Troubleshooting guide

motor controller, and the MCE4 array controller) which accept commands via serial ports. The perle has one

serial port connection for each device. Commands from the software daemons running on flamingos1a are

received by the perle via an ethernet connection, and then passed to the correct device.

Troubleshooting several types of problems involves deciding if the problem is intrinsic to the device, or to the

communication via the perle itself.

a) Problem: The image has not read out. The exposure time counter never appears.

Sometimes the array controller crashes before the image acquisition script issues the START command to

MCE4. For example, a successfully started image acquistion should show:

/usr/local/uf/bin/ufdc -host flmn-4m-1b -port 52008 -acq "start -timeout

9 -cnt 1 -lut /usr/

local/flamingos/flamingos.headers.lut/Flamingos.lut -fits

/usr/local/flamingos/flamingos.hea

ders.lut/Flamingos.fitsheader -file /data0/4mguest/Test/test -index 2"

If it hangs here for more than ~6 seconds, type ufdc -q status in

another flmn-2m-1b window

ufdc> greeting: UFGemMCE4Agent -- accepted client: ufdc@flmn-2m-

1b@2002:350:03:40:49.170980

2002:350:03:40:49.170980

2002:350:03:40:50.440745ufdc@flmn-2m-1b

START

GATIR *Flamingos Beta* 2.00_f.07 >>

>>>>>.....TAKING AN IMAGE OR APPLYING LUT.....

(Exposure time + number of reads = 3 + 1)

Have slept 3 seconds out of an exposure time of 4 seconds

If you do not see the START command and the exposure time counter above, then MCE4 has crashed.

The statement in the output above that saying to type ufdc -q status is a red herring, doing so will

not change anything.

Solution: Reboot MCE4 and reinitialize it with initflam.pl. To reboot MCE4 telnet to baytech from

flamingos1a with userid mce4pow and password ________. Type reboot 1, and wait for the prompt to

return. Then type logout. Example output from this procedure follows:

4mguest@flmn-4m-1b{2001}telnet baytech

Trying 140.252.53.86...

Connected to baytech.

Escape character is '^]'.

RPC-3 Telnet Host

Bay Technical Associates

Unit ID: flmn-4m-1b

Enter username>mce4pow

Enter password>_________

Option(s) installed:

True RMS Current

FLAMINGOS@4-m, Ver. 2.34, 2006 Apr 04 Page 33 of 44