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APECS User Manual

1. grtn der amp CF Atacama Pathfinder EX periment User Manual APEX MPI MAN 0011 Revision 2 7 Release March 5 2014 Category 4 Author Dirk Muders APECS User Manual Dirk Muders Keywords APECS Observing Operating Author Signature Dirk Muders Approved by T Klein Institute APEX Released by T Klein Institute APEX Date March 5 2014 Signature T Klein Date March 5 2014 Signature T Klein Date March 5 2014 APEX APECS User Manual Change Record Revision Date Author Section Remarks Page affected 1 0 2005 08 26 Dirk Muders All Initial Version 1 1 2006 06 16 Dirk Muders Selected paragraphs Updated to APECS 0 9 1 11 2006 06 22 Dirk Muders 14 Updated FLASH frequency ranges 18 Updated calibrate command syntax 1 12 2006 09 03 Dirk Muders Selected paragraphs Updated to APECS 1 0 Added spiral mode setup commands Updated use ref documentation Fixed derotate command description 1 13 2007 04 03 Dirk Muders Introduction Updated project directory structure apecs commands Added drift command Iterated project_id and spiral_setup commands Updated instrument list CORBA CDB reference Updated CORBA component list 1 14 2007 06 08 Dirk Muders apecs commands Updated Heterodyne frontend name source raster and otf command syntax Added hexa comm
2. Do not type help lt command gt note the second pair of brackets as this will execute the command rather than print help on it In particular one may inadvertently submit a new scan to the Observing Engine help must be used with just the command name i e help lt command gt Do not use the Python function run to run a script It will not be executed in the correct apecs name space and will thus not work Note that Python is strict about keeping the same amount of indentation for a given loop or branch level Create Date March 5 2014 Page 37 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Note that all APECS computers are running on TAI rather than UTC even though the time com mands claim to display GMT Linux does not have a TAI timezone The local time is thus currently 34 seconds ahead of UTC This number will increase by one whenever the next leap second will be introduced For operators and astronomers on duty Be extremely careful when using apexAntMount expert to move the telescope because it does not obey the Sun avoidance zone Create Date March 5 2014 Page 38 Contact author Dirk Muders Chapter 4 Operating the APEX Telescope 4 1 Introduction This section is aimed at APEX operators and experienced test observers It describes how to start APECS and how to troubleshoot the system The hints and recipes apply to the software status as of March 2010 The system is still evolvi
3. Symptom Cause Solution The scan gets stuck at the end of a subscan The online calibrator does not re turn from the CORBA reduce command and thus stalls the Ob Restart the online calibrator by typing onlineCalibrator restart in a ter minal in the contro13 1 VNC session The telescope can not be taken into track mode when starting a scan serving Engine This can Pora if some tele scope interlocks have been acti vated e g by lowering the plat form to the Cassegrain cabin Clear all ACU errors acu clear_fault_cmd press the standby button on the apexAntMount GUI and try the scan again There is no data in one or more of the MBFITS AR RAYDATA tables The TCP connection to one or more backends may have failed Check the backend control programs Check the socket status on port 25144 on display2 and on the backend host If there are CLOSE_WAIT conditions you may need to wait 10 minutes for Linux to release the resource In the worst case the backend computers may need O be restarted Setting or reading instru ment parameters fails and scans are canceled Most likely the embedded sys tem control software has failed Very rarely the CORBA contain ers may crash ere is an ACS timeout period of 5 seconds when accessing properties If a getMCPoint returns faster than this and fails then the CORBA ob ject is gone and the container may have crashed Restart t
4. The time is used per raster point The sampling can be full half or extend for fully half sampled maps or to extend a half sampled map with the remaining points to obtain a fully sampled one The beam size is automatically calculated from the highest sky frequency for the current scan if a value of 0 0 is given Otherwise the non zero user value is used The feed separation is the radial distance of neighboring feeds in number of beam sizes for CHAMP this number is 2 The mode can be ordered to obtain a defined sequence of points or jiggle to observe the raster points in random order Reference subscans are inserted according to the settings given in the reference command except for wobbler mode Create Date March 5 2014 Page 30 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual For long scans calibrations can be inserted within the map for every on2cal on subscans The setup makes sure that ref on cycles are completed before the next calibration Thus on2cal is the minimum number of subscans between calibrations The calibrations are performed according to the settings in the calibrate command Note that an initial calibrate command is needed after tuning a receiver to auto level the IFs Note that the array derotation angle should be 0 0 in eq mode 3 2 6 7 hexa25 hexa25 time lt Time per raster point gt step lt Radial distance to neighbor gt u
5. implementation 45 APEX APECS User Manual CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s APEX ABBA backends abba N A APEX PBE_A backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX PBE B backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX PBE C backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX PBE D backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX PBEE backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX PBE_F backends instruments3 apexPBEControl APEX SZACBE backends szbackend N A APEX SZDCBE backends szbackend N A APEX BEAR1 backends artemis N A APEX BEAR2 backends artemis N A APEX AMKID350 frontends a mkid fe N A APEX AMKID870 frontends a mkid fe N A APEX AMKID CALUNIT frontends a mkid fe N A APEX HOLO frontends instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX LABOCA frontends laboca N A APEX LABOCA CALUNIT frontends laboca N A APEX LABOCA AMPLIFIER frontends laboca N A APEX LABOCA POLARIMETER frontends laboca N A APEX LABOCA MAINTENANCE frontends laboca N A APEX SABOCA frontends laboca N A APEX SABOCA AMPLIFIER frontends laboca N A APEX BOLOSZ frontends bolosz N A APEX BOLOSZ FRIDGE frontends bolosz N A APEX BOLOSZ MAINTENANCE frontends bolosz N A APEX ARTEMIS200 frontends artemis N A APEX ARTEMIS350 frontends artemis N A APEX ARTEMIS450 frontends artemis N A APEX BOLOB frontends instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX AMKID350BE backends a
6. 3 2 1 12 load defaults e s 8 dus mia pie a eR RR amp 3 2 1 13 reset defaults au xavi LIU ae RU AMENER DURE ee EX SAR ad de Gee eget Sie hs enue Ne O A ni hae Seaver Gk legen dde del 3 2 1 15 continuous dataj ova does o dun don dam An cee d dae Bo Ae Mu Ae eo Be 3 2 1 16 skip hardware setupl 3 2 1 17 remote control A MI A a A a ae tA e 3 2 2 2 ephenerides sesa wda ras eR A 3 2 2 3 Linecats 2 secs be de dub 4 mini ew ee td RO Instruments 2 Golgate MR oe A oe eee ee ee ee APEX 3 2 3 1 frontends 3 2 3 2 lt Frontend name gt feeds 3 2 3 3 lt Continuum frontend name gt configure 2 3 4 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt configure 2 3 5 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt linel 3 2 3 6 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt derotate 3 2 3 1 lt Frontend name gt backends 3 2 3 8 lt Continuum backend name gt configure 3 2 3 9 lt Continuum backend name gt _group configure 3 2 3 11 lt Spectral backend name gt _group configure 3 2 4 Target quita Ce er dd NE eee he ee eee 3 2 4 1 A 6 SG eg lacie Soo E a e ds Gok Tn Can By Gea GE 3 2 5 Calibration 4 4 oP be eee ee ee ee d Ce ete Rete hee woh eee Be 3 2 5 2 SKYALP s ss su Ron ee lk ee Ra be 3 2 5 3 PONG us su Due d dm oe A he a eS 3 2 5 4 PO
7. lt Azimuth offset in arcsec gt f lt Elevation offset in arcsec gt f Correct the receiver pointing model Usually the numbers are fetched automatically f from the online calibrator For line pointings one currently needs to run the reduction script lpoint class manually offline and enter the numbers manually as displayed by the script Specifying keeps the previous value 3 2 5 9 pcorr_reset pcorr_reset peorr_reset force n y Reset the user pointing offsets to zero The force y parameter allows skipping the interactive user confirmation Create Date March 5 2014 Page 25 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 5 6 focus focus amplitude lt Amplitude in mm or arcsec gt time lt Time per subscan gt points lt Number of points gt axis z y x xtilt ytilt mode pos neg sym Perform a focus scan to check the local focus point at the current elevation The focus of the selected axis is moved in the range of amplitude to tamplitude with the given number steps in between The mode can be pos itive for increasing offsets neg ative for decreasing offsets or sym metric for both starting with increasing offsets A measurement is taken for each focus setting and the online calibrator tries to fit a parabola to the data 3 2 5 7 fcorr fcorr fcorr delta lt O
8. vision 2 4 z s a srra e dd Es A ee eee ee ES et A LO Revision 23 2262 giras bw ee te bb de Rhee be ed be dee Paw we bE RE EE 1 7 Revision 2 2 1 158 Revision 22 2 ee sis e GOR Re Be te ee RUE SE AIS eee eee od ae ek ise ve LO R vision 2 0 i Laisse 8 Sree Late WSR wa A ee RS eu A EU Lan De we 1 10 R vision 2 0 2 4 5 is sise o Bee dtd do e au BREE RER OE be BE d 1 11 R vision LAB veria amas muet a bande Peete ee DEN eee ae 1 12 R vision LIA ea ada a ae SES ANUS God Ga ARE EE 113 R vision LAS 2 25 em Be e a NUS Gore eee a Se 1 14 R vision LIO sisi sue na ee Ee oe A DAS AU RAA ES LE LUZ E K NE e ee M edhe A RS DU thee Gest eae ee a Bad 3 2 apecs commands 3 2 1 Generals cie eye LORS a RE eee 44 ae RE 3 2 1 1 project_1d woe seg eee ER a ee a a a i a ae 3 2 1 2 operator idl sss 4 ke be a s Die ee A lu au a sd ee Se de db de a heehee bees bias Et G 3 2 1 4 SHOW 2 4s A de fe che wn tes ead on D es RE NE Aedes Be Gre af 3 2 1 5 VO esi a be we ee ee ae he A ea ee dave Ge ve ee 3 2 1 6 BOSS me tty hee Be da re tin eae A RD 3 2 1 7 A i aeie eae ha de a dE Mt aan ewe i ke pue k Cancel sax sa wor eie he ae dun mien Pe a a ERE PE Die au 3 2 2 3 2 3 A tree 3 2 1 10 Save iStor s m aine ee dan wa Rd mn ce aw ae Sie du 3 2 1 11 save defaults of da a A e DURE RE RU ae au we
9. E p Bee ee Create Date March 5 2014 2 3 10 lt Spectral backend name gt configure Observing Patterns 2 a a ee APECS User Manual Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 9 8 reset wobbl y i Seed da ds Sawa Pda eRe Ee ee es 35 SWITCH C OPt LCSW LL ae ce of eee NAN oe Mes E te e le a is 35 Gab es Phe whe ee et EY a Goo oe SS es See Gv GIN Ge a ee Tee a 35 3 3 1 OUNCE Setup acosa SP eee ed SR Rae ERAS Pe ew een dea Eh Pe mee 35 3 3 2 Continuum Instrument Setup eee eee eee eee 35 3 3 3 pectral Line Instrument Setup 35 3 3 4 Initial Calibrations eos o a Ee eR ew Ne eee ea ee EEE 36 3 3 5 Continuum Observations ooa a 36 3 3 6 Spectral Line Observations 36 Pratt ded be ee a Dada oO He se 36 3 5 User defined Commands 37 3 6 Notes and Caveats se c ocot 4 D Mas die a ie ee ee pie he Ee re 37 39 ce ea de SO Fe AN 39 4 2 Starting the APECS servers 39 D oi Ne a me SY pee Bb ae ee be Pe Saw lee ad aa de mes 40 4 4 Troubleshooting 41 4 5 Notes and Caveats 44 45 Create Date March 5 2014 Page 5 Contact author Dirk Muders List of Figures 2 1 APECS Pipeline Structure 2 2 see eee eee eee eee eee
10. Interface Engine Move P Send Pos Writer Data Reduce Figure 2 1 This diagram illustrates the APECS observing pipeline structure The astronomer submits a request for a scan encoded as a so called Scan Object to the Observing Engine which then coordinates all hardware and software tasks to perform the observation It sets up the instruments moves the telescope to the desired position and starts the data recording The Raw Data Writer collects the data streams and creates an MBFITS file After each subscan the Calibrator provides calibrated data and shows results on the online display for user feedback Online Display doys uels Create Show Results Configure The interfaces for common instruments such as frontends or continuum and spectral backends are kept generic so that new instruments can be easily added to the system The CORBA side of the interfaces is automatically generated from the interface files Simulators can be used to run a full control system under Linux without the need for real hardware The observer level of APECS provides a scripting language for observing apecs a graphical user interface xapecs is under development the central Observing Engine to coordinate all devices and processes apexObsEngine the online MBFITS raw data writer apexOnlineFitsWriter and the online data calibrator apexOnlineCalibrator program to automatically perform the atmospheri
