Minutes of NCCS Progress Meeting # 42

Jonathan Quick

13 January 1999

This was the forty-second progress meeting on the NCCS after the initial meeting with all concerned staff on the 17th January 1996.

Present were :

• J.Quick (convener+scribe), M.Gaylard, K.Jones, J.Kriel, G.Nicolson, P.Stocker, A.v d Merwe.

Absent were :

• M.Ainley, F.Nel.

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

The following points were discussed :

1.

NCCS Controlled IF Distribution System -

• P.Stocker reported that the VLBI IF input selector has been completed and installed, apart from some labelling detail.
• G.Nicolson suggested that the Spectrum Analyser IF input selector be considered as a low priority backgroud task until further notice.
• J.Quick pointed out that final installation of the IF distribution system will have to wait until the new Electric Drive control panel / servo system has been completed.

2.

NCCS Correlator -

• J.Quick reported that the new Australia Telescope Multibeam Correlator has been installed in the designated rack and suitably cabled apart from one 32 MHz timing signal cable.
• J.Quick added that installation of the companion AT Distributed Clock would proceed as a priority item, to allow installation of the correlator to be finalised.

3.

Phase 1 (VLBI Support) -

• J.Quick reported that Phase 1 of the NCCS has been successfully implemented with the exception of the following hardware items:
  • New 3.5cm Dicke Switch Controller
  • Replacement of various Noise Adding (HI level) Diodes.
  • HP8662A Frequency Synthesizer
  All but the later will be expedited as part of Phase 2.
• J.Quick added that the current version of ANTCN still hangs up occasionally during VLBI operation. This is believed to be due to a re-threading of the underlying TACO layer by the internal interval timer routine. A suitable patch will be implemented soon.

4.

Phase 2 -

• DEFINITION: All current HP1000 observing functionality implemented with final (ie. NOT interim) NCCS hardware and software.
• TASKLIST: Under discussion the following hardware tasks were identified:
  • Complete Phase 1 outstanding hardware.
  • Finalise NCCS correlator installation.
  • Implement Radiometer IF input selectors.
  • Modify all Radiometers to allow Noise Adding / Total Power Mode selection under computer control.
  • Qualify V/F converters for use with Dicke / Noise Adding / Total Power mode Radiometers.
  • Troubleshoot and setup Counter boards for Linux STEER cage.
  • Build and install new Electric Drive Control Panel and Servo System.
  • Convert Mark I Pulsar Timer to use standard NCCS IF inputs.
  Software tasks identified were:
  • Rewrite SYPARM configuration database to eliminate all duplication of information.
  • Write an Editor for the SYPARM configuration database.
  • Write a Device Server for the new NCCS Correlator,
  • the LBA DAS filter unit,
  • the V/F + Counter combination,
  • and the Mark I Pulsar Timer.
  • Write the necessary standardised support routines for all of the above to be included in the HartRAO station library.
  • Setup an area for standardised SGML based documentation, together with a HTML skeleton on which to hang it.
  • Conversion of all existing NCCS documentation to SGML.
• TIMELINE: J.Quick suggested that the timeline be discussed with relevant parties once an official tasklist has been produced outlining priorities etc.

5.

NCCS Documentation Project -

• J.Quick proposed that documentation of the NCCS be considered as a project in its own right, running concurrently with NCCS development.
• J.Quick further proposed that the NCCS Documentation Project be arranged as a set of suitable webpages referring to all current NCCS documentation, which should be written in SGML to allow both WWW and printed documentation to be produced from one common source.

6.

Electric Drive - A separate meeting to be scheduled by G.Nicolson.