TUI

Displays the current status of NICFPS spectrograph and allows you to change the configuration.

Warning: this is a preliminary implementation. Once the instrument builders have more time with the instrument we plan to refine the controls.

Pushing the "Config" button displays configuration controls (each to the right of its corresponding item of status). Select TUI:Save Window Positions to remember the state of this checkbutton.

• Controls with a colored background will be changed when you hit Apply.
• The contextual menu on each control can return that control to the current setting of the instrument.

The status and configuration items are as follows.

• Filter. the current set of filters. NICFPS has 3 filters, but each common combination of filters has a name, which is shown here.
• Slit: shows whether the Slit is In or Out of the beam. When the configuration control is set to "In", the slit focus control is visible:
  • Slit Focus: slit focus.
• Etalon: shows whether the Etalon is In or Out of the beam. When the configuration control is set to "In", the following Etalon controls are visible:
  • X Spacing: x position of the etalon.
  • Y Spacing: y position of the etalon.
  • Z Spacing: z spacing of the etalon. Z is along the beam, and thus most directly controls the wavelength.
• Detector: shows or hides the following detector controls:
  • Window: coordinates of the corners of the image (inclusive).
  • Image Size: size of image
  • Fowler Samples: number of Fowler samples.
• Environment: the button controls whether to show or hide pressure and various temperatures. An OK to the right of the button means that the pressure and all temperatures are acceptable.

Presets allows you to save and restore named configurations. This is only visible if Config is checked.

• Use Presets:Edit:Save to save the state of the configuration controls as a named preset. Note that it saves the state of the controls, not the actual state of the instrument, so you can save any preset you like without commanding the instrument.
• The Presets:Edit menu also allows to rename and delete saved presets.
• Select a named preset to set the configuration controls to that preset. Then change any controls you like and press Apply to apply.
• Presets are saved in a file whose location is given in TUI:About TUI.

Below the items is a status bar that shows help and the state of the currently executing configuration command.

The buttons along the bottom are as follows:

• Expose...: opens the separate NICFPS Expose window.
• Config: show or hide the configuration controls.

  The following are only available if the configuration controls are showing:

• Apply: apply the requested changes by sending a series of commands to NICFPS.
• X: cancel your pending configuration changes. The current command is allowed to finish, but any subsequent commands are flushed.
• Current: reset all configuration widgets to the current state of the instrument.

This describes the exposure window used by each instrument (the graphical interface for the hub's expose command). Details differ for each instrument, but the basics are identical. To open the expose window for a given instrument, bring up that instrument's main window, then press the Expose... button along the bottom.

Sound cues

An "Exposure Begins" sound cue is played as each exposure begins, or at most once every 30 seconds (to avoid aural overload for sequences of short exposures). An "Exposure Ends" sound cue is played for most instruments (not for Agile because the end of one Agile exposure is the beginning of the next). You may choose alternate sound cues in Preferences:Sounds.

Exposure Status

The top panel shows the status of the current exposure sequence (regardless of who started it).

• Seq Status: information about the current sequence
• Exp Status: information about the current exposure
• User: who started the current sequence; if its your sequence then the text says "Me"; if it's a collaborator (somebody logged in with the same program name as you) then the next indicates that.
• File: the file name for the current exposure, or the most recent exposure if not exposing. For instruments with more than one camera (e.g. DIS) there is a separate line for each camera.
• Comment: the user's comment, if any. Note: as I write this TUI has no way of getting this information from the hub; until that is fixed this line will remain blank.

Exposure Controls

The bottom portion shows the input and command widgets:

• Download: exposure download preferences. Note that these preferences only apply to this one camera. To change the global preferences for all cameras press More...
  • Every: controls which images are downloaded.
    • 0 = no download
    • 1 = download every image
    • N = download every Nth image
    • -1 = download current images; if TUI can't keep up (e.g. slow bandwidth) then some images are skipped.
  • View Image: controls whether to display downloaded images in ds9. Disabled if Every is 0 (no downloads).
  • More...: shows the global exposure preferences, including extras such as the download directory (Save To). Remember that global preferences apply to all cameras, and remember that you must press Save or Apply for changes to global preferences to have any effect.
• Object, Flat, Dark, Bias: the type of exposure. Some instruments (e.g. NICFPS and TripleSpec) do not support all of these types.
• Time: the length of the exposure, in seconds, min:sec or hrs:min:sec, depending on how many colons you enter.
• #Exp: the number of exposures to take in this sequence.
• Cameras: (only present for instruments such as DIS that have more than one camera). The camera(s) from which to save images. At least one camera must be specified.
• File Name: the name of the your file. The name is relative to your program's directory and the file number and extension are automatically added. For example if the file name is "mysubdir/test" and the file number is 27 then the next image will be your program's directory/mysubdir/test.0027.fits. A leading slash will be ignored; files are always placed in your program's directory.
• Comment: an optional comment about the exposures. This information is saved to the FITS header (truncated if necessary) and displayed to other users.

The penultimate line is the status bar; as usual it shows replies to any commands you personally start, as well as help and error messages if you try to enter something invalid.

And the command buttons take their appointed place along the bottom:

• Start: start the exposure sequence.
• Pause: pause the current exposure (if one is being taken) or exposure sequence. The button then changes to Resume.
• Pause Seq: finish the current exposure normally, then pause the sequence. The button then changes to Resume Seq. This button only appears if the instrument does not support pausing an exposure.
• Stop: halt the current exposure immediately and save the current image. No more exposures are taken.
• Stop Seq: finish the exposure normally, then stop the exposure sequence. This button only appears if the instrument does not support stopping an exposure early.
• Abort: halt the current exposure immediately and discard the image. No more exposures are taken.
• Config...: opens the window that displays and allows you to change the instrument configuration.

  Note:

• You are allowed to pause, stop or halt any collaborator's exposures. Please use with caution!