SARG control system

TL;DR

This paper describes the control system architecture of the SARG high-resolution spectrograph for the TNG, detailing hardware, software integration, and testing of component accuracy and repeatability.

Contribution

It introduces a control system design compatible with TNG standards, including software and hardware integration, and presents testing results for component precision.

Findings

Successful integration with TNG software standards

Achieved accurate and repeatable positioning of rotating tables

Validated control system performance through testing

Abstract

The control system and the entire architecture of the High Resolution Spectrograph (SARG) for the Italian National Telescope "Galileo" (TNG) are here described. The concept of SARG instrument controls is similar to that of the other TNG instruments, in particular the CCD detector driving and the image acquisition use the same TNG standard boards and the same selected bus: the VME. The link between the SARG VME and the other telescope components is based on the same GATE software that guarantees the compatibility with the entire distributed TNG software. The control of the moving parts as well as the other parts of instrument that is the lamp controller and the temperature sensors, is based on a commercial controller connected to the system through a serial link. Furthermore a specialized software running on a PC has been realized to test the rotating tables independently of the VME system. Test of accuracy and repeatability of the positioning were done and some results are presented.