Active Surface Software Upgrade

The Active Surface Software is suffering from a bit of neglect. The system is one of the more unreliable in the telescope. It should be brought up to the latest standards of the GBT software systems. In order to do that, several things need to be accomplished:

The system should be ported off of VxWorks? and onto a Linux platform.
A Manager written that can handle all the functions required. This would allow an integrated interface to facilitate maintenance and operation. Now, there is a custom GUI, a command line interface, and a cleo screen all needed to work on the system.
Operational improvements and bug fixes
- Better servo loop for the actuator control to minimize wear and tear
- Additional samplers for LVDT position errors and 100ms loop execution times
- Fix spurious actuator disabling (currently unknown causes, need instrumentation in the code to find and fix this one)
- Actuator run time display
- Config file to allow setting of warning/error thresholds
- Disabled actuator status information display (index #, IIOP, module, channel, location in room, etc)
PTCS-related modifications (better corrections interface, etc)
Other work that SDD deems necessary for continued reliability and maintainability of the software

Most of the work could be done off-line in the lab. We have enough equipment to build a small mock-up of the active surface with one IIOP, some actuators, and some LVDT's (We might be able to resurrect the test panels down at the interferometer building.) We would need a week or two of daytimes to debug and test the surface. It could be put back to operation with the old system in the evenings.

It will require a software person to do the work, then it will require Electronics as well as software personnel to test the system. I won't hazard a guess as to how long it would take to do the software work. Actually, this could be done anytime during the summer when the active surface isn't needed to be in functioning order each night. It could be done with less efficiency by turning on the old system each night and debugging the new only during the day. (JMF) I really think this is a worthwhile project, BTW.

-- AmyShelton - 20 Apr 2007

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