A Node-Red dashboard for the VIRUS2 spectrograph array

The VIRUS2 instrument is a highly multiplexed Integral Field fiber-fed array of six spectrographs destined for the McDonald Observatory’s Harlan J. Smith 2.7-meter telescope atop Mt. Locke in far West Texas. Each unit consists of a CCD mosaic spanning a common spatial subaperture and four spectral channels. Six independent cryostats house the twenty-four CCDs. Each set of four CCDs, and related thermal environment, is monitored and controlled via Archon CCD controller, Arduino environmental sensor array and relays, and a set of Linux processes hosted on a dedicated off-the-shelf single board computer. The business logic layer rests on libraries derived from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) control system framework and adapted for Node-Red enabling rapid-prototyping and deployment of engineering dashboards. We describe the status of the VIRUS2 project in the context of software and controls along with the evolution of the HET APIs for migration toward standard IOT technologies.