OWG Meeting 20-Jan-2010

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Agenda

  • Announcements
  • Review of minutes from 6-Jan-2010 meeting
  • Update on CED design - Dave Heddle
  • Jevio - Carl Timmer
  • BNL NSLS-II PLC evaluation (full vsn) (summary)- Elliott
    • Postponed until next meeting.
  • PLC control system - Elliott
    • Allen-Bradley Point I/O for RS232 communication
    • Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) over Ethernet/IP vs over ControlNet, copper vs fiber
    • Direct EPICS to Ethernet/IP communications
    • Web access using 1756-EWEB module
    • XML program storage
    • Alarming, paging, email
  • Coil test update - Elliott
  • Other electronics and trigger status reports - Fernando, Chris, Ben, Ed, Alex, Dave


Time/Location

1:30 PM Wed 20-Jan-2010 CC F326


Announcements

Next Meeting

1:30 PM Wed 3-Feb-2010


New Action Items from this Meeting

Minutes

Attendees: Elliott W, Dave Heddle, Carl T, Simon T, Mark I, Bryan M, Beni Z, Vardan G, Alex S, Dave L, Lubomir P, Eugene C.


Event Display

Dave Heddle described the event display framework he developed for CLAS12, but such that the framework could easily be used by Hall D. Two modes of operation are envisioned, a stand-alone version and a web-services version that uses Adobe FLEX on the client side. Currently only the stand-alone version works, the web-services version is under development. See Dave's talk for many more details:

  • The event display package consists of three parts:
    • JEvio (Java EVIO) from DAQ group for event I/O (EVIO format will be used by the Hall D DAQ system, and it is extensively used by CLAS12 at many levels).
    • bCNU is the basic "Multi-Document Interface" (MDI) graphics framework.
    • ced contains CLAS12-specific code, Hall D version would replace this.
  • JEvio and bCNU are generic, detector-independent.
  • Currently B field and swimming routines in ced part, but could be made generic and moved into bCNU.
  • Web version is a "Rich Internet App" or "Web 2.0 app."
  • The browser provides a virtual machine, the ubiquitous Adobe Flash player, programmed using the FLEX programming system.
  • FLEX uses ActionScript to program Flash player, an object-oriented scripting language.
  • Browser + Flash player is a "thin client" that supports pub/sub communications and is stateful.
  • Backend server (Java) does all the hard work.
  • No runtime licenses needed. Developer license free for universities, $699 for commercial, not clear for JLab.
  • Eclipse IDE provided.
  • Java 3D possible, Dave hasn't needed it.


Java EVIO

Carl talked about the Java version of the EVIO package. The Java version was originally developed by Dave Heddle for CLAS12, but then the DAQ group took it over. Carl made some minor improvements and additions, but most if it was done by Dave H. It is similar to the C++ EVIO package (developed by Elliott), but things are done in the Java way (instead of the C++ STL way). See Carl's talk for many more details:

  • Reads and writes EVIO files.
  • Can create EVIO events in memory, uses Java tree package internally.
  • Can also read EVIO events contained in cMsg messages.
  • Uses same display dictionary as is used in C++ package.
  • Carl still needs to create a user manual (will probably be a section in the existing EVIO manual).


Controls Issues and Coil Test

Elliott discussed a number of miscellaneous issues related to controls and the coil test:

  • The Allen-Bradley Point I/O system arrived. It is a lightweight and cheaper version of the full A-B PLC system. It is the cheapest way to implement RS232 control in the A-B PLC.
  • We may purchase more Point I/O systems for the gas system, FDC cooling system, etc.
  • Point I/O has less channel density and there are fewer modules available, but standard analog and digital I/O modules are available.
  • Ethernet/IP and ControlNet are two A-B inter-chassis protocols we will be using for the coil test. For the full experiment we may use just Ethernet/IP, or have a mixed system. Will evaluate as part of coil test.
  • Ethernet/IP is easy to run over fiber, since it's just a layer on top of standard Ethernet.
  • Direct connection to Ethernet/IP is possible without going through the PLC. BNL is working on a direct connection to EPICS.
  • We purchased an A-B web-server module. This will allow Elliott to do the web programming for the coil test instead of Mark Wissmann (whose time is limited and precious).
  • You can dump the A-B PLC program into XML and reload it into the PLC. BNL is planning on generating PLC programs from database and other info, then loading them in to their 300 PLC's. We are using the A-B programming environment to develop the PLC program.
  • The A-B web and Ethernet/IP modules can send email. We can use this to page technicians when the PLC detects an unusual situation.