3. Hardware Description.

3.1. Boards in the VME rack.

1. Ironics system controller with SCSI port connected to three disks:

2. a VMPU module containing a 68020 processor and local memory.

3. This slot not filled to allow space for the processor's heatsink.

4. A 32 Mbyte Ram Module.

5. a DICI interface module, which connects to the FOX chassis to receive Image data from the CCDc.

6. A Four Port Serial Interface card for the serial lines to the TCS, and the CCD controllers at each of the three focal stations.

7. An OmniComp Graphics controller card supporting 2 pages of 800x600 pixels. The Autoguider display only uses one page.

SCSI bus connections


The SCSI devices connected to the Autoguider include:

3.2. Notes on the VME rack setup.

The Opal and DICI cards have connectors on the reverse of the VME bus and thus need to be plugged into the same slots each time. Interrupts are daisy chained along the backplane so all of the cards have to be contiguous. The exception is the VMPU card which takes up two slots due to the size of the heatsink on the CPU. There are links on the backplane to connect the interrupts to the next door cards, so the CPU card must not be move either. Given these constraints, the rest of the cards can be plugged in in any order. The order of the cards defines interrupt priorities so it is advisable to leave things alone.

3.2.1. Connections to the rest of the system

3.2.2. CCD data links.

The CCD data travels via Fibre Optic cable from the remote CCD camera Controller and is received by a FOX (Fibre Optic mutipleXer) chassis, which connects to the DICI card P2 connector in the Autoguider VME rack.

The FOX chassis multiplexes data from several sources onto a bus which the DICI card reads. The cards may be in any order, though it is recommended that they are in the order of Cassegrain, UES, Prime, and AutoFib, reading from left to right. All the fibres should be left installed, though the system can cope with a fibre missing if that focal station is not in use.

3.2.3. Serial lines.

This version of the Autoguider software is designed to switch between the different serial ports connected to the CCD controllers as the required focus is selected. The actual port used is configured in Software via a routing table, see the section on port configuration.
Serial port allocation

The Nominal Serial ports are arranged as follows.
SP1 - TCS vax link for error signals (fixed)

SP2 - Cassegrain ccd controller link (configurable)

SP3 - UES ccd controller link        (configurable)

SP4 - Prime ccd controlller link.    (configurable)
These ports are available on the serial card in 9 way D-type connectors. The same ports are also available in 25 way connectors in the extension card located on the very right hand end of the rack. The order of ports is reversed on this card, with SP1 at the bottom of the card.

3.2.4. Display.

The Autoguider display is connected to the VME rack via three minature BNC cables which are connected to the three connectors at the front of the OmniComp graphics card. The short cable runs to the rear of the rack where it connects to longer normal BNC cables running to the display in the control desk. assembly at the rear of the rack.

3.3. The CCD controller serial data command & status link

The serial interface driver which controls the ports connected to the CCD controllers waits for either a Forth ok or ? >> response from the CCD controller after issuing each command. There is a timeout mechanism which allows the Autoguider software to continue, albeit with difficulty, should the CCD controller hang up or not be connected.

One serial port has been assigned to each of the controllers on the telescope, and these are expected to be left connected. On loading the serial interface handler and CCD controller interface code, each port is probed for the presence of a ccd controller. A TTY command is issued to the controller, and if an ok response is issued within 0.5 seconds, then the controller is deemed to be connected. A database of connected controllers is maintained. If a controller is not connected ( ie the TTY timed out ) then no data is sent to the port so that the software may continue to the point where an error can be reported to the user or network.

The only difference in operation between one controller and another is the port where the commands are sent. Differences in interpretation of the image and parameters are controlled higher up in the system.

The system maintains a 1Kbyte buffer of traffic to the current CCD which will indicate the comand history sent to the controller and its response to each command. This buffer can be displayed on the engineering terminal with the .CCB engineering vocabulary command.

Boot sequence

The system boots from power up or reset with a kernel stored in EPROM in the VME processor card. This contains enough code to read the various hard discs and contains a simple boot script which initialises a SCSI disc , and starts loading with block 9.

