Monitor Programs for the Tipping Radiometer, Weather Station, and the Wind Meter Overview and instructions for clearing problems. 4 Nov 97 The program that reads the results of the Tipping Radiometer is called TIPSUCK and runs on Frankenheim under the VISITOR account. It reads the data from the tipper PC via a serial port (#14) of the terminal server, EKU, located in the Control Desk Rack. It also reads the weather data written by the weather station monitor program, WEATHER_SUCKER. TIPSUCK has two important functions: 1) it writes the tipper data to a file, TIPWEA.DAT and it writes weather and tipper information to a file CURMEAS.DAT. TIPWEA.DAT is periodically read and put in the opacity archive which is used to generate the opacity plots on the SMTO web site. CURMEAS.DAT is read by by CONTROL so that the weather and opacity information can be included in the raw data header files and be used for the refraction calculation. All these files are stored in the TEL$METREO directory (which currently points to FDATA:[VISITOR.TIPWEA]). When TIPSUCK and WEATHER_SUCKER are running properly, CURMEAS.DAT should have the following information in it. The time stamp from the latest Weather Data The time that TIPSUCK read data from the tipping radiometer The opacity per airmass (based only on the 1.0 & 2.0 air mass data points) The outside temperature (C) The barometric pressure (millibars) The relative humidity (%) When something goes wrong, the times in this file will be older than a half an hour, and CONTROL will begin putting complaints in the error log (see below). The weather station monitor program, WEATHER_SUCKER, which runs on Kronen under the SMTSYS account, reads the weather station data via a serial port (#6) on the Office terminal server, DUSSEL, and averages them. Every ten minutes, it writes the averages to a file WEA.OUT. It also puts the current antenna coordinates in this file once a minute. Each time new radiometer data is collected, the time, antenna azimuth & elevation, and all the opacity data are appended to the file TIPWEA.DAT. TIPSUCK also reads the accumulated data in WEA.OUT. It reformats the data so that the weather data and the antenna coordinates at the time of the averages, are on a single line. These line(s) are appended to another file, WEA.DAT. The WEA.OUT file is then renamed WEA.OLDE (and any previous WEA.OLDE is deleted). The program that reads the wind data is called WIND_SUCKER and also runs on Kronen under the SMTSYS account. It reads the data from the wind meter via a serial port (#2) on the terminal server, DUSSEL, in the second floor office. (The wind meter is located on the roof of the Vatican telescope and sends its data via a serial fiber optic line to the HHT where it is converted back into a normal RS-232 signal which is routed to the terminal server.) WIND_SUCKER writes the following on the Color Monitor: the current wind speed and direction, the average of these in the last five minutes, the peak gust in the past hour, and the peak gust in the last 24 hours. Every four minutes, WIND_SUCKER appends the average wind speed and direction on file WIND.DAT. If the current wind speed exceeds 30 mph or the average wind speed exceeds 15 mph, a message is printed on the Observer's OBST screen. Once every half hour, the Cron jobs on Hannen and Maisel fetch the files WIND.DAT, TIPWEA.DAT, and WEA.DAT to append them to the Local Weather database of the SMTO web site. Maisel renames these files *.OLD after it reads them. When all is operating normally, in directory TEL$METREO, there should be a CURMEAS.DAT file with a time stamp corresponding to the most recent tipper measurement, and the wind speed and direction should be updating on the color monitor. The files WIND.DAT, TIPWEA.DAT, and WEA.DAT should either be missing (if Maisel has just renamed them), or should contain data from the last half hour or so. If CURMEAS.DAT hasn't been updated for more than two hours, CONTROL should begin complaining with WEATHR DATA OLD and TIPPER DATA OLD messages on the ERROR display. These will be repeated once an hour if the problem is not cor- rected. Once the problem is corrected, the message TIPPER/WEATHR PROBLM FIXD will be displayed. Should the problem continue for twelve hours or more, TIPPER/WEATHR DATA 2 OLD! will be displayed. If the TIPPER data is older than 12 hours, the opacity will NO LONGER be used in the refraction calculation. Instead the weather station relative humidity will be used, and THIS MAY CAUSE AN ABRUPT CHANGE IN THE REFRACTION CALCULATION IN THE POINTING MODEL. There is currently no complaint should the wind data cease updating. If the CURMEAS.DAT isn't updating, one of the following steps ought to cure the problem. 1) Type SHOW SYSTEM/OWN=VISITOR/NODE=FRANKE (/NODE isn't necessary if you're logged in to Frankenheim.) If TIPSUCK isn't listed as running, login into Frankenheim as SMTSYS and type TIPSUCK. The response should be "... identification of created process is ..." 