Research Division EED/Controls Software<P>
Crates And Slots Toolkit<P>
Release Note 107.1<P>
Research Division EED/Controls Software
Crates And Slots Toolkit
Release Note 107.1
Cynthia A. Chopp
General Description
The Crates and Slots Toolkit is a part of the General Menu. One may access it
by typing ``menu'' after logging
into one's account, and then by choosing the eightieth selection,
``Crates & Slots Toolkit.'' It supports both the mouse and keyboard input, and can be run on a
terminal as well as on a workstation.
The Crates and Slots Toolkit is
a menu-driven program that has two main options -- Matrix Map and Module.
The first option, Matrix Map, allows the user to view the status
of all crates, or view crates that only contain bad status. The second option,
Module, allows the user to view the temperature, volts, status, type
of modules, serial numbers, and version numbers of an individual crate, as
well as the devices that are associated with it. These options are selected
from a chosen beamline; valid choices given are M0, N0, P0, and E0.
The Menu Bar
The menu bar contains five items that give the user access to specific
functions of the Crates and Slots Toolkit application.
- Area/Source
- - Displays a pulldown menu, allowing the user to
choose a beamline and/or a frontend. Also, the experimental beamline
BUGS/E0 is an available choice.
- Matrix Map
- - Displays a pulldown menu with choices of a Matrix or
Bad Crates. The Matrix option allows the user to view a map of the status
of all crates in a particular beamline. The Bad Crates option allows users
to view any bad crates in the area chosen. Both are continually updated
every two seconds.
- Module
- - Displays a diagram of all modules in a particular crate of
the beamline already chosen. It monitors the crate's temperature and voltage,
and updates it every two seconds. A screen listing those devices associated
with a chosen slot of the particular crate and beamline can also be viewed
in this option.
- Print
- - Lists the print queues available and routes a
copy of the screen to the chosen queue.
- Exit
- - Exits the program and returns the user to the
calling environment. CTRL_Z and F-10 will do the
same.
Please note that a source class, or beamline must be chosen before being
allowed to choose a menu option. If a menu option is chosen before a source
class is picked, the program will force the user to choose one, before
continuing into other menu options.
If a user wants to view another crate (like in the Module menu option), or
they want to view a different beamline, they must choose the menu option
of their choice and redo their selections. Help messages will appear to
guide the user through.
At any time, a user may exit by using the mouse and selecting the exit
menu option, pressing the F-10 function key, or typing CTRL_Z. A sanity check
asking the user if they are sure they want to exit, will appear, if a
F-10 or CTRL_Z is pressed. By hitting the carriage return, the user will
stay in the program. By deleting the ``N,'' typing a ``Y,'' and hitting the
carriage return the user will exit. This feature is for those users who
inadvertently press CTRL_Z.
Area/Source
The Area/Source option (see figure 1) contains beamlines or sources to
choose from, of where the user wants to get their data. The newest edition
to this menu, is the experimental area BUGS/E0. This will hopefully
help in testing purposes.
Matrix Map
The Matrix Map option consists of two selections, Matrix, and Bad Crates.
Matrix displays the status of all the crates for a specified
area using a matrix-type display. Bad Crates, on the other hand shows only
the number of any bad crate and its status message (other than good).
Both update their status screen every two seconds, giving a real time view
of the crates.
Matrix
The Matrix screen (see figure 2) displays each crates status that is found
in the specified area chosen. The following single character status will be
displayed:
- P
- - Indicates a crate with a parity error
- O
- - Indicates a crate which is offline
- T
- - Indicates a crate which has a link timeout
- *
- - Indicates a crate with good status and old controller
- #
- - Indicates a crate with good status and new controller
- .
- - Indicates an undefined crate
- +
- - Indicates an invalid crate is responding
All crate's status bits will be checked in the order shown above. The current
beamline and frontend are displayed at the top of the screen, and the list of
status messages is displayed on the right-hand side of the matrix-map.
Bad Crates
The Bad Crates screen, (see figure 3) consists of a blank screen, until a bad
crate is detected, with the beamline and total number of crates found bad,
across the bottom. When a bad crate is found, its number and status
message of error is shown. The following shows a list of status messages
and their definitions:
- PARITY
- - Indicates a crate with a parity error.
