Use Case:  Get Observing Station

Description:  Get Observing Station ID for VLTI

Role(s)/Actor(s): 
Primary: Operator, Maintenance, VLTICS-ISS

Priority: Major

Performance: 1 second

Frequency: At any time, typically at beginning of the night and/or after any relocation.

Package Assignment:  Mode Switching.

Preconditions: 

• ATCS is STANDBY or ONLINE

Basic Course: 

• Send command GETOBST to retrieve the Observation Station

  Interface:  IfTransporter.TBD

• ATCS returns Observation Station ID

Postconditions: 

• Observation Station ID is available

Issues to be Determined or Resolved: 

The observing station identification is still an open issue. Two main solutions have been proposed sofar:

• Enter manually the station Id as part of the relocation procedure (error prone).
• Foresee a coding mechanism within the station plugs that identifies uniquely the station.

  For example: a 8-pin plug with the upper 4-bit nipple r coding the rail=0x4r (in Hexadecimal: letters A to O) and the lower nipple s coding the station=0x3s (in Hexadecimal: digits 0 to 9)

Notes: List of the 30 identified Observation Stations:

• A0-A1,
• B0-B5,
• C0-C3,
• D0-D2,
• E0,
• G0-G2, (G2 is the Maintenance Station)
• H0,
• I1,
• J1-J6,
• K0,
• L0,
• M0

Last modified: Thu Jun 28 13:33:22 UTC 2001