Data acquisition and control system for SMARTEX – C

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 112; pp. 818 - 823
• Main Authors: Yeole, Yogesh Govind, Lachhvani, Lavkesh, Bajpai, Manu, Rathod, Surendrasingh, Kumar, Abhijeet, Sathyanarayana, K., Pujara, H.D., Pahari, Sambaran, Chattopadhyay, Prabal K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.11.2016; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Aspect ratio; Capacitive probes; Chassis; Communications systems; Control systems; Data acquisition; Data acquisition and control; Data acquisition systems; Diocotron; Geometry; LabVIEW; Non-neutral plasma; Optical communication; Optical fibers; Plasma; Power supplies; Software; Trigger circuits; Non-neutral plasma; Aspect ratio; Diocotron; LabVIEW; Data acquisition and control; Capacitive probes
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2016.07.010

•We have developed control and data acquisition system for Nonneutral Plasma experiment named as SMARTEX – C.•The hardware of the system includes a high current power supply, a trigger circuit, a comparator circuit, a PXI system and a computer.•The software has been developed in LabVIEW®.•We have presented the complete time synchronization of the operation of the system.•Results obtained from the equipment has been shown. A PXI based data acquisition system has been developed for Small Aspect Ratio Toroidal Experiment in C – shaped geometry (SMARTEX – C), a device to create and confine non-neutral plasma. The data acquisition system (DAQ) includes PXI based data acquisition cards, communication card, chassis, Optical fiber link, a dedicated computer, a trigger circuit (TC) and a voltage comparator. In this paper, we report the development of a comprehensive code in LabVIEW® – 2012 software in order to control the operation of SMARTEX – C as well as to acquire the experimental data from it. The code has been incorporated with features like configuration of card parameters. A hardware based control sequence involving TC has also been developed and integrated with the DAQ. In the acquisition part, the data from an experimental shot is acquired when a digital pulse from one of the PXI cards triggers TC, which further triggers the TF – power supply and rest of the DAQ. The data hence acquired, is stored in the hard disc in binary format for further analysis.