1. Control and Data Acquisition System for VEST at SNU
YoungHwa An, Kyoung-Jae Chung, D.H. Na and Y. S. Hwang
Dept. of Nuclear Eng., Seoul National Univ., 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul , Korea,
Introduction
Schematic of the control and data acquisition system of VEST
VEST : Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus
Main Control and Data Acquisition System
Monitoring System
A spherical torus recently built at SNU to be a low cost, compact, educational fusion research device
Characterized by two partial solenoid coils installed at both vertical ends of a center stack and the double null merging start-up schemes will be studied as well as current-ramp up through sequential injection of small plasmas into the main plasma using the partial solenoid coils.
Devices
Diagnostics
Devices
Devices
Devices
Devices
Devices
Devices
A/D
Convertor
D/A
Convertor
Optical Receiver
RS-232
RS-232
RS-232
Objectives of the study
To provide the fundamental ability of control and data acquisition as well as system monitoring for VEST that is prerequisite to undertake first plasma experiment.
To remote-control and monitor the whole system in a control room.
To collect and distribute the data in less than 5 minutes.
Intended to be extensible with easy development by using well- established standards and cost-effective due to the limited budget.
RS-485 Network
Optical Transmitter
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
DIO modules
AI modules
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
Optical
Convertor
Schematic of VEST
PXI Bus
PXI Controller
Monitoring
Server
TF Coils
Ethernet
Database Server
Data Viewer
Software
Data Access Library
Web Data Distribution System
Partial Solenoid
Data Storage and Distribution System
User PCs
Mobile Devices
Long Solenoid
Users
Plasma
Merging
PF Coils
Schematic of the alarm and data viewing through mobile devices
Telecommunication
Companies
The alarm module on the monitoring system
Text
Message
Vacuum Chamber
Database Server
Text Message API
SMS
Gateway Server
Internet
HTTP
Request on data
Web Data Distribution System
HTML Pages
The modern information technology maximizes the accessibility of the system. In case of the emergency situation, the related personals can notice the problem almost simultaneously through the alarm module of the monitoring system and collect information through the web data distribution system utilizing modern smart devices almost anytime everywhere for appropriate reactions.
Developed Software
Summary
The main control and data acquisition program
The monitoring system
The control and data acquisition system for VEST has been developed as an integrated system that enables remote operation from a central control room.
The main control and data acquisition system has been developed based on PXI as the main hardware platform.
The monitoring system based on the remote A/D and D/A converter modules and serial communication enables the remote control and monitoring of each device.
The data storage and distribution system consists of a database server for data storage and a set of data viewing software, library and a web data distribution system for the access to the store data.
Well-established standard technologies and solutions are used for both hardware and software, which provides extensibility, reliability and ease of development.
The open source solutions and commercial solutions freely available have been used for cost-effectiveness.
The modern information technology maximizes the accessibility of the system. In case of the emergency situation, the related personals can notice the problem almost simultaneously through the alarm module of the monitoring system and collect information through the web data distribution system utilizing modern smart devices almost anytime everywhere for appropriate reactions.
VEST is operational since December 2011 and the control and data acquisition system has been successfully used for remote control and monitoring of VEST from a main control room for over 2,000 shots. This system is continuously on upgrade for better user interface as well as faster data transfer in the preparation for large number of diagnostics in future.
GUI software developed using Visual C# to monitor and log the status of devices using serial communication and remote A/D and D/A converters.
The alarm module sends text message to the registered cell phones when the abnormal status of devices is noticed.
Developed using LabVIEW in event driven manner.
Triggers each device and collect various diagnostic data with predefined sampling rate and duration
The data viewing programs
Web data distribution system
The php scripts running on apache webserver generate HTML pages according to request from client.
Developed as a remote monitoring and data retrieval system which enables data distribution to anyone connected to internet through web browser.
GUI software developed using Visual C# to retrieve and visualize the shot data during discharge.
Users can plot and compare each shot data and export the data as a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format.
Users can update comments on the shot using the shot data viewer when needed and the updated comments are shared among users.
Control and Data Acquisition System for VEST at SNU