We report on the status of the Cassegrain Instrument Automatic Exchanger (CIAX) control system for the Subaru Telescope. Devices controlled by a shell program in the previous version are now controlled by a macro. It can now be operated safely from remote site. Features of the new system are: 1. New macro. The new macro has two features: (1) Action skip. The macro can skip actions that have been executed earlier. It judges whether to skip by checking the status of devices. Resumption of interrupted macro or reversal from halfway of a process is possible. (2) Macro flexibility: The script has every possible sequential action and chooses actions by checking device status. For instance, it can determine whether the cart is at the telescope or at one of the instrument standby flanges and select a proper hookup command. 2. GUI for macro operation and CGI for rewriting setup files. The new GUI uses a commercial instrument control language. A CGI application accesses setup files. 3. Omni-directional Infrared (IR) LAN. Omni-directional IR LAN is being tested for the cart because radio frequency wireless LAN is prohibited on Mauna Kea to avoid interference to radio telescopes. Conventional IR LAN failed because of its directionality. The CIAX system is now routinely used for instrument exchange. For complete automatic operation, there are still a few tasks left, such as macro-controlled instrument shutdown and restarting, standardizing interfaces and procedure for all instruments and further increasing reliability which is higher already compared to conventional manual exchange.

Date Published: 13 December 2002
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 4848, Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software II, (13 December 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.461268

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4848:
Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software II
Hilton Lewis, Editor(s)