TngGui

TngGui.py is a PySpectra application giving access to various parts of our Tango/Sardana system. Figure 7.2 shows the main widget.

Figure 7.4: TngGui, main widget

The key features of TngGui:

Alignment

Left-click on a motor name to launch the move motor widget, see 7.11. A signal is displayed when the motor is moved forth and back.

Encoder related features

The encoder attributes widget can be launched by right-clicking on a motor name, see . The help menu of this widget covers: Encoder Attributes, Homing and Closing the Loop.

MacroServer features

Below Misc you find the entry MacroServer (Selected features), see 7.2.7. This widget give access to important environment variables, flags and hooks.

Tango Interface

For every Tango device widgets for attributes, commands 7.2.4 and properties are available.

Control Center

TngGui allows you to launch other experiment control related applications like: nxselector, pyspMonitor, MCA. They are in the Tools menu.

Files

You may inspect experiment control related files like: online.xml, TangoDump.lis, motorPositions.lis, /online_dir/ipython_log.py, SardanaConfig.py, 00-start.py, MacroServer properties, MacroServer environment. They are in the Files menu.

Debugging

MG is FAULT state

Now and then scans are aborted because the MG is in a FAULT or ALARM state. To understand what is going on, you may start by looking at the MG: select the MGs for the main table. You find the name of the ActiveMntGrp in the log widget. Left-click on the ActiveMntGrp and this widget opens 7.2.

Clicking 'Check MG' displays the state of the relevant Tango devices in the log widget. If one of the devices is not ON, open the corresponding log file using the LogFiles menu of the main widget.

You may also select the doors for the main table and left-click on the first door. See 7.2. Inspect the contents of the Critical, Debug, Error and Info streams.

You may find other valuable information in the log files of the MacroServer and the Pool. They are accessible through the LogFiles menu.

Is VME alive?

To answer this question, launch the extra timer widget and select counters for the main table. Then you reset a counter and start the timer gating this counter. If there is a counter attached to the DGG2 MHz clock, use this channel for your test. This sequence tells you whether VME is operational.

Another way to test VME operation is to connect an output register with an input register and use the IORegs table to switch the output register and to check the input register.

Figure 7.5: TngGui, MG attributes, 'Debugging' refers to this figure

Figure 7.6: TngGui, Door attributes, 'Debugging' referes to this figure

The TngGui looks at devices defined in /online_dir/online.xml (and optionally in the pool).