Gemini Health Status Display Travis Prose University of Hawai‘i - Hilo Mentor Angelic Ebbers

Gemini Observatory Gemini North is a very large 8 meter telescope located on the summit of Mauna Kea which rises to nearly 14,000 feet Mauna Kea is one of the world’s best locations for observing the night time sky in the world

What is the Problem There is only so much time in which to take data so any faults or errors use up time It costs Gemini 120 dollars per minute of operation Therefore it is important not only for time on the sky but cost as well to find and fix problems as soon as possible

What is the Problem Observers first need to realize that a problem exists and then find where the problem is located The observers need to search through numerous engineering screens to find the problem

Gemini Health Status Display GHSD is a program that monitors over 170 subsystem needed to run the telescope The appearance should be simple and easily readable from 4 feet away The GHSD will be located on the summit for use by both the observers and the observing assistants

Tcl/Tk Tcl/Tk otherwise known as “Tickle” is a scripting language Allows for rapid developmental of Graphical User Interfaces like the Gemini Health Status Display

EPICS EPICS is a language that allows communication between high level programs like the GHSD and the hardware on the telescope EPICS allows the Gemini Health Status Display to monitor channels and update the monitor with the latest data

Object Oriented Programming Allows for the simplification of code by writing one instance of it and then using it multiple times For instance by using five basic classes the entire Gemini Health Status Display can be built to monitor over 170 channels

Building the GHSD Gemini Health Status Display was built by creating simple objects Debugging takes less time than building each individually New features need only to be added once

Common Objects GHSD Light Displays text and a light GHSD Light RngDisplays text and a light GHSD BusyDisplays text and a blinking light GHSD HeartDisplays text and monitors a heart beat GHSD LabelDisplays text and an output label

ghsdStatus.tcl itk_component add l41 {GhsdLightCmd $tcs.l41 "TCS Health" $cwid $psize $csize TCS TCShealth "BAD red WARNING yellow GOOD green"} itk_component add l42 {GhsdLightCmd $tcs.l42 "TCS Status" $cwid $psize $csize TCS TCSstate "BOOTING red INITIALISING yellow RUNNING green"} Using the same basic object it is possible to create very different effects with little additional coding

Conclusion Before the Gemini Health Status Display observers and observing assistants need to look through multiple DM screens

Conclusion Now the area of a problem can be found much quicker and dealt with in a much quicker fashion

Conclusion Using both Tcl/Tk and an Object Oriented Programming approach allowed for: Rapid development Simple coding Changes in the future

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Center for Adaptive Optics Gemini North Observatories Angelic Ebbers Dolores Coulson Funding provided through the Center for Adaptive Optics, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC), AST