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Flux Density Monitoring with the 30m Ceduna Radio Telescope

Starting IDV Monitoring Observations

  1. ssh observer@ellis.phys.utas.edu.au (standard observer password).
  2. The IDV monitoring backend should normally be connected outside LBA sessions. To check the system ./smartbruce.pl --check. This will check that the antenna, sampler and rakbus PCs respond to a ping, read the programmable attenuator settings and measure the system temperature. The script will report the nominal attenuators settings and system temperature for each channel, if these agree with those measured the system is probably OK.
  3. ./smartbruce.pl & To start the IDV observations (the --check option doesn't start the observations).
  4. Go to the directory /scratch/bruce and tail the latest bruce_YYDDD.log file for a few minutes to check that everything is working OK.

Stopping IDV Monitoring Observations

  1. ssh observer@ellis.phys.utas.edu.au (standard observer password).
  2. ./smartbruce.pl --kill After this ps -ef | grep bruce to check that it worked (it does most of the time, but not always). If there are any bruce processes still running using kill -9 <pid> where <pid> is the process ID to remove these.
  3. If you want to park the antenna /obs/develop/sol/antenna/park (or use vdesk).

Transferring Data and System Logs to UTAS TPAC Storage

The Ceduna flux monitoring data in stored in /scratch/bruce. The data will remain there for up to one month before it is automatically delete to make room for new data files. It is important that data is transfered from Ceduna to TPAC before the data files are marked for deletion.

1. To transfer fit file data you'll need to have two terminal windows open, one logged into ares, the other logged into ellis as observer, then

in the Ares terminal window
cd /imports/tpac/vlbi/csenkbei/csenkbei/Ceduna/data/
ls *.fit
This will give the list of current files in the TPAC storage.

In the Ellis terminal window
cd /scratch/bruce
ls *.fit
Note: If you suspect that a fit file which 'should' be there but isn't (i.e. Ceduna was observing but a fit file hasn't been written), it may be the case that Smartbruce failed to run merge2fits, in which case you should run it manually to create the fit file for that day.

You will now be able to identify those 'fit' files which are present on Ellis, but not present on Ares, to transfer these files type the following into the ares terminal in the TPAC data directory

scp observer@ellis:/scratch/bruce/bruce_yyddd.fit .
You can use wildcards and number ranges to transfer multiple files at once, for example to tranfer all fits files saved in 2008 from day 10 to 19 use the command

scp observer@ellis:/scratch/bruce/bruce_0801\*.fit .
other unix selection criteria maybe used including number ranges eg, [5-9] or fixed numbers eg, [123489], please remember to use \ before the @ and * characters so the that the scp command is correctly parsed.

Once the 'fit' files have been transfered you'll also need to repeat the process to transfer 'log' files.

2. To transfer Bruce log files, type in the Ares terminal window
cd /imports/tpac/vlbi/csenkbei/csenkbei/Ceduna/logs/bruce/
ls
This will give the list of current log files in the TPAC storage, note that these text files should be gzipped (*.gz) in order to save space.

In the Ellis terminal window
cd /scratch/bruce
ls *.log
identify those 'log' files which are present on Ellis, but not present on Ares. To transfer these files type the following into the ares terminal in the TPAC log/bruce directory

scp -C observer@ellis:/scratch/bruce/bruce_yyddd.log .

use wildcard options to transfer multiple files. The -C option compresses the text stream reducing the tranfer time. Once all the bruce logs have been transfered, gzip them to save space (gzip *.log)

3. repeat this process to tranfer the system logs

On Ares:
cd /imports/tpac/vlbi/csenkbei/csenkbei/Ceduna/logs/system/
on Ellis:
cd /scratch/log
Transfer the files which are not present on Ares from Ellis using the scp command with the -C option, once the files have been transfered you may gzip them.

Solving Common Problems

The smartbruce.pl script attempts to detect and resolve common problems with the IDV monitoring and it usually does a pretty good job, but sometimes it strikes a problems which is can't fix. Some of the more common ones (and their solutions are).

  1. If the attenuators aren't set to the correct values you can set them using /obs/develop/telescop/rakbus/set_atten -a <val1> -b <val2> rakbus where <val1> and <val2> are the appropriate values for the attenuator settings for the two channels.
  2. smartbruce determines if the sampler, rakbus and antenna are working by pinging them. Sometimes they get into states where they respond to a ping, but aren't operating normally and need a reboot. To reboot one of these machines /obs/develop/telescop/rakbus/rem_reboot -r rakbus-ced SAM30M (alternatively, SYS30M or RAKBUS). Note: It takes 2-4 minutes for these machines to reboot from the boot floppies, so please be patient.
  3. Sometimes the sampler, rakbus or antenna PCs need a power cycle, rather than just a reboot to fix their problem. To power cycle a machine you need to access the internet power switch by pointing your browser to rakips.phys.utas.edu.au (username : admin ; password : Contact Brett, Simon or Jim for details). Once your onto the internet power switch, switch the power off to the machine causing the problems for 5 seconds or so, switch it back on and then wait for it to reboot.

Observing Logs

Monitoring