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Front-End Group Home Page

Welcome to the Front-end Group's home Wiki page! The members of the Controls Department Front-End Group are:

Name Extension Misc
Dennis Nicklaus x6410 Group Leader
Jerry Firebaugh x4749
Pierrick Hanlet x5555
Beau Harrison x4756
Rich Neswold x3454
Mike Sliczniak x5637
Jiaming You x6682

Our group's home page is here: Front-End Group Home Page.

Comments about coding practices: Coding Rants

Front End Change Log

The Front End Change Log is for Front End programmers to describe recent changes to their front ends and how to undo these changes should they cause some unforeseen problems when the programmer is unavailable.

"How-To" Pages

"How-To" pages describe how to complete tasks that are fairly involved, yet aren't done frequent enough to commit to memory.

For the Green

Installing Boot ROMS

In order to get VxWorks to boot on your hardware, you first need to install the VxWorks boot ROM. These pages describe how to install a boot image on several VME processor boards.

Configuring Front-End to Boot

Booting a machine in our control system requires a few, final configuration steps.

Front-End Development

Creating a linux-based VME controller.

Linux-based VME Controller

Our front-end development environment has gone through a few changes in the last year. Its documentation can be found following the link.

Front End Node Request Form

Use this link to request a new front end be added to Acnet

Public Modules

Our group provides many generic VxWorks modules that are used in many front-end systems. You can learn more about them by following the corresponding link.

Library Description
frontend.mk A make include file that implements the front-end development environment
MOOC A VxWorks framework that implements the higher-level ACNET protocols. Drivers are written in C/C++.
ACSys/FE A Linux framework that implements the higher-level ACNET protocols. Drivers can be written either in Erlang or C++.
ACNET Provides ACNET connectivity to a VxWorks system
vwpp A library that wraps low level VxWorks primitives in a C++ interface.
errlog A logger library that replaces the internal VxWorks logger

We also provide modules that control hardware:

Library Description
SLD CAMAC Serial link decoder. Also contains TCLK decoder.
SSMLite Software to communicate with the "SSM-Lite"
V473 A module that operates the VME 473 ramp generator

Dabbel Documentation

Some systems provide documentation on the details of creating an Acnet device to access their hardware. This "Dabbel documentation" typically includes details on the various bit-fields of an SSDN. This documentation is automatically extracted from source code files and posted to the web at the FE Dabbel Help area.

Specific Front-End Systems

These links take you to documentation that's specific to a particular front-end architecture. For a more complete list of keepers and backup keepers, please see application D98.

System Keeper(s) Backup Description
Beam Cycle Coord Rich Neswold Mike Sliczniak Decodes beam cycles to help monitor beam transfers
BeamLine Rich Neswold Dennis Nicklaus These are CAMAC-based front-ends found in the fixed target lines
Booster BPMs Jimmy You Booster BPM system
CAMAC Rich Neswold Dennis Nicklaus These front-ends manage the CAMAC hardware
Collimators Rich Neswold
ESECON Dennis Nicklaus Rich Neswold LLRF Front-ends using CD's ESECON board
Frig Dennis Nicklaus Cryogenic controls
GPIB Jerry Firebaugh Provides ACNET access to GPIB hardware
IRMs Mike Sliczniak
Linac Mike Sliczniak
Motion Controllers Rich Neswold
Multiwire Jiaming You Dennis Nicklaus
"Peanuts" Jerry Firebaugh
PLC Jerry Firebaugh Provides ACNET access to PLCs
RF Interlocks Dennis Nicklaus Jerry Firebaugh RF Interlocks at HTS and NML
QXR Jerry Firebaugh
SWICs Jiaming You Dennis Nicklaus
UCD Rich Neswold Dennis Nicklaus Provides the TCLK multicast
Vacuum Jerry Firebaugh Rich Neswold Controls and monitors the vacuum system

Other Pages