- OFFLINE
- - Indicates a crate which is offline.
- TIMEOUT
- - Indicates a crate which has a link timeout.
- INVALID
- - Indicates an invalid crate is responding.
- ???
- - Indicates an unknown error.
The bad crates will be displayed in a downward or column viewing form. The
screen will be allowed to accept 114 crates in error. If more than 114 crates
appear, a message of `` *** problem *** '' will appear in the middle of the
screen, and the message containing the number of crates in error will be
*******. Every two seconds the screen will be cleared and the bad crates will
be updated, giving the user real time viewing of crates.
Module
The Module Display screen (see figure 4) represents a specified CAMAC crate
with the twenty-four crate slots displaying the module type, or error status, the
version number, and serial number where applicable. Once the Module option
is chosen, the user will be prompted to choose a crate in the specified area
already picked. After the crate is input, the table of slots will be filled,
including the status OK or LAM, the temperature in degrees
Fahrenheit, and +/-6 volts, when defined, for the chosen crate.
When either status, temperature, or +/-6 volts returns bad status, a
short system message is displayed in
the appropriate spot, explaining what went wrong (example : temperature
and +/-6 voltages are database
devices which may not be defined for a particular crate. ``%NODEVICE''
is displayed if a device was not
defined for this crate.)
In addition, if there is a CAMAC error or a system error, a
system message is displayed at the bottom of
the screen.
If the error status returned by F6A0 is good for the slots outputting, the module
type will be displayed in the TYPE slot area. If, however, a bad status is
returned, the TYPE slot will display an error status as follows:
- PAR
- - Indicates a parity error, possibly caused by a repeater module
being bad, causing the crate to receive garbled data.
- OFFL
- - Indicates crate being addressed is offline.
- LTO
- - Indicates a link timeout, caused by accessing a crate that
does not exist, or the power may be off, or the link driver
chassis cables may be unplugged.
- NO-X
- - Indicates the camac module is not acknowledging receipt
of the function code.
- NO-Q
- - Indicates the camac module failed response to the function
code.
Please note, that for devices that do not return X and have data greater than zero,
their module type will be displayed instead of the error. Also, if their data
is equal to zero their status message will be blank. This is a special case
due to certain modules not responding to NO-X properly.
Some other notes of interest include the handling of overflow. When
the version or the serial number returns a good status, but is too big
(99999 is a maximum value for version; 9999 is maximum value for serial
number), a series of ``*'''s will be displayed in the appropriate slots,
to indicate overflow.
The actual module diagram requests one-shot data, and therefore is not updated.
Only the status, temperature, and +/-6 voltages are automatically updated
every five seconds.
Device Viewing
A new feature used with the Module option is a device search. A user may now
get a listing of devices associated with a particular slot, crate, and area
chosen. To access this feature, double click on a column between the slot
lines, or use the arrow keys by moving to a specific slot and press the
carriage return. Since an area, or source and crate was already chosen, the
program has all the requested information to search the database and find all
devices that have those characteristics. Once a user chooses a slot, the
program will clear the screen, put a bar across the bottom showing what
the user chose, and put a message at the bottom stating the state of the
search (see figures 5,6,7).
The first time a search is run, by anyone, it may take up to two minutes
to complete, due to establishing a cache. Once this is done however, anyone
using this searching option will have return time of five to fifteen seconds.
Once a search is completed, the user may print the screen to a printer, exit
the program, or exit back to module display from which they came. If the
latter is the case, they may search again on another slot if they choose.
Conclusion
This program is designed to help users in their ability to monitor crates,
track down crate problems, and view their results (fixes) as soon as they are
made. It is also helpful in viewing specific crates as to what their
contents (slots) contain, checking version numbers and serial numbers to
make sure they are up to date, and viewing what devices belong to specific
source, crate, and slots. The user can then at any time print out the
screen giving themselves proof (verification) of what is out in the field.
These features may be useful when needing listings of
devices, bad crates, a map matrix of all the crates, or a module display of
a specific crate, when tracking down problems. As one can see, the nature
and usefulness of this program is unlimited.
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