LBTO Particle Monitor Software

LASAIR III

This is a portable particle monitor - uses a hose and pumps air inside to measure samples into 6 buckets -
   > 25µm       > 10µm       > 5µm      > 1µm      > 0.5µm       > 0.3µm

On the mountain, unit has a fixed IP of 192.168.18.44 (or dust-monitor.mountain.lbto.org )

Running the collection service.

The process taking care of connecting to the LASAIR unit and collecting telemetry data (hdf5) runs as the lbto_pms systemd service on linuxapps. The service is automatically started when the linuxapps server boots up, and can be managed and monitored using standard systemd commands (systemctl):

# systemctl status lbto_pms
● lbto_pms.service - LBTO Lasair Particle Monitoring System startup
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/lbto_pms.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-07-09 15:33:10 UTC; 13min ago
 Main PID: 5504 (partmonitor)
   CGroup: /system.slice/lbto_pms.service
           └─5504 /home/pms/pms-lasair/partmonitor 192.168.18.44

Jul 09 15:44:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: read 361 bytes; 1 messages in packet
Jul 09 15:44:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: processing MSG_DATA ... with 5 sample points
Jul 09 15:44:33 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...
Jul 09 15:45:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...
Jul 09 15:45:33 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...
Jul 09 15:46:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...
Jul 09 15:46:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: read 361 bytes; 1 messages in packet
Jul 09 15:46:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: processing MSG_DATA ... with 5 sample points
Jul 09 15:46:33 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...
Jul 09 15:47:03 linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org partmonitor[5504]: socket timeout...

The service is provided by the lbto-pms-lasair-startup RPM:

# rpm -ql lbto-pms-lasair-startup
/usr/lib/systemd/system/lbto_pms.service

Use by Telescope Operators

See Operators/ParticleMonitor

Additonal information (some sections possibly outdated)

We have a simple, standalone programmatic interface to the Lasair III portable particle monitor that runs on the linuxapps VM on the mountain. It requires a name or IP address for the monitor, and an optional socket timeout period (defaults to 30 seconds). If 10 timeout periods expire when trying to read data, the program will close the socket down and exit. This takes care of the problem that you cannot control the measuring (on/off) from the web interface or from the instrument itself if the ethernet program is attached to the socket. If you want to shut down the measuring, while the program is running, shutdown the program first (control-C) and then you can stop measuring from the web interface or the instrument console.

Before running the program during instrument measuring, run the getPMSConfig program to write the current configuration parameters to a file (LASAIR.cfg):

 > getPMSConfig dust-monitor
 connecting to dust-monitor
 Get Instrument Config... Sending PMS_PAKT_MSG_GET_CONFIG_INFO, sized 1024 on socket
 read 748 bytes; 1 messages in packet
 processing CONFIG_INFO ...
 closing socket 

The telemetry program should be started after the instrument has been started measuring. Option 4 will read the measurements from the socket and write the data to the telemetry stream called pms.lasair When the measurements stop, the program will eventually time out and shut down. Or the program can be killed with a cntl-C.

> partmonitor dust-monitor 1
 using socket timeout of 1 seconds

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Particle Monitor test program --- connect to particle monitor [y/n] ? y

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
LASAIR Particle Monitor dust-monitor, select option or X to exit : 
 1) get config info
 2) get instrument status
 3) reset 
 4) collect data   (after measuring has been started)
 5) stop data collection 
 6) reconnect 
 7) disconnect 
 x) Exit
 Choice: 4

It reads a local file called LASAIR.cfg. This file should be written by the standalone application getPMSConfig. During testing, the system would hang if you tried to get configuration data and then listen for message data on the socket. Since the configuration doesn't change often, we decided a separate, standalone app that gets configuration and writes it to a file would be sufficient.

GENERAL config info: 
   sample pts: 5
   family: LasairIII 
   name: LasairIII_310C 
   vers: 1.4.002 
   SN: (null)
   cal: (null)
   adapter addr: 0 96 166 0 189 250
   used flag: 1
   addr: 35.245.135.150
SAMPLE 0 config info: 
   sample pt plus: 0
   sample pt type: 0
   sw thresh[0]: 0
   sizes: 300 500 1000 5000 10000 25000 
   samp int: 600 
   max samp int(curr): 8640000
   min samp int: 600
   max samp int: 8640000
   vol units: cf 
   vol type: 2
   volume: 0
   vol factor: 100000
   flow rate: 1000
   disabled: 1
   trigger mode: 0

The programs were written from sample programs in the Ethernet Protocol User's Guide. Many options were coded up for testing. But, really all that's needed from the menu is the 4) collect data option.

From the front panel of the machine, you must go into Comm/Port Setup and in the Network tab, verify that Enable TCP/IP is checked. This starts the machine listening on TCP port 1561 which can be used by the telemetry collection process to retrieve data.