11. Source name s System Epoch Lambda Beta Velocity frame Velocity RA or Az Dec or El Orion BN KL EQ 2000 0 05 35 14 16 05 22 21 5 LSR 8 0 Stow Park HO 180 00 00 00 15 00 00 0 Table 3 2 Example of an APEX source catalog 3 2 2 2 ephemerides ephemerides lt File name gt ephemerides lt File name 1 gt lt File name 2 gt D Not yet implemented Will define the paths to user ephemeris files in xephem edb format specifying orbital elements of solar system objects Note that all known larger solar system objects planets moons comets asteroids are automatically known by APECS even without such user ephemeris files 3 2 2 3 linecats linecats lt File name gt linecats lt File name 1 gt lt File name 2 gt D Define the paths to user line catalog files to specify transition details Table 3 3 shows an example of a line catalog The entries must be stored in a simple text file in the given format Create Date March 5 2014 Page 18 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX Transition name Frequency Unit Sideband CO 4 3 461 040750 GHz LSB CO 3 2 345 795969 GHz USB 3 2 3 Instruments Table 3 3 Example of an APEX line catalog APECS User Manual This group of commands is used to define the instrument s to be used for the next scan Instruments are composed of a frontend and a backend thus they are also called frontend backend combinations or FE
12. for status displays and to fetch information needed for the MBFITS raw data files The current observing status will be shown in the Scan Status window Apart from the scan progress it also shows antenna and environmental conditions and signals warnings as inverted yellow text and critical conditions as inverted red text Immediate observer or operator attention is required for the latter ones To process your data please use the GILDAS software for spectral line data and BoA or Crush for bolometer data Please run any data reductions on the paruma or paniri computers At the end of the observing session please stop all clients using the stopAPECSMonClients and stopAPECSObsClients scripts before logging out Create Date March 5 2014 Page 14 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 apecs commands The apecs commands are divided into several groups to handle source setup instrument setup and pattern setup In addition to that there are commands for various calibrations and some miscellaneous commands Type help apecs at the APECS gt prompt to get an overview and help command to get a descrip tion of the individual commands and their current default values User parameters are usually taken as the next default except for a few cases where this does not make sense e g source pcorr fcorr etc APEX does have a 30 degree Sun avoidance zone There is an automatic avoidance m
13. lt heterodyne frontend name gt configure commands The optional blank ing parameter allows to override the system setting of the blank time to be used for frequency switching observations The time is given in milli seconds A value of 1 selects the automatic mode 3 2 9 Antenna 3 2 9 1 tolerance tolerance lt Tolerance radius in arcsec gt Define the required initial tracking accuracy A subscan will only begin if the telescope is within the given radius for 2 or more consecutive time ticks of 48ms 3 2 9 2 park park Move the telescope to the stow position South at 15 degrees elevation and switch to SHUTDOWN mode without inserting the stow pins This command should be used at the end of an observing session to park the telescope in a safe position 3 2 9 3 zenith zenith azimuth current lt Angle in degrees gt Move the telescope to zenith By default the scan is performed at the current azimuth Optionally an azimuth value can be given in degrees 3 2 9 4 stow stow Move the telescope to the stow position South at 15 degrees elevation insert the stow pins switch to SHUTDOWN mode and stow the wobbler Note that the Observing Engine will refuse to observe any further scan until the telescope is un stowed This command should be used in case of critical environmental conditions that could do harm to the telescope if it is not stowed Caution You must use unstow to retract both the antenna and wobbler stow
14. mkid fe N A APEX AMKID870BE backends a mkid fe N A APEX TILTMETERS BASE infra instruments3 apexTiltmeterControl APEX RACKCHILLER infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX COMPRESSORCHILLER infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX PCCHILLER infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX COMPRESSOR1 infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX COMPRESSOR2 infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX COMPRESSOR3 infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX COMPRESSOR4 infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX DOORS infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server Table 5 2 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual implementation ctd Create Date March 5 2014 Page 46 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s APEX HET230 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET230 LO1 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET345 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET345 LO1 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET460 frontends hfe control N A APEX HET460 LO1 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET1300 frontends hfe_control N A APEX HET1300 LO1 frontends hfe_control N A APEX FLASH345 frontends flash LabView APEX FLASH345 LO1 frontends flash LabView APEX FLASH460L frontends flash LabView APEX FLASH460L LO1 frontends flash LabView APEX FLASH460H fronte
15. name 1 gt lt IF path 2 gt lt Backend name 2 gt Connect continuum and or spectral line backends to the selected frontends Note that apecs automatically assigns backend inputs In case of continuum backends the wiring is not computer configurable and the inputs are selected according to the hardware setup stored in apecs In case of spectral line backends some connections are computer configurable e g via an IF processor apecs administers those resources automatically and assigns a number of spectral line backend inputs according to the number of receiver feeds In both cases the selected inputs are named a backend section group The lt Frontend name gt backends command will print a group number which is needed later on when configuring the properties of a particular backend section group Usually one uses simple backend names e g pbe_a xffts2 etc Optionally one can specifiy the IF chain name e g if4 cl xffts2 to bypass the automatic section group assignment and to control the exact sequence in which backend section groups are assigned 3 2 3 8 lt Continuum backend name gt configure lt Continuum backend name gt configure dumptime lt Time in seconds gt gain lt Gain 1 100 gt Configure the continuum backend dump time and gain The default dump time is 0 0 s which means that the system determines the time automatically The dump time is given in seconds and can range f
16. of the current and future instrumentation at APEX Using an up to date ACS allows to benefit from the ongoing software developments of the ALMA project and to use new ACS features 1 11 Revision 1 15 This revision describes the APECS 1 1 release version as of October 17 2007 The changes are the itera 22 74 33 y tion of the frontends lt Heterodyne frontend name gt line raster hexa otf on source off set reference stow and unstow command syntax and descriptions Added set_cold_params re set_cold_params stow_wobbler reset_wobbler init_wobbler use_focus_compensation zenith and switch_c_optics commands Note the important change that the frontends command now reloads all pointing models from file and issues warnings if the models have changed 1 12 Revision 1 14 Addition of the hexa command and updates of the source raster and otf command syntax 1 13 Revision 1 13 This minor revision includes the description of the drift command which is mainly used by the SZ project The project_id and spiral_setup commands have been iterated In addition the project directory structure and the list of components have been updated to reflect the current status 1 14 Revision 1 12 This revision describes APECS 1 0 as of September 3 4 2006 The m
17. pins Local operation at the ACU is not sufficient 3 2 9 5 unstow unstow Retract the antenna and wobbler stow pins and park the telescope at the stow position South at 15 degrees elevation The telescope is now prepared for observations Note that the wobbler is not unstowed if the antenna pins are taken out at the ACU or via the acu_wiu script 3 2 9 6 stow_wobbler stow_wobbler Perform a direct stow of the wobbler To be used only when recovering from any wobbler error conditions see wobbler manual Create Date March 5 2014 Page 34 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 9 7 init_wobbler init_wobbler Perform a direct unstow and initialization of the wobbler To be used only when recovering from any wobbler error conditions see wobbler manual 3 2 9 8 reset_wobbler reset_wobbler Perform a direct reset of the wobbler errors To be used only when recovering from any wobbler error conditions see wobbler manual 3 2 9 9 switch_c_optics switch c optics cabin A B C Switch the Cassegrain optics to point to the given cabin A B or C Note that this can only be done when the telescope is pointing to zenith 3 3 A typical Observing Session The following sections show some example sequences of apecs commands to set up source and instruments and to perform some typical continuum and spectral line observations 3 3 1 Source Setup Defin
18. section group The necessary group number is being displayed by apecs when connecting the backends to the frontends It can also be queried using the show command Bandwidth and section group radio frequency offset are given in MHz The numbers of channels can be chosen among the possible values for the particular backend Optionally a line name can be given if the section group is centered on a different line than the main one defined for the frontend Leave the line name empty for composite spectra so that one can simply add the spectra in CLASS Finally the default sections making up this group can be overridden if needed They must be given as a list 3 2 4 Target Commands in this section are used to define the target coordinates 3 2 4 1 source source lt Name gt source name lt Name gt x lt Longitude gt y lt Latitude gt unit arcsec arcmin hdms hms dms deg rad system eq ho epoch 2000 0 velocity lt Velocity in km s gt keep frame LSR HELIO not yet available cats all user sys The source command is used to define a center position in either horizontal or equatorial J2000 only at this point coordinates The parameters may be specified manually or can be read from a catalog see sourcecats Reading from the source catalogs performs a left sided match with upper or lower case and wildc
19. the x and y axes of the observing coordinate system The angular velocities are currently limited to 0 0 0 11 rad s The Lissajous mode is mutually exclusive with the linear and spiral modes 3 2 8 Switch Mode 3 2 8 1 tp tp Select total power mode All subsequenct scans are performed without wobbler or frequency switching 3 2 8 2 wob wob amplitude lt Wobbler amplitude in arcsec gt rate lt Wobbler rate in Hz gt mode sym neg pos 1rrl blank 1 lt Blank time in ms gt Select wobbler mode All subsequent scans are performed using the wobbler with the parameters given here The wobbler amplitude is given in arcsec the wobbling rate in Hz The mode can be sym metric Irrl left right right left symmetric neg ative or pos itive to select the reference point location The optional blank ing parameter allows to override the system setting of the blank time to be used for wobbler observations The time is given in milli seconds A value of 1 selects the automatic mode 3 2 8 3 fsw fsw rate lt Frequency switching rate in Hz gt blank 1 lt Blank time in ms gt Create Date March 5 2014 Page 33 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Select frequency switching mode All subsequent scans are performed using frequency switching The frequency switching rate is given in Hz The frequency throws are defined individually for each frontend using the
20. to the initial phases of the APEX commissioning we still suffer from a number of problems First and foremost check the messages in the jlog if an error occurs Most conditions can be diagnosed by evaluating those messages All logging messages are stored in the APECSSYSLOGS directory One will also find there all the details about the SCPI communication to the embedded systems For a proper debugging one needs to have at least a coarse idea of how the system works The details of the APECS design have been compiled in some training documents Here we give just a short summary of the setup The APECS system is using CORBA as the main communication mechanism A number of CORBA services naming notification CDB etc are started first Without those services the system will not work at all There is a central manager process that knows about the layout of the system in particular which process is running on which machine Next there are a number of so called container processes in which the CORBA objects are being instantiated The CORBA objects are mostly used to map hardware functionality into the control system For APEX it was decided to not burden the instrument developers with CORBA software development which can be quite heavy Instead we agreed on a simple text protocol based on the SCPI standard to send commands to the instrument control systems and to receiver monitor point information Thus the APEX CORBA objects are simply a