The RELOAD sequence is similar, except the first word on disc, word 0 block 0 is read and points to a block number where a reload kernelm ready compiled exists on disc. This kernel will initialise a hard disc and start booting from it.
THere are threee precomilied kernels on disc, each of which is identical except that it will boot from a different disc. The kernels are at:

The Backup routine AG_BACKUP will set the pointer on block 0 to 2100 to make the insite backup bootable. The AG-RESTORE command will set block 0 to point to block 2000 or 2200 to reload from the current hard drive.
The sequence to make a reload kernel ( default location 10000 ) is as follows, note that this example will make a kernel to boot from the quantum disk. empty TEMP-TASK Task aborted >> DISP-TASK Task aborted >> PLOT Task aborted >> ok 1 boot Multitasking loaded Mass storage handler loading SCSI disk handler loading Editor loading Compiling a PROM system? (Y): y PROM mode ImageForth/68 V4. Ready precompiling load Edit start-up command sequence: QUANTUM INITIALISE BELL 1000 MS 9 LOAD New dictionary entries will start at: 1-Top of PROM ie FF108DC0 2-Top of RAM ie FF100924 3-Other Fixed Address Type option number : type return here Disk image occupies 32 blocks FF1EF8AE FF1EE124 Memory used Start Finish Size PROM FF101000 FF108F96 7F96 RAM FF100600 FF100924 324 DISEMBODIED FF1ED000 FF1EE404 1404 LOCAL FF1EF38E FF1EFA60 6D2 Top of PROM support code: FF10934C Press any key: HELP Displays these PRECOMPILING instructions ?LAYOUT Lists addresses used in precompilation. SAVE Saves the current system at the top of shadows Sets block 0, location 0 to point there n /SAVE Saves the system starting at block n, current disk RELOAD Reloads the system pointed to by block 0 n BOOT Boots/reloads the kernel/system starting block n CHECK Compares system with one pointed to by block 0 n /CHECK Compares system with that starting at block n n BLOCK ? Returns the number of blocks in system that starts at block n SAVE, /SAVE, RELOAD, BOOT, CHECK and /CHECK may all be used with a disk/drive other than that used to compile the system ok if you have made an quantum disk choose 2000 /save
if you have made an insite disk choose 2100 /save
if you have made an conner disk choose 2200 /save
2000 /save ok reload here is the standard reload from an INSITE disk ImageForth/68 V4.2.3 DUAL/68020 20 Feb 95 Time 17:17:40 Electives loading... ImageForth/68 V4.2.3a DUAL/68020 20 Feb 95 Loaded: Ram Configuration. Image RAM : 100000C - 1FE7560 ( 15.90 Mbytes ) Data area : 1FE7560 - 1FE7560 Filtering : 8 by 8 Kernel, on Image 1000 pixels wide. M-B : 1FE7964 B-BASE : 1FE7A68 Loaded: 16 bit Images. Loaded: Image Stack. Loaded: NGI No Mouse Loaded: Graph Plotting. Loaded: Image Display. Loaded: Master disk files. Loaded: Files on Secondary disks. Loaded: Unsigned Image Stats. Loaded: Faster MEAN-COMB & SUM-COMB. Loaded: Numeric Extensions Loaded: Imaging Extensions Loaded: Head Tables. Loaded: CCD Memory Allocation Loaded: DICI Driver Loaded: DICI Readout Loaded: Multi-Windowed Readout Loaded: Allocating CCDs Loaded: Head table display Loaded: Block Transfer Program via tip Loaded: Autoguider backup code AG-BACKUP Loaded: Network Interface Layer Loaded: Network Interface test Loaded: Network Command Interpreter Loaded: Network test words autoguider network address AUT1 Loaded: Network names & init LOADING VERSION_4.3_dev_2 Loaded: AG global constants Loaded: AG global variables Loaded: AG utilities Loaded: window box routines Loaded: gaussian function Loaded: Gaussian function Loaded: Correlated centroid PROBE Reply from Cass PROBE Reply from UES Loaded: CCD controller iface PROBE No Response from Prime Loaded: how near edge needs fixed Loaded: Main AG module Loaded: MAIN AG CODE Loaded: Movies Loaded: ag-network interface Loaded: Background command layer Loaded: sealed vocabulary Loaded: Initialising system type ENG to get at the Engineering command set. Please select the Autoguider application with CASS UES PRIME AF2 GHRIL... CASS Selecting serial port and initialising controller ... Initialising application parameters ... CCD HEAD TABLE Focus port ccdc header head# alive? ccd-temp tcnt tlen cmd reply Cass Cass Cass 60 Cass responding 10.6 0 5000 5 TTY4 ok ok
Next section: Focal Station Configurations