New JCMT telescope control system

Richard M. Prestage; Firmin J. Oliveira; Jeremy A. Bailey; Neil T. Masuda

doi:10.1117/12.308795

26 May 1998 New JCMT telescope control system

Richard M. Prestage, Firmin J. Oliveira, Jeremy A. Bailey, Neil T. Masuda

Proceedings Volume 3351, Telescope Control Systems III; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.308795
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 1998, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

As part of the upgrades to our observatory control software, we have developed a replacement for the astrometric kernel and the servoing system at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The new PTCS astrometric kernel operates within the DRAMA tasking system. An EPICS servo controls the antenna drives. The THI, a DRAMA task, translates demands from the kernel and sends them to the servo, and then feeds back to the kernel the current drive encoder positions and the expected time of arrival at source position. The TEL DRAMA task at the top level interfaces between the existing observation control software and the telescope-independent PTCS task. This new system is replacing components of an existing observatory a Vax platform and sent demands via GPIB to a servo on a VME platform. The new PTCS and the TKI software run on a Unix machine and communicate via the DRAMA message system to the upper layer observatory system and via Channel Access to the EPICS servo running VxWorks on the VME platform. In this paper we will review the main features of the new telescope control system, and report on progress with implementation.

Citation Download Citation

Richard M. Prestage, Firmin J. Oliveira, Jeremy A. Bailey, and Neil T. Masuda "New JCMT telescope control system", Proc. SPIE 3351, Telescope Control Systems III, (26 May 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.308795

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