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NIKA dry run organization

Contents

NIKA dry run organization

Go back to the NIKA main wiki.

Goals of the run

Check that gaps in NCS data streams do not occur
Debug the IMBFITS formating so that they are at last produced without errors, and finally allow real time processing.
Test for the first time operations with only IRAM Granada personnel at the Telescope and NIKA Grenoble team using remote control.

Organization Plan

The dominant components of the goals 1 and 2 do not necessitate sensitive KID, so no cool down of the instrument is necessary. However the full instrumental setup for observations must be operational; this includes the electronic chain and real scans of the telescope commanded via PaKo.

Remark: We could test the new network cabling installed in the cable spiral room for the future control of the NIKA2 compressors, keeping the electronics at its storage location and making it run to control the detectors acquisition via the network from there. But we have decided to lift it up in the cabin hence mimicking real observations as much as possible with a warm cryostat, since the problems we had may be related to the network setup we used.

We will debug the IMBFITS step by step. People involved in the NIKA data & IMBFITS making & checking (Albrecht, Juan MP, Xavier, Alain, Robert, Samuel, and possibly Walter and Nicolas P) communicate via this wiki page to establish very clearly the main problems and actions to do to solve them (see tables below), and possibly use the data we currently have to start debugging, so that we are as ready as possible for May 7.

Remark: We need confirmation that the warm KIDs with the observation setup planed for this dry run will produce usable (in math. sense) values, otherwise this might cause somewhere problems.

After this dry run, we will make the status, and determine a date for another short test run (e.g. begin of June ?). Hopefully for this one only the problems that necessitate valid KID data remain (e.g. KID flags). In that case this short run would be cold.

Dates

Telescope time booked for the NIKA Dry run test:

Wednesday May 7, from 11:00 to 15:00.
Monday May 12, from 12:00 to 16:00.

They appear in the official telescope schedule under the project name is T21-13 (please update this wiki if you see a mismatch with the telescope schedule).

Table of IMBFITS problems to solve

The NIKA IMBFITS have had problems since their first creation (2^nd test run, Oct 2010). The latest exhaustive list of problems dates from the run 6 (June 2013) processing and has been tabulated on a dedicated wiki page; most of them are still valid. For reading convenience we gather here only the most important problems that need to be solved with the May 7 dry run.

Remark: Note that problems 4, 5 & 6 are most probably related.

Problem number (origin)	Description of the problem	Status	How to identify & diagnose the problem	How to investigate and possibly solve the problem
1 (NCS)	Some scans miss part(s) of the antenna traces.	Pandemic during pool 1 (run 8, Feb 2014), but marginal after mrt-lx1 kernel update by GP; to be verified as goal #1 of this dry run.	Monitor time vs sample number of antenna traces.	Monitor network & mrt-lx1 activity.
2 (IMBFITS & NIKA)	KID parameter coded in IMBFITS mismatch the data (e.g. numbers of KIDs) - fatal error.	Partially solved: AS's IMBFITS making script should now read the NIKA Kidpar, but we miss a description of the Kidpar by the NIKA team.	Compare at least the number of KIDs in the IMBFITS and of the hardware, e.g. with any FITS viewer.	Need better communication between NIKA team (FXD ?) & IRAM (AS, SL, RZ).
3 (IMBFITS or NCS ?)	Mis-synchronization of subscans in the IMBFITS tables: some subscans are incomplete and partially appear in the following subscan table - fatal error.	This problem appeared first time in IMBFITS of run 6; not solved; it is due to a synchronization problem in NCS and/or IMBFITS creation.	Check subscan length in IMBFITS, e.g. with any FITS viewer.	Check the time used as subscan start and end, delay of NCS messages ...
4 (NIKA)	NIKA FITS do not correspond to the time interval of observation.	Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved.	At least the last subscan missing. Visible with any FITS viewer.	Creation of the NIKA FITS (in IDL ?) not OK.
5 (NIKA)	NIKA tables in IMBFITS empty.	Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved.	Visible with any FITS viewer.	IMBFITS created offline do not show this problem, i.e. NIKA FITS were not available when makeIMBFITS was called in auto mode.
6 (NIKA)	IMBFITS are created many minutes after the observation, e.g. after 2 further pointings !	Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved.	Compare the end time of observations and of creation of IMBFITS; the last takes seconds.	#5 & 6 point to a significant delay in creation of the NIKA FITS.
7 (NIKA)	KIDs flags & types wrong (good/bad KID mis-identified).	Solved after run 8 on NIKA side. Need to be double checked.	Create IMBFITS with updated/correct flags and match KID characteristics with flag & type signification.	Need detailed documentation on the KID params.

Step by step guide for the Dry Run

Hardware preparation

Installation of the NIKA electronics at the receiver cabin (done).
Switch on the electronics (done).
Installation of the computers at the control room?

