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VPS - Versatile power supply control system

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science · July 2006

DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2006.874500 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 VPS - Versatile Power Supply control system

M. Giacchini, P. F. Mastinu, F. Gramegna, A. Gadea

INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro

I. INTRODUCTION obstacles created by proprietary industrial device interface

and drivers. It defines a standard for a common interface to
communicate with a variety of industrial devices and
Modern detector array for the nuclear physics have a
communications protocols. OPC is the answer to multiven-
large complexity and granularity, and are often located far
dor connectivity problems, which are specifically critical
from the control room. The required electronics is complex
in monitoring applications. Changing from one type of
too, due to the number of detectors involved. In such
hardware to another only requires reconfiguring the Tag
situation, a reliable and user-friendly control system is
Engine and therefore the Citadel database.
needed to operate such large number of electronic devices.
Versatile Power Supply (VPS) Control is a component of a
network-based control system and SCADA software with a
client/server architecture developed using the Data logging
and Supervisory Control Module (DSC) by National
Instruments[1]. Installing OLE for Process Control
(OPC)[3] client in the data server of VPS allows access to
every kind of CAEN[2] power supply (SY1527, SY527,
etc.) that supports OPC server functionality and achieves
integration of data and operation. Using VPS Graphic
Panels, graphical menus with various data presentations
have been already created, so a new CAEN modulus can
be added without writing new code but only extending the
Citadel Data Base. The data acquired to the Data Base
server is accessible from the network.

II. THE VPS SYSTEM

The VPS[4] Control System structure is shown in fig.1

at the end of this chapter.
Note that the high voltage control systems are at the
bottom with the other possible PLCs. The hardware drivers
are shown in the circles. There are three applications that
work together to perform the work: VPS application (based
on various Human Machine Interface - HMI), the Tag
Engine, and the Citadel database. At the top are your VPS-
HMIs, which will ultimately provide the control of your
system. Think of the VPS as being the CEO that directs all
the efforts. The Tag Engine (runs in background) act as a
manager; it assigns tasks to the other components
following the directions provided by the HMIs. The
Citadel database is like a secretary; it records information
provided by the engine and provides that information to
your HMIs. The drivers are like machine operators; they
are responsible for operating a specific type of hardware
and returning that information back to the Engine. For all
types of hardware shown (CAEN High Voltage control
system, PLCs), there is one interface to your VPS by OPC
server. OPC provides a whole new level of interoperability
between automation software and hardware, removing the
FIG. 1: This figure gives a broad overview of the VPS system
components and functionalities.
III. THE VPS HMI
Once the VPS has started, different applications are
running in background. Whenever needed, it is possible to
bring up different applications (HMI interface), by clicking
on the respective “Application button” on the VPS window
menu-buttons. The tasks of the different HMI are :
ƒ Show Alarm Summary Display: provides information
on the status for any faulty channels
ƒ Surveillance: provides information on all channels of
a given group, see Fig.2
ƒ Resume Channels Status: shows the whole experi-
ment HV channels status

LNL Annual Report 2004

 ƒ Channel Configuration: allows to configure the
parameters of each channel of a given group
(Detector)
ƒ Detector Configuration: allows to configure the
parameters of channels by group (Detectors)
ƒ Save/Restore V0Set: allows to save or restore the
V0Set value of a Detector selected
FIG. 2: This figure gives an idea about the aspect of HMI
interfaces available by VPS
IV. EXPERIMENTAL APPLICATIONS
Three experiments are using VPS: NTOF [5] at CERN
(1000 channels), NUCL-EX [6] (1000 up to 6000 channel)
and PRISMA-CLARA [7][8] (4800 channels) at LNL-
INFN Italy. The NUCL-EX collaboration, is using
GARFIELD, an apparatus which is designed to study
complex nuclear events produced in medium-low energy
range (5-20 AMeV) heavy ion induced reactions. The
system is composed by a main part, that is a couple of
newly conceived drift chambers for fragments and light
charged particle identification (θ=30°-150°): in each drift
chamber the ∆E signals are delivered by 90 micro-strip
gaseous detectors, which amplify the primary ionization
produced along the track left by the particle in the gas,
while the residual energy signal is given by 90 CsI(Tl)
crystals. A forward annular three element multi-telescope
(Ring Counter) is then positioned at forward angle (θ=3°-
18°), while on one side of the forward drift chamber a set
of 15 three element telescopes can be used for better
identification of isotopes. PRISMA is a large acceptance
mass spectrometer, which will be used at LNL both in a
LNL Annual Report 2004
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standalone configuration for reaction mechanisms studies
and coupled to the high resolution gamma array CLARA,
for high resolution spectroscopic measurements on rare
nuclei. The NTOF experiment at CERN is an experiment
designed to measures the neutron induced reaction relevant
for nuclear astrophysics as well for applied nuclear
physics, like the construction of the accelerated driven
system and the waste transmutation. The apparatus is
composed by 42 BaF2 detectors, with a pentagon and
hexagon shape that fulfill the 4pi solid angle. The inner
ball radius is 10 cm and it uses the Flash ADC to acquire
the signals together with the BaF2 apparatus, other
ancillary detectors are present, like PPAC, C6D6, Silicon
detectors and Microstrip gas chamber detectors. The
experiments runs for 6 months a year and so a stable and
robust system has been developed in order to control the
large number of parameters. Because of the long time of
data taking, a large number of experimenters have to be on
shift, so the system has been friendly enough to be used by
students as far as technicians.
V. STATUS
The VPS control system has been developed to set up
and monitor CAEN High Voltage Power Supplies
parameters. The architecture of the control was designed to
be easily applied to different experiments. The experiment
leader, N_TOF, started to use it at 2002. Following the
commissioning of it at CERN labs, PRISMA-CLARA and
NUCL-EX has decided to use it at LNL.
______________________
[1] http://www.ni.com
[2] http://www.opcfoundation.org
[3] CAEN Catalogue
[4] M.Giacchini, F.Gramegna, P.F.Mastinu “Versatile Power
Supply Control”, Collaboration meeting, Lisbon, Portugal,
Dec. 2002, http://pceet075.cern.ch/cgi-bin/object.r?Id=86
[5] The N_TOF collaboration, “First results from neutron facility
(n_TOF) at CERN” (Conf. on Neutron Scattering, Munchen ,
Germany, Sept. 2001)
[6] http://www.bo.infn.it/nucl-ex/4pages.pdf
[7] The PRISMA-CLARA collaboration, Eur.Phys.Jour. A 20
(2004) 193
[8] The PRISMA-CLARA collab., Eur.Phys.Jour.A (2005) in
press.