Handler (RS23232.Exe). This program runs only on the server PC and is called by CAMAC32.DLL in order to execute the requested serial I/Os for the Kinetics 3989 RS-232 Crate Controller (see Fig.8, 14 kB). When RS23232.Exe is started it shows up in the task bar as a red icon (see Fig.9, 9 kB) which has an extended system menu for requesting some extra information. No special driver is required to perform a RS232-I/O, because the serial port is supported by all Windows APIs. With a baud rate of 19200, up to 50 Camac cycles per second can be executed, which is sufficient for all available programs.
• Test Program for Camac Server (Client32.Exe). This program which runs in a DOS box allows the user to test all features of the Camac Server interactively. To learn more about the commands this program understands see Table 1 in the Client/Server dialog section. If a command is typed in, which the server does not understand, then the typed in command is just prompted.
• Camac Server (Server32.Exe). This program runs only on the server PC and is started automatically at boot time (short cut in the startup folder). It can handle up to 10 clients at the same time (queuing) and calls routines in CAMAC32.DLL for performing the requested Camac-I/Os (see Fig. 8, 14 kB). When Server32.Exe is started it shows up in the task bar as a yellow icon (see Fig.9, 9 kB) which has an extended system menu for requesting some extra information.
• Watchdog (Watchdog.exe).Also this program runs only on the server PC and is started automatically at boot time (short cut in the startup folder).

• Camac Library (Camac32.Dll). This library is used by Server32.Exe and contains all routines for performing the Camac-I/Os of the above described programs. When initialized, it reads in the database (DEVICE.LIS) in order to learn about the addresses, mode bits etc. of all devices. A new initialization (over the network) is triggered each time when the Set Point Program is exited and restarted. This is important to know when changing the DEVICE.LIS on the server in order to make the newly typed in data effective. If a reservation unit (REMOD) is present in the crate and included in the DEVICE.LIS, then an arbitration between the different programs and a second computer connected via a second crate controller is performed.
• User Drawn Button Library (Usrbtn32.Dll). This library contains some bitmaps and routines for drawing buttons and patterns to give the dialog boxes of all above described programs the look similar to programs built with the old 16bit Borland bwcc-library independent of the brand name of the newly used 32bit C/C++ compiler.
• Analog Meter (Anamtr32.Dll). The source code of this DLL has been extracted form "Windows Programmierbuch" (Sybex 1992) by Marcellus Bucheit and ported to the WIN32 API. This DLL is used by the application program Proton Accelerator Status to display the different beam currents with the help of an analog meter.
• Colored Button (Colrbt32.Dll). This DLL is needed for producing buttons with arbitrarily colored faces, shades, highlights and fonts. It's utilized with the Setpoint Program for enhancing in different blues the device which has the input focus and to show in red the name of the currently loaded disk file.

Optional Add-On:

• On-Line Transport (Tpmenu32.Exe) In order to debug a new or a modified secondary beam line it is advantageous to have a version of Graphic Transport on some of the area PCs. This is the case for the M3 and E5 areas, where some development is still going on. If the Camac Server is present and Transport is started up with the second parameter on the command line as Server_name$Port_ID, then DAC values of magnets may be read or written directly from Transport. Of course at least one of the 2 files QUADS.CAL and BENDS.CAL with conversion data for DAC to magnetic field values for the magnets in use has to be present in the Transport directory.