Automatic control system for the COSY-TOF vacuum system

An automatic control system (ACS) for the vacuum installations of the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) spectrometer at the COoler SYnchrotron (COSY) was developed. SIMATIC S7 software and hardware was used to build the control program and Windows Control Center (WinCC) software was taken to make the human-machine interface. The ACS can work automatically or manually. In both cases there are safety interlocks in order to prevent damage of the accelerator or detector components. The testing was firstly done by using external signals and a simulator in WinCC, then secondly we connected it to a real, small vacuum system. The communication between the SIMATIC S7 hardware and the WinCC, which run in a PC computer, is done by Multi Point Interface (MPI). The ACS is now installed in the COSY-TOF experiment and runs routinely.