S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Follow-up from the last DCS workshop Answers and recommendations

S.Popescu Alice DCS workshop,Colmar, 21.06.2004

Follow-up from the last DCS workshop

Answers and recommendations


Q1:Is there any simulator of the Wiener, Iseg, CAEN?

• Official releases software(Wiener, Iseg, Caen..) simulating the hardware behaviors do not exist

• Framework does not support any kind of hardware simulator also

• There are different users who developed their own simulators, but the correct behavior of the hw is difficult to achieve.

• The general recommendation is to use the official OPC servers releases, together with the Framework implementation of the devices

• For local needs one can use the PVSSsim manager to generate different DP values.


Q2: CAEN OPC loosing configuration?

• Clarification: CAEN OPC does not loose configuration !!!

• “Device simple configuration” is general to all the devices implemented in Framework

• So far there is no method to verify the previous configuration

• This is still a subject of discussions in the FWWG (Framework Working Group)

• A decision has not been taken yet, as the implementation is not a straightforward one


Q3:Wiener firmware problems(1)

• Wiener have released several firmware.• For PL500(F8)and PL6021(F8) the last release is

UEP500(6021)2.12 and CAN 1.04• As mentioned many times the Wiener OPC server 1.6

works very well for this firmware • Different users reported the existence of unphysical

channels which reside in the current firmware• These behaviors should be reported immediately to the

Wiener company, as they are the only ones responsible with the firmware upgrades



• Special attention should be given to the correct connection of the CANbus to the 9D-Sub connectors

• The correct resistor termination should be applied for the corresponding cable length and CANBus speed

• Connectors with the incorporated termination can be bought from different companies (ex: ERNI)

• Also the OPC configuration file should agree with the configuration loaded to the micro controller of the PS (namely Canbus address, speed)


Q3:Wiener firmware problems (3)



• More documentation can be found:–

http://itcofe.web.cern.ch/itcofe/Services/Fieldbus/CAN/Cabling/documents/DR303-1V111.pdf

– “Standard CANBus signal cables for Alice DCS” R.V.Vlugt




Q5: TOF Trending tool poor and inaccurate (1)

• PVSS trending tool is mainly an online monitoring tool

• Data analysis features (like average, errors…) are not implemented

• If these analysis are needed a simple method will be to export the data to an ascii file and analyze with other tools like root, excel…

• PVSS trending tool is not simple to be use by non-specialist, but the Framework trending tool was created to make things easier for users


Q5: TOF Trending tool poor and inaccurate (2)

• http://itcobe.web.cern.ch/itcobe/Projects/Framework/welcome.html

• A short tutorial document can be found at the DCS web page

http://itcobe.web.cern.ch/itcobe/Projects/Framework/welcome.html






• Generally one have in the PVSS log view panel messages like

• If the manager receives an invalid message from an computer, it cuts the communication with the unknown computer and prints its action in the log viewer

• To avoid this type of illegal connection, for each manager one can define an “IP access list for TCP server sockets”

• Documentation about this topics can be found in System management section

Q6:TOF PVSS security

PVSS00databg (1), 2004.06.14 19:05:21.796, SYS, INFO, 6, Initialization by Data Manager finishedPVSS00valarch(0), 2004.06.14 21:02:08.835, SYS, INFO, 0, Lost connection to c199196.ppp.asahi-net.or.jp during initialization due to an illegal message format.PVSS00valarch(0), 2004.06.15 04:19:28.914, SYS, INFO, 0, , Lost connection to pcpdpas1.cern.ch during initialization due to an illegal message format.


Q7: SPD Elmb, Wiener problems(1)

• Elmb fake problems– “Elmb ADC operational “

panel is there to make possible changes during the operation

– Changes in settings are preferably to be saved in the RAM and not in the EEPROM

– One can write in EEPROM maximum 10000 times, but one should not exaggerate

– One should not configure the EEPROM in the [init] section of the OPCCanServer.cfg file


Q7: SPD Elmb, Wiener problems(2)

• Wiener: it is strongly recommended to use the Wiener OPC latest release.– SliC is no longer supported; couldn’t

reproduce the errors in our lab– The problems regarding the Wiener firmware

should be close monitored by the Wiener company


Conclusion

• It is highly recommended to use the Framework components and the official OPC server releases

• Any bug or problem in these two should be reported to us or to IT-CO

Documents

S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Follow-up from the last DCS workshop Answers and recommendations