Controlling and monitoring ESO test benches with PYMONT

Abstract

The detectors used in ESO instruments cover the optical to mid‐infrared wavelengths. In order to automate the characterization process of these devices, the detector group at ESO has recently worked on commissioning new IR facilities (FIAT, CRISLER, and CEAT) or upgrading older ones (MTF and IRATEC). The monitoring and control for some of these facilities required the development of a dedicated control system, developed within the ESO detector group, that has been released as the PYthon MONitoring Tool (PYMONT). With PYMONT, test facilities now have a common and stable system to check their status in real time and allow remote control. PYMONT is reliable, easy to use, and a very low‐cost solution, which uses the latest Raspberry 4. The users can interact with a communication server based on OPC‐UA in order to issue commands to instruments. Monitoring is done by hooking PYMONT to a time‐series database (Prometheus) coupled with web‐based monitoring for this database (Grafana). This paper will describe the software architecture of PYMONT and demonstrate use cases of the tool used in conjunction with ESO's in‐house controller, the NGC. In particular, we will show how PYMONT has been used for the automation of the characterization of the MOONS H4RG detectors.