Operational Experience with the CEBAF Control System

The CEBAF accelerator at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) successfully began its experimental nuclear physics program in November of 1995 and has since surpassed predicted machine availability. Part of this success can be attributed to using the EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) control system toolkit. The CEBAF control system is one of the largest accelerator control system now operating. It controls approximately 338 SRF cavities, 2300 magnets, 500 beam position monitors and other accelerator devices, such as gun hardware and other beam monitoring devices. All told, the system must be able to access over 125,000 database records. The system has been well received by both operators and the hardware designers. The EPICS utilities have made the task of troubleshooting systems easier. The graphical and textbased creation tools have allowed operators to custom build control screens. In addition, the ability to integrate EPICS with other software packages, such as Tcl/Tk, has allowed physicists to quickly prototype high-level application programs, and to provide GUI front ends for command line driven tools. Specific examples of the control system applications are presented in the areas of energy and orbit control, cavity tuning and accelerator tune up diagnostics.