Observations: GMVA ALMA mode

Prerequisits

• Go through the system-setup and make sure the system is operational.
• Assumption: Fibre cable is connecting the FiLA10G to eth2 of pv-mark6-1
• A single module is loaded and connected into slot 1 of pv-mark6-1
• Make sure you have loaded the  module for recording the GMVA ALMA mode

FiLA10G Setup

• On the DBBC2 desktop double-click the icon labeled "fila10g_ALMAMode.bat". This will setup the FiLA10G for recording on the Mark6, will do the time-synchronisation and will do the required channel re-ordering of the VDIF-data. The icon is a shortcut  to the following file: C:\DBBC\bin\fila10g_AlmaMode.bat.

• Confirm settings. In the terminal window that has opened the last page lists the output of the sysstat command. Inspect the output; in particular check that VDIF timesync is showing "yes" and "Output" is showing "started" (see image below).

• Confirm the time synchronisation as described here.

Mark6 module initialization

• Skip this section if there is already recorded data on the module! The following steps will delete all data on the module!
• log-into pv-mark6-1 as user oper:   ssh oper@pv-mark6-1
• execute: da-client
• in da-client:

  mod_init=1:8:{VSN}:sg:new            replace     {VSN} with VSN as indicated on the module label
  group=new:1
  

Mark6 setup

• log-into pv-mark6-1:     ssh pv-mark6-1 -l oper -X
• execute:     m6service_restart
• execute:     da-client
• in da-client:

mstat?1

make sure the group is NOT in open state. If it is open you must do:

group=close:1

Otherwise do:

input_stream=add:DBBC2:vdif:5032:50:42:eth2:::1
input_stream=commit
group=open:1
mstat?1

The last statement should report the group to be in open:ready state, e.g.:

!mstat?0:0:1:1:MPIH%016/48008/4/8:8:8:45160:48008:open:ready:sg;

Loading/starting the Mark6 schedule

• log-into pv-mark6-1 as user oper: ssh pv-mark6-1 -l oper -X
• If not already there download the vex file into the directory: /home/oper/vex
• Translate the vex-file

cd /home/oper/vex
vex2xml.py -f {vexfile} -s PV

• Check the contents of the produced xml-file. It should not be empty and contain several scan entries, similar to this:

<experiment name="a90xx" station="PV" start="2015090003000"  end="2015090032200">
        <scan experiment="a90xx" source="3C279" station_code="PV" start_time="2015090003000" duration="420" scan_name="090-0030"/>
        <scan experiment="a90xx" source="3C279" station_code="PV" start_time="2015090004500" duration="420"
        <scan experiment="a90xx" source="3C279" station_code="PV" start_time="2015090031500" duration="420" scan_name="090-0315"/>
</experiment>

NOTE: If the file is empty check that the station code given in the vex2xml.py command matches the station code for Pico Veleta of the vex-file.

• Start the schedule

M6_CC -f {xmlfile}

where {xmlfile} is the xml-file produced by vex2xml.py (see above)

Field System

• log-into mrt-vlbi as user oper
• Download/copy the vex file into the directory: /usr2/sched
• run the vex file through drudg
• if not already running start the field system (click on the "field system icon" on the desktop)
• in the oprin window issue the command:

schedule={vexname}pv     (where vexname denotes the basename of the vex file: e.g. c171a)

Troubleshooting