Operational Experience with the CEBAF Controls System*

K. S. White, D. Kehne
CEBAF

This paper describes our operational experience with CEBAF's control system. CEBAF is operated using a variety of software packages and custom applications. In the spirit of collaboration and software sharing, the current system utilizes code developed at four major laboratories as well as commercial packages and custom applications. The basis of the CEBAF control system is EPICS, originally developed at LANL and ANL. Operations primarily uses common EPICS tools such as the archiver, alarm handler, and the display manager. In order to supplement the features of EPICS, custom applications have been developed and incorporated into the control system using C, C++ and TCL. Additionally, CEBAF's helium plant is controlled using CEBAF's TACL system which requires communications between the two control systems. CATER, a problem tracking program developed at SLAC has also been integrated into the operational software. Current plans call for the integration of an on- line logbook developed at APS and the internal development of a downtime logger program. We discuss how these various tools and applications are used operationally, the advantages and disadvantages of the systems and challenges related to integrating this diverse array of software.

*Supported by U.S. DOE contract DE- AC05- 84ER40150.