CCD Cold Head Temperature Controllers

June 23, 2021

SG

Engineering modes updated, and device set up parameters (and mode settings) spreadsheet now included.

Green CCD Cold Head
Temperature Controller

1

Instec

mK2000

Aux Rack IP List

Red CCD Cold Head
Temperature Controller

1

Instec

mK2000

Aux Rack IP List

Green LN2 Pump

1

Instec

LN2-SYS

N/A

Red LN2 Pump

1

Instec

LN2-SYS

N/A

Read telemetry (Green)

Continuously running

Read telemetry (Red)

Operational Mode: Cold (Green)

Operational mode of CCD temperature maintained at cold temperature set point.

Operational Mode: Cold (Red)

Engineering Mode: Warm (Idle) (Green)

Engineering mode for idle case of warm CCD under no temperature control.

Engineering Mode: Warm (Idle) (Red)

Engineering Mode: Cool Down (Green)

Engineering and maintenance only. Controlled ramp of cold head temperature from warm to cold.

Engineering Mode: Cool Down (Red)

Engineering Mode: Warm Up (Green)

Engineering and maintenance only. Controlled ramp of cold head temperature from cold to warm.

Engineering Mode: Warm Up (Red)

Engineering Mode: Set PID (Green)

Engineering and maintenance only. Uploads a PID parameter table to the device.

Engineering Mode: Set PID (Red)

Green Channel Instec

Build

Observing

Maintenance

Green PID Parameters

YES

NO

MAYBE

Instec app can save PID parameters to a .csv file. Likely convenient to use same format. Used with this command:

TEMP:SPID

Verified with this command:

TEMP:GPID

Green Heating/cooling status

YES

NO

MAYBE

Values: 0=Heating Only, 1=Heating and Cooling, 2=Cooling Only

Change between different modes with

TEMP:CHSW

command.

Green Cold Temperature Set Point

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature in degrees C.

Used for the following commands:

TEMP:HOLD

TEMP:RAMP

Green Warm Temperature Set Point

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature in degrees C.

Used for the following commands:

TEMP:HOLD
TEMP:RAMP

Green Cool-down Rate

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature change rate of degrees C per minute.

Note this value is positive-only and the mK2000 infers the direction based on current and desired temperature.

Used for the RAMP command:

TEMP:RAMP

Green Warm-up Rate

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature change rate of degrees C per minute

Note this value is positive-only and the mK2000 infers the direction based on current and desired temperature.

Used for the RAMP command:

TEMP:RAMP

Green Power Percentage Value

YES

NO

MAYBE

Power setting in percent.

NOTE: the power percentage value on the Instec screen is in percent. However, power values passed through software are ratios. i.e., to set power to 5% the command would be:

TEMP:RPP 0.05

and a following query

TEMP:POW?

would return 0.050. Screen would say 5%.

Suggest using ‘units’ of percent for this variable to match display screen; and have software convert it to a ratio behind the scenes for commanding the Instec.

Red Channel Instec

Build

Observing

Maintenance

Red PID Parameters

YES

NO

MAYBE

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Heating/cooling status

YES

NO

MAYBE

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Cold Temperature Set Point

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature in degrees C.

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Warm Temperature Set Point

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature in degrees C.

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Cool-down Rate

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature change rate of degrees C per minute.

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Warm-up Rate

YES

NO

MAYBE

Temperature change rate of degrees C per minute

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Red Power Percentage Value

YES

NO

MAYBE

Power setting in percent.

See notes above for Green counterpart.

Green Channel Instec

Device Serial Number?

At startup

Include in log just in case device is swapped out in future

*IDN?

(third field of reply)

Device Rev Number

At startup

Include in log just in case device is swapped out in future

*IDN?

(fourth field of reply)

Cold Head Temperature Value

1 Hz TBC

Monitor CCD temperature

Heating/cooling enabled status

On change? TBC

Current mode; outputs are:

0=Heating only, 1=Heating&Cooling; 2=Cooling only.

System status

On change? TBC

Current status; outputs are:

0=Stop, 1=Hold Run, 2=Ramp Run, 3=Pause, 4=Profile Run, 5=PP Run, 6=Purge

Temperature set point

On change? TBC

Temperature in deg C.

Power value

1 Hz TBC

Power value

Rate value

On change? TBC

Rate value (for ramp mode)

Red Channel Instec

Device Serial Number?

At startup

Include in log just in case device is swapped out in future

*IDN?

(third field of reply)

Device Rev Number

At startup

Include in log just in case device is swapped out in future

*IDN?

