UTAS Radio Astronomy Group | Main / Mark 5 B Configuration

Installed Debian Etch & mark5b software as per instructions on the haystack website. The pdf & iso’s are temporarily located on hobart in ~oper.

After this process, the mark5b was ready for use. The only change to the system is that the Mark5B recording server program is no longer invoked by Mark5B but instead by dimino. The syntax of commands is otherwise the same. This change in observing program may also have fixed the dot problem noted in test recordings where multiple recordings would all be recorded as having the same start time, until a new dot_set=:force command was issued.

One of the mark5Bs destined for either Ka or Yg has also been upgraded at this time (hardware id 733).

Old Info for the Debian Sarge install of the mark5B

Booted Mark5B initially with no network connection to avoid DHCP problems.

After logging in as root, changed passwords of both root and oper to the observatory standards.

Edited /etc/network/interfaces/ (with nano /etc/network/interfaces/) to read

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 131.217.63.175
netmask 255.255.255.128
gateway 131.217.63.129
Rebooted and connected network cable. Network ok.

To configure the mark5b for recording from the dbbc, first set the mode on the dbbc (though dbbc_control) with dbbcmode=astro. This sets the VSI output and track selection correctly.

For a test recording, start the mark5b software in an xterm with mark5b -m0 &

In a second xterm, start the recorder interface with tstdimino
This will bring up a prompt at which you can issue the following commands

clock_set=32:ext
dot_set=:force (To synchronise the dbbc clock to the32 MHz VSI clock)
dot?

This last command will return a string which should have the correct date and time, with syncerr_eq_0 and FHG_off. Next, set the mode on the recorder and then you can start the recording.

mode=ext:0xffffffff:1
record=on (Use record=off to stop).

Data can be checked with scan_check? (which returns the start time, duration and number of bytes rercorded, as well as somme other flags) and the amount of data recorded can be obtained from pointers? which reports the current tally of recorded bytes.

To export the data from the mk5 module into a file, at the tstdimino prompt, use disk2file=/home/oper/disk2file/testfile:0:1000000000:w;

The example command given above will record 1 billion btyes of data, starting from 0, into the file /home/observer/disk2file/testfile. Space is relatively limited on the mark5b partitions so don’t do this for large files. Instead you’ll need to set up a network partition - MtPleasant26m.Computing has some instructions for Hobart.