Wayne Lewis

1
Australian Synchrotron Beamline Controls Design
and Implementation
Wayne Lewis
2
Beamline Controls Design and Implementation

• Beamline summary
• Resourcing
• Technology decisions
• Standards development
• Infrastructure
• Individual beamline implementations

3
Beamline summary

• Phase 1
• Infrared Spectroscopy
• Protein Crystallography
• Powder Diffraction
• X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy
• Soft X-ray Spectroscopy

4
Beamline summary

• Phase 2
• Microspectroscopy
• Imaging and Medical Therapy
• Small/Wide Angle Scattering
• Protein Crystallography 2

5
Resourcing

• Staff
• Development equipment
• External resources

6
Technology decisions - background

• Accelerator controls
• EPICS controls throughout
• Standard PC based IOCs
• No use of VME
• GUI implemented in Delphi

7
Technology decisions - background

• Beamline controls
• No pre-conceived ideas
• Desire to use open source software
• Desire to maintain consistency with existing
  accelerator controls
• Determine approach at comparable facilities and
  beamlines
• Desire to have single control system for all
  beamlines

8
Technology decisions

• Hardware
• Off the shelf products
• PC based IOCs
• VME where essential (using PCI/VME bridge)
• In-house motion control
• Protection systems

9
Technology decisions

• Protections systems
• Personnel protection
• Equipment protection
• Operating system
• Avoid vxWorks
• Use standard Linux distributions
• Determine need for real-time OS

10
Technology decisions control system software

• Six control systems reviewed
• Selection criteria established
• Candidates ranked
• EPICS was the winner

11
Technology decisions user interface software

• Engineering/staff interface
• Use EPICS tools
• Ease of use/speed of deployment
• Experimental user interface
• No single right answer for all beamlines

12
Standards development

• Naming convention
• IP addressing scheme
• GUI standards
• Motion control connectors
• Coordinate system

13
Infrastructure

• Network
• Individual VLAN for each beamline
• EPICS gateway to accelerator
• Personnel safety system
• Same system as storage ring
• PLC code developed in-house
• Separate system for each beamline
• Carefully defined interfaces between beamline and
  accelerator protection systems
• Data storage

14
Powder diffraction

• Experimental requirements
• Single energy experiments
• Multiple sample environments
• Precision sample and detector positioning
• Microstrip detector
• High-resolution detectors
• Scanning step and on-the-fly
• Relatively low data volume and rate
• No well defined user interface preference

15
Powder diffraction

• Photon delivery system
• Turnkey contract
• Design, construction and supply of optics
• Basic controls included in scope of supply
• Equipment protection included in scope of supply
• Controls involvement at all stages essential
• Defined minimum EPICS releases to be used
• Definition of interfaces and site standards
• Close working relationship with controls vendor
• Ongoing involvement through commissioning phase
• 40 motors
• 2 cameras, 1 equipment protection PLC
• Beam condition and position monitoring

16
Powder diffraction

• Endstation
• Individual components purchased separately
• In-house integration effort
• In-house motion controller
• Close interaction with detector supplier
• Sample environments
• 15 motors

17
Powder diffraction

• User interface
• Using xxx application from synApps
• Dedicated GUI for detector
• EPICS sscan record to manage data collection
• Detector controls modified to be EPICS-aware

18
Powder diffraction

• EPICS usage
• Photon delivery system
• Motion control
• Cameras
• Serial devices
• PLC
• Endstation
• Motion control
• Scaler
• Sample environment
• Save/restore
• Scan
• PLC Modbus
• Digital IO
• Multi-channel scaler

19
Powder diffraction

• Non-EPICS usage
• Microstrip detector
• Analog/digital electronics
• Embedded server
• GUI is client
• Sets up acquisition then reads out and saves data
• Commissioning
• External expert assistance
• Photon delivery system
• Detector

20
Protein crystallography

• Experimental requirements
• Single energy experiments
• Single sample environment
• Well defined user interface
• Commissioning endstation followed by final
  endstation
• Synchronisation of sample rotation and shutter
• High data volume and rate
• No scanning

21
Protein crystallography

• Photon delivery system
• Same as powder diffraction
• Same vendor, very similar optics
• 30 motors
• 2 cameras
• 2 beam position monitors
• Equipment Protection PLC
• Ion chamber

22
Protein crystallography

• Endstation
• Commissioning endstation for twelve months
• CCD detector
• Robotic sample loading

23
Protein crystallography

• Endstation
• High speed shutter
• High precision sample rotation
• Cryogenic sample environment
• Sample monitoring
• Sample alignment
• Sample visualisation
• 22 motors
• Energy dispersive detector
• Data storage 40TB

24
Protein crystallography
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Protein crystallography

• Control system
• Mandate for BluIce user interface
• Decide between SSRL and GMCA implementations

26
Protein crystallography

• Comparison of SSRL and GMCA controls

GMCA
SSRL
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Protein crystallography

• SSRL vs GMCA
• SSRL benefits
• Use existing hardware drivers
• Use existing scripted functions
• Easier integration of specific hardware
• Support from SSRL controls people
• Minimal development work required
• Can take advantages of updates from SSRL
• GMCA benefits
• Simpler architecture
• No new control system to learn

28
Protein crystallography

• EPICS usage
• Photon delivery system
• Motion control
• Cameras
• Serial devices
• PLC
• Endstation
• Motion control

29
Protein crystallography

• Non-EPICS usage
• Endstation
• SSRL DCSS control system server
• All experimental scripting
• Screening database
• Detector interface
• Robot interface
• MCA interface
• User authentication
• BluIce user interface
• Motion control programs
• Commissioning
• External expert assistance
• Photon delivery system
• Detector
• SSRL controls

30
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• Experimental requirements
• Energy scanning
• Step scanning and on-the-fly scanning
• No well defined user interface
• Basic energy dispersive detector followed by
  multi-element detector
• Low data volume and rate
• EXAFS and XANES techniques

31
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• Photon delivery system
• High-performance scanning monochromator
• Cryogenic cooling system
• 40 motors
• Beam visualisation
• Beam position control

32
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• Endstation
• Single MCA detector
• Multi-element Ge detector
• Multiple ion chambers

33
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• Endstation
• Scanning is fundamental
• Require both on-the-fly scans and step scans
• On-the-fly handled in hardware
• Step scanning handled by EPICS scan record

34
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• EPICS usage
• Photon delivery system
• Motion control
• Serial devices
• PLC
• Endstation
• Motion control
• Scanning
• MCA
• Digital IO
• Analog IO
• Scaler
• Multi-channel scaling

35
X-ray absorption spectroscopy

• EPICS usage
• User interface
• MEDM
• IDL ScanSee
• Python EXAFS scan front end

36
Summary

• Turnkey contracts
• Work closely with contractors
• Develop standards
• Develop in-house experience and understanding
• Common systems where possible
• Customise for experimental requirements
• Use of external expertise
• Use of EPICS makes much possible