Control System at NSCL

The control system at NSCL is a collection of networked computers and distributed hardware and software that allows our operators to remotely control the many devices that make up our ion sources, cyclotrons, beam lines and auxiliary equipment. The operators carefully adjust or tune the settings of these devices from computer workstations in the main control room to deliver a desired beam of particles to an experimental vault. There are more than 18,000 device channels in the existing control system, though only a fraction of these are important for beam tuning.

The network we use to connect everything together is 100-megabit Ethernet. This allows us to use off-the-shelf networking components and provides more than enough bandwidth for our needs. The control system network is connected to the main laboratory network to allow access to control system information from any computer in the facility. For security, the connecting network switch blocks access to the control system network from anything outside the laboratory.

Standard Intel-based PCs are used for our operator workstations. These are inexpensive, familiar to almost everyone and have a huge variety of applications and programming tools readily available. Dedicated control system PCs are located in the main control room, and are also scattered throughout the vaults and along the beam lines for convenient access during development and troubleshooting.

The majority of software used by our operators to control the facility is developed here at NSCL. In addition to control programs we have designed ourselves, interfaces have been provided for common commercial software so that products such as National Instrument’s Lab View® and Microsoft Excel® can have access to control system channels.