The Methodology and Implementation of a Real Time Monitoring System for Cryogenic Fridges

TL;DR

The paper presents the Fridge Real Time Monitoring System (FRTMS), a deployment that enables remote, near-real-time monitoring of a cryogenic dilution fridge and high-field magnet by collecting, backing up, and reformating fridge logs into a MySQL time-series database, and visualizing them through Grafana. It details a robust data pipeline involving dual hosts, external storage, and automated processing (Code 1 and Code 2) with backups and alerting. The system introduces Python-based email alerts and Grafana-based alerts (including Slack integration) to detect pipeline lag and threshold breaches, ensuring reliable operation during critical cool-downs. The approach demonstrates practical impact by reducing on-site checks and providing long-term, run-specific data analysis and dashboards for cryogenic experiments.

Abstract

Inspired by the dilution refrigerator and magnet monitoring system developed for HAYSTAC at Yale University, Speller Lab at Johns Hopkins University developed the Fridge Real Time Monitoring System (FRTMS). The FRTMS accesses logs saved locally by the dilution refrigerator, saves these logs to various backup locations, edits the logs into a format for upload to a MySQL database, and allows the logs to be remotely monitored in near-real time.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: A flowchart describing the hardware and software components of the FRTMS.
• Figure 2: A Grafana Dashboard displaying pressure and temperature data from a single cool-down.