[evlatests] access to API data

[Bryan Butler]

the old API interface hardware is now disabled, and has been replaced by 
the new MIB.  they had been running side-by-side for the past couple of 
weeks, but earlier this week we fully disabled the old system.  the 
software which used the values produced by that old system will no 
longer work (the phasemon/sitemon stuff).

the way to get at data produced by the new system is to access it from 
the monitor database. there are two ways to do this:

1 - via the device browser

   a. from AOI, start up device browser (DB)
   b. from DB, fill in emr1-353.vla.nrao.edu in the Connect field
   c. from DB, click on API.phase
   d. click on Search Archive (SA)
   e. from SA, fill in the Monitor Point field with rms_phase

   you can also change fields like the amount of data you want plotted,
   etc.  note that if you just want current values, you don't have to
   do items d. and e., it will just plot them as they come out.

2 - via the monitor database plotting program

   a. go to: https://mcmonitor.evla.nrao.edu/monartool-gui/main.faces
   b. in the Slot ID field, type in emr1-m353, and click on the
      'show New module' button (note that sometimes this can take
      minutes - it's a problem we're tracking down)
   c. in the MODULE TREE pane, click on the "+" box by the "modules"
      folder
   d. click on the "+" box by the "emr1-m353" folder
   e. click on the "+" box by the "API" folder
   f. click on the "RMS_PHASE" element
   g. edit START TIME and END TIME fields
   h. click on the "submit query" button
   i. if you want to look at (or work with) the data values themselves,
      go to the Show Data File List area, and click on the 'show data'
      button
   i. if you want a plot, go to the PLOT AREA section, and select the
      emr1-m353_API_RMS_PHASE in the window, then click on 'make chart'

eventually we'll make nice plotting software like was available in the 
past, but for now, this is what we have.

	-bryan