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VLBI - PV Support

Modified 15:42, 17 Dec 2014 by rottmann | Page History

    Version as of 21:48, 28 Jul 2025

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    Project aim:

    • Replace the analog hardware by the new DBBC digital backend
    • Continous upgrade of the PV station to allow highest possible recording rates
    • Continous upgrade of field system and recorder SDK versions.

    Project phases:

    • Phase 1: Deploy DBBC hardware (finished 2011)
    • Phase 2: Enable & verify 2Gbps recoding (finished 2012)
    • Phase 3: Enable 4Gbps recording (finished 2013)
    • Phase 4: Enable 64Gpbs recording (started dec 2014)

    TO-DO:

    • calilbrate DBBC DDC v104
    • upgrade mark5b+ recorder to SDK 9.X
    • upgrade FS to 9.11.X
    • install miniSAS cables on pv-mark6-4
    • verify cable order on pv-mark6-4
    • do test recording on pv-mark6-4
    • NTP setup on pv-mark6-1 to -4
    • setup backup FS computer
    • find out how to control Mark6 from field system
    • ask Gino about saturation in calibration plot

    Pending hardware:

    • 4 x miniSAS cables for pv-mark6-4
    • 4 x optical fibre cable (3m)
    • DBBC3
    • 2 x FILA10G

    PV Status

    For the current status see PV Station


    General instructions

    Field system upgrade: FieldSystemUpgradeInstructions.txt

    Activity Log

    13.12.2014  - 18.12.2014

    • Mark6 recorders: 4 mark6 systems were shipped and installed in the VLBI racks. These are named pv-mark6-1 to pv-mark6-4. One of the systems (pv-mark6-4) was missing the complete set of miniSAS cables which are being send to Granada now but probably will not arrive in time to be installed during this mission. Salvador will install the cables once available. One issue discovered was that the order of the two Host Bus Adapter Cards is swapped with respect to the Haystack documentation. This means that 3&4 should go into the left-most connectors and 1&2 into the right-most. The correct order was verified by issuing:

       mod_init=1:8:ABC_0001:sg:new
      and then watching the bus activity on the disk modules. In this case LEDs should light up for module 1 (if module 3 is active the cables need to be swapped). Verification of the cabling was done for all mark6 systems except pv-mark6-4 due to missing cables. Basic verification of the general functionality was done (forming groups, mounting groups, closing groups, module initialisation etc.).
    • Mark6 test recording: Recording with mark6 recorders was verified to work (pv-mark6-1 to pv-mark6-3). Due to the missing miniSAS cables on pv-mark6-4 recording could not be tested on that machine. Verification will be done by Salvador once the cables have been delivered and installed. Running the mark6 software turned out to be workable but not very well suited for regular operations yet. Some issues have been identified and communicated to Chet. The new Mark6 software release 1.2 has not arrived in time to be installed and tested yet. Mark6 control from the field system (making use of the mk5cn) module has been tried but was unsuccessful.
    • Mark5B+ OS upgrade: The OS (Debian etch) on pv-mark5b-1 turned out to be largely corrupted (damaged package lists etc.) which prevented installation of the latest streamstor/dimino debian packages. A fresh installation of Debian 4rev9 (=Etch) was done on that machine.
    • Mark5B+ streamstore SDK & mark5 software upgrade: The latest packages:
    mark5_2.2.1-i386.deb
mk5bio_1.0.6-i386.deb
streamstor_9.2.1-i386.deb

    were obtained from the Haystack website and were installed following the Haystack documentation. Following the installation the latest SDK firmware was flashed onto the Amazon board using:

    ssflash -u SDK9.2.ssf

    The xbar version was verified to be 2.038.Using a 16TB module it was confirmed that large modules are accepted and can be filled to 100% when recording.

    • Mark5C software upgrade: The latest drs software package (0.9.19-1) was installed on pv-mark5c. Verified correct version of Xbar firmware (2.038) on the amazon board.
    • jive5ab installation: jive5ab version 2.5.1 was installed on pv-mark5b-1 and on pv-mark5c-1. Wrote small client program (jive5abclient) to talk to jive5ab without the FS. Verfified basic operations together with FS (recording on/off scan_check etc.).
    • Field system upgrade on mrt-vlbi: Field system on mrt-vlbi was upgraded to version 9.11.6. Minor modifications needed to be done to equip.ctl due to new DBBC features in the FS.
    • Flexbuf
    • Create backup field system computer: A secondary field system computer (mrt-vlbi2) has been set up. It is meant to serve as a second FS in case we will be do parallel observations or to serve as a backup in case the normal field system computer (mrt-vlbi) will break during/close to the session. Installation was done using OpenSuse13.2. The latest field system was installed (9.11.6) and tested using a fake schedule. Station code was confirmed to work. Sending of the source string to the telescope system is only allowed from mrt-vlbi in order to prevent dual reception of a source command.
    • DBBC calibration: Calibration for the latest tunable firmware (104) was done and the appropriate values were inserted in the configuration file. Unclear why the peaks go into saturation (report to Gino). Calibration plot.
    • Update of PV Station page

