HowTo&Troubleshooting

Software Troubleshooting

The Monochromator does not move and does not read correctly.

In this case always contact first the bamline staff. Only in case you are authorized by the beamline staff, you can perform the following operations:

For some reason, during the experiments, did you open the 082-MONO browser window located on the Firefox bookmark toolbar? CLOSE IT!!!It is important that this window is not open during energy control and energy scans. Keeping this window open can cause serious interferences during the operation of the monochromator. In this case, closing the window browser can already solve the problems.

PROCEDURE FOR THE RESTART:
      a) STOP all the running VIs .
      b) CHECK that all the VIs have been stopped by monitoring the MONO Grating Number.VI. If you see that the arrow is white, it is OK. If the arrow appears broken, check again, there is one VI still running.
      c) CLICK on the FIREFOX internet browser bookmark horizontal toolbar to the link to MONO082 (from any computer of the beamline).
The link is http://192.168.203.8:8080/
First click on the MONITORING page. If this page takes a lot of time to be loaded and at the end all the paraeters are zero and you read TIME OUT, then this means that you have to restart the MONO. Go back to the previous page  http://192.168.203.8:8080/
Here you will find a web ink to RESTART the software of the MONO. Click. Confirm that you want restart. Wait until the operation is done (90 seconds).
      d) CLOSE!! the MONO082 browser window. This is very important because keeping this window open can cause  problems during the operation of the monochromator!
      e) Use ENERGY CONTROL.VI to read the energy. If the reading is ok the operation has been successful. You can try to move the energy by some eV to have a cnfirmation that the monochromator software now works again.

Problem with the BCS.

      If it is impossible to communicate with the BCS, the BCS might need to be restarted or rebooted.
If the WEB is not working, do not reboot the BCS since the problem may be different! Always contact the local contact of the beamline first. If you are sure that the problem is really due to the BCS system call one of the person of the Software Group (Turcinovich, Billè, Chenda, Borghes, Pugliese):
      A list of the person of the Elettra Software Group which is available during the weekends (REPERIBILI) can be found at this link: http://elog/NewElogBook/logbook/rep.asp.
For the reboot (ONLY FOR AUTHORIZED PEOPLE): read this PDF document: BCS RESTART. For BACH: stop082, start082, reboot082
AFTER the reboot it is necessary to run the following VIs:
1) MONO GRATING NUMBER. VI: select the grating
2) RESTORE MOTOR SPEED
3) MOTOR READ ALL (press RESTORE in case you get an error)
4) MONO HOME. VI

BCS not working. Beamline valves cannot be closed

If you just need to close the last BL valve of the branch A, there is a manual gate valve (black actuator) just after the main chamber, before the last mirror.
Otherwise contact the beamline staff by phone.
ONLY FOR AUTHORIZED PEOPLE: There is another possibility, setting  all VACOs, both those relative to the frontend and those
relative to the beamline, are switched to the "LOCALE" mode, turning the corresponding key and then closing the valves. The FRONT END VALVES need to be closed and opened in a all these three elements need to be opened in a well-established order. Failing to follow this procedure will cause PERMANET DAMAGE to the FE stopper which will be burned under the direct photon beam.

TO OPEN the FRONT END open the following elements, following EXACTLY this order:
1. The FE (last) valve. 2. The FE stopper. 3. The FE shutter.
TO CLOSE the FRONT END:these elements have to be closed in the opposite direction. Close the following elements, following EXACTLY this order:
1. The FE shutter, 2. The FE stopper, 3. The FE (last) valve.

LabView is in Edit mode (it is not possible to write the number inside the VI)

      Click TAB some times untile the arrow symbol for the cursor appears again

The PC asks for a username and a password

      For the Acquisition PC, the username and password are written on the small paper fixed on the black case of the PC tower
      For the Analysis PC the username and password are written on a tape on top of the monitor

Overwrite or restore? An Error Message pops up

An Error Message pops up on the monitor of the Data Acquisitin PC, asking if you want to overwrite or restore. Even if the default choice is overwrite, 99.9% of the times it is better to press RESTORE, especially when the error message is about the ENTRANCE/EXIT SLIT OPENING positions.
In case of doubts, always press RESTORE!!!