21. 0 PI ZEUS2 22 Heterodyne A 10 350 1500 40 PI LABOCA LB Bolometer C 295 345 60 Facility SABOCA SB Bolometer C 37 850 50 Facility BOLOSZ SZ Bolometer C 331 150 50 TBC PI ARTEMIS450 A4 Bolometer C 2304 666 N A PI ARTEMIS350 A3 Bolometer C 2304 866 N A PI ARTEMIS200 A2 Bolometer C 1152 1499 N A PI BOLOB BB Bolometer B 37 230 80 PI AMKID350 M3 Bolometer C 21600 850 60 PI AMKID870 M8 Bolometer C 3520 345 60 PI HOLO HO Holography C 1 92 4 0 56 Techn Table 3 4 APEX heterodyne and continuum frontends The receiver cabins are named A left Nasmyth B right Nasmyth and C Cassegrain 1One pixel per sideband 2Virtual dual pixel setup to capture amplitude and phase Create Date March 5 2014 Page 19 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Backend CLASS Type Bandwidths per Number Numbers of Status Acronym input MHz of inputs spectral channels AFFTS AF Spectral 1500 32 8192 4096 4 2 1 PI XFFTS XF Spectral 2500 8 65536 32768 1 PI XFFTS2 X2 Spectral 2500 4 32768 1 Facility ZSPECBE ZB Spectral 120000 3 160 30 1 PI ZEUS2BE ZE Spectral 160000 1 40 24 12 1 PI PBE_A PA Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 Facility PBE_B PB Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 Facility PBE_C PC Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 PI PBE_D PD Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 PI PBE_E PE Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 PI PBEF PF Continuum FE IF bandwidth 8 1 PI ABBA AB Contin
22. 5 3 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual implementation ctd Create Date March 5 2014 Page 47 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s APEX OPTICS A aux cs al apexOpticsA Control APEX OPTICS B aux optics b N A APEX OPTICS C aux cs al cmirror APEX OPTTEL opttel instruments3 N A APEX RADIOMETER environ instruments3 apexRadiometerControl APEX RADIOMETER RESULTS environ instruments3 apexRadiometerControl APEX RADIOMETER MAINTENANCE environ instruments3 apexRadiometerControl Table 5 4 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual implementation ctd Create Date March 5 2014 Page 48 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s APEX AFFTS backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND1 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND2 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND3 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND4 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND5 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND6 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND7 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND8 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND9 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND10 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND11 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND12 backends affts N A APE
23. APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual implementation ctd Create Date March 5 2014 Page 49 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s APEX SYNTHESIZER1 aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizer Control APEX SYNTHESIZER1 DESTINATION aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizerControl APEX SYNTHESIZER1 FSUNIT aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizerControl APEX SYNTHESIZER2 aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizerControl APEX SYNTHESIZER2 DESTINATION aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizerControl APEX SYNTHESIZER2 FSUNIT aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizerControl APEX REFPLLSYNTHESIZER aux apexcool compdata amp apexSynthesizer Control APEX REFILLTANK infra apexcool compdata amp pt100server APEX TEMPERATURES infra apexcool pt100server APEX TSGEN aux instruments3 apexTSGenControl APEX WEATHERSTATION environ instruments3 apexWeatherStationControl Table 5 6 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual implementation ctd Create Date March 5 2014 Page 50 Contact author Dirk Muders Bibliography ER N w al CA N 00 Hafok H Muders D amp Olberg M 2006 APEX SCPI Socket Command Syntax and Backend Data Stream Format APEX Report APEX MPI ICD 0005 Rev 1 0 Muders
24. BEs There are bolometer continuum frontends and heterodyne frontends Bolometers can be connected to continuum backends only Heterodyne frontends can be connected to continuum backends typically used for calibration pointing focus and skydip and to spectral line backends for single point integrations or maps Table 3 4 gives an overview of the frontends table 3 5 shows the backends and their specifications The CLASS acronyms in both tables are being used to create the CLASS header variable TELESCOPE accord ing to the naming scheme AP lt 2 letter frontend acronym gt lt 2 digit pixel number gt lt 2 letter backend acronym gt lt 2 digit baseband number gt Finally tables and show the possible FEBE combinations Frontend CLASS Type Receiver Number Tuning Bandwidth Status Acronym cabin of pixels Range GHz GHz HET230 H2 Heterodyne SSB A 1 211 275 4 Facility HET345 H3 Heterodyne SSB A 1 275 370 4 Facility HET460 H4 Heterodyne DSB A 1 385 500 4 Facility HET1300 H1 Heterodyne DSB A 1 1250 1390 2 Facility FLASH345 F3 Heterodyne 2SB A 2 272 377 2x4 PI FLASH460L FL Heterodyne 2SB A 2 385 495 2x4 PI FLASH460H FH Heterodyne 25B A 21 460 510 2x4 PI CHAMP690 C6 Heterodyne SSB B T 620 720 4 PI CHAMP810 C8 Heterodyne SSB B 7 790 950 4 PI P1460 P4 Heterodyne DSB A 1 450 490 2 PI PI1100 P1 Heterodyne DSB A 1 967 1042 4 PI ZSPEC ZS Heterodyne A 42 180 300 12
25. D 2007 APEX Instruments Generic CORBA IDL Interfaces APEX Report APEX MPI ICD 0004 Rev 1 9 Muders D Hafok H Wyrowski F Polehampton E Belloche A K nig C Schaaf R Schuller F Hatchell J v d Tak F 2006 APECS The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Control System A amp A Letters 454 L25 L28 Muders D Hatchell J Lemke R Olberg M amp Hafok H 2002 Software Interfaces for Submil limeter Telescope Instrumentation APEX Report APEX ICD MPI 0001 Muders D Polehampton E amp Hatchell J 2007 Multi beam FITS Raw Data Format APEX Report APEX MPI ICD 0002 Rev 1 62 Pardo J R Cernicharo J amp Serabyn 2001 Atmospheric Transmission at Microwaves ATM An Improved Model for Millimeter Submillimeter Applications IEEE Trans on Antennas and Propagation 49 1683 Polehampton E 2005 APEX Calibrator Manual APEX Report APEX MPI MAN 0012 Rossum G v Drake Jr F L 2010 Python Reference Manual Release 2 6 5 http docs python org release 2 6 5 51
26. March 2013 APECS was upgraded to ACS 11 0 The apecs commands descriptions and the tables of instruments and CORBA components are updated 1 3 Revision 2 5 1 Switched to ACE TAO 5 8 1 after fixing the ABM crash problems seen in APECS 2 5 1 4 Revision 2 5 In January 2012 APECS was upgraded to ACS 10 1 This maintenance upgrade was installed to follow the ALMA ACS developments and to benefit from improvements and bug fixes Some of the APECS servers have been replaced with new machines The deployment diagram and tables have been updated accordingly The apecs commands chapter has been updated to document a number of small changes introduced in 2011 1 5 Revision 2 4 In February 2011 the Antenna Control Unit ACU was upgraded to model ACU 8200 involving an ICD change between the APECS ABM and the ACU The new ICD was implemented in APECS 2 4 The normal APECS functionality was not changed compared to APECS 2 3 1 6 Revision 2 3 In January 2011 APECS was upgraded to ACS 9 0 and Scientific Linux 5 5 This maintenance upgrade did not change the functionality compared to APECS 2 2 1 that was used until the end of 2010 APECS 2 3 was installed as a fallback system still using the the Antenna Control Unit ACU 8100 APEX APECS User Manual 1 7 Revision 2 2 1 Added remote_control command Updated project_id description to document new parameter values The frontends and backends commands now also take names without quotes and brackets Upd
27. OPY s sucs soros a dogs da op ea ee OR 3 2 5 5 PCOrT reset 4 2 2 ee mue e Da BE bed ete Li Gee hae es A nr Die sone eet be ewe eb OS ee ees 3 2 5 8 foorr TESST tein eee se he Ar R ok GA Be nue 3 2 5 9 use foc temp corr 3 2 5 10 AS e joa ee es eos sie ed Me a a iel MR 3 2 5 11 Teset tilts e s ca par ee R pres Lao a bo ie a 3 2 5 13 use tiltmeters 3 2 5 14 set cold params 3 2 5 15 reset_ cold params 3 2 6 2 0 OP LSS iG to AN an DU cat eh ween ease oo ahs ve a te ee 3 2 6 2 r ferenc l 4 484 ogee bbb SHEER a GES 3 2 6 3 USS MICO PEN Heda der tp can tetas Aeneas Rees el Mets eB ee 3 2 6 4 llas a RE tee Ee ae a ee 3 2 6 5 HAS ei es ata do cara hears a i 3 2 6 6 Hekali a s seian a GH ero weet DS Sk ES 2 0 hexa25l 44 gum pue a bp md ES 3 2 6 8 OGL AA 3 2 6 9 o oe oe ase aS moe BO by im 3 2 6 10 repeat s 4 4 ew ca ee 8 4 amp ta 3 2 7 Stroke Model 3 2 8 3 A oo ae ee GOR pate ee bee EE ma bat 3 2 9 Aht nhal 4 2 4 ese eee a ee ee us 4 Ge at a 3 2 9 1 btol rancel wee 48 dee 4 mine EES 3 2 9 2 Park oh ms ke dau hu dau see dhanan ut 3 2 9 3 Zenith 2 8484 8 de uns Re De gee Regs Hoe edad dy hase decks ge hee me by sey ee 3 2 9 5 UNSCOW cios Soda hit ee Ea oes 3 2 9 6 stow_wobbler 3 2 9 7 init wobblerj e o s e ao aaa
28. Offset gt HH MM SS ssss DD MM SS ssss y lt numerical y Offset gt HH MM SS ssss DD MM SS ssss unit arcsec arcmin hdms hms dms deg rad system eq ho epoch 2000 0 Define the offset position for the next pattern to be centered on The special hdms unit is interpreted as hms for the longitude offset and dms for the latitude offset Note that the offset is interpreted in the rotated coordinate system if a non zero angle is specified in mapping commands Note that observing a horizontal pattern on an equatorial offset position leads to shifting the user coordi nate system to that offset position before applying the horizontal offsets 3 2 6 2 reference reference x lt numerical x Offset gt HH MM SS ssss DD MM SS ssss y lt numerical y Offset gt HH MM SS ssss DD MM SS ssss Create Date March 5 2014 Page 28 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual time lt Time in seconds gt on2off lt Number of On s per Off gt unit arcsec arcmin hdms hms dms deg rad mode rel abs system eq ho epoch 2000 0 Define a sky reference position for any On Off type observation Units can be arcsec arcmin hdms hms dms deg or rad The special hdms unit is interpret
29. X AFFTS BAND13 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND14 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND15 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND16 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND17 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND18 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND19 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND20 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND21 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND22 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND23 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND24 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND25 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND26 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND27 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND28 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND29 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND30 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND31 backends affts N A APEX AFFTS BAND32 backends affts N A APEX XFFTS backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BANDI backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND2 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND3 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND4 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND5 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND6 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND7 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS BAND8 backends xffts N A APEX XFFTS2 backends xffts2 N A APEX XFFTS2 BAND1 backends xffts2 N A APEX XFFTS2 BAND2 backends xffts2 N A APEX ZSPECBE backends zspecbe N A APEX ZSPECBE BANDI backends zspecbe N A APEX ZSPECBE BAND2 backends zspecbe N A APEX ZSPECBE BAND3 backends zspecbe N A APEX ZEUS2BE backends zeus2be N A Table 5 5
30. _group configure spiral_setup spiral use_spiral Obsolete Automatically set by new spiral command run_macro execfile exec_apecs_script With APECS 2 2 we begin providing version controlled observing and data reduction scripts in the APECSROOT share apecs APECSROOT share gildas and APECSROOT share boa directories The observing scripts can be easily used via the new exec_apecs_script command which automatically prepends the corresponding path One can also run them via execfile APECS_SCRIPTS lt script name gt The list of existing frontends and backends and the tables of CORBA component names has been updated The ACS alarm system has been enabled for BACI properties to provide alarms for critical monitor points such as rack or cabin temperatures 1 9 Revision 2 1 This revision of APECS was introduced in mid 2009 to fix a bug in VxWorks that caused the ABM to crash quite often The VxWorks operating system was upgraded from version 6 6 to 6 7 Create Date March 5 2014 Page 9 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 1 10 Revision 2 0 Revision 2 0 of APECS was installed in January 2009 It was a major change in several aspects The version of the ALMA Common Software ACS was upgraded from 2 0 1 to 8 0 the Linux version changed from RedHat 7 2 to Scientific Linux 5 2 and the server and network hardware was upgraded to modern machines and gigabit bandwidths to be able to handle the high data rates
