COLDEX New Data Acquisition Framework

COLDEX (COLD bore EXperiment) is an experiment of the TE-VSC group installed in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) which mimics a LHC type cryogenic vacuum system. In the framework of the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC (HL-LHC project), COLDEX has been recommissioned in 2014 in order to validate carbon coatings performances at cryogenic temperature with LHC type beams. To achieve this mission, a data acquisition system is needed to retrieve and store information from the different experiment’s systems (vacuum, cryogenics, controls, safety) and perform specific calculations. This work aimed to completely redesign, implement, test and operate a brand new data acquisition framework based on communication with the experiment’s PLCs for the devices potentially available over network. The communication protocol to the PLCs is based on data retrieval both from CERN middleware infrastructures (CMW, JAPC) and on a novel open source Simatic S7 data exchange package over TCP/IP (libnodave).