1) The Beamline Control system is in time out and reads encoder=0. So, since encoder=0 means a different user unit value than the last value which was set, this erro message appears. It is the case when the user was NOT moving the SLIT OPENING or anything, but only reading its value or the user was doing an XPS or energy scan. Typically the two values (saved value and read value which appear in the error message) are very different (e.g. 30 and 50 for the entrance slit opening). Always press RESTORE in this case. If, by mistake, you have pressed OVERWRITE, contact asap the beamline scientist in order to restore the old values of the user units, otherwise you will be working with wrond settings.

2)In a very few cases, the typical case is when the users moves the Entrance slit "Y" position (NOT the opening!) to switch the undulator, it is necessary to press OVERWRITE.

This happens when the user is moving a motor (e.g. the Y), the motor does not reach the final position, but one step before. So the position read using the encoder is the one corresponding to the last step of the motor, but not the position that the motor was supposed to reach. In this case the two values (saved value and read value which appear in the error message) are very close (e.g. if you were moving the Y from +117.5 to -4.2, the error message says that the saved value is -4.6 and the read vale is -4.2). In this case, press OVERWRITE. Then READ again. The error message will likely appear again and then press again OVERWRITE.

3)(NOT FOR USERS) ONLY when the beamline scientist is switching the BRANCHLINE : In this case the rigth choice should be pressing OVERWRITE. However read the paragraph on HOW to SWITCH the branchline first.

The Acquisition PC or LABVIEW has to be restarted

      Always contact the local contact of the beamline first.
      You need to log (username and password are written on the PC (either on the monitor or on the tower case).
      Then in the desktop you will find a ling to the Manager.VI For Users or to a Folder named "User BACH Commands". Inside you will find all the VIs that you need to start again inside the SUBFOLODERS. The MAINPANEL.VI is on the desktop.
      MAINPANEL.VI in the desktop (runt it, then (1) select again the right grating, (2) in Counter Settings set again the channels you were using, the default reads only Io)
      MONOCHROMATOR folder: MonoGratingNumber.VI (select the right grating and press the arrow to run the VI) and SetEnergyandUndulator.VI;
      ANALYSER folder: XPSOnOff_Users (the analyser will be in the same status ON or OFF it was before the restart), XPSsurvey;XPS resolution.VI
      SCANNING folder: scanXPS2008.VI, scanEnergyGalil TEST.VI (note: the first time the path that you read is wrong, but as soon as you start a scanning with the right parameters, the VI will automatically save the data in the last used folder, with a progressive number, so there is no need to write manually the path. Eventually you can write manually the path of the data folder if you want to recall the scanning parameters of some previous scans)

      Other useful VIs (in case the MainPanel VI gives problems) can be:
MOTORS folder: MotorControl ;
COUNTERS folder: CounterSettings.VI (set the counters you were using (Io, Is or XPS) to be ON or OFF and run the VI)
FRONTEND folder: FEopenclse;
BEAMLINE folder: BLopenclose;
SCANNING folder: ScanMotor;
MONOCHROMATOR folder: EnergyControlGalil;
COUNTERS: KeithleyInitialise6430, CounterSettings, CounterReadAll...


      !!!VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! After the restart of the PC IT IS NECESSARY to select again the grating of the MONOCHROMATOR. Use the MonoGratingNumber.VI: you will find that the option EMPTY is selected. Insted select the last grating you were using and then press the arrow (play the VI).
    *

      !!!VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!After the restart of the PC IT IS NECESSARY to select again the right parameters in SetEnergyandUndulator (2.0 or 2.4 GeV, Linear Horizontal, First Harmonic, Grating..), because the default values can be different!
      NOTE: In the scanning VI it will be necessary to insert manually the parameters (initial, final, step,..). Once you have measured again the scan, you will be again able to recal the old files and parameters.

IGOR PROCEDURES:

The Igor procedure files to plot BACH data (the yellow panel) are installed on the acquisition PC of the beamline. If Igor or the PC crashes, it is possible to recover the yellow panel by doing the following:
1. Open IgorPro
2. Data-->Load Waves-->Load BACH_BCS (..the yellow panel will pop up)
3. Browse the folder by clicking on Data folder

The Energy or Motor scan are slow and I0 reads 0 every 2 or 3 points

Stop the scan and initialize again the keithley (i.e. set again the range of the keithley from the Main panel).

The regions of the ScanEnergy.VI or ScanResonantXPS.VI or other macros have to be deleted

Click with the right button of the mouse on the tab that you want to delete. Select DataOperation-->Delete element/ delete all elements /delete previous element

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 13 September 2018 12:57