Juno

Controls System

Our most recent addition to the rescope is Juno: a brand new, from the ground up controls system. Juno consists of 3 major parts:

Command, Control, and Instrumentation (CCI) Boards
Mobile Test Stand (MTS) computer
Base Station/GUI

Vulcan CCI Boards

Vulcan 1 Motherboard

To look at the current code and learn more about the software visit our GitLab repository

MTS Computer

The MTS computer is the critical connection between the operator at the base station and the CCI boards. The current MTS computer is a Raspberry Pi 4 running in house developed software. Its main functions are as follows:

Convert commands from the base station to byte code for the CCI boards
Convert raw data from the CCI boards to a human readable format
Configure CCI board data collection and redlines
Ensure safe firing and shutdown
Stream data from CCI boards to the base station

Commands are sent from the base station to the computer in the industry standard Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments (SCPI) format. These commands are translated into a byte code format that the CCI boards can understand.

To look at the current code and learn more about the software visit our GitLab repository

Base Station

Our base station user interface has been designed from the ground up for our particular use case. The software has an interface that is intuitive and easy to use, while remaining highly configurable, ensuring safe and reliable testing of our engine. The software is written in Python, using the PyQT library, making it compatible with all major operating systems.

The base station is split across 3 screens

Valve command and data view
Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) view
Camera view

With all of them active, an operator has all the information and control they could ever need at their fingertips.

Current base station user interface

The base station sends commands to the MTS controller, the part of the controls system residing in the trailer, in the industry standard SCPI (Standard Command for Programmable Instruments) format. These commands are (mostly) human readable, and while automatically generated by the base station software, are easy to write and debug by hand. The base station is also where operators create procedures for testing and shutdown. These procedures are groups of SCPI commands sent at precise times, specified an the aptly named TOML (Tom's Own Minimal Language), configuration file, which has support across all major programming languages.

To look at the current code and learn more about the software visit our GitLab Repository

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