Program to control serial string.

A program to manipulate MCM serial string bits exists (look here). However, this is a C program which responds to interactive commands. I strongly urge anyone who works on this to avoid substantial changes to the core of this code because it takes a lot of time to verify that all of the complicated bit manipulations are done correctly. What I want is a gui which sets the serial string bits by using all or most of the code in the existing program. However, I want that gui to:

  • Make it easy to change the serial string for any MCM
  • use physics-driven names for the different MCMs, currently the names of the various files are based on arcnet addresses which are based on the physical location of cables at the front panel of the Arcnet interface module. This is confusing and hard to remember.
  • Hide the details of the names of the internal files used to save the arcnet bits from the user.
  • Make it easy to understand the current settings of any MCM's serial string.
  • Keep records of current and past serial string settings for each MCM.

    Ideally, this program would also manipulate the small number of serial string bits used by the TCIM and the DCIM -- although we do not normally change them.

    I think that this job could be done in 1-2 months by a person with good programming skills. Most of the work could be done without access to the MVD hardware.

    A useful extension would be a code which could be used to send Arcnet commands to an easily selectable subset of the MVD. This would simplify debugging. It would also allow us to fix problems caused by serial string problems without going through the longer procedure used in the clock fix, for example. This would probably be an experts only program, but it would be very useful.

    John Sullivan
    last update: 16-Jan-2002