31. ain changes are the introduction of the spiral observing modes for bolometer observations and changing the mode parameter of the use_ref command to accept values on and off rather than 1 and 0 to homogenize the commands for various flag settings withing apecs Create Date March 5 2014 Page 10 Contact author Dirk Muders Chapter 2 Overview The Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment APEX Telescope is controlled by the APEX Control System APECS APECS is based on the ALMA Common Software ACS and the ALMA Test Interfer ometer Control Software TICS ACS provides the CORBA based middleware communication layer to interface the hardware components to the control system TICS provides the basic CORBA objects for antenna control in horizontal and equatorial coordinates In addition to that there are utilities to record several kinds of time stamped monitor points into a database MySQL and to perform optical pointing runs The ACS and TICS packages fulfill the requirements of common network communication automatic mon itoring real time tracking and remote observing The overarching software to use all hardware devices in a coordinated way necessary for astronomical observations was developed by the APEX software develop ment group 3 This included defining the instrument and device interfaces 4 2 and the raw data format interface MBFITS 5 Observer Observing Telescope Raw Data Create MBFITS ee Calibrator
32. al number Ris the ESO run ID letter optional but regularly used for ESO OSO and Chilean projects omit for others YYYY is the year H gt NXTONOH EEE Ooux Create Date March 5 2014 Page 15 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 1 2 operator id operator id lt operator initials gt Set the operator ID for use in the MBFITS raw data file and in the logs 3 2 1 3 observer_id observer id lt observer initials gt Set the observer ID for use in the MBFITS raw data file and in the logs 3 2 1 4 show show show lt Scan object gt Show the current observing mode setup Optionally one can pass a user defined scan object to show its setup 3 2 1 5 load load Configure the instruments without changing the telescope status This is usually used to initialize devices for upcoming manual interactions such as tuning a non remote controlled receiver 3 2 1 6 go got Move the telescope to the desired center position and set up the instruments Usually used to prepare the instrument setup for manual receiver tuning 3 2 1 7 track track Track the currently defined source without observing while still configuring the instruments The telescope keeps tracking until the next scan command arrives 3 2 1 8 cancel cancel Cancel the ongoing scan 3 2 1 9 exec_apecs script exec_apecs_script lt File name gt Execute an apecs script from the off
33. an Pardo s 6 atmospheric li brary ATM The calculations are made using Planck temperatures since the Rayleigh Jeans approximation fails in the submm regime Note however that the CLASS temperature scale is using the Rayleigh Jeans approximation for compatibility reasons Create Date March 5 2014 Page 12 Contact author Dirk Muders Chapter 3 Observing with the APEX Telescope 3 1 Introduction Observations are performed using the APECS client computers currently mainly observer3 The client observing sessions are started in the main VNC server at observer3 1 The VNC servers are accessed through VNC viewers from the thin clients in the control rooms in Sequitor or at Chajnantor or externally via tunneling into the APEX network When using your own computer be sure to use one of the rec ommended VNC viewer implementations e g RealVNC v4 1 with the shared option to avoid taking away other viewers access Note that one must not use any of the APECS server computers contro13 instruments3 display2 or opt3 for observations as their CPU resources are needed by the APECS services One also must not run any other CPU intensive programs such as browsers web cam displays etc on the servers All APECS computers run under Linux currently Scientific Linux 5 5 due to the use of ACS 12 1 The APECS startup procedures have been split into one server and two client scripts The server script restartAPECSServers is started once on c
34. and 1 15 2007 10 17 Dirk Muders apecs commands Updated to APECS 1 1 Updated descriptions of commands Added new commands 2 0 2 2 2010 03 25 Dirk Muders New apecs commands Updated to APECS 2 2 Observing Operating New server observing and network setup Instruments Updated list of APEX frontends and backends CORBA CDB reference Updated CORBA component list 2 2 1 2010 09 21 Dirk Muders apecs commands Added remote control command Updated project_id description Updated frontends and backends description Added new instruments All pages Fixed typos 2 3 2 5 2012 04 11 Dirk Muders All pages Updated to APECS 2 3 ACS 9 0 SL 5 5 Updated to APECS 2 4 ACU 8200 Updated to APECS 2 5 ACS 10 1 New instruments New APECS server setup 2 5 1 2 6 2013 04 29 Dirk Muders apecs commands Updated to APECS 2 6 ACS 11 0 Updated command descriptions Updated frontends and backends description CORBA CDB reference Updated CORBA component list 2 7 2014 02 28 Dirk Muders Map setup instruments Updated to APECS 2 7 ACS 12 1 CORBA CDB reference Updated CORBA component list Create Date March 5 2014 Page 2 Contact author Dirk Muders Contents 1 What s new ed REVISION AAA 1 27 Revisioni 2 6 2 6 4 Li 2 to eh be eee Oe eee be bee ee eee ee dis 1 32 R vision AS Us 5 at a On ek a ke eee a bd ee Re we ES T4 Revision Ola e ee ee Oe e a a ee a Gop ee ee eee aa de mes 1 5 R
35. ards for remainder of the string The angles can be given as numerical values with units deg arcmin or arcsec as string HH MM SS ssss with unit HMS or as string DD MM SS ssss with unit DMS The special unit description HDMS is interpreted as HMS for longitude and DMS for latitude The velocity keep option keeps the value of the previous source This is convenient when switching between target and pointing sources in order to avoid modifying the tuning The cats parameter allows to restrict the catalogs to be searched In particular one can switch off searching the system catalogs by specifying user The major solar system objects are automatically recognized by their names Ephemeris files for a number of other solar system objects comets etc are installed in the system User ephemeris files in xephem s edb format can be introduced into the system ask one of the AODs or TIOs to copy them to right place before the observations begin Note that the TICS software always uses descriptive coordinates i e the new coordinate system centered at the source is using great circles in the sky This is different compared to many other telescope control systems but it makes sense for the observing in particular for wobbler observations where the wobbler motion occurs in that coordinate system too Create Date March 5 2014 Page 24 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Ma
36. ated the instrument and CDB tables 1 8 Revision 2 2 The revision describes the APECS 2 2 release version as of March 2010 The main change is the switch to the current version of the ALMA Common Software ACS v8 1 and an updated Linux operating system Scientific Linux 5 3 APECS 2 2 was installed in January 2010 In addition this version of the APECS manual describes some important changes and additions regarding the apecs commands New logging GUI commands New load and track commands Frontend backend backend section group configure commands Lissajous setup Position angle for the raster mode NB the addition of this option changed the raster command interface Version controlled observing and reduction scripts Some old commands have been deprecated and replaced by new ones The old commands will continue to work for some time until they will be removed The following table gives an overview Old command New command lt Continuum frontend name gt lt Continuum frontend name gt configure lt Heterodyne frontend name gt lt Heterodyne frontend name gt configure lt Continuum backend name gt lt Continuum backend name gt configure lt Continuum backend name gt group lt Continuum backend name gt _group configure lt Spectral backend name gt lt Spectral backend name gt configure lt Spectral backend name gt _group lt Spectral backend name gt
37. ay showing the observer related logs only The operator logs are shown in the control3 1 VNC server The calibrator messages are shown in the calibrator client GUI If you want to see a different message selection then you can start the apecsLog application with different filters Logging GUI command Filtered messages apecsLog Observer logs apecsLog obs Observer logs apecsLog ops Operator logs apecsLog obops Operator and Observer logs apecsLog cal Calibrator logs apecsLog obopscal All APECS logs apecsLog all All APECS logs jlog All APECS and technical logs Table 3 1 APECS logging GUI commands To observe with APEX one uses the apecs scripting language apecs is based on I Python 8 and provides a number of special commands to set up several different standard observing modes Normal Python programmatic structures and macro capabilities can be used from within apecs Note that IPython allows to write commands which begin directly at the prompt without the usual brackets that Python requires However apecs macros that define user commands see section 3 4 need to be written using the brackets The apecs commands lead to the creation of a so called Scan Object that is then sent to the Observing Engine The Scan Object contains all the setup information needed to control the instruments and the telescope It is also being used
38. c corrections and provide CLASS Gildas software data with the TX temperature scale 7 All scans are automatically logged as XML and HTML files using the apexObsLoggerServer In addition there are a number of monitoring tools to see the antenna positions apexAntMount the 11 APEX APECS User Manual Sun avoidance zone plotAvoidance the scan status scanStatus and the values and possible alarm states of all available monitor points apexStatusDisplay masterStatus MasterStatus These APECS core components are organised as a pipeline system see fig 2 1 Observations are defined using so called Scan Objects which contain the full description of the next observation i e the instrument setup details target coordinate information and the desired observing patterns The Scan Objects that are created by the observer command line interface are sent to the Observing Engine which sets up all necessary devices controls the data acquisition and triggers the online data calibration reduction and display APECS applies a relativistic Doppler correction to spectral line data based on the SLALIB library as of 2003 We checked the velocities against the Stumpff library used at the Effelsberg telescope The two libraries agree to within 0 03 km s We chose SLALIB because of its slightly more accurate algorithms taking e g lunar effects into account Spectral line data is being calibrated to the TX temperature scale using Ju
39. deg arcmin arcsec system eq ho epoch 2000 0 mode ordered jiggle on2cal lt Number of on subscans between calibrations gt Perform a rectangular On The Fly pattern given by lengths and steps specified in size_unit in both directions The telescope scans along map rows or columns with a speed defined by the step and time parameters of the selected direction while data is being written once per defined time interval The time is used per OTF map point If zigzag 1 the OTF map is done bi directionally reducing the telescope overhead The direction defines the scanning axis The angle defines the position angle of the map relative to the coordinate system The sign of this angle follows the mathematical convention for all coordinate systems The mode can be ordered to obtain a defined sequence of points or jiggle to observe the OTF lines in random order Reference subscans are inserted according to the settings given in the reference command except for wobbler mode Create Date March 5 2014 Page 31 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual For long scans calibrations can be inserted within the map for every on2cal on subscans The setup makes sure that ref on cycles are completed before the next calibration Thus on2cal is the minimum number of subscans between calibrations The calibrations are performed according to the se
