JANUS

Janus is an open source software for the control and readout of FERS‐5200 boards. Available in different versions (Ver. 5202, Ver. 5203, Ver. 5204), it can be used as a platform for the development of custom DAQ, tailored to the specific application. Indeed, the user can change the data treatment, the acquired statistics and the output file format.
Janus can manage up to 16 FERS units connected via Ethernet or USB directly as well as the readout of the DT5215 Concentrator Board, so that a single user interface is available for the whole system. Janus is composed of two parts, one written in C, which is the real heart of the application, one written in Python which manages the user interface. The plots are executed through Gnuplot. All the configuration parameters are written in a textual configuration file.
It is possible to launch and use Janus in 2 different modes:

• Console Mode: In this case, the Python part of the software is not used. The user can edit the configuration file with any text editor and save the proper values for the desired parameters. Then, the user can launch a purely textual console window. The application writes a series of messages (which are also saved in a log file) and, during the run, prints statistics on the screen. The only graphical part is the plot, which is managed by Gnuplot.

• GUI Mode: In this case, the user only have to run the Python program which calls the C program and connects to it via a socket to send commands and receive messages which are then displayed in the Python GUI.