Communication with Ed Himwich 13.08.2019

What we are distributing is called 9.12.13. This differs from what Onsala has, 9.12.12, only that it has the more complete FS display server that is in 9.13.1. Wettzell has this now too.

This version is primarily aimed at VGOS operations. It might be possible to use it to drive a DBBC3 for S/X operations with some edits of ‘.prc' files. I am not sure. We are hoping to release a version that combines the two branches (and hopefully 32/64 bit compatible) late his summer. That version might work for S/X operations with the DBBC3, but I think there is some work yet to do (like setting the bitmask automatically).

Currently, it has DBBC3 commands:

bbcnnn nnn=001…128 ifx x=a…h iftpx x=a…h bbc_gain cont_cal

There are help pages for each.

There is no time-setting/monitoring, yet. There is both continuous (procedure ‘cont_enable’ in ‘dbbc3po.prc', see below) and non-continuous (‘cal_enable’, also in ‘dbbc3st.prc') Tsys available (use 'tpicd=tsys’ and ‘caltsys’ respectively). However until we have multicast, continuous cal loads down the system too much to be useful during experiments. What I suggest for now is that non-continuous cal to check the system by manually running ‘caltsys' when the system is waiting for the next observation. Maybe ‘caltsys' could be added to the end of ‘checkmk5’ to do it automatically, but it will not be getting Tsys onsource in either approach. FIVPT and ONOFF work for both types of cal.

In ‘equip.ctl’, you will need to set your rack type to ‘dbbc3’. You will also need an additional line with the firmware version, number BBCs per IF, and number of IFs. For an example, please see:

/usr2/fs-9.12.13/st.default.control/equip.ctl

Please note that if you want to run a VGOS experiment with the DBBC3, we will need to completely update your procedure files in the ‘.skd' files. I think you can only use the DBBC3 with ‘jive5ab’ on the recorder for VGOS. I don’t know anything about the wiring, but Onsala would probably be able to help you with that. You would select ‘dbbc3’ and ‘mark5b’ in ‘drudg’. We can discuss the logistics of schedules when you get closer to using it, but again Onsala may also be able to help. In particular, we need to get as much of the set-up as we can into ‘.skd’ file. I am working on getting this from Rüdiger, but neither of us has had time yet.

There are two example procedures in /usr2/fs-9.12.13/st.default/proc:

dbbc3st.prc - some useful things for the 'station' library dbbc3po.prc - some useful things for 'point' library

These are both works in progress and are for systems with 8 BBCs/IF and 8 IFs. Your feedback and suggestions would be appreciated to improve these. They contain some things that may be Onsala specific (cable and noise diode control) unless you have CDMS and the same control programs are available for them. Also there may be differences in your LOs.

(I think you already set-up for 9.12.x. If so, you won’t need to copy the

/usr2/fs-9.12.13.st.default/control/rdb??.ctl files

to /usr2/control. These must be present even if you aren’t using RDBEs, but in that case they should have no non-comment lines)