40. e a source catalog sourcecats user cat Define a line catalog linecats user lin Load a source from the catalog source bn k1l 3 3 2 Continuum Instrument Setup Define frontend s frontends laboca laboca configure gain 2 Continuum backends laboca backends abba Select continuum backend gain abba configure gain 4 3 3 3 Spectral Line Instrument Setup Define frontend s frontends pi460 Define lines pi460 line CO 4 3 Spectral backend setup Note the group numbers that the CLI displays They can also always be queried using the show command pi460 backends affts Configure the spectral backends affts_group configure 1 numchan 8192 Create Date March 5 2014 Page 35 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 3 4 Initial Calibrations Select a submm calibrator source mars Select continuum backend s also for heterodyne receivers flash345 backends pbe_a flash460 backends pbe_a Perform a SKY HOT COLD measurement calibrate Perform an OTF cross scan The online calibrator automatically fits a Gaussian and provides the offsets to correct the pointing model point Fetch the pointing offsets and apply them to the receiver pointing model pcorr Perform a focus measurement default Z i e radial focus focus Fetch the focus offsets and apply them to the receiver f
41. e searched In particular one can switch off searching the system catalogs by specifying user For 2SB receivers the line name in the opposite sideband is set to lt Line name gt _OSB unless an explicit name is given in the corresponding lt Spectral backend name gt _group configure command 3 2 3 6 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt derotate lt Heterodyne frontend name gt derotate mode ca ho eq angle full half lt User angle in degrees gt Define derotation setup of array receivers The angle in degrees defines the rotation of the array relative to the selected coordinate system This is used to select the spatial sampling setup Alternatively one can specify full or half to automatically select those sampling setups The mode can be CA fixed no derotation HO horizontal derotation or EQ equatorial derotation Create Date March 5 2014 Page 22 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 3 7 lt Frontend name gt backends lt Frontend name gt backends lt Backend name gt lt Frontend name gt backends lt Backend name 1 gt lt Backend name 2 gt lt Frontend name gt backends lt Backend name gt lt Frontend name gt backends lt Backend name 1 gt gt lt Backend name 2 gt sal lt Frontend name gt backends lt IF path gt lt Backend name gt lt Frontend name gt backends lt IF path 1 gt lt Backend
42. echanism that moves the telescope around the Sun if necessary This mechanism works only when using apecs commands Observers must not move the telescope with the apexAntMount GUI since it does not know about the Sun avoidance zone 3 2 1 General 3 2 1 1 project id project id lt ID gt Set the APEX project ID for use in the MBFITS raw data and CLASS scientific data files and in the logs It is very important to set this correctly at the beginning of each session in order to be able to identify your data later on apecs asks for the ID when is is started The project ID is assigned by the program committees or by the APEX station manager The project ID O K PP C NNNN R YY YY is structured as follows O is the origin of the project M MPIfR ESO OSO Germany Verbundforschung Chile PI Project External e g Berkeley Key program APEX staff time Technical Maintenance Calibration K PP is the ESO proposal identifier K 0 regular 1 large 2 DDT 3 short 4 calibration optional omit for non ESO projects and period PP may not apply to the other partners use 00 in that case Cis the ESO category A F L may not apply to the other partners use F in that case COSMOLOGY GALAXIES AND GALACTIC NUCLEI INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM STAR FORMATION and PLANETARY SYSTEMS STELLAR EVOLUTION UNDEFINED UNDEFINED CALIBRATION NNNN is a sequenti
43. ed as hms for the longitude offset and dms for the latitude offset The mode can be rel ative or abs olute The reference positions are always taken before the target measurements If the time is set to 0 0 the system will automatically calculate the ideal off time based on the number of on s per off and the beam size to vV Non tveam For OTF maps the number of ON beams is calculated using the largest beam size of a given setup and the time per beam is the sum of the dump times across one beam The reference position is also used by the calibrate command to set up the sky subscan Note that the reference position is not used for wobbler observations 3 2 6 3 use ref use ref on off Select whether to use the reference position in an observing mode Note that the system automatically skips the reference if only continuum backends are connected except for the on command or if the wobbler is being used Thus it is usually not necessary to change the default of on for use_ref 3 2 6 4 on on time lt Time per point gt drift no yes feeds lt feed number gt lt feed number gt offsets lt x1 gt lt y1 gt lt x2 gt lt y2 gt lt xN gt lt yN gt offsets_unit arcsec arcmin deg on2cal lt Number of on subscans between calibrations gt Perform a single point centered on the offset defined by the offset co
44. efined Commands More complex user commands can be defined in apecs via Python functions For example the switch to continuum backends and a subsequent pointing can be grouped together to define a new user command The following example defines a special pointing command for FLASH observations The two parameters length and time are defaulted to some values but can be overwritten like for normal apecs commands Please consult the Python documentation at www python org for more information on programming The command definition must be read into apecs using execfile def flash point length 180 time 30 frontends flash345 flash460 flash345 backends pbe_a flash460 backends pbe_a point length length time time mode otf The newly defined commands can be used like any other apecs command 3 6 Notes and Caveats Note that scans are submitted to a queue which is 2 deep i e while the current scan is being executed the next one will be kept on hold within the apecs CLI giving the user a chance to cancel the submission by typing lt CTRL C gt be careful though about lt CTRL C gt at the normal prompt see below Under ACS 12 1 it is usually also safe to type lt CTRL C gt at the normal apecs prompt This does not lead to an immediate segmentation fault like in the old system under ACS 2 0 1 However repeated typing of lt CTRL C gt under certain circumstances can still crash the apecs CLI
45. f the flag is set then hardware is not configured if the setup is identical to the one used in the preceeding scan and if that scan has been completed less than 30 minutes ago This saves scan overhead times but it is somewhat risky as the correct setup is no longer guaranteed One needs to take care that nobody modifies hardware parameters manually The go command ignores this flag and always enforces a hardware setup Create Date March 5 2014 Page 17 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 1 17 remote control remote control on off Switch apecs remote control mode on or off This mode allows to send observing commands via a UDP socket connection on port 22122 to the current apecs session This is mainly used for VLBI mode where the field system controls the telescope according to the schedule The apecs prompt indicates whether the remote control mode is active 3 2 2 Catalogs Define user source and line catalogs 3 2 2 1 sourcecats sourcecats lt File name gt sourcecats lt File name 1 gt gt lt File name 2 gt D Define the paths to user source catalog files in IRAM PdB format to specify source coordinates equatorial J2000 or horizontal no other systems are currently supported and radial source velocity LSR K radio convention Table 3 2 shows an example of a source catalog The entries must be stored in a simple text file in the given format
46. ffset in mm or arcsec gt f axis z y x xtilt ytilt febe lt FEBE to use for the fit gt group lt Section group number gt Correct the local focus setting for a given axis The number and the axis are fetched automatically f from the online calibrator if no parameters are given to fcorr Specifying keeps the previous value 3 2 5 8 fcorr reset fcorr_reset fcorr reset force n y Reset the user focus offsets for the current frontends to zero The force y parameter allows skipping the interactive user confirmation 3 2 5 9 use_foc_temp_corr use_foc_temp_corr useFocusTemperatureCompensation on off Define whether to use the automatic focus temperature correction for the X Y and Z axes Accepts values on and off The default is on When switching the correction off the temperature correction deltas are added to the user deltas When switching it back on the user is asked to choose absolute just temperature correction and zero user deltas or relative mode modify current user deltas such that the sums with the current auto correction are equal to the current user values 3 2 5 10 set tilts set_tilts AN lt AN pointing model term gt AW lt AW pointing model term gt Set tilt values in arcsec to override the current pointing model base plus frontend values completely reset_tilts reverts back t
47. fic geometric selections like wedgel wedge2 etc or circlejradius all pixels within the radius given in arcsec from the coordinate system center Currently the following specific geometries are defined BOLOSZ wedgel wedge2 wedge6 selects the corresponding wedge of pixels 3 2 3 3 lt Continuum frontend name gt configure lt Continuum frontend name gt configure gain lt Amplifier gain gt Create Date March 5 2014 Page 20 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual AFFTS XFFTS XFFTS2 ZSPECBE ZEUS2BE MPIR MPIfR ESO MPIR HET230 z HET345 HET460 HET1300 FLASH345 X FLASH460L X FLASH460H X CHAMP690 X CHAMP810 X E E X X P1460 PI1100 ZSPEC X z ZEUS2 HOLO Table 3 6 Possible FEBE combinations between the APEX heterodyne frontends and the spectral back ends lt Continuum frontend name gt configure polarimeter s h v gt Configure the continuum frontend The gain parameter is used by some frontends Typical values are 1 2 4 8 etc The parameter is only used if there is an amplifier CORBA object present in the system The polarimeter configuration parameter is used to set the filter wheel orientation for instruments that support this type of observation Valid values are S sky H horizo
48. he container Otherwise the socket communication has timed out 4 seconds In this case check the corresponding SCPI CID server processes on the APECS ma chines see table or on the em bedded systems and try restarting the server processes If this does not help log on to instruments3 and check the containers as described above The scan gets stuck LST is not updating anymore in the scan status the MBFITS writer reports increasing monitor point delays of many seconds The antenna CORBA compo nents are no longer available Restart APECS Restarting the APECS servers does not start the ABM properly The ABM may have lost its ethernet connection and can no longer be booted remotely Type lt CTRL X gt in the startMiniEtherABM window on control3 to reboot the ABM Wait until it is back up and then restart APECS again Table 4 2 Known APECS problems and their solutions With APECS 2 0 we began providing a number of individual restart scripts for the core applications This helps in restarting only portions of the system and it also makes sure that the application is running under the correct account The restart scripts need to be run as user apex on control3 Table 4 3 shows the available commands Create Date March 5 2014 Page 43 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Application Restart command Online Calibrator onlineCalibrator start stop resta
49. he observations one must therefore use the Chajnantor data reduction computer chajdr paruma For full data reduction using data taken over longer periods one must use the Sequitor machine seqdr paniri Note that all of the above directories and files belong to the apexdata operations account You cannot modify any of those files or create new ones within those directories as they are the base of the APEX archive Make new directories and files off of your home directory and work from there Please do not start applications inside the system directories since you do not have write permission there Apart from the data directories there are a number of init files for the GILDAS software and the lpoint class macro to reduce line pointings type lpoint in your CLASS session and enter the parame ters asked for by the script the line pointing fit will later be done automatically by the Online Calibrator If you log into a full KDE session there is also a Desktop setup with the APECS_XTerm icon Note that the normal KDE terminals need to be started with the 1s option to correctly load the APECS paths To start your observing session type restartAPECSMonClients in one window This will start several monitoring programs Then type restartAPECSObsClients to start the necessary observing programs including the apecs CLI The latter can also be simply started by typing apecs in a terminal window The observing clients include a default log message displ
