Integrated data acquisition, storage and retrieval for glass spherical tokamak (GLAST)

Abstract

GLAST is a small spherical tokamak with an insulating vacuum vessel of pyrex. The data acquisition (DAQ) system of GLAST is in evolving process. It integrates different data sources as an assortment of data acquisition hardware and software. This paper presents the evolution of the hardware setup and software implementations of the DAQ system for GLAST tokamak. It includes all the sub-systems required for the successful acquisition of a signal from the transducer to the DAQ hardware and then to the database. The hardware for the DAQ system comprises of National Instruments USB based DAQ cards, high resolution Tektronix oscilloscopes and several onsite developed signal conditioning (SC) modules. The software layer for front and back end handling is developed using LabVIEW and MATLAB for acquisition, storage, data retrieval, and post-processing purposes. The main features of this system include system configuration, shot implementation, data saving and data sharing between the connected users. In addition to the evolution of the DAQ system, future directions about the control system of GLAST tokamak experiments have also been highlighted.