Closed kjwoodsISIS closed 5 years ago
Ticket will involve some analysis.
Having had a quick look at the SECI component for the NIMA trough on SURF (so potentially limited to a small use case) all the blocks in use look at Nima Trough Interface.vi
, there are about 15 items on there, all but one then looks at Nima Trough.vi
to get the data that is fed back.
Nima Trough.vi
is also included in the SECI component, so whilst not scriptable, the entirety of the manufacturers VI is available. Given the clustered nature of the vendor vi front panel controls we are not going to be able to use LVDCOM on it directly.
My instinct for something achievable would be to use the vendor vi (Nima Trough.vi
) and run it and leave it visible for the graphs and controls, and probably LVDCOM Nima Trough Interface.vi
to make what is currently accessed as blocks available as PVs. (This is the kind of setup currently in use on the HIFI Cryomagnet, all be it SECI at the other end of the channel access from the LVDCOM rather than IBEX.)
Migrating the system to EPICS/IBEX if a driver doesn't already exist would be a significant undertaking, there is some information in the help files for LabVIEW, but I would measure the time needed to define the requirements to run this natively within IBEX/EPICS in months.
So, how about we do this:
Nima Trough Interface.vi
to create the necessary blocks and a simple OPI. Will this allow us to display the graphs noted above?If the current VI runs on the control PC successfully already, we significantly reduce the reliability of the the control system by putting a second PC in the loop (two things to fail not one). In the context of a running experiment, this extra PC is also a new critical component who's failure would also lose us beam time (another PC is also a significant support load if it is critical component and something which could fail with a full disk, faulty ports, hardware, memory or connector's etc.)
it might be that we could simply provide the control required for an experiment via serial and leave the complex setup to a laptop - but this would still seem to be a poor solution given the current setup appears to already work successfully for the scientists.
If it is feasible the control/monitor the trough while, at the same time, controlling the rest of the instrument, then fine, the manufacturer's VI can run on the NDX machine. Worth checking this with the instrument scientist as you are developing the lvDCOM/IOC/OPI.
At the moment their VI is loaded into SECI usually, it would need to be a separate open window on the NDX, and in time we may need to revisit how the graphs etc. are viewed, but in the spirit of an MVP for our current setup, leave it all on the NDX, launch the VI front panel within the system (this can be done from the interface VI – minor change and a technique used in other places under SECI), LVDCOM the interface, and if we ever get to running clients remotely we can revisit the extra control/interactions and ways to manage them at that point.
Sounds good.
Do we know if the vendor who supplied the VIs has alternative non-labview control software available?
The original vendor, the one that supplied the VIs, has been taken over by another company. The new company is Biolin Scientific. They have download page for "KSV NIMA Software", but the page contains no download link (unlike their other download pages).
I have posted a support query to their web-site, asking if the "KSV NIMA" software is available.
Should we hold off on doing the lvDCOM for this then?
Just to summarise the decision, we will continue with lvdcom to the existing SECI VI as it is a simple interface to the more complex vendor vi and so easy to do, but will investigate if there is alternative vendor software that might be of use for any future purpose as the status of the current vendor VI is unknown
Aaron and I are doing the IOC side but there are a couple of labview changes that are required. @KathrynBaker or @davidkeymer, can you look at these?
The interface is just an event case, it is called frequently from the manufacturers VI – the LabVIEW will need a few larger changes than normal. The version in SourceSafe is also not the same version as is currently on SURF (the interface front panel is the same, but the code behind is slightly different), so that can be updated at the same time.
The manufacturer has finally responded to my support request. They have made additional software available. I have downloaded a copy and stored it here: \\isis\shares\ISIS_Experimental_Controls\NIMA Trough\Nima_TR8.1.zip
.
However, I suspect it is just compiled LabVIEW software. Can someone please confirm.
P.S. For the avoidance of doubt - there is no requirement to change what we have done in this ticket to interface with the new software. The purpose of the note above is merely to register that we now have the above software. I have also made a note of the software in the instrument wiki pages.
It’s an installer, so I’d have to assume that it will install compiled code, I’ve not run it on my system however, so I could be wrong. There are certainly no VIs visible.
I tried installing the NIMA software. The icon for the executable gives it away: it is compiled LabVIEW.
.
They also license NI's VISA drivers.
As a SURF scientist, I want IBEX to support the NIMA Trough, on my instrument, so that I can use it with IBEX in my experiments.
Acceptance Criteria
Notes
C:\LabVIEW Modules\Drivers\Nima Trough
. There may be some documentation in the sub-folders.