50. icial version controlled area Create Date March 5 2014 Page 16 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 1 10 save history save history lt File name gt Save the apecs command history into a file The file may be edited and used as macro later on Macros are executed using the execfile command 3 2 1 11 save defaults save_defaults lt File name gt Not yet implemented Will save the current user command defaults to a file 3 2 1 12 load defaults load_defaults lt File name gt Not yet implemented Will load user command defaults from a file 3 2 1 13 reset defaults reset _defaults Not yet implemented Will load system defaults for all commands 3 2 1 14 observe observe observe lt Scan object gt The internal method to submit a scan to the Observing Engine May be used to submit non standard Scan Objects 3 2 1 15 continuous data continuous datal on off Switch between subscan based off or continuous on data taking during the whole pattern i e also when turning around to the next row or column etc Turning this mode on is recommended only for bolometer array observations For all other observing setups the online and offline data calibration and reduction would no longer work 3 2 1 16 skip hardware setup skip hardware setup on off Select whether or not hardware should be set up for a scan I
51. ipt lt Script name gt or execfile APECS_SCRIPTS lt Script name gt Currently there are macros to set up SHFI shfi_commands apecs FLASH Create Date March 5 2014 Page 36 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual flash_commands apecs and CHAMP champ_commands apecs which provide high level setup commands setup_shfi setup_flash and setup_champ that take into account certain hardware limitations It is recommended to use those macros when observing with the above frontends Some of the macros also contain special observing commands Check the online help in apecs for more details Often one wants to repeat a certain set of commands or macros in a loop Use the Python programmatic structures to accomplish this Note that Python is strict about keeping the same amount of indentation for a given loop or branch level One can also use Python variables to construct more complicated complex patterns alternating between calibrations and target observations One example of using loops and variables would be the following set of OTF maps reference 1800 0 on2off 1 mode rel system EQ Loop between 60 and 120 in steps of 60 Note that xrange works with integer numbers Floating point numbers are provided by the Numeric arange function for yoff in xrange 60 121 60 offset 20 yoff calibrate otf 270 5 45 5 time 1 direction x 3 5 User d
52. ize of the linear portion of the azimuth stroke and a size in elevation In open mode rows spaced by the elevation step size are set up with zig zag scanning In closed mode a race track like closed loop pattern is set up In this mode the elevation size can be zero to obtain a simple sweep pattern at one elevation value Repetitions of these patterns are controlled with the repeat command In case of the race track pattern all cycles are performed in one subscan The durations in seconds of the linear stroke and the turn around can be set individually however the turn around time must be at least 2 seconds to avoid extreme telescope accelerations The default backend dump time for drift scans is 0 5 s This can be overridden by setting individual backend dump times using the backend setup commands This mode is mainly used for the SZ project to minimize signal modulations by the earth s atmosphere 3 2 6 10 repeat repeat lt Number of pattern repeats gt Set the number repeats for any given observing mode Used to repeat a given pattern e g a raster lt N gt times Note that repeat also applies to the pointing and focus commands Selecting a new source or a new backend setup will reset the repeat count to 1 3 2 7 Stroke Mode 3 2 7 1 linear linear Select the linear stroke mode This is the normal mode for all patterns Alternatively one can select spiral or Lissajous figures The linear mode is mutua
53. kune 11 3 1 Rotated coordinate systems in APECS 2 2 2 aaa 28 4 1 APECS deployment at the site in Chile AO List of Tables 3 1 APECS logging GUI commands 2 0 o 14 3 2 Example of an APEX source catalog 18 3 3 Example of an APEX line catalog 4 1 APECS hosts and standard processes 42 4 2 Known APECS problems and their solutions 43 4 3 Core APECS application restart commands 44 5 1 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual imple ee ec bo ee Poa ee i ee nt ee noe Gees 45 mentation ctd e e a 46 5 3 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual imple mentation ctd 444 swt hee caa eA Oe ee a Rw e a 47 5 4 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual imple mentation ctd 4 a4 sae soa e e ee ee ea ee 48 mentation td lt 4 ae bbe Geeta pepe ew e Eee eee ee eS 49 mentation ctd 50 Chapter 1 What s new 1 1 Revision 2 7 In February 2014 APECS was upgraded to ACS 12 1 The major change in ACS is the switch to Python 2 7 and scipy 0 13 The APECS map angle setup is explained in more detail The list of instruments has been updated 1 2 Revision 2 6 In
54. lly exclusive with the spiral and Lissajous modes Create Date March 5 2014 Page 32 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 7 2 spiral spiral r0 lt Starting radius gt r_dot lt Radial veolcity gt phi_dot lt Angular velocity gt rO_unit arcsec arcmin deg r_dot_unit arcsec s arcmin s phi_dot_unit deg s arcmin s Set up a spiral On The Fly pattern for use with other observing commands The spiral is performed relative to the current offset position It is defined by a start radius a radial velocity and an angular velocity The default backend dumptime 0 5 s This can be overriden with the backend setup commands The total time for the spiral is defined by the individual observing commands like on raster point etc The spiral mode is mutually exclusive with the linear and Lissajous modes 3 2 7 3 lissajous lissajous xlen lt x Length gt ylen lt y Length gt omega x lt Angular velocity in x direction gt omega_y lt Angular velocity in y direction gt xlen_unit arcsec arcmin deg ylen_unit arcsec arcmin deg omega_x_unit rad s deg s omega_y_unit rad s deg s Set up a Lissajous On The Fly stroke for use with other observing commands The Lissajous pattern is performed relative to the current offset position It is defined by extents and angular velocities along
55. mmand CORBA Object Name Container Embedded System Process Host s ABMO CLOCK abm0 control3 maciContainer abm0 ABMO TIMER abm0 control3 maciContainer abm0 ABMO TRAJECTORY abm0 control3 maciContainer abm0 ABMO ANTMOUNT abm0 control3 maciContainer abm0 ABMO WOBBLER abm0 control3 maciContainer abm0 ABM1 CLOCK abm1 abm maciContainer abm1 ABM1 TIMER abm1 abm maciContainer abm1 ABM1 AMBCAN abm1 abm maciContainer abm1 ABM1 TRAJECTORY abm1 acu maciContainer abm1 ABM1 ANTMOUNT abm1 acu maciContainer abm1 ABM1 WOBBLER abm1 wiu maciContainer abm1 ABM1 ACU aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU METROLOGY aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU METROLOGY TILTMETERS aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU METROLOGY TEMPERATURES aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU METROLOGY COEFF aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU METROLOGY DELTAS aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU SUBREF aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU SUBREF HEXAPOD aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU UPS UNIT1 aux acu cpu2 canMonitor ABM1 ACU UPS UNIT2 aux acu cpu2 canMonitor OPT CLOCK opt opt3 maciContainer opt OPT TIMER opt opt3 maciContainer opt OPT OPTPOINT opt opt3 maciContainer opt APEX CALUNITS A aux cs al calunit APEX CALUNITS A MIRRORS aux cs al calunit APEX CALUNITS A COOLER aux cs al calunit APEX CALUNITS B aux instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX CALUNITS C aux instruments3 emuEmbSys Table 5 1 APECS CORBA components containers server hosts and processes providing the actual
56. mmand The time is given in seconds Uses the reference if use ref is ON Enabling the drift option leads to observing a fixed horizontal position equivalent to the mid subscan astronomical source position This is being re calculated per subscan Specifying a list of feed numbers causes the setup of a sequence of on commands on the corresponding feed offset positions This is usually used for wobbled dual beam scans where the off phase happens to fall onto another feed of the array receiver in use Reset to to disable this option Specifying a list of offsets causes the setup of a sequence of observations pointed to those offsets relative to the position defined by the source and offset commands The offset positions are given as a list of tuples e g 10 20 20 40 The values are interpreted as angles given by the offsets_unit parameter Reference positions are observed according to the settings in the reference and use ref commands Reset to to disable the offsets option Note that the feeds and offsets parameters are mutually exclusive For long scans calibrations can be inserted within the map for every on2cal on subscans The setup makes sure that ref on cycles are completed before the next calibration Thus on2cal is the minimum number of subscans between calibrations The calibrations are performed according to the settings in
57. n for all coordinate systems The mode can be ordered to obtain a defined sequence of points or jiggle to observe the raster points in random order Reference subscans are inserted according to the settings given in the reference command except for wobbler mode For long scans calibrations can be inserted within the map for every on2cal on subscans The setup makes sure that ref on cycles are completed before the next calibration Thus on2cal is the minimum number of subscans between calibrations The calibrations are performed according to the settings in the calibrate command Note that an initial calibrate command is needed after tuning a receiver to auto level the IFs Note that the resulting CLASS data are projected into encoder coordinates horizontal system or J2000 co ordinates equatorial system Due to the use of descriptive coordinate systems in APECS the projections are no longer simple rectangles 3 2 6 6 hexa hexa time lt Time per raster point gt sampling full half extend beamsize 0 0 lt Beam size gt unit arcsec arcmin feedsep lt Feed separation in number of beam sizes gt system eq ho epoch 2000 0 mode ordered jiggle on2cal lt Number of on subscans between calibrations gt Perform a hexagonal raster pattern to map out the footprint area of a hexagonal array receiver e g CHAMP
58. nds flash LabView APEX FLASH460H LO1 frontends flash LabView APEX CHAMP690 frontends champ N A APEX CHAMP810 frontends champ N A APEX CHAMP DEROTATOR frontends champ N A APEX CHAMP CALUNIT frontends champ N A APEX P1460 frontends instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX PI1100 frontends pil100 N A APEX ZSPEC frontends instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX ZEUS2 frontends instruments3 emuEmbSys APEX IF1 aux if control if procl N A APEX IF1 CHAINI aux if control if procl N A APEX IF1 CHAIN2 aux if control if procl N A APEX IF2 aux if control if proc2 N A APEX IF2 CHAINI aux if control if proc2 N A APEX IF2 CHAIN2 aux if control if proc2 N A APEX IF3 aux if3 N A APEX IF3 CHAIN1 aux if3 N A APEX IF3 CHAIN2 aux if3 N A APEX IF3 CHAIN3 aux if3 N A APEX IF3 CHAIN4 aux if3 N A APEX IF4 aux if N A APEX IF4 CHAIN1 aux if4 N A APEX IF4 CHAIN2 aux if4 N A APEX IF5 aux if N A APEX IF5 CHAIN1 aux if N A APEX IF5 CHAIN2 aux if N A APEX IF5 CHAIN3 aux if N A APEX IF5 CHAIN4 aux if N A APEX IFC1 aux if control champ N A APEX IFC1 CHAIN1 aux if control champ N A APEX IFC1 CHAIN2 aux if control champ N A APEX IFC2 aux if control champ N A APEX IFC2 CHAIN1 aux if control champ N A APEX IFC2 CHAIN2 aux if_ control champ N A APEX IFVI aux instruments3 apexVLBIDownConverter Control APEX IFV1 CHAIN1 aux instruments3 apex VLBIDownConverterControl APEX IFV1 CHAIN2 aux instruments3 apexVLBIDownConverterControl Table
59. ng as development debugging and improvements are still going on Thus the content of this chapter will change with time and this document will be updated accordingly APECS is running on a number of control computers inside the antenna instruments3 opt3 abm in the control containers at Chajnantor servers contro13 display2 clients observer3 chajdr paruma and in the base at Sequitor segdr paniri All of those computers except abm are running under Linux currently Scientific Linux 5 5 due to using ACS 12 1 The abm computer is a VME system running VxWorks 6 7 In addition to the APECS computers there are a number of embedded system computers apexcool cs al hfe control affts xffts laboca abba if control etc and to some extent instruments3 to control the instruments Those computers run different versions of Linux or Windows Embedded system computers are under the responsibility of the respective system developers The interface to the embedded system is realized via ASCII SCPI commands sent over UDP sockets 1 Fig 4 1 shows the deployment of the APECS software on the various computers inside the telescope and in the control rooms at Chajnantor and in Sequitor 4 2 Starting the APECS servers The APECS servers provide the necessary infrastructure to perform observations They are being started via a single script called
