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Title: Trials, tribulations, and pitfalls using commercial instruments for data acquisition

Conference ·
OSTI ID:967354

Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) uses many commercially available instruments - for example spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, digital volt meters, signal generators - as integral parts of instrumentation and control systems. Typically these systems are remotely controlled. Using commercial instruments has many benefits. Manufactures have the skill, knowledge, and experience to produce high quality products. The price performance ratio is hard to duplicate. There are also disadvantages. Proprietary interfaces, single platform drivers, and reliable operation provide challenges for implementation and unattended operation. Several of the systems used at RHIC will be described. Their issues and solutions will be presented.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Doe - Office Of Science
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-98CH10886
OSTI ID:
967354
Report Number(s):
BNL-82260-2009-CP; R&D Project: 18072; KB0202011; TRN: US0904448
Resource Relation:
Conference: 12th International Conference on Accelerators and Large Experimental Physics Controls Systems (ICALEPCS 2009); Kobe, Japan; 20091012 through 20091016
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English