EPICURE Design Note 97.0
RADSA: Radiation and Security Application
S. A. RamseyMost of this document came from a proposal by Jack Schmidt, RDCS
Fermilab Research Division
E.E. & E. Dept. Controls Group
MS 220 P,O. Box 500 Batavia, IL 60510
Fri Mar 29 09:16:56 CST 1996
Abstract
Purpose of this document
This document is a design specification for the EPICURE Radiation
Interlock Safety Application program. It specifies a proposed user
interface and the major functions of the application.
Intended audience
The Interlocks group, Operations, and the Controls Software group
are the anticipated audience of this document.
For further information or questions
More information about the EPICURE control system can be found
in EPICURE User's Guide Volume III: Application Programmer's
Guide
.
A list of EPICURE consultants can be found
by typing at the DCL prompt on the WARNER LAVC:
HELP @USERGUIDE CONSULTANTS
Comments and questions pertaining to this document should be
referred to the author by sending VAXMail to WARNER::RAMSEY.
Objective
At present, the data-aquisition system makes available data from a
number of devices in the Radiation Safety and Interlocks system.
These are: RUN MODE, CDC, SECURITY, MESS, RAD, and HIRAD.
There is a need for a facility which will display status information
for Radiation Safety and Interlock System devices in an organized
fashion. Such a facility should take advantage of the EPICURE
Alarm Reporting System (EARS)
in order to receive alarm
reports from the Interlocks system devices.
Project Overview
The RADiation safety and Security Applicatioon (RADSA) is proposed
as a solution to these needs. At this point, we anticipate that
the primary function of RADSA will be to display status information
for interlocks system devices in screens that are unique to each
device type: RUN MODE, CDC, SECURITY, MESS, etc. RADSA
is envisioned as an interactive ESM-based application that will run
on character-cell terminals and workstations in the EPICURE environment.
The project area INTERLOCK has been set up for the development of
this application. The first version of this project will provide
status information only. Support for alarm reports may be added in
the future as an enhancement to the application.
User interface
The user-interface to RADSA is divided into a main screen and a
screen for each type of device that RADSA monitors. Thus, there
will be a CDC screen, a RUN MODE screen, a MESS screen, and so forth.
The device screens will be defined as static field maps in the application
and are not expected to change. Examples of what the screens might
look like are shown at the end of this document.
The main screen will have a menu bar with a number of functions
available. The work area will contain a character-cell diagram
of beamline areas for one of the following beamlines: MESON,
PROTON, NEUTRINO, and MUON. An example of such a screen is shown
in the Appendix.
When RADSA starts up, nothing will be displayed in the work area.
When the user selects a beamline from the menu bar, the main
screen will be displayed with the appropriate diagram. Each
beamline area in the appropriate beamline, say proton, will have
a box around it. If the cursor is moved into such a box, say
PEAST, and a carriage return is hit, a menu will pop up
with a list of Interlock devices in that beamline area. If
the user selects a device, then the appropriate screen will pop
up; i.e. when a CDC device is selected, a CDC screen will
be displayed. The status information for the device will
be displayed on the screen, and it will update every 10 seconds
or so. Examples of what these screens look like are included
in the Appendix. RUN MODE and RAD modules are an exception to this scheme,
and will be handled differently by RADSA. See Section
for more information on how RUN MODE modules will be supported
in RADSA. RAD and HIRAD modules are discussed in Section
.
A help screen indicating what features are available and
what keys they correspond to will also be available. The help
screen can be accessed by hitting the HELP key. If a device
status screen is being displayed when the help key is hit, then
a help screen will pop up explaining what status bits are displayed
where on the screen. These device-specific help screens can
be put together from long status bit names from the database.
Users will also have the ability to reset CDC and RUN MODE
device when a device status screen for a CDC or a RUN MODE
is being displayed (see Section
).
Menu Features
The following menu features will be available on the main
screen of the RADSA application:
list
[Print] Built-in ESM routine to select a print queue and copy the
contents of the current work area to a print queue or to a file.
[Exit] Exits the application with confirmation.
[Bugs] Feature to facilitate the reporting of bugs to the author
via VAXMail. Opens an edit window in the work area for typing in
the bug report. The report is then VAXMailed to WARNER::RAMSEY.
[Help] Get help on this application--explains the keyboard layout
[Meson] Show meson beamline screen in the work area.
[Proton] Show proton beamline screen in the work area.
[Neutrino] Show neutrino beamline screen in the work area.
[Muon] Show muon area screen in the work area.
When a device status screen is being displayed, the following
menu options will be available. For the MESS, SECURITY, and RAD
devices which have no hardware reset,
the RESET option will do nothing.
list
[Reset] Reset the CDC or RUN MODE device.
