Operator interface programs for KSTAR operation

Abstract Beginning the first plasma discharging experiment of KSTAR since 2008, KSTAR performed the third plasma discharging experiment by 2010. During the experiment of three times, KSTAR OPerator Interface (OPI) programs have been developed for KSTAR operation by itself. OPI programs used in KSTAR were implemented by KSTAR widget plug-in Toolkit (KWT). The KWT means the plug-in library implemented by Qt-based user interface development software. The main purpose of developing the KWT library is to implement full automation libraries having interface with the automated EPICS channel access (CA) guaranteeing the flexibility for requirements of operators. In addition, it has advantages in minimizing human code error and maximizing utilization of the limited human resource. According to the increasing of control systems, a number of OPI servers connected to one EPICS gateway server caused the connection problem and increased the amount of the network data packets. To solve these problems, an algorithm of “CachedChannelAccess” for shared memory base was implemented into an inner logic of the KWT library. KSTAR control system monitoring (CSM) program is one of applications developed by using KWT library. The function of CSM program is to notify alarm to operators by checking health status of every server's network health status and resource (cpu, memory, network packets, disk usage rate and system/user defined process) usage state. Another application is a post-shot sequencing program which is activated after every shot is completed. This application is to display major plasma parameters and diagnostic data in chart form, to save this data to database, and to transfer a chart image file to a web server. This paper describes the technical details how to develop OPI applications which have high productivity using Qt on the EPICS-based control system.