A New Development on Measurement and Control Software of SANS BATAN Spectrometer (SMARTer) in Serpong, Indonesia

Abstract. In 2005, the main computer for data acquisition and control system of Small-angle Neutron Scattering
(SANS) BATAN Spectrometer (SMARTer) was replaced since it halted to operate the spectrometer. According to this
replacement, the new software for data acquisition and control system has been developed in-house. Visual Basic
programming language is used in developing the software. In the last two years, many developments have been made
both in the hardware and also the software to conduct the experiment is more effective and efficient. Lately, the previous
motor controller card (ISA Card) was replaced with the programmable motor controller card (PCI Card) for driving one
motor of position sensitive detector (PSD), eight motors of four collimators, and six motors of six pinhole discs. This
new control system software makes all motors can be moved simultaneously, then it reduces significantly the consuming
time of setting up the instrument before running the experiment. Along with that development, the new data acquisition
software under MS Windows operating system is also developed to drive a beam stopper in X-Y directions as well as to
read the equipment status such as position of the collimators and PSD, to acquire neutron counts on monitor and PSD
detectors, and also to manage 12 samples position automatically. A timer object which is set in one second to read the
equipment status via serial port of the computer (RS232C), and general purpose interface board (GPIB) for reading the
total counts of each pixel of the PSD from histogram memory was used in this new software. The experiment result
displayed in real time on the main window, and the data is saved in the special format for further data reduction and
analysis. The new software has been implemented and performed for experiment using a preset count or preset time
mode for absolute scattering intensity method.