The slow control system of the FRS Ion Catcher

The FRS Ion Catcher setup at GSI is used for high precision measurements of slowed down exotic nuclei. The current setup consists of a gas-filled stopping cell, working at cryogenic temperatures for improved gas purity, coupled to a radio-frequency quadrupole beamline for bunching and pre-selection and a multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer for precise mass measurements. The setup with all its components is controlled by various control systems. The development of a new slow control system for monitoring, control, and logging of all components of this setup is presented. The slow control is based on the LabVIEW Actor Framework enhanced by the Control System++ libraries, a highly scalable and extendable platform which is a powerful tool to create complex messaging schemes from custom events. The implementation and testing of the control system at the FRS Ion Catcher setup is discussed.

Automated summary

This article presents the FRS Ion Catcher setup at GSI, which is used for high precision measurements of slowed down exotic nuclei. The setup includes a gas-filled stopping cell, a radio-frequency quadrupole beamline, and a multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer, all controlled by various control systems. The implementation and testing of a new slow control system based on the LabVIEW Actor Framework is discussed.