60. nit arcsec arcmin system eq ho epoch 2000 0 mode ordered jiggle on2cal lt Number of on subscans between calibrations gt Perform a hexagonal raster pattern to map out the footprint area of CHAMP The time is used per raster point The step size is the radial distance of neighboring points The mode can be ordered to obtain a defined sequence of points or jiggle to observe the raster points in random order Reference subscans are inserted according to the settings given in the reference command except for wobbler mode For long scans calibrations can be inserted within the map for every on2cal on subscans The setup makes sure that ref on cycles are completed before the next calibration Thus on2cal is the minimum number of subscans between calibrations The calibrations are performed according to the settings in the calibrate command Setting on2cal to O disables calibrations within maps Note that an initial calibrate command is needed after tuning a receiver to auto level the IFs Note that the array derotation angle should be 0 0 in eq mode 3 2 6 8 otf otf xlen lt x Length gt xstep lt x Step gt ylen lt y Length gt ystep lt y Step gt time lt Time per OTF map point gt direction x y zigzag 1 0 angle lt Position Angle gt size_unit arcsec arcmin deg angle unit
61. ns DISP ptg The master model is currently based on the optical pointing model and might be replaced later by bolometer radio pointing models Create Date March 5 2014 Page 40 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual The receiver delta pointing models are named after their apecs name e g HET345 ptg They contain only the deltas to be added to the master model For Cassegrain receivers there are usually just two offset numbers for Nasmyth receivers there are 4 constants The ephemeris files are stored in xephem edb format Ephemerides for comets and distant objects are installed The scan number is being increased using the global scan number in APECSCONFIG globalScanProperties The scan number is automatically reset to 1 on January 1 every year Some of the non configurable instrument setup that is not included in APECSCONFIG FeedParams is still hardcoded in the apexFEBEConfig py Python module which is located in the APECSROOT 1ib python site packages directory It is assumed that this stays stable once the instrument has been commissioned and accepted Changing this setup is only possible under version control by a software responsible Note that the ethernet switch port used to connect the ABM VME computer needs to be configured to 100half with auto negotiation disabled The MVME 761 board cannot handle auto negotiation 4 4 Troubleshooting While APECS is now rather stable compared
62. ns are set up using the TICS strokes There are linear spiral and Lissajous strokes By default all of the APECS patterns are composed of linear strokes i e either pointed observations or linear OTF strokes The spiral and lissajous commands can be used to set up spiral or Lissajous patterns instead of pointed observations e g on raster focus etc The stroke commands linear spiral and lissajous are mutually exclusive Note that TICS sets up a new descriptive coordinate system centered on the source coordinates and that offsets are always applied along the great circles This means that all patterns will look slightly different when being projected to encoder coordinates azimuth elevation or equatorial coordinates right ascension declination The position angle that can be specified in some observing pattern commands follows the mathematical convention i e positive values are assigned to the north to west rotation thus 45 means NW in the astronomical coordinate system see 3 1 Create Date March 5 2014 Page 27 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Rotated Coordinate Systems in APECS 100 x Dec offset 120 70 e raster 80 10 40 10 angle lt 0 15 40 gt a 100 300 200 100 0 R A Figure 3 1 Rotated coordinate systems in APECS shown for a raster command The same angle definition is used for all other patterns 3 2 6 1 offset offset x lt numerical x
63. ntal V vertical and no action 3 2 3 4 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt configure lt Heterodyne frontend name gt configure mode dsb ssb 2sb ratios lt Image to signal band gains for feed 1 gt lt for feed 2 gt lt for feed N gt fthrow lt Frequency switching throw gt lt Phase 1 throw gt lt Phase 2 throw gt harmonic lt Number gt doppler on off tuningmode lt mode gt Configure basic heterodyne frontend parameters The mode can be DSB SSB or 2SB The ratios are the linear image to signal band gain ratios for all feeds in numerical order The frequency switching throw s are given in MHz Usually symmetric switching fthrow is assumed Asymmetric switching can be commanded using a list of throws e g 10 0 15 0 The offsets are being used for the frequency switching observing mode which is activated by the fsw command Note that the Observing Engine automatically chooses the recommended harmonic number if the user sets this to zero which is the default A non zero number will override the system defaults The doppler parameter controls whether a Doppler correction is being applied for this frontend It can be ON or OFF The tuning mode is an optional string to control the receiver tuning Details are given in the online help in the apecs CLI 3 2 3 5 lt Heterodyne frontend name gt line lt Heterodyne frontend name gt line name l
64. nual 3 2 5 Calibration 3 2 5 1 calibrate calibrate mode cold hot time lt Time per point in seconds gt autolevel on off Perform a calibration scan Default is a sequence of SKY HOT COLD If the mode is set to HOT only SKY HOT is being observed Auto levelling should usually be turned on For some instruments levelling takes a very long time This step can be skipped by specifying autolevel off The sky position is being set up using the position defined in the reference command except for wobbler mode where the wobbler reference position is being used Note that calibration scans automatically turn off the wobbler while calibrations within maps use it if wobbler mode has been selected 3 2 5 2 skydip skydip azimuth current lt Angle in degrees gt am_stop lt Number gt am_start lt Number gt points lt Number gt time lt Time per point in seconds gt Perform a skydip scan at the given azimuth default is the current value between the two air masses defined in the command Do not specify an air mass of exactly 1 0 to avoid problems with the antenna control system 3 2 5 3 point point length lt Number gt unit arcsec time lt Time per subscan in seconds gt mode otf ras points lt Number gt direction x y Perform a cross scan in OTF or raster mode to check the local pointing near the source 3 2 5 4 pcorr pcorr pcorr
65. o the models This command may be needed if the telescope tilts change on a short time scale of a few hours Please ask the APEX staff about the apecs script to determine the new numbers Create Date March 5 2014 Page 26 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 5 11 reset_tilts reset_tilts Revert back to the tilts defined by the pointing models 3 2 5 12 use_linear_sensors use linear sensors useLinearSensors on off Define whether to use the linear sensor pointing correction Accepts values on and off 3 2 5 13 use tiltmeters use tiltmeters useTiltmeters on off temp comp on off Define whether to use the tiltmeters pointing correction Accepts values on and off Optionally enable temperature compensation on or off 3 2 5 14 set cold params set cold params frontend lt Frontend name gt yfactors y factori y factor2 tcold lt Cold load temperature gt Manually set the cold load parameters of a frontend in the online calibrator To be used if the cold load malfunctions and the Y factors are measured manually The Y factors must be given for all feeds The cold load temperature must be specified in Kelvin 3 2 5 15 reset_cold_params reset_cold_params frontend lt Frontend name gt Reset the cold load parameters of a frontend in the online calibrator 3 2 6 Observing Patterns Observing patter
66. ocus position and auto correct its pointing model for lateral focus shifts fcorr 3 3 5 Continuum Observations Select frontends and continuum backends as shown above Select a science target source orion Define a reference position for the calibration reference 3600 0 Perform a SKY HOT COLD measurement calibrate Perform an OTF map Note that the reference is not being used here since no spectral backend is connected otf 3600 1 200 8 time 0 005 system eq 3 3 6 Spectral Line Observations Select frontends and spectral line backends as shown above Select a science target source orion Define a reference position Note that the time will be automatically computed for the different observing modes if it is set to 0 0 in the reference command this is the default reference 3600 0 Perform a SKY HOT COLD measurement calibrate Perform an OTF map Note that the reference is being used automatically if spectral backends are connected otf 400 3 30 3 time 0 1 system eq 3 4 Macros and Loops Macros are supported via execfile The scripts must use standard Python syntax with brackets To run a set of apecs commands edit them into a text file and execute them from the APECS gt prompt by typing execfile lt filename gt There are some default observing macros in the APECSROOT share apecs directory To run them one can use exec_apecs_scr
67. ogger Client apexObsLoggerClient Online Pipeline Display apexCalibratorClient Shutter Control GUI shutterControl observer3 Main monitoring client apexStatusDisplay masterStatus MasterStatus Weather display apexWeatherDisplay Low level ACU WIU access acu wiu paruma Data reduction software class boa crush paniri apexdb2 Project SQL database mysqld Table 4 1 This table shows the APECS hosts typical processes and their shell commands The standard server processes on control3 instruments3 display2 opt3 and abm are started by restartAPECSServers on control3 The server processes must run under the apex operations account The recommended observing setup comprises the observer client processes on observer3 as started by restartAPECSObsClients and the monitoring client processes as started using restartAPECSMonClients All client processes must be started under the observing project account in order to get access to macros catalogs raw and scientific data and observing logs Create Date March 5 2014 Page 42 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Table summarizes a number of known conditions and their usual solution Sometimes the suggested measures might not resolve the problem and further debugging is needed Always try to get the system back into operation by restarting only small portions of it rather than simply restarting everything This way one learns more about the structure of the system and it is faster too
68. olerance to about 5 arcseconds using the tolerance command in apecs 39 APEX APECS User Manual Chajnantor Sequitor opt 3 Optical Camera Terminal to ABM O S instruments3 aoe o instrument control D O display2 FitsWriter Data i Calibrator i o Y i control3 CORBA Services i VNC 2 ea ae Connections O N SION OR H 2 observer3 nace Remote Sites Development i Maintenance network Figure 4 1 APECS deployment at the site in Chile After about 6 minutes the system will be up and running and a number of windows and displays will open Table 4 1 summarizes the processes that need to be running for APECS to work The troubleshooting section refers to the commands in this table when suggesting to restart part of the system 4 3 Configurations APECS uses a number of configurations from the area defined by the APECSCONFIG environment variable APECSCONFIG Pointing Pointing models APECSCONFIG Focus Focus models APECSCONFIG FeedParams Detailed frontend feed configurations APECSCONFIG RCPs Frontend feed offsets and gains APECSCONFIG Catalogs System source and line catalogs APECSCONFIG Ephemerides Ephemeris files The pointing models are split into a master model MASTER ptg which describes the overall antenna behavior and delta models for frontends see below tiltmeter corrections TILT ptg and linear sensor correctio
69. ontro13 and brings up all server programs necessary for observing This part is done by the APEX operators or APEX astronomers on duty using the apex operations account in the contro13 1 VNC server After that server startup clients can use the APECS services It is possible to run several client sessions in parallel for different projects The operators will also create a new account for you based on your project ID You must use that account for observing since all data products and log files are produced in separate project direc tories which are only accessible to the project account Personal bash setups should be made in HOME acs bash_profile USER to avoid overwriting APECS settings After logging on to one of the APECS client computers you will find three symbolic links to your project s data The rawdata link points to the directory containing the current MBFITS raw datasets on a computer at Chajnantor The MBFITS dataset directories are named APEX lt Scan number gt lt YYYY MM DD gt lt Project ID gt where the scan number is a sequential number starting with 1 on January 1 every year and the project ID is defined as described in section 3 2 1 1 The scidata link points to the directory containing the project s calibrated CLASS files at Cha jnantor The file naming scheme is lt Project ID gt lt YYYY MM DD gt apex i e you will find one file per day The spectra are identified using the CLASS TELESCOPE header