Data acquisition

NIKA team
- Start the software (Tue 6th before the system check)
IRAM computer group
- The nikaw-13 computer account will be used for the observations.
- The NIKA team must inform us about the software that we need to run.
- Installation of AB's Elvin and NCS monitor software?

Data reduction

In order to mimic as much as possible a typical NIKA session the online pipeline must be running. The instructions to start the online pipeline and to reduce the data can be found here.

Observing session

The observations will be done using the account created for the 1st NIKA pool:

$ ssh -X nikaw-13@mrt-lx1 (ask I. Hermelo for the password)

The operator has to set the project name to nikaw-13. To open the PaKo version for NIKA type:

$ gopako
$ pakodisplay
$ pakoNIKA

Once PaKo is open, you can run the following script:

PAKO> @ observe_DryRun

The script simulates a typical NIKA session of ~2 hours of duration:

PAKO> SET PROJECT t21
PAKO> SOURCE Uranus
PAKO> @ cont_pointing
PAKO> SET POINTING 5 5
PAKO> @ cont_focusZ -1.8
PAKO> SET FOCUS -1.5
PAKO> SOURCE 3C454 /cat *
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 0 -45 
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 0 +45 
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 2 
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 45 -45
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 45 +45 
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 4  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 90 -45  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 90 +45  
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 6
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 135 -45  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 135 +45
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 8

The following figure shows the sky at the beginning of the first slot of the NIKA Dry Run.

SkyNikaDryRun

Continuum/PoolOrganization/DryRunNIKA (last edited 2014-11-18 10:54:14 by NikaBolometer)

-  ⇤ ← Revision 22 as of 2014-03-27 11:29:57 → 
  Size: 524
  Editor: 2a00:9ac0:4c:ff0a:221:9bff:fe19:411f
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 74 as of 2014-05-07 10:33:25 → ⇥
  Size: 7870
  Editor: dhcp-181
  Comment:
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 11:
-== Task list ==
+== Goals of the run ==
 Line 13:
-|| I. Hermelo     || Create the organization wiki || (./) ||
|| NIKA team      ||             ...              || {X}  ||
|| Computer group ||             ...              || {X}  ||
|| I. Hermelo     || Book a room at the telescope || {X}  ||
+. Check that gaps in NCS data streams do not occur 
 1. Debug the IMBFITS formating so that they are at last produced without errors, and finally allow real time processing.
 1. Test for the first time operations with only IRAM Granada personnel at the Telescope and NIKA Grenoble team using remote control.

== Organization Plan ==

The dominant components of the goals 1 and 2 do not necessitate sensitive KID, so no cool down of the instrument is necessary. However the full instrumental setup for observations must be operational; this includes the electronic chain and real scans of the telescope commanded via !PaKo. 
 Remark: We could test the new network cabling installed in the cable spiral room for the future control of the NIKA2 compressors, keeping the electronics at its storage location and making it run to control the detectors acquisition via the network from there. But we have decided to lift it up in the cabin hence mimicking real observations as much as possible with a warm cryostat, since the problems we had may be related to the network setup we used.

We will debug the IMBFITS step by step. People involved in the NIKA data & IMBFITS making & checking (Albrecht, Juan MP, Xavier, Alain, Robert, Samuel, and possibly Walter and Nicolas P) communicate via this wiki page to establish very clearly the main problems and actions to do to solve them (see tables below), and possibly use the data we currently have to start debugging, so that we are as ready as possible for May 7. 
 Remark: We need confirmation that the warm KIDs with the observation setup planed for this dry run will produce usable (in math. sense) values, otherwise this might cause somewhere problems.
 
After this dry run, we will make the status, and determine a date for another short test run (e.g. begin of June ?). Hopefully for this one only the problems that necessitate valid KID data  remain (e.g. KID flags). In that case this short run would be cold.

== Dates ==

Telescope time booked for the NIKA Dry run test:
 * Wednesday May 7, from 11:00 to 15:00.
 * Monday May 12, from 12:00 to 16:00.
They appear in the [[http://www.iram.fr/IRAMFR/PV/sche/14/s19v1.html|official telescope schedule]] under the project name is T21-13 (please update this wiki if you see a mismatch with the telescope schedule).

