[vsnet-grb-info 3954] Extra GCN/XRT Notices problem fixed

[GCN Circulars]

All GCN Notice Sites:                                    31 Oct 06

Part 2 of this afternoon's Extra XRT Notices problem:

I have fixed the problem that allowed some of the XRT Notices
to be distributed during this afternoon's XRT on-orbit pointing
alignment testing.  The problem had to do with the lack of all
the other messages that come down the TDRSS link when a normal
trigger happens.  During this test _all_ the other messages
(all the BAT-related, all the FOM-related, and all the UVOT-related
messages were missing).  The state-machine with the GCN programs
got screwed up, causing the swift_receiver front-end program to crash.
And when I restarted the GCN programs there was a brief window
(less than 60 sec) when XRT Notices could come down and be distributed
before I could get the block-to-world-distribution command executed.
And since thre were amny XRT messages coming down TDRSS durig the test,
some of them slipped through this brief interval and were distributed.
Both the missing-messages-statemachine problem and the brief-window problem
have been fixed.

This new software has been tested to prove that the state-machine
problem is fixed.  And regular burst data has been processed
to prove that the normal mode of operations has not been effected.

At all times during the last 3-4 hours, the normal burst processing
capability was never compromised.

My apologies for the inconvenience.


Sincerely,
Scott

Scott Barthelmy                      NASA-GSFC, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD   20771
PHONE:  301-286-3106                 (work)
FAX:    301-286-1684                 (1st choice,  -1682 2nd choice)
EMAIL:  scott at lheamail.gsfc.nasa.gov
PAGER:  3013463733 at mmode.com         (send short email to this address)
WEB:    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn