FourStar Software Documentation

Release Notes

Location of this document: http://instrumentation.obs.carnegiescience.edu/Software/FourStar/notes.html

v2.3, v2.2, v2.1, v2.0
v1.10, v1.9, v1.8, v1.7, v1.6, v1.5, v1.4, v1.3, v1.2, v1.1, v1.0

Added a warning (dialog) when the user starts an exposure that is likely to saturate the arrays.: Ks: 20 seconds; H, Hl, Hs: 32 seconds; J: 120 seconds; J3: 250 seconds; J1, J2, NB209: 500 seconds; NB118: 600 seconds

Warmup/cooldown cycle and pumping to improve the dewar vacuum.
Some minor bug-fixes.

The average aperture value in the QuickLook Tool is displayed in red if the value is above the saturation threshold.: saturation = 50000 * exptime / (exptime + fowler*1.4555); 'fowler' is the number of samples before and after the exposure time (ie. '1' for readmode Double)
Disabled the internal ftp mechanism to copy the status- and log-files to the web server at SBS.: The new system writes these files to the local disk and uses scp , initiated by a cron job, to copy them to SBS.

The "T+G-noGuiderWait" dither mode is now the default.

The GUI opens a warning dialog at startup if the LN2 fill system is not in Automatic mode.
The FourStar software synchronizes its time with the TCS UT (was ST): It displays a warning if the internal clock of the ControlMac is more than 15 seconds off.
Fixed the "tabbing" order in the Edit Object (object list) dialog.
Separate pressure alarm levels for the Pfeiffer gauge and the ion pump sensor.: The new entries in the Preference file are alarm-pfeiffer (default=1.0e-5) and alarm-ionpump (default=5.0e-6).

Motor Controller: The Motor Controller Chassis has been modified by combining the functionality of the two Nyden/MAC-300 motor controllers into one controller. The pupil motor was moved from MAC300#2-A to MAC300#1-D. This resulted in the loss of the 8 digital inputs that were used for the absolute encoding of the 2 filter wheels and the field-flattener wheel. Since the absolute encoders were already broken for some time, they were now simply disconnected.; This change allowed us to disconnect the second MAC-300 inside the MC Chassis but keep it as a spare. Both MC Chassis were modified during Andy's October/2013 run.; The Setup window has been modified to only show one MotorControl IP number. The only other effect on the FourStar GUI is the (permanently) disabled Encoder popup button (DR = dead reckoning) on the Motors hardhat window.

v1.10 (2012-05-01)

Telescope GUI: The GUI has a new edit window that allows to preset the rotator offset angle (PA) when sending coordinates to the TCS.
Note: Please use OFF rotator mode.; The object list format has been updated to include a column for the PA (rotator offset angle) preset.; Added the "opslew" command after sending coordinates to the TCS (tested in v1.9.3).
v1.10.1 (2012-05-02): Fixed bug in the 'edit-object' dialog.
v1.10.2 (2012-05-11): Added the box size to the 'poisson' macro filename.
v1.10.3 (2012-05-18): Update the guider-coordinates after an asynchronous guider move has finished. The guider coordinates for the first exposure in a loop will still be wrong, but later exposures should have the proper guider-x/y values.
v1.10.4 (2012-05-22): Removed the password from the Motor-Hardhat panel.
v1.10.5 (2012-05-31): Restore the last-known filter wheel position at startup if the wheels are in dead-reckoning mode.; Removed the password from the H2RG-Hardhat panel.; Speak email alerts
v1.10.6 (2012-09-30): fixed a bug in the macro creator tool that failed to move back from the Sky to the Object position when the cycle count was greater than one.
v1.10.7 (2012-11-16): In asynchonous guider mode I query the telescope coordinates before waiting for the guider probe. This should ensure the proper telescope coordinates already in the first exposure in a loop. The guider probe coordinates might still be out-of-date in the header of the first exposure, but only for short exposures.; Disable the the "Preview" and "Set" buttons on the object list window while the software is waiting for the guiders during a macro (async. guider mode).; Attempted to improve the fault tolerance of the status update mechanism (that provides the data for the FourStar status website).
v1.10.8 (never installed, but part of v2.0): volatile tpar; mutex protection for l_tpar, fits_setup, telio_temp,tg_send; wait_for_flag(tg_gdrmove) before macro commands move and guiding
v1.10.9 (never installed, but part of v2.0): Removed (unused) focus motor code (N_MOTORS=4)

v1.9 (2012-02-09)

Camera / Macros: Allow arbitrary rotation angles for the 'dice5' and 'square9' dither macros. This feature obsoletes the distinction between the regular (dice5/sqr9) and rotated (rot5/rot9) macros.; Fixed "stuck" Macro Paused dialog window when the user aborts a macro while it is paused.
Other: Added a timestamped 'shutdown requested' line to the logfile when the user attempts to shutdown the FourStar-GUI. The software attempts to immediately transfer the current log-buffer to SBS.
v1.9.1 (2012-02-14): Proper handling of guider-probe errors and guider turn-on commands ("F3"/"F5") when probe-1 is used as the Shack-Hartmann guider.; Fixed macro dialog bug (dither pattern parameter for sky and object were swapped). [build# 1.902]
v1.9.3 (2012-04-17): Added "opslew" command after sending coordinates to the TCS.

