We had another control system seminar in January all about ECS scope and how to use our Jira system to request help from the team.
We think it's a highly valuable presentation for new and veteran LCLS employees to understand what ECS can do for them.
Getting Help From ECS Control System Seminar
All the other control system seminars are posted here: Control System Seminar Series
ECS presented XES controls design status for the February Director's review. The review focused on preparation for CD2/3 with focus on plan, design status and resource profile. The team demonstrated that as per December 2020 DOE Status review recommendation that lessons learned have been addressed and being implemented.
The team also showed the plan and ramp up towards CD2/3 now that we have secured the resources needed to execute the project.
The review committee observed in their reports that our designs appear to be sufficient at this point.
Currently, the team is focused on preparing for the upcoming DOE Review in March.
We recently completed a draft of an ICD for experiment controls for HE and it turned out so well we're thinking about making it a general purpose ICD for ECS to any and all projects going forward. ICD stands for Interface Control Document, and in systems engineering it can have a varied definition. Some projects use ICDs as a way to describe the physical and functional aspects of an interface between two subsystems. In HE and MEC-U's case the ICD will be used to describe the project interface between subsystems, clarifying who has what scope, and what information is needed from ECS and the respective other aspects of the projects.
It's a good document to read and understand because it clarifies what ECS will do in the HE and MEC-U project, and also in general.
Ken Lauer Zachary L Lentz Alex Wallace
Federica Murgia has kicked off the design and implementation of the alarm system at LCLS.
The NewALarMSystem, developed by the TID CDS Advanced Controls group, is designed for the availability, integrability, and extensibility of the alarm systems at SLAC.
The installation of the NALMS will start from the FEE in the coming weeks. Future updates will be posted as comments on the Jira ticket.
The campaign planned to focus on the GMD and the Facility Monitoring System to start. Essentially ECS will be working to capture and implement alarm thresholds, and hierarchical summaries of alarm states throughout the control systems. What does this mean?
Zachary L Lentz Michael Browne
We have been busy with testing, checkouts and install of QRIX endstation Controls. The schedule has been pulled forward with tasks that needs to be completed/ready in preparation for Toyama's visit to install and checkout the spectometer arm.
All the in-vacuum stages have been functionally tested prior to installation.
Installation and termination of 80% of vacuum control components (DRLs and cables) are complete and 50% of motion controls components.
The qRIX Motion and Vacuum PLC are up and running with their IOCs and vacuum screen live and added to RIX LUCID screen.
Robert Tang-Kong has joined the ECS Platforms Development team, and will primarily work on the hutch python environments. Prior to joining ECS, Robert got his PhD in Materials Science at Stanford and worked at SSRL as part of their data acquisition pilot project. In his downtime, Robert enjoys reliving his glory days in competitive yo-yoing and playing video games. | |
Peregrine McGehee has joined the ECS Delivery group as the new MEC PoC. His background includes teaching physics and astronomy at Ventura College, working as a staff astronomer at NASA'S Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, and prior to that as a controls engineer at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. A few other things that take his time include being a co-chair of one the Rubin Observatory science collaborations and continuing the study of Balinese gamelan. | |
Mike Estrada Mike Estrada has joined ECS as the new PoC for the XBD group. His hobbies include weightlifting, seeing live music, cooking, trying new restaurants, and travelling. He likes to fill his spare hours playing video games, visiting with family, and going wine tasting. |
We're getting better at Jira. Check it out:
Our unresolved tickets grew by about 50% from December to the end of February. We're keeping pace, and perhaps with our new resolution workflows we'll start to cut down on the complete backlog.
One thing to note is we'll soon cross a point where it is a good idea to check Jira for prior tickets before submitting a new one. Much like Stack Overflow, Jira tickets are a kind of knowledgebase.
We resolved 199 tickets in Jan and Feb.