RE: refreshing CAMACs

["Eric Bjorklund, NPSM" <BJO@accr.lcs.lanl.gov>]

>
>I've got a CAMAC crate inside the source for our linac which stands at 750KeV potential. 
>Arcing wreaks havoc with the crate controller periodically. To remedy this, I've found it 
>sufficient to reinitiallize the crate controller every ten seconds, whether it needs it or 
>not. Now that I've upgraded everything from 3.12.1 to 3.13.0b11, I thought I'd ask if there 
>was a better method. 
>
>I used to use a subroutine record which would execute the old:
>  int Q=0;
>  int CTRLR=0;
>  int DATA=0x100;
>  int crateNum = 1;
>
>  crateNum = (int)(pRec->a);
>
>  ccinit(0);
>  
>  cdreg(&CTRLR, 0, crateNum, 30, 0);
>  cfsa(17, CTRLR, &DATA, &Q);
>
>Should I replace those commands with the new flavors:
>  ccinit(0)
>  camacCrateInit (0,10)
>
>Or is there a better way?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>-- Garrett Rinehart
>   Intense Pulsed Neutron Source
>   Argonne National Laboratory
>
>

I'd say whatever works for you.  The advantages of using camacCrateInit(0,1)
are:

  1. Less code in your subroutine record.
  2. It will still work if you decide to use something other than a serial
     highway (not sure why you'd want to do that when the crate is in your
     source, however).
  3. After initializing the crate, it will automatically invoke any
     initialization routines you (or your device support modules) declare.
     This could be particularly important if you are useing a LAM-Grader.

The main disadvantage is that you will get a "Successfully initialized crate"
message logged every 10 seconds.

BTW, It's probably not neccessary to do the ccinit(0) unless the arc-downs
are also somehow hosing your serial driver (2992).

Eric Bj.

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Los Alamos National Laboratory		Email: bjorklund@lanl.gov
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