v1.8 (2011-11-30)

Camera / Macros: Recover the guider when a guider move is rejected during a macro by keeping track of the 'missed' offset(s).
v1.8.1 (2011-12-02): Fix a bug in the guider-offset recovery code.; Display a message at software startup reminding the user to Home any wheel that operates in dead-reckoning mode.
v1.8.2 (2011-12-05): Change the communication port with the TCS. This allows the TCS software to distinguish requests from each rotator port.

v1.7 (2011-10-31)

Camera / Filter: Display a "Please try again" message after a filter-combo failure.
Camera / Macros: The macro-status window displays an estimate of the time remaining for the current macro.
Note: This feature is under development and will require some calibration.; Add an experimental telescope offset (dither) mode:
For coordinated offsets initiate the telescope and guider moves but only wait for the telescope move to finish before starting the next exposure.
Telescope / SkyMap: [control-click] on the SkyMap window presets the offset sums (Telescope-GUI) of the actual point in the sky (was the coordinate of the nearest star).; [control-shift-click] on the SkyMap window presets the absolute coordinate in the Telescope-GUI.; Fixed the rotator angle of previously exposed areas on the SkyMap window (green sqares).
Telescope / ObjectList: The ObjectList window has now a Preview button that allows the observer to load the coordinates of the selected object into the SkyMap and Airmass windows without setting the Object and Comment fields in the Camera-GUI.
v1.7.1 (2011-11-07): Use 'gaffiv' (F5) to start the guiding when using the 'move_coord_async' command.
v1.7.2 (2011-11-08): Allow 'click-through' on the QL-Tool window.; Move scroll-bar to the top when loading a new object list.
v1.7.3 (2011-11-10): QlTool: Changed the color of the magnifier outline from yellow to green.
v1.7.4 (2011-11-14): Created a separate error message (and voice) when one of the guider moves is rejected:
guider#1 (PR): "guider move rejected"
guider#2 (SH): "shack hartmann move rejected"; Added the temperature from the weather station to the FITS header (TEMPWST).; Fixed a bug in the FITS writing routine that did _not_ pad the files to a multiple of 2880 bytes.
v1.7.5 (2011-11-15): Added telescope temperatures to the FITS header (TEMPAMBI,TEMPCELL,TEMPTRUS).

v1.6 (2011-09-13)

Camera: Add "Stare" macro design tool.; Separate dither patterns for sky and object position.
Telescope: Fix SkyMap position angle (compass).; Allow R.A. degrees in object lists (eg. 187.5 instead of 12:30:00).; Improved display of the guider field on the SkyMap.

v1.6.1 (2011-09-21)

Updated the gap between the arrays to 19.5" (was 17.7").

"Execute" (macro) button changes to "ExecAgain" after a macro terminates.

The logfiles use UT time stamps (was local time).

v1.5 (2011-09-01)

Camera: Menu: Camera--ShowLoopStatus shows a progress window when taking an exposure loop.; Change the default datapath at 8am local time (was 9am).; Automatically open the Ql-Tool when the Camera-GUI is started.
Macros: Audible warning when the macro script is paused by a TCS error or a pause command.; Auto-pause the macro script when the TCS returns an error (eg. "guider move rejected")
Help-Menu:: updated Help links

v1.4 (2011-08-02)

Telescope: Allow loading an object-list before the 'ObjectList' window is on the screen.; The object-list may to be sorted by the comment field.

v1.3 (2011/June)

Telescope / Macros: Audible warning when the TCS rejects a guider move (coordinated offsets).
Other: Snow Leopard compatibility.; Version number in logfile.; Runtime in logfile.; Modified alerts of the LN2 auto-fill system.

v1.2 (2011/March+April)

Camera / Macros: Warning if a macro is started but the filter-comdo is undefined.; Added gain macro command.; Added macro-status window.; Improved macro timing.
Camera / Array Readout: Variable reference pixel subtraction scheme.
Temperature Monitoring: Added alert if the shroud dewar temperature exceeds 85 [K].; Added alert if the detector heater utilizes less than 0.1 [W].
Telescope / SkyMap: Added 2MASS catalog.

v1.1 (2011/February)

Camera / Quick-Look Tool: Display the filename in the title of the bar when a file is manually loaded.
Camera / Filter-Combo: Calibrate the pupil (open,closed) positions.
System Monitoring: Query the Magellan weather station (via TCS) and write temperature and humitidy to the logfile.; Write the guide-probe focus and the current filter to the logfile.
This may enable us to predict the telescope focus in a future version of the FourStar software.; Write the guide-probe position [x,y] into the FITS header of each exposure.
This will help the data pipeline to detect vignetting by the guider probes.

v1.0 (2011/January)

Camera / ObjectList: Automatically preset the comment line in the Camera-GUI when an object is set in the ObjectList window.
LN2 AutoFill System: Detect (dead-reckoning) fills by analyzing the temperature of the shroud dewar and send an alert (email) if there is no fill detected for more thn 12 hours.

2011/January, Christoph C. Birk, Carnegie Observatories