Telemetry

The 6 channels of measuring are not changeable. The sizes are preconfigured in the instrument. The telemetry stream includes the following fields.

locations_selected_loc	Only the following locations are recognized: Level 5 Level 6 Level 10 balcony office Room 116 cleanroom flow bench tent
laser_ok	Hex number (from pms_flds.h ) : 0x01 - Indicates laser is OK 0x02 - Indicates flow is OK 0x04 - Indicates laser status bit is used 0x08 - Indicates flow status bit is used 0x10 - Indicates that reported DC Light value is DC light, not laser reference 0x20 - Indicates that coincidence problem exists
sample_interval	Seconds for this measurement
volunits_selected_units	cf for cubic feet cm for cubic meters l for liters or other
sample_volume
pt_3um_counts	Number detected particles of 0.3 microns or larger (cumulative)
pt_5um_count	Number detected particles of 0.5 microns or larger (cumulative)
1um_count	Number detected particles of 1 micron or larger (cumulative)
5um_count	Number detected particles of 5 microns or larger (cumulative)
10um_count	Number detected particles of 10 microns or larger (cumulative)
25um_count	Number detected particles of 25 microns or larger (cumulative)

Build Details

The source code is in github: https://github.com/LBTO/pms-lasair

This section needs to be reviewed/revisited

The code needs access to the telemetry library (and therefore Boost) and include files.
The Makefile is set up to build in Tucson on tuc-shell64 and to run on the mountain on linuxapps as user pms .

Notes

• there's no error checking on arguments to the programs
• haven't seen the units change in configuration, even when I think I'm changing them in the interface
• should add a signal handler to close the socket, but the control-C does not seem to hang the device
• hard-coded paths to tmp and telemetry HDF5 path - these are set up to use the paths on linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org

Troubleshooting

This sections details the errors and corrective actions taken to write telemetry data. The unit experienced the following issues that prevented writing telemetry data.

1. socket timeout
2. telemetry exception: Unable to load leap table
3. initTelemetry() exception: This singleton has not been initialized

The software supplied by PMS is 32-bit and they do not have 64-bit libaries. Forcing the application to compile on a 64-bit computer and on a 32-bit VM resolved the socket timeout issue. The remaining issues relate to the LBTO telemetry library. Issue 2 was resolved by updating the leap table. The directory structure to the telemtry did not exist so it was created which resolved issue 3.

References

• LASAIR_III_OPERATIONS_MANUAL.pdf: Lasair III Operating Manual
• EhernetProtocol_REVC.pdf: Lasair Ethernet Protocol User's Guide
• Technical spec sheet in the Vault as S118x00600
• Instrument Service and Support: 800-557-6363
• Customer Service: 877-475-3317

---

APMON

The APMON takes a snapshot of what lands on a 25 sq cm surface. It can support up to 6 separated wireless sensors. It measures 15 to 1000 µm.

On the mountain, the base unit has a fixed IP of 192.168.18.43 (or apmon.mountain.lbto.org )

We have a simple, standalone programmatic interface to the APMON particle monitor. It requires a name or IP address for the monitor, and an optional socket timeout period (defaults to 60 seconds). A simple cntl-C exits the telemetry measuring program.

$ ./partmonitor 150.135.245.89
 using default timeout on socket of 60 seconds

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
APMON Particle Monitor telemetry program --- connect to particle monitor [y/n] ? y

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
APMON Particle Monitor 150.135.245.89, select option or X to exit : 
 1) collect data  (after base unit is on and measuring) 
 2) disconnect 
 x) Exit
 Choice: 1


=== COLLECT DATA
socket timeout...
socket timeout...
socket timeout...
socket timeout...
socket timeout...
read 125 bytes; SO Room 566;00-1A-21-B0-00-00-00-A7;Active;2016-04-26 11:30:05;2;0;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;39;3.6;0.1647;1647;OK;
room name: SO Room 566,  total particles this measurement: 2
...

Telemetry

The telemetry stream is written as pms.apmon and includes the following fields.

15_30_um_counts	counts measured 15 to 30 microns
30_40_um_counts	counts measured 30 to 40 microns
40_50_um_counts	counts measured 40 to 50 microns
50_60_um_counts	counts measured 50 to 60 microns
60_70_um_counts	counts measured 60 to 70 microns
70_80_um_counts	counts measured 70 to 80 microns
80_90_um_counts	counts measured 80 to 90 microns
90_100_um_counts	counts measured 90 to 100 microns
100_200_um_counts	counts measured 100 to 200 microns
200_300_um_counts	counts measured 200 to 300 microns
300_400_um_counts	counts measured 300 to 400 microns
400_500_um_counts	counts measured 400 to 500 microns
500_600_um_counts	counts measured 500 to 600 microns
600_700_um_counts	counts measured 600 to 700 microns
700_800_um_counts	counts measured 700 to 800 microns
800_900_um_counts	counts measured 800 to 900 microns
900_1000_um_counts	counts measured 900 to 1000 microns
over_1000_um_counts	counts measured over 1000 microns
pdr	particle deposition rate
pdc	particle deposition classes
pac	percentage area coverage
ppm	particle parts per million

Build Details

The source code is in SVN: https://svn.lbto.org/view/tools/trunk/pms-apmon/

The code needs access to the telemetry library (and therefore Boost) and include files.
The Makefile is set up to build in Tucson on tuc-shell64 and to run on the mountain on linuxapps as user pms .

Notes

• hard-coded paths to tmp and telemetry HDF5 path - these are set up to use the paths on linuxapps.mountain.lbto.org
• there's no error checking on arguments to the programs

References

• APMON_Userguide_-_UG_5.pdf: APMON User Guide
  Also in the Vault as S118x00640.

• APMON-API_v1.01.pdf: APMON Application Programming Interface

• www.technologyofsense.com