[Help] Device-specific help on where status bits are displayed.
[Print] Built-in ESM routine to select a print queue and copy the
contents of the current work area to a print queue or to a file.
[Exit] Exit the status/alarm screen with confirmation.
Input Files
The RADSA application will need two text files in order to run.
RADSA will read these files at startup and will attempt to
parse them. If it is unsuccessful, the image will exit with
an error status.
The first is a centrally-located, controlled-access file which
will define how each of the six or so RUN MODE devices maps its inputs
to its outputs. Users will not need to modify this file, because
only the people who maintain the RUN MODE modules in the field need to
update it. The syntax of this file is `to be defined.'
The other file can be customized by users, and RADSA will
look for a logical RADSA_INPUT which users can define to point
to a file in their login area. A central default file will also exist
which RADSA will use if the user does not specify one.
This file will define the beamline area ``trees'' and which
devices are in each beamline area. Like the RUN MODE device file, this
file will also obey a specified syntax.
A function key may be defined that will direct RADSA to prompt the
user for the file specification of a new defaults file of
radiation interlocks system devices for RADSA to monitor.
RAD Device Support
Devices of type RAD and HIRAD are already supported in the
PAGE application to the extent that their status information
is available in PAGE. If a RAD or HIRAD device is selected
in RADSA, perhaps RADSA can just spawn a subprocess to call
up a page with the appropriate beamline area's RAD and HIRAD
devices. The idea of implementing ``goto pages'' for this
purpose has been proposed. At this point, it is not expected
that RAD and HIRAD devices will be directly supported in the
first version of RADSA. Adding code to RADSA enabling it
to make RAD and HIRAD status data available will be considered
as a possible enhancement to the initial version of the RADSA
application.
Alarms Support
At present, the RADSA application is conceived of as employing
the standard data-aquisition channels to obtain status data
for Radiation safety/Interlocks system devices. At such time
as the EPICURE Alarm System comes on-line and the global
device alarm categories are rigidly defined, implementing code
to utilize alarm reports in the RADSA application may become a
possibility. To first order, however, status the author will
strive to make status information available. With this goal in
mind, it is expected that the first version of RADSA will not
utilize EPICURE alarm services.
RUN MODE module support
RUN MODE modules will be supported a bit differently than the CDC,
SECURITY, MESS, RAD, and HIRAD devices. Each of
the 6 or so anticipated RUN MODE modules in the field will have
a unique ``screen'' defined, on which its 32 inputs are mapped
to its outputs by a diagram that conforms to the actual equation
in the RUN MODE module. At this time, several schemes for RUN
MODE support are under consideration. Status bits will definitely
be displayed in RADSA, but the format of the bits on the screen, and whether
the RUN MODE equations will be displayed, is still being discussed.
Appendix: sample screens
Section
of this document describes the different
screens of the RADSA application. A main screen displays the beamline
areas in a ``tree'' diagram, and the user can select devices by
hitting the RETURN key while the cursor is in one of the ``boxes''
of the tree. A list of the devices is then displayed, from which the
user can either select a device or exit the sub-menu.
Once the user selects a device, a new screen corresponding to the device
type is displayed. Each type of device in the interlocks/radiation safety
system has a corresponding RADSA screen: CDC, MESS, RUN MODE, SECURITY,
etc. The only exceptions are the RAD and HIRAD devices, which are currently
supported in the PAGE application. Each of these ``status'' screens displays thge
status data for the selected device. Users can exit a status screen and
return to the main screen by hitting the DO key and selecting the
EXIT option from the menu.
Examples of each of the screens thus discussed, including the support of
RAD and HIRAD devices in PAGE, are shown below.
List of Figures
Main screen
This is the proposed main screen layout for the RADSA application.
As an example, several proton beamline areas are shown in the ``tree.''
MESS screen
This is a proposal for how status information for a MESS system will be
displayed in the RADSA application.
RUN MODE screen
How the RADSA application will support RUN MODE modules has not yet
been fully determined. Status information will be displayed,
but the format of the screen is still under discussion. This is an
example of how the data might look.
SECURITY screen
This is an example of how the RADSA application might display status information
for SECURITY systems.
CDC screen
This is how RADSA will display status information for critical
device controllers (CDC's).
RAD screen
Section
indicated that C116 module templates
for RAD and HIRAD data have been modified to accomodate the
display of status bits in PAGE
.
This is a screen dump of a RAD device page, showing how the
various status bits are displayed.
HIRAD screen
This is a screen dump showing how PAGE displays status information
for HIRAD devices.
Appendix: keywords and distribution
Keywords
EPICURE, RDCS, controls, interlocks system, radiation safety, alarms subsystem.
Distribution
normal.
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