Using itango

Start up and set up

Start an iTango session:

$ kubectl exec -it ska-tango-base-itango-console -- itango3

List the TANGO devices:

In [1]: lsdev

Device                Alias  Server                    Class
--------------------- ------ ------------------------- --------------------
low-pst/beam/01              low-pst-beam/01           PstBeam
low-pst/dsp/01               low-pst-beam/01           PstDsp
low-pst/recv/01              low-pst-beam/01           PstReceive
low-pst/smrb/01              low-pst-beam/01           PstSmrb
low-pst/stat/01              low-pst-beam/01           PstStat
sys/access_control/1         TangoAccessControl/1      TangoAccessControl
sys/database/2               DataBaseds/2              DataBase
sys/rest/0                   TangoRestServer/rest      TangoRestServer
sys/tg_test/1                TangoTest/test            TangoTest

This interface allows direct interaction with the devices, such as querying and changing attributes and issuing TANGO commands to control pst processing.

To set things up and turn the beam on, cut and paste the following commands into the itango terminal:

beam = DeviceProxy('low-pst/beam/01')

# utility method to display monitoring params
def display_monitoring(beam):
    print(f"received rate: {beam.dataReceiveRate}")
    print(f"received bytes: {beam.dataReceived}")
    print(f"dropped rate: {beam.dataDropRate}")
    print(f"dropped bytes: {beam.dataDropped}")
    print(f"write rate: {beam.dataRecordRate}")
    print(f"written bytes: {beam.dataRecorded}")
    print(f"disk available bytes: {beam.availableDiskSpace}")
    print(f"disk available time: {beam.availableRecordingTime}")
    print(f"ring buffer utilisation: {beam.ringBufferUtilisation}")

# set logging level to DEBUG
beam.loggingLevel = 5

# set BEAM into AdminMode.ONLINE
beam.adminMode = 0

# set BEAM into SimulationMode.TRUE
beam.simulationMode = 1

# Turn on BEAM
beam.On()

The last line should result in an output message like the following

[array([2], dtype=int32), ['1673570914.504404_276635284857679_On']]

Configure a scan

The argument of the ConfigureScan command is a configuration string that sets the mode of operation and provides the values of various required attributes.

To obtain a valid example of a configuration string, visit ska-csp-configure and expand the Example (CSP configuration for PST pulsar timing scan), then highlight and copy the entire block of text that appears below this heading. Paste this block of text as indicated in the following block of code, then execute this code in the itango terminal.

import json
scan_configuration = json.dumps( <paste configure string here> )
beam.ConfigureScan(scan_configuration)

Check the state (should be <obsState.READY: 4>):

beam.obsState

Check the configuration ID (should be 'sbi-mvp01-20200325-00001-science_A'):

beam.configurationId

Check the scan ID (should be 0):

beam.scanId

Start and stop a scan

First, display the monitoring statistics and confirm that they are in the initial state:

display_monitoring(beam)

received rate: 0.0
received bytes: 0
dropped rate: 0.0
dropped bytes: 0
write rate: 0.0
written bytes: 0
disk available bytes: 251758821376
disk available time: 31536000.0
ring buffer utilisation: 0.0

Start a (simulated) scan and display (fake) monitoring statistics:

beam.Scan("1")
display_monitoring(beam)

received rate: 154.0
received bytes: 19250000000
dropped rate: 0.09227995411094783
dropped bytes: 11534992
write rate: 2937349865.8648005
written bytes: 2937349864
disk available bytes: 248821487896
disk available time: 84.70951682929442
ring buffer utilisation: 0.0

Check the state (should be <obsState.SCANNING: 5>):

beam.obsState

Stop the scan:

beam.EndScan()

Check the state (should be <obsState.READY: 4>):

beam.obsState

Deconfigure the scan and return to the idle state:

beam.GoToIdle()

Check the state (should be <obsState.IDLE: 2>):

beam.obsState