70. or Observation Logger Server apexObsLoggerServer Observing Engine apexObsEngine instruments3 frontends Container runContainer frontends APECS backends Container runContainer backends aux Container runContainer aux infra Container runContainer infra environ Container runContainer environ opttel Container runContainer opttel Monitor point archiver apexMonPointArchiver MySQL instruments3 Weather station SCPI CID Server apexWeatherStation start Embedded Radiometer SCPI CID Server apexRadiometer start System Tiltmeter SCPI CID Server apexTiltmeter start Servers TSGen SCPI CID Server apexTSGen start included in PBE_A SCPI CID Server apexPBE_A start APECS PBE_B SCPI CID Server apexPBE_Bholo start PBE_C SCPI CID Server apexPBE_C start PBE_D SCPI CID Server apexPBE D start PBE_E SCPI CID Server apexPBE Eac start PBE F SCPI CID Server apexPBE F start FLASH emulator emuEmbSys APEX FLASH 0 CALUNITS B emulator emuEmbSys APEX_CALUNITS_B 0 CALUNITS C emulator emuEmbSys APEX CALUNITS C 0 display2 Online MBFITS Writer apexOnlineFitsWriter Online Calibrator apexOnlineCalibrator Cal Display Server apexCalibDisplayServer opt3 opt Container runContainer opt abm abmi Container apexLCUContainerStart container abm1 netname abm on control3 observer3 Observing CLI apecs Scan summary status scanStatus APECS logging messages apecsLog Antenna position apexAntMount Sun avoidance display plotAvoidance PWV history display apexPWVHistory Observation L
71. restartAPECSServers This script needs to run on the central APECS machine called contro13 It starts the core CORBA services and the APECS service applications such as Observing Engine MBFITS Writer and Online Calibrator Usually a VNC session contro13 1 is used to start APECS so that one can check the server consoles remotely One needs to connect to the VNC server via typing vncviewer shared control3 1 Before starting APECS one should make sure that the machines are all idle and that the disks are not full This is absolutely necessary since the startup script is currently time critical In any event one should not run any other applications on the APECS server computers control3 display2 instruments3 and opt3 anyways Make especially sure that there is no web cam display running on any of the core computers at the site at Chajnantor as those use all the available CPU power For the server startup one needs to log on to control3 as user apex At the prompt on contro1l3 type restartAPECSServers f to start APECS There is also a simulation mode in which the telescope is being simulated and the real telescope is not moved Everything else is identical to the real setup This mode can be started by typing restartAPECSServers s f Note that the tracking in simulation mode is not as good as in the real hardware due to the 10 ms Linux scheduler not being commensurate with the 48 ms ticks used in APECS One thus needs to increase the tracking t
72. rom 0 0 to 4 0 s The gain can be an integer between 1 and 100 It controls the dynamic range by scaling the input signal by 1 gain 3 2 3 9 lt Continuum backend name gt group configure lt Continuum backend name gt _group configure group lt Group number gt offset lt Offset in MHz gt sections lt List of backend sections gt Configure a continuum backend section group The necessary group number is being displayed by apecs when connecting the backends to the frontends It can also be queried using the show command The section group radio frequency offset is given in MHz The default sections making up this group can be overridden if needed They must be given as a list 3 2 3 10 lt Spectral backend name gt configure lt Spectral backend name gt configure dumptime lt Time in seconds gt Configure the spectral backend dump time The default is 0 0 s which means that the system determines the time automatically The dump time is given in seconds and can range from 0 0 to 4 0 s Create Date March 5 2014 Page 23 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 3 11 lt Spectral backend name gt _group configure lt Spectral backend name gt group configure group lt Group number gt bandwidth lt Bandwidth in MHz gt numchan lt Number of channels gt offset lt Offset in MHz gt linename lt Alternative line name gt sections lt List of backend sections gt Configure a spectral line backend
73. rt Online MBFITS Writer fitsWriter start stop restart Observing Logger Server obsLoggerServer start stop restart Observing Engine obsEngine start stop restart Table 4 3 Core APECS application restart commands 4 5 Notes and Caveats Note that using only stopAPECSServers followed by startAPECSServers will not stop any clients The idea is to leave the clients running so that they can re connect once the servers are back up This only partially works in APECS 2 7 We still recommend to always use restartAPECSServers or issue an explicit stopA11APECSClients before stopping the servers The abm computer s console is connected to the ethernet via an RS232 line and a COM server which is accessible through the startMiniEtherABM command on contro13 One can thus access the abm in a way that is independent of the ethernet to check its status or possibly reboot it by typing reboot at the abm1 gt prompt or if it is not reacting anymore by typing lt CTRL X gt Never type exit at the abm prompt as this closes the login shell and the computer needs to be rebooted Use logout if you are connected via rlogin or rsh Create Date March 5 2014 Page 44 Contact author Dirk Muders Chapter 5 CORBA CDB Reference Tables 5 1 to 5 6 summarize the names of all APECS CORBA objects as defined in the CDB Configuration Database The names are needed to access the objects e g via the apexObsUtils getMCPoint co
74. t Line name gt frequency lt Number gt Create Date March 5 2014 Page 21 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual PBE_A PBEB PBE_C PBE_D PBE_F HET230 HET345 HET460 HET1300 FLASH345 X FLASH460L X FLASH460H X CHAMP690 X CHAMP810 PI460 X PI1100 X ZSPEC ZEUS2 HOLO X PSI P lt P lt lt Table 3 7 Possible FEBE combinations between the APEX heterodyne frontends and the continuum backends ABBA SZACBE SZDCBE BEAR1 2 PBEE AMKID350BE AMKID870BE MPIFR MPIR ESO MPIR MPIR MPIR LABOCA X SABOCA X E BOLOSZ ARTEMIS450 al ARTEMIS350 PSI P lt p ARTEMIS200 BOLOB E z X T z AMKID350 _ E E a X AMKID870 Table 3 8 Possible FEBE combinations for the APEX continuum frontends sideband lsb usb unit GHz cats all user sys Select the line to be used for the heterodyne frontend tuning The system will try to find the line in the catalogs if only the name is given Reading from the line catalogs performs a left sided match with upper or lower case and wildcards for remainder of the string The cats parameter allows to restrict the catalogs to b
75. the calibrate command Setting on2cal to O disables calibrations within maps Note that an initial calibrate command is needed after tuning a receiver to auto level the IFs Note that the resulting CLASS data are projected into encoder coordinates horizontal system or J2000 coordinates equatorial system Due to the use of descriptive coordinate systems in APECS the projected values are not the same as the commanded descriptive values Create Date March 5 2014 Page 29 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual 3 2 6 5 raster raster xlen lt x Length gt xstep lt x Step gt ylen lt y Length gt ystep lt y Step gt time lt Time per raster point gt direction x y zigzag 1 0 angle lt Position Angle gt size_unit arcsec arcmin deg angle unit deg arcmin arcsec system eq ho epoch 2000 0 mode ordered jiggle on2cal lt Number of on subscans between calibrations gt Perform a rectangular raster pattern given by lengths and steps specified in size_unit in both directions The time is used per raster point If zigzag 1 the raster is done bi directionally reducing the telescope overhead The direction defines the fastest varying axis for an ordered setup The angle defines the position angle of the map relative to the coordinate system The sign of this angle follows the mathematical conventio
76. ttings in the calibrate command Note that an initial calibrate command is needed after tuning a receiver to auto level the IFs Note that the steps along the scanning axis should be ideally chosen to be 0 45 times the current beam size The beam will become elongated if the steps are chosen to be too large Note that the resulting CLASS data are projected into encoder coordinates horizontal system or J2000 co ordinates equatorial system Due to the use of descriptive coordinate systems in APECS the projections are no longer simple rectangles 3 2 6 9 drift drift azsize lt map size in azimuth gt elsize lt map size in elevation gt elstep lt step size in elevation gt lineartime lt time for linear stroke gt turntime lt time for turn around gt mode 0PEN CLOSED azunit deg arcmin arcsec elunit arcmin deg arcsec Observe a rectangular azimuthal On The Fly drift pattern along lines of constant elevation with half circle turn arounds to minimize microphonics through telescope accelerations The pattern is centered on a horizontal source or around the average azimuth and elevation of an equatorial source The source thus drifts through the line of sight during the scan Note that the source name is changed to lt Original name gt DR_ lt Az gt _ lt El gt to show that a fixed position in horizontal coordinates was observed The extent of the pattern is given by the s
77. uum FE bandwidth 320 1 Facility SZACBE ZA Continuum FE bandwidth 331 1 PI SZDCBE ZD Continuum FE bandwidth 331 1 PI BEAR1 B1 Continuum FE bandwidth 5632 1 PI BEAR2 B2 Continuum FE bandwidth 1664 1 PI AMKID350BE M3 Continuum FE bandwidth 25120 1 PI AMKID870BE M8 Continuum FE bandwidth 25120 al PI Table 3 5 APEX spectral and continuum backends 3 2 3 1 frontends frontends lt Frontend name gt frontends lt Frontend name 1 gt lt Frontend name 2 gt dome frontends lt Frontend name gt frontends lt Frontend name 1 gt lt Frontend name 2 gt D Select the frontends to be used for the next scan This command reloads all pointing models from files Those models will become active in the following scan 3 2 3 2 lt Frontend name gt feeds lt frontend name gt feeds ref default lt Reference pixel number gt select all lt Pixel number list gt circle lt radius gt lt Specific geometry keyword gt Configure the frontend feed setup The reference feed number defined by ref shifts the receiver pointing model to center the observations on the new feed and tells the online display software which data to show One needs to provide a number or the string default to go back to the original value The select parameter allows to restrict the number of feeds to be used One can either specify an explicit list of feeds e g 1 2 4 6 or use speci
78. variable Due to the variable length restriction of 12 characters we had to use acronyms to specify the frontend and backend names and the pixel and baseband numbers as defined in MBFITS 4 The spec tra naming scheme is AP lt 2 letter frontend acronym gt lt 2 digit pixel number gt lt 2 letter backend acronym gt lt 2 digit baseband number gt The frontend and backend acronyms are given in tables and The obslogs link points to the directory containing the project s automatically generated ob servation logs in XML and HTML format by the apexObsLoggerServer The files are named APECS lt Project ID gt lt YYYY MM DD gt obslog and APECS lt Project ID gt lt YYYY MM DD gt html The apexObsLoggerClient application will display today s project specific logs in a window and allow editing the user comments while observing System comments are given in square brackets 13 APEX APECS User Manual A file menu allows to view older logs of the same project The log files are also transferred to the project database for remote access The logs are part of the final data package that the PI will receive These links point to the local data directories depending on whether the machine is located at Chajnantor or in Sequitor This avoids transferring large amounts of data over the network The data and log files are first stored on a RAID at Chajnantor They are transferred to Sequitor once per hour For data inspection immediately after t
79. wrapper between CORBA requests and corresponding SCPI commands sent via UDP socket connections to the embedded systems I They are therefore automatically generated from the IDL interface files The ABM CORBA objects inherited from ALMA via the TICS software are different They are implemented using the CAN bus communication directly without additional layers It is important to understand this layered structure of the APECS system The top level communication errors that the user sees can have different causes either on the CORBA container level or on the SCPI level We currently can not yet route the nature of the error all the way up to the user This may change in the future but in the current setup one needs to examine all communication layers to debug the problems The collection of CORBA objects representing the hardware is being coordinated by the central Observing Engine process It sets up all instruments auxiliary devices and the antenna itself for each scan If one of those setups fails the whole scan is canceled This is usually the point where observers turn to operators or software engineers for help You then need to examine the system and the log messages to identify the offending sub system Create Date March 5 2014 Page 41 Contact author Dirk Muders APEX APECS User Manual Host Applications Process Command control3 ACS CORBA Services acsStart CAN Monitor canMonit

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