Is the LWS datataking software robust?
Yes, the problems previously suffered by the LWS software during its first use in 1996 have been corrected. Of course, no software is perfect and although the LWS software still has some “features” that need improvement, its reliability has improved vastly from earlier versions. Software crashes have not been a significant problem during the commissioning of the new LWS. The few crashes we have observed occurred when LWS was operating in a “free running” video mode, as opposed to the data-saving mode employed during observing. After several hours in this video mode the acquisition software has a tendency to crash, but the recovery time is typically less than 2 min. It should be noted that the old LWS system also had a hardware problem which caused spontaneous rebooting, a factor that helped lead to its de-commissioning. This problem is now corrected and not one occurrence of the “spontaneous reboot” has occurred during the LWS re-commissioning.
