Photo to be updated...

A R C O N

The name is simply a contraction of "ARray CONtroller", the hardware/software system which operates all CCDs at CTIO, the 8K Mosaic on Kitt Peak, and several CCDs on the WIYN telescope. Each electronics box can operate a quad readout CCD. Four are used in the case of the Mosaics. Twenty were deployed in all. Some systems at CTIO are still being upgraded to the latest version of the ADC. VIdeo and "Voltage/Temperature/Telemetry" cards, but no new systems are being built since the embedded microprocessors have become obsolete.

These pages are being drastically revised.
Text in magenta means "under construction"
Please send suggestions to Roger Smith.

OBSERVER'S MANUALS

4-m Echelle Spectrograph*
4-m RC Spectrograph*
Direct Imaging*
1.5-m Bench Mounted Echelle Spectrograph*
High Speed Photometry mode (NEW) ...under development (Aug 2001) for imagers at 0.9m and 1.5m telescopes.

* Manuals marked with an asterisk, while mostly correct, are old. Contact Chris Smith for status of updates.

INSTALLATION & DIAGNOSTICS

Setup
Light leaks and phosphorescence
Light Contamination Alert
Solved problems ...described here in case they recur
Unsolved problems
Mosaic startup problems

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

System Overview

Block diagram and overview
The logic behind the modularization
Flyer ... the original introduction to Arcon's main features
Transputers, and why they were used.
Grounding scheme

Arcon Electronics Box...bolted onto the dewar

Fiber Optic Link ...for data, command, status.
CommNode ...communications hub
VTT ...Voltage/Temperature/Telemetry
Sequencer ...timing generator)
Motherboard ...slope control filters, temperature set points , etc
Dewar and detector mount
Video
ADC
Power supply

TRAMbox ...next to the workstation

Nexus
Real Time Display
Enclosure and supply

Host Workstation & Software

Sbus interface (Parsytec or Alta)
muxnex ....permits multiple processes to communicate with the hardware
picread ...unscrambles pixels and writes the image file
arsh ...the "Arcon shell" connects a window to muxnex
clarsh ...the connection from IRAF to muxnex
macros & intialization
user account setup
IRAF scripts for reducing multi amp data
Header format

MOSAICS

Adaption of the software for mosaic
Application of Arcon to 8K Mosaics (Optical Detectors For Astronomy, 1996, p265)

CCD OPTIMIZATION

Arcon specific IRAF tasks and scripts (mainly for lab use)
Readout Speed Optimization (Optical Detectors For Astronomy, 1996, p165)
Readout time calculator for ROI's and binning (Excel spreadsheet)
How Linear are typical CCDs ? (Optical Detectors For Astronomy, 1996, p251)

USEFUL LINKS

ccd-world email archive
ESO's dewar contamination page

Return to CTIO home page

rsmith@ctio.noao.edu

Archaic remnants of the original web page.......

Arcon Specification Sheet (this link doesn't work)

ARCON SYSTEM SOFTWARE

Transputers
SUN interface daemon
User/IRAF interface
Arcon System Programming Tips (general)
Arcon System Programming Tips (list)

Transputers

SUN Daemons

A optical fiber connects the Nexus node to a Transtech S4 Sbus interface board, which in turn is driven and controlled by a UNIX daemon called muxnex which routes information between TRAMS, the user, and other devices such as Telescope Control computers, motor controllers, LSI-11 computers controlling RC spectrograph,

User/IRAF Interfaces

muxnex also exchanges commands and information with end user command line interface programs arsh and clarsh.