Impressions about 'Meeting about Ionsource Roadmap' on December, 03^rd 2020

Christian Hillbricht <c.hillbricht@gsi.de>, Martin Stein <m.stein@gsi.de> v0.1, December, 4^th 2020

Present: Aleksey Adonin, Christian Hillbricht, Martin Stein, Gleb Vorobyev

General focus of the meeting

Purpose of the meeting was to get a common idea about the expected development state of the new Ionsource Application in the beginning and during the 2021 GSI beamtime.

Functions expected to work for α/β-versions of Ionsource App

Before the meeting Aleksey supplied a list of requirements very close to the following table. After discussing the question if really 'everything' in the list is needed, Aleksey underlined that for him all points of the list have equal and highest priority. (Martin: My interpretation is, that Aleksey wants as starting level an application, which can completely control an ion source without the need of the old Fortran or Swing application on the side).

The following table is ordered by Martin (proposal), the ordering and prioritisation is not a result of the meeting. See above!

Name	Description	Priority
Basic Infos	Information about: date and time, element, ion charge state, installed ion source, Ionsource/Unilac timing, Unilac virt. acc	mandatory
Instruments	Functionality of all instruments for Unilac and Cryring sources as for the Swing-app: on/off, +/-, slider, direct input, info about interlocks, reset	mandatory
Current-Pressure/Time Plots	Current-time-plot(pressure-time-plot) displaying	mandatory
Increment of Set Values	Possibility to change “increment” (step width for set-values)	mandatory
Special functions	Functionality of the following options: auto-extraction, auto-RF, vacuum interlock, RF-coupling	necessary
Expert Mode Functions	Expert mode: basic functions: show/hide PS, on/off options for auto-extraction, auto-RF, vacuum interlock,…​	necessary
Oscilloscope Signals	Displaying of oscilloscope signals with activation of web-control	necessary
Cathodes Controls	Information about operation time and deposited energy for Cathodes (VARIS)	necessary
In-Application Print Function	“printscreen”-button and function	necessary

Time table of α/β versions testing (milestones) and targeted ion source types

1. It was mutually agreed on putting the focus on the Cryring with first α-version (milestone) of the Ionsource App.

2. Aleksey motivates to target the Unilac with the tests three (3?) weeks after the start of the α-version tests on the Cryring. Primarily the test should be focusing on the Penning ion source. See next paragraph.

Testing environment for Unilac Ion Source Testing of α/β versions (milestones)

1. Aleksey underlines that the Penning ion sources, usually working on Terminal South are the most suitable one for testing because of various reasons:

   • The Penning ion sources usually are the ion source with the most 'running-hours ' of all ion source types.

   • The Penning ion sources have time frames where small tests could be done during user beam time without interfering to much with user operation. Other ion source types are more sensitive and variation or tests are not acceptable during user beam time.

   • The Penning ion source type and/or its devices can be prepared for testing outside, in front or after user beam times in an easy way.

   • The Penning ion source type has the largest user (operator) group, persons who could be consulted before, during and after testing.

• Aleksey will check for time frames for tests on the Penning ion source independently of α/β versions or milestones.

• The Penning ion source covers nearly all functional requirements of all ion source types and thus offers a large test bed.

Layout related discussion points

Highly configurable dashboard layout vs fixed (per ion source type) dashboard layout

Aleksey and Gleb like the idea of a highly configurable dashboard layouts and following ideas in particular where discussed:

• Freely positionable instruments, data/time plots and other views like on a blackboard.

• Freely scaleable, instruments, data/time plots and other views to optimize the available space on the screen.

• (Expert-)User can save the layout for later reuse.

For (non-expert) users controlling and monitoring the ion sources their was a common agreement that flexibility of layouts can be confusing and complicate operation. For Aleksey and Gleb this stands above the needs for an highly configurable dashboard.

An agreement was reached defining that one layout for each ion source type will probably be sufficient. The layout is designed with the help of the ion source experts. The layout possibilities might have limits in terms of size, scalability and technical boundaries. The layout must be configurable in a way that expert input can be realized and the layouts can be progressively improved from time to time.

Grouped and optimized instruments layouts

Aleksey presented an interesting form of laying out instruments in groups (or grouping boxes). Those groups are a form of abstraction/presentation of physical parameters of ion sources instead of only putting into focus the instruments of the involved devices. Additionally the grouped instruments are reduced to only show view elements which are really needed for the particular instrument. This approach makes the ion source easier to understand and control and also reduces the amount of space in total needed on the dashboard. Check the image to get an impression.

Unsorted list of discussion points

1. Reset buttons will disappear from instrument main view except of rare cases. Gleb dislikes Reset buttons entirely because of the risk of misinterpretation of underlying functions.