Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Optimization of Slow Controls Monitoring for the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT)

Student: Kelly Roman

School: The College of William and Mary

Mentored By: Amrit Yegneswaran

The slow controls system (SCS) for the SVT modules of Hall B monitors variables, such as low and high voltages, their associated currents, temperature, and humidity. To prevent damage to the modules and to uphold the integrity of the acquired data, the monitored variables must remain within preset threshold windows. SCS monitors the variables at a maximum frequency of 4 Hz which produces data files too large for proper identification of unexpected data trends. To reduce data to a manageable file size, a software program was designed to discriminate unusual data from the expected data. This program, the Smart Logger, records events that fall outside the preset thresholds. The Smart Logger was implemented and tested with real-time module data from the crates and a data file, 95% smaller than the control file, was produced. The Smart Logger should facilitate data analysis by quickly isolating undesired behavior of the monitored variables.