Experience with the TRIUMF Main Tank Vacuum Control System

The TRIUMF Main Tank Vacuum Control System was upgraded in 1984. The earlier system, which consisted of a collection of hardwired relay logic boxes housed in three standard instrumentation racks, was replaced with a compact and flexible microprocessor-based control system. The user interface, previously distributed over the three racks, was consolidated into a single hardwired control and mimic panel. Since 1984, the Main Tank Vacuum System has undergone a series of changes in configuration and vacuum pumping hardware with necessary changes being implemented in the control system logic. Corresponding changes to the user interface were sometimes difficult to implement and in time exhausted the spare input/output capacity which had been built in to the panel. The availability of inexpensive personal computers with adequate graphics capability and the ease of modifying, or adding to a programmable user interface precipitated the retirement of the hardwired panel and its replacement by a PC-based graphics user interface. System configuration, safety considerations, the hardware and the software implementation using the 'C' programming language are described. The evolution of the control system and its performance, both over the years and in adapting to the vacuum system changes, are discussed.<>