Joseph (Naperville North), Maritza (Plainfield South) &
Maggie (Bradley-Bourbonnais)
Mentors: Angela Fava, Dennis Nickaus and Donatella Torretta
The ICARUS detector is a liquid argon TPC neutrino detector aiming to measure the oscillation of neutrino flavors on a short baseline. This summer we worked on creating a slow control system for the remote monitoring and operation of a power supply which provided a biasing electric potential across the anode wire planes in the ICARUS detector. In order to effectively monitor and set the necessary parameters, we developed a graphical and physical user interface.
The graphical user interface, created in Control System Studios (CSS) functioned as a control room monitor and controller allowing the user to set and receive values on the power supply remotely. In order to create this interface we created a channel access client to access the necessary process variables from an Input Output Controller, then passed these values into python and javascript programs, allowing for an intuitive and interactive, yet heavy, interface. Implemented features include a safe incremental ramping of the voltage as well as email alerts and automatic data exportation. In contrast, the physical interface used an LED display to provide warnings and approximate values. This interface was created by wiring LED warning lights to GPIO pins on a Beaglebone Black, then creating python scripts utilizing a channel access support module to retrieve process variables. Although lightweight, this display was less interactive and required a separate web-based UI to readback specific values. By completing these clients, we aim to be able to supply power efficiently and safely to the anode wire plane of the ICARUS detector.