OSMOS Electronics Boxes & Control Programs

Which box is which?

Below is a picture of OSMOS with the HE and the IE labeled. The red box to the left is the HE, and the black box to the right is the IE.

HE (Head Electronics box)

The small cubical red box on the left is the detector Head Electronics box (HE). It connects to and controls the CCD detector. The HE is controlled by the IC computer running the IC program.

IE (Instrument Electronics box)

The long black box on the right is the Instrument Electronics (IE) box, also called the IEB. It connects to and controls the instrument mechanisms (slit, disp, filter1, filter2, camfoc, colfoc). The IE box is controlled by the IE agent program.

How are they controlled?

Below is a block diagram of the OSMOS control system.

How the different electronics subsystems and their control programs interact is a guide to beginning troubleshooting. In general, the ISIS and Prospero programs should be kept running most of the time during normal troubleshooting.

CCD Head Electronics Box (HEB) Problems: The CCD controller HEB is connected via a pair of optical fibers to the DOS IC computer located in the computer room. Problems acquiring CCD images, setting exposure parameters (e.g., exposure time, object name, readout region, binning, etc.) should first be investigated by looking at the IC computer or the HEB.
Instrument Mechanism (IEB) Problems: The instrument mechanisms are controlled by the IE Box (IEB) via the IE agent program running on the Linux workstations. Problems operating instrument mechanisms, reading instrument temperature sensors, or querying instrument positions should be investigated by looking at the IE program or the IEB box proper. The IEB and IE agent program operate independently of the IC, HEB, ISIS, or Prospero.
Raw Data Transfer Problems: Raw CCD images are transferred from the CCD to memory on the IC, then passed to SCSI transfer disks shared by the IC and the Caliban program running on the Linux workstation. Problems with data failing to transfer from the IC to the Linux workstation are likely on either the IC or the Caliban sides.
Telescope Interaction Problems: The instrument interacts with the MDM telescope controller via the MDMTCS agent program. Problems with telescope interaction should first be addressed by looking at the MDMTCS program, the xtcs program (common telescope control console at the 2.4m), or the telescope computer proper.

While the ISIS and Prospero programs should be kept running most of the time, restarting either is only indicated if you have to do a full system shutdown (e.g., for recovery from a lightning shutdown, or recovering after loss of power to the site). A full restart including restarting ISIS and Prospero is usually an all-else-fails action.