2) If TIPSUCK is running, check that the WEA.OUT has current information in it. (If WEA.OUT doesn't exist, look in WEA.OLDE in case TIPSUCK has recently renamed it.) If the data are not current, try restarting WEATHER_SUCKER: At an SMTSYS window on Kronen, type SHOW PROCESS WEATHER_SUCKER. If it does not exist, type WEATHER. The response should be "... identification of created process is ..." Within a few seconds, there should be new weather data in WEA.OUT. 3) If 2) fails, there may be a problem with the terminal server, DUSSEL. From either Frankenheim or Kronen, type TELNET DUSSEL/PORT=23 Strike Response: "#" ACCESS (It won't echo) Response: The terminal server greeting screen & username> prompt ME (Any username will do) (To get back to the normal prompt at any point below, type LOGOUT.) SET PRIV Response: "Password>" SYSTEM (It won't echo) SHOW PORT 6 STATUS Response: The port 6 status page. It should say: Status: Connected, Input XOFFed: No, Output XOFFed: No, Current Service: KRONEN, Current Node: KRONEN, Current Port LTA1013, Output Signals: DTR, Input Signals: RXD. If the status page is wrong, try logging out the port LOGOUT PORT 2 If WEATHER_SUCKER is still running, it should reconnect to the port and the status page should now be correct. If not, try re-initializing the terminal server: INITIALIZE DELAY 0 After a few minutes, the software will be downloaded. Begin step 3) over again. When finished with the terminal server, be sure to exit the terminal server with a LOGOUT (unless you've done the INITIALIZE), as only one remote console session to the server is allowed at a time. If this still doesn't fix the problem, try cycling the power on the weather station. The weather station is in a grey box mounted about 7 feet off the floor to the right of the back door. It gets its power from the UPS via the orange extension cord that also supplies power to the phone system (to the left of the door). The only way to cycle the power is to pull the plug. 4) If the weather data is updating, but TIPWEA.DAT isn't, check the tipper PC. It should respond to the Start Again button and take another measurement. If this doesn't work, reboot it. After a measurement is complete, there should be an updated TIPWEA.DAT file. 5) Occasionally, there will be a problem with the tipper itself or the communication link. The communication link can be initialized by powering off and on the panel behind the Frontend Control Desk at about knee level. The tipper can get jammed and cease moving if snow or rain collects in it and it freezes. Should this happen, pull the tipper into the loft and let it warm up. 6) Check out the terminal server, EKU. Type TELNET EKU/PORT=23 Strike Response: "#" ACCESS (It won't echo) Response: The terminal server greeting screen & username> prompt ME (Any username will do) (To get back to the normal prompt at any point below, type LOGOUT.) SET PRIV Response: "Password>" SYSTEM (It won't echo) SHOW PORT 14 STATUS Response: The port 14 status page. It should say: Status: Connected, Input XOFFed: No, Output XOFFed: No, Current Service: FRANKE, Current Node: FRANKE, Current Port LTA1002, Output Signals: DTR RTS, Input Signals: CTS DSR RXD. If the status page is wrong, try logging out the port LOGOUT PORT 14 If TIPSUCK is still running, it should reconnect to the port and the status page should now be correct. If not, try re-initializing the terminal server: INITIALIZE DELAY 0 After a few minutes, the software will be downloaded. Begin step 6) over again. When finished with the terminal server, be sure to exit the terminal server with a LOGOUT (unless you've done the INITIALIZE), as only one remote console session to the server is allowed at a time. 7) If none of the above works, rant and rave loudly, take a deep breath, and call for advice. If the wind isn't updating, do the following: 1) Type SHOW SYSTEM/OWN=SMTSYSTEM/NODE=KRONEN (/NODE is not needed if you're logged in to Kronen.) The names of all the control system jobs on Kronen should be typed. WIND_SUCKER should be among them. If not, type SOMEPRIV then WIND at an SMTSYS> prompt on Kronen. The response should be "... identification of created process is ..." 2) If WIND_SUCKER is running, but there's no update, check that the terminal server is working. Type TELNET DUSSEL/PORT=23 Strike Response: "#" ACCESS (It won't echo) Response: The terminal server greeting screen & username> prompt ME (Any username will do) (To get back to the normal prompt at any point below, type LOGOUT.) SET PRIV Response: "Password>" SYSTEM (It won't echo) SHOW PORT 2 STATUS Response: The port 2 status page. It should say: Status: Connected, Input XOFFed: No, Output XOFFed: No, Current Service: KRONEN, Current Node: KRONEN, Current Port LTA1011, Output Signals: DTR, Input Signals: RXD. If the status page is wrong, try logging out the port LOGOUT PORT 2 If WIND_SUCKER is still running, it should reconnect to the port and the status page should now be correct. If not, try re-initializing the terminal server: INITIALIZE DELAY 0 After a few minutes, the software will be downloaded. Begin step 2) over again. When finished with the terminal server, be sure to exit the terminal server with a LOGOUT (unless you've done the INITIALIZE), as only one remote console session to the server is allowed at a time. 3) Rarely, the Wind Meter interface at the Vatican Telescope needs initializing. Open the white box on the Vatican roof. (Be careful not to drop the wing nuts or knock the bolts out of their holes.) Turn off the large black switch and turn it back on. 4) If none of the above succeeds, pray for guidance. (The Vatican can help with this.)