       

    19.9.2013 - 26.9.2013

    • Changed the default recorder for the Field System to be Mark5C (pv-mark5c-1). This was done because of the 16TB modules delivered to PV for the upcoming session. The Mark5B+ can currently only record up to 8TB due to the outdated SDK (8.2). Wrote two scripts (snap2mark5c, proc2mark5c) that transform the snap and proc files created by drudg into mark5c format. The scripts are located in /usr2/sched and /usr2/proc.
    • Updated the DBBC DDC firmware to the latest version v104_2. However it has turned out that this is too recent for the FS 9.10.5. Therefore the DBBC DDC firmware v102 was installed on the DBBC and will be used for the Sep13 session.
    • DBBC calibration was performed for the DDC v102 firmware and the PFB v14 firmware. The corresponding control files were updated with the new calibration values.
    • Verification that the DBBC on PV has ADB1 boards installed. Fixed an error in the DBBC configuration for the PFB v14 firmware which had assumed ADB2.

    10.5.-16.5.2013

    • Salvador has updated equip.ctl. rack type is now correctly set to dbbc. FS now properly recognizes and executes the bbcXX commands.
    • Updates the time.ctl file with a new rate, following the procedure outlined in /usr2/fs/misc/fstime.txt. This has solved the issue of the FS time running away quickly.
    • Configured and tested the autoftp feature of the FS. An autoftp script was created under  /usr2/fs/autoftp/autoftp that will handle the transfer to the Bonn FTP server. Installed ncftp onpv-mar5b-1 (required by autoftp). Setup password-less login from the FS computer to the mark5b machine for user oper.

    17.3.-22.3.2013

    • Recording test with Mark5C failed (corrupted data). Jan Wagner suggested to load different firmware for the amazon daughterboard (see notes). Afterwards recording was successful (tested with m5test).
    • Wrote scripts to automatically download and drudg all vex schedules on mrt-vlbi and pv-mar5c-1.See instructions for usage.
    • Prepared instructions for extracting data from a  scan recorded on mark5c and mark5b for ftp fringe test.

    12.2.-19.2.2013

    Rottmann travels to Pico to support  the 2GB/s test experiment (TW004) and to prepare the system for the upcoming 4GB/s 1mm session in march 2013.

    The following work was done on this trip:

    • a new Mark5c recorder has been shipped to Pico Veleta and was installed in the VLBI-rack. The recorder was setup with the latest SDK (9.2), DRS and other auxillliary packages (see notes )
    • The internal FILA10G board already present (but disconnected) was connected to the DBBC (see notes).
    • The Mark5C was connected to the FILA10G card by optical fibre / Glapper / Copper.
    • The PFB firmware on the DBBC was upgraded to the latest version (v14).
    • The FILA10G firmware was upgraded to the latest version v2.0 (see notes)
    • The latest documentation (DBBC hardware, PFB, FILA10G) was obtained from HatLab, printed out and stored in the DBBC folder in the VLBI room.
    • The new field system computer brought up in 2011 was finalized and used for the 2GB/s recording on 14.2.
    • The field system was upgraded to 9.10.5. DBBC support was confirmed and tested. PV station code was recompiled and verified to work.
    • Test recordings were done with the Mark5C and Mark5B+
    • After the 2GB/s test 8s of data were transfered to Bonn. Correlation done by Bertarini confirmes fringes between Pv, Ef and On (see fringe plot)

    • The actual procedure for the upcoming  4Gbps experiment in march using 2 recorders was established and verified to work. Step-by-step instructions were documented (see document).

    23.1.2012

    Fringes with PV DBBC found. Project phase 1 finished.

    24.11. - 25.11.2011

    Rottmann and Wunderlich travel to Pico. The following work was done:

    • Replace defective boards in the DBBC. Verified functionality of the DBBC.
    • OS upgrade on the Mark5A to Debian Etch (2.6.18 kernel)
    • Upgrade of the Mark5A software on the Mark5A computer.
    • SDK upgrade to version 8.2  on the Mark5A system.
    • Installed field system version 9.10.4 on the new and the old field system computers. New field system computer tested.
    • Perfomed test observations with Effelsberg  @2Gbps PFB mode. Due to extremely bad weather only 5 minutes of good data.

    30.9.2011

    Rottmann travels to Pico. The following work was done:

    • Installed the DBBC hardware. Stability and reliabilty not optimal. Must be improved.
    • Brought and installed a new field system computer. No time to fully test. Recomend to stay with the old system for now.
    • Plans to upgrade SDK version on the Mark5A recorder postponed due to oudated kernel version. OS needs to be upgraded first to more recent version.