ICALEPCS2013 - List of Authors (Johnson, J.M.)

Paper

Title

Page

Keck Telescope Control System Upgrade Project Status

15

J.M. Johnson, J.A. Mader, K.T. Tsubota
W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA

The Keck telescopes, located at one of the world’s premier sites for astronomy, were the first of a new generation of very large ground-based optical/infrared telescopes with the first Keck telescope beginning science operations in May of 1993, and the second in October of 1996. The components of the telescopes and control systems are more than 15 years old. The upgrade to the control systems of the telescopes consists of mechanical, electrical, software and network components with the overall goals of improving performance, increasing reliability, addressing serious obsolescence issues and providing a knowledge refresh. The telescope encoder systems will be replaced to fully meet demanding science requirements and electronics will be upgraded to meet the needs of modern instrumentation. The upgrade will remain backwards compatible with remaining Observatory subsystems to allow for a phased migration to the new system. This paper describes where Keck is in the development processes, key decisions that have been made, covers successes and challenges to date and presents an overview of future plans.

Slides MOCOAAB05 [2.172 MB]

TUPPC032

Database-backed Configuration Service

627

J.A. Mader, J.M. Johnson, K.T. Tsubota
W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA

Keck Observatory is in the midst of a major telescope control system upgrade. This upgrade will include a new database-backed configuration service which will be used to manage the many aspects of the telescope that need to be configured (e.g. site parameters, control tuning, limit values) for its control software and it will keep the configuration data persistent between IOC restarts. This paper will discuss this new configuration service, including its database schema, iocsh API, rich user interface and the many other provided features. The solution provides automatic time-stamping, a history of all database changes, the ability to snapshot and load different configurations and triggers to manage the integrity of the data collections. Configuration is based on a simple concept of controllers, components and their associated mapping. The solution also provides a failsafe mode that allows client IOCs to function if there is a problem with the database server. It will also discuss why this new service is preferred over the file based configuration tools that have been used at Keck up to now.

Poster TUPPC032 [0.849 MB]

THPPC067

New EPICS Drivers for Keck TCS Upgrade

1231

J.M. Johnson
W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA

Keck Observatory is in the midst of a major telescope control system upgrade. This involves migrating from a VME based EPICS control system originally deployed on Motorola FRC40s VxWorks 5.1 and EPICS R3.13.0Beta12 to a distributed 64-bit X86 Linux servers running RHEL 2.6.33.x and EPICS R3.14.12.x. This upgrade brings a lot of new hardware to the project which includes Ethernet/IP connected PLCs, the ethernet connected DeltaTau Brick controllers, National Instruments MXI RIO, Heidenhain Encoders (and the Heidenhain ethernet connected Encoder Interface Box in particular), Symmetricom PCI based BC635 timing and synchronization cards, and serial line extenders and protocols. Keck has chosen to implement all new drivers using the ASYN framework. This paper will describe the various drivers used in the upgrade including those from the community and those developed by Keck which include BC635, MXI and Heidenhain EIB. It will also discuss the use of the BC635 as a local NTP reference clock and a service for the EPICS general time.

THCOBB05

Switching Solution – Upgrading a Running System

1400

K.T. Tsubota, J.M. Johnson, J.A. Mader
W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA

At Keck Observatory, we are upgrading our existing operational telescope control system and must do it with as little operational impact as possible. This paper describes our current integrated system and how we plan to create a more distributed system and deploy it subsystem by subsystem. This will be done by systematically extracting the existing subsystem then replacing it with the new upgraded distributed subsystem maintaining backwards compatibility as much as possible to ensure a seamless transition. We will also describe a combination of cabling solutions, design choices and a hardware switching solution we’ve designed to allow us to seamlessly switch signals back and forth between the current and new systems.

Slides THCOBB05 [1.482 MB]

Paper	Title	Page
MOCOAAB05	Keck Telescope Control System Upgrade Project Status	15
	J.M. Johnson, J.A. Mader, K.T. Tsubota W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA
	The Keck telescopes, located at one of the world’s premier sites for astronomy, were the first of a new generation of very large ground-based optical/infrared telescopes with the first Keck telescope beginning science operations in May of 1993, and the second in October of 1996. The components of the telescopes and control systems are more than 15 years old. The upgrade to the control systems of the telescopes consists of mechanical, electrical, software and network components with the overall goals of improving performance, increasing reliability, addressing serious obsolescence issues and providing a knowledge refresh. The telescope encoder systems will be replaced to fully meet demanding science requirements and electronics will be upgraded to meet the needs of modern instrumentation. The upgrade will remain backwards compatible with remaining Observatory subsystems to allow for a phased migration to the new system. This paper describes where Keck is in the development processes, key decisions that have been made, covers successes and challenges to date and presents an overview of future plans.
	Slides MOCOAAB05 [2.172 MB]

TUPPC032	Database-backed Configuration Service	627
	J.A. Mader, J.M. Johnson, K.T. Tsubota W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA
	Keck Observatory is in the midst of a major telescope control system upgrade. This upgrade will include a new database-backed configuration service which will be used to manage the many aspects of the telescope that need to be configured (e.g. site parameters, control tuning, limit values) for its control software and it will keep the configuration data persistent between IOC restarts. This paper will discuss this new configuration service, including its database schema, iocsh API, rich user interface and the many other provided features. The solution provides automatic time-stamping, a history of all database changes, the ability to snapshot and load different configurations and triggers to manage the integrity of the data collections. Configuration is based on a simple concept of controllers, components and their associated mapping. The solution also provides a failsafe mode that allows client IOCs to function if there is a problem with the database server. It will also discuss why this new service is preferred over the file based configuration tools that have been used at Keck up to now.
	Poster TUPPC032 [0.849 MB]

THPPC067	New EPICS Drivers for Keck TCS Upgrade	1231
	J.M. Johnson W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA
	Keck Observatory is in the midst of a major telescope control system upgrade. This involves migrating from a VME based EPICS control system originally deployed on Motorola FRC40s VxWorks 5.1 and EPICS R3.13.0Beta12 to a distributed 64-bit X86 Linux servers running RHEL 2.6.33.x and EPICS R3.14.12.x. This upgrade brings a lot of new hardware to the project which includes Ethernet/IP connected PLCs, the ethernet connected DeltaTau Brick controllers, National Instruments MXI RIO, Heidenhain Encoders (and the Heidenhain ethernet connected Encoder Interface Box in particular), Symmetricom PCI based BC635 timing and synchronization cards, and serial line extenders and protocols. Keck has chosen to implement all new drivers using the ASYN framework. This paper will describe the various drivers used in the upgrade including those from the community and those developed by Keck which include BC635, MXI and Heidenhain EIB. It will also discuss the use of the BC635 as a local NTP reference clock and a service for the EPICS general time.

THCOBB05	Switching Solution – Upgrading a Running System	1400
	K.T. Tsubota, J.M. Johnson, J.A. Mader W.M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, USA
	At Keck Observatory, we are upgrading our existing operational telescope control system and must do it with as little operational impact as possible. This paper describes our current integrated system and how we plan to create a more distributed system and deploy it subsystem by subsystem. This will be done by systematically extracting the existing subsystem then replacing it with the new upgraded distributed subsystem maintaining backwards compatibility as much as possible to ensure a seamless transition. We will also describe a combination of cabling solutions, design choices and a hardware switching solution we’ve designed to allow us to seamlessly switch signals back and forth between the current and new systems.
	Slides THCOBB05 [1.482 MB]