== Table of IMBFITS problems to solve ==

The NIKA IMBFITS have had problems since their first creation (2^nd^ test run, Oct 2010). The latest exhaustive list of problems dates from the run 6 (June 2013) processing and has been [[http://www.iram.fr/wiki/nika2/index.php/RZdataProc|tabulated on a dedicated wiki page]]; most of them are still valid. For reading convenience we gather here only the most important problems that need to be solved with the May 7 dry run. 
 Remark: Note that problems 4, 5 & 6 are most probably related.

|| ''' Problem number (origin) ''' || ''' Description of the problem ''' || ''' Status ''' || ''' How to identify & diagnose the problem ''' || ''' How to investigate and possibly solve the problem '''||
|| 1 (NCS) || Some scans miss part(s) of the antenna traces. || Pandemic during pool 1 (run 8, Feb 2014), but marginal after mrt-lx1 kernel update by GP; to be verified as goal #1 of this dry run.  || Monitor time vs sample number of antenna traces. || Monitor network & mrt-lx1 activity.||
|| 2 (IMBFITS & NIKA) || KID parameter coded in IMBFITS mismatch the data (e.g. numbers of KIDs) - fatal error. || Partially solved: AS's IMBFITS making script should now read the NIKA Kidpar, but we miss a description of the Kidpar by the NIKA team. || Compare at least the number of KIDs in the IMBFITS and of the hardware, e.g. with any FITS viewer. || Need better communication between NIKA team (FXD ?) & IRAM (AS, SL, RZ).||
|| 3 (IMBFITS or NCS ?) || Mis-synchronization of subscans in the IMBFITS tables: some subscans are incomplete and partially appear in the following subscan table - fatal error. || This problem appeared first time in IMBFITS of run 6; not solved; it is due to a synchronization problem in NCS and/or IMBFITS creation. || Check subscan length in IMBFITS, e.g. with any FITS viewer. || Check the time used as subscan start and end, delay of NCS messages ...||
|| 4 (NIKA) || NIKA FITS do not correspond to the time interval of observation. || Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved. || At least the last subscan missing. Visible with any FITS viewer. || Creation of the NIKA FITS (in IDL ?) not OK. ||
|| 5 (NIKA) || NIKA tables in IMBFITS empty. || Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved. || Visible with any FITS viewer. ||IMBFITS created offline do not show this problem, i.e. NIKA FITS were not available when makeIMBFITS was called in auto mode.  ||
|| 6 (NIKA) || IMBFITS are created many minutes after the observation, e.g. after 2 further pointings ! || Permanent problem since the first try in Oct 2010; not solved. || Compare the end time of observations and of creation of IMBFITS; the last takes seconds. || #5 & 6 point to a significant delay in creation of the NIKA FITS. ||
|| 7 (NIKA) || KIDs flags & types wrong (good/bad KID mis-identified). || Solved after run 8 on NIKA side. Need to be double checked. || Create IMBFITS with updated/correct flags and match KID characteristics with flag & type signification. || Need detailed documentation on the KID params.||
 

== Step by step guide for the Dry Run ==

=== Hardware preparation ===

 * Installation of the NIKA electronics at the receiver cabin (done).
 * Switch on the electronics (done). 
 * Installation of the computers at the control room?

=== Data acquisition ===

 * '''NIKA team'''

  * Start the software (Tue 6th before the system check)

 * '''IRAM computer group'''

  * The nikaw-13 computer account will be used for the observations.
  * The NIKA team must inform us about the software that we need to run.
  * Installation of AB's Elvin and NCS monitor software?

=== Data reduction ===

In order to mimic as much as possible a typical NIKA session the '''online pipeline''' must be running. The instructions to start the online pipeline and to reduce the data can be found [[ http://www.iram.es/IRAMES/mainWiki/Continuum/NIKA/DataReduction#Online_data_reduction | here ]].

=== Observing session ===

The observations will be done using the account created for the 1st NIKA pool:

{{{
$ ssh -X nikaw-13@mrt-lx1 (ask I. Hermelo for the password)
}}}

The operator has to set the project name to nikaw-13. To open the !PaKo version for NIKA type:

{{{
$ gopako
$ pakodisplay
$ pakoNIKA
}}}

Once !PaKo is open, you can run the following script:

{{{
PAKO> @ observe_DryRun
}}}

The script simulates a typical NIKA session of ~2 hours of duration:

{{{

PAKO> SET PROJECT t21
PAKO> SOURCE Uranus
PAKO> @ cont_pointing
PAKO> SET POINTING 5 5
PAKO> @ cont_focusZ -1.8
PAKO> SET FOCUS -1.5
PAKO> SOURCE 3C454 /cat *
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 0 -45 
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 0 +45 
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 2 
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 45 -45
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 45 +45 
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 4  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 90 -45  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 90 +45  
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 6
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 135 -45  
PAKO> @ cont_onthefly 10 20 135 +45
PAKO> @ cont_lissajous 8

}}}


The following figure shows the sky at the beginning of the first slot of the NIKA Dry Run.

{{ attachment:SkyNikaDryRun.png | SkyNikaDryRun | width=1000 }}

Diff for "Continuum/PoolOrganization/DryRunNIKA"