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

2. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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.

3. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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

4. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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

5. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Q3:Wiener firmware problems(2) 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)

6. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Q3:Wiener firmware problems (3)

7. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Q3:Wiener firmware problems(4) More documentation can be found: –http://itcofe.web.cern.ch/itcofe/Services/Fieldbus/CAN/Cabling/documents/DR3 03-1V111.pdfhttp://itcofe.web.cern.ch/itcofe/Services/Fieldbus/CAN/Cabling/documents/DR3 03-1V111.pdf –“ Standard CANBus signal cables for Alice DCS” R.V.Vlugt

8. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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

9. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 Q5: TOF Trending tool poor and inaccurate (2) http://itcobe.web.cern.ch/itcobe/Projects/Fr amework/welcome.htmlhttp://itcobe.web.cern.ch/itcobe/Projects/Fr amework/welcome.html A short tutorial document can be found at the DCS web page

10. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004

11. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004

12. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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 finished PVSS00valarch(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.

13. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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

14. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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

15. S.PopescuAlice DCS workshop, Colmar, 21.06.2004 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