(fourth field of reply)

Cold Head Temperature Value

1 Hz TBC

Monitor CCD temperature

Heating/cooling enabled status

On change? TBC

Current mode; outputs are:

0=Heating only, 1=Heating&Cooling; 2=Cooling only.

System status

On change? TBC

Current status; outputs are:

0=Stop, 1=Hold Run, 2=Ramp Run, 3=Pause, 4=Profile Run, 5=PP Run, 6=Purge

Temperature set point

On change? TBC

Temperature in deg C.

Power value

1 Hz TBC

Power value

Rate value

On change? TBC

Rate value (for ramp mode)

Cold Head Temperature Value Low (Green)

TBC

Cold Head Temperature Value High (Green)

TBC

Cold Head Temperature Value Low (Red)

TBC

Cold Head Temperature Value High (Red)

TBC

mK2000 User Manual

email from Instec

mK2000 Command Reference

email from Instec

LN2-SYS Pump Manual

email from Instec

Instec said: “While we do have sample code for Python, it is based on a USB connection, not Ethernet. 

Our documentation on Ethernet programming is limited because it isn’t very frequently used for custom applications.

This ZIP file contains example code for python using a USB connection. It could serve as the basis for an ethernet version.”

email from Instec

Ethernet communication setup from Instec.

Mainly describes how to write code to find Instec devices on a network.

Note PacketSender image within, which shows correct port to use for ethernet communication.

email from Instec

PacketSender connection example

Screengrab of SG’s successful connection to device through PacketSender. Note port is 50292.

Instec App for Windows
(standalone program; not useful for KTL but included here for completeness)

email from Instec

Steve’s python code that uploads a PID table from a .csv file (in Instec format) to the device over USB.

Example PID tables also included (one with actual values, and one with integers that was useful for testing code).

Code:

PID files:

Steve’s test of parsing and uploading Instec .csv file

Calibration table decoder ring
(output of CAL:TAB command)

The data is formatted as follows:

The return data is 171 bytes long.

The first byte is “#”, while the last two bytes are the “return” (0x0D) and “New line” (0x0A) characters.

The 6^th byte describes the data type; 0 = TM, 1 = Calibration Table C1, 4 = Calibration Table C4 etc…

The 7^th byte is the number of entries in the calibration table.

The actual calibration data begins at the 10^th byte. For each in the calibration table, there are two floating point numbers which correspond to T0 and Ts.

Each floating point number consists of 4 bytes, which are arranged in little endian order.

email from Instec

Calibration file example.

Filename structure is:

“cold_head_SN & mK2000B_SN cal.clb”

CTEM

25.0 - current temperature

Double - read only

SPO

-95.0 - temperature set point - setting this executes a HOLD command

Double

CHSW

0 - Heating Only

1 - Both

2 - Cooling Only

This determines which PID loop is used. See the manual for details

Enumerated list

RAT

1.000

Value of the change in temperature in time as said by the device. Can be set by the RAMP command

Double - read only - deg / min

POW

0.01

Power output on a scale of 0 to 1.

Double - read only

POWPCT

1

Power output on a scale of 0 to 100%

Double - read only

STAT

0 - Stop

1 - Hold Run

2 - Ramp Run

3 - Pause

4 - Profile Run

5 - PP Run

6 - Purge

State of the controller - see the manual, but should reflect the last command sent

Enumerated - read only

LCK

0 - Locked

1 - Unlocked

If Locked, no write commands will be accepted at the dispatcher level. To command the device it must be Unlocked.

Enumerated

STOP

0 - Run

1 - Stop

If set to 1, a Stop command is sent to the Instec controller. See manual for details

Boolean

RAMP

“-95,1”

Commands a ramp to the controller, which sets the set point (SPO) and will change the rate of time (RAT) value. Those values are not set by the dispatcher so updates in the values reflect what the controller thinks it is doing.

String

PORT

50292

String - read only

IP

192.168.23.145

String - read only

SERIAL

String - read only

REV

String - read only

CONN$(DISPNUM)

0 - Off

1 - On

Toggles on and off the connection to the Instec

Enum

DISP$(DISPNUM)XXXX

The usual dispatcher

dispnum

1

Dispatcher number

address

192.168.23.145

IP address of the Instec

port

50292

Port number of the Instec

model

MK2000B

model of the Instec, used to find the serial number

poll_time

10

how often in seconds the various values are queried

calfile

@RELDIR@/data/@KTLSERVICE@/KCPE2006054_KSE48Sm22001147_cal.clb

calibration file for the controller, on connection the table is read in and then compared with the values in the Instec controller