Introduction

This is the first ECS PD newsletter. Hopefully we start putting these out on a monthly basis to take stock of the improvements and work we're doing, and let the rest of LCLS know what new things are available from ECS!

Imaging Systems

PMPS

Squashed a bug related to how the photon energy bitmask is generated to make things more failsafe.

An initialization bug for the preemptive PMPS persists, PAMMs should continue to include a cycle of the Arbiter PLC, although not strictly necessary.

Work began on a batch of PMPS UI improvements including date and time overrides, a more streamlined UI arrangement, bigger windows for faults and requests, among many other things.

After some apparent inconsistencies with veto logic, a deep review of a majority of PLC veto logic was conducted to ensure the PMPS would produce faults only when necessary, and not when an obvious veto device should be keeping things safe. 

Gas and Vacuum Systems

Hutch Python

X-ray Optics

March began with some PMPS hacks to protect mirror coatings as the undulators and operators continue to impress us all with increasing beam power. These hacks were formalized in a subsequent upgrade that added state-based control to the mirror vertical axes, and the full PMPS integration (on the L line only). 

XRT Mirrors M1, M2 and  M3 are now connected to the PMPS arbiter and coating protections is now active.

XRT M1 (MR1L2) Upgrade

Monochromator to RIX Commissioning

Grafana, Logging, Alerting

Double3 Robot

Kaneda, our trusty ears and eyes in the NEH, now roams the halls freely (with supervision). Let the robot revolution commence. Login and access guidance can be found here. More robots following soon in other LCLS areas. Drive safe, have fun!

FIM Commissioning

Jira and Issue Reporting

ECS Platform Dev began exploring the use of Jira as our future ticketing system. We developed an embedded form for submitting issues to our Jira backlog, which can be found in various confluence locations. The goal is to make a very simple and easy process for people to request help from ECS PD. Ultimately we are looking to embed this process directly into our GUI so control system users can effortlessly report an issue, and provide all the helpful context we need to troubleshoot issues. An additional goal is visualizing the ECS PD work queue. Using Jira we can easily embed our backlog in confluence so anyone can see where their ticket is in the queue and lobby to change priority if needed. So far, our backlog is filling up with tasks from the XBD team as well as our own work. The next step will be to really apply Agile processes to organizing and prioritizing our work items.