The Handbook of instruments
===========================

The SCC database contains all the information needed to complete the handbook of instruments. We hope
that this method of communicating system information will be more efficient than exchanging traditional excel files.

Describing your systems
-----------------------
Unfortunately, the SCC does not contain the concept of a system, but only of System Configuration.
This means that a station can have a single physical system, but use several configuration in the database
(daytime channels, Raman channels, etc). For example, the Alomar station, could have three system configuration
but only one system, the "ALOMAR Troposphere Lidar".

To construct the HOI system page, we group different configurations based on the **name** of the system.
In the previous example, we need to combine all three configuration of ALOMAR in one system HOI entry. To do this we:

1. Group all system configurations with the same name as one system.
2. Get all distinct channels connected with any of these systems.
3. Get all lasers, telescopes, and emission lines for all these channels.
4. Show all of these to the HOI as one system.

Excluding system configurations or channels
-------------------------------------------
In some cases, you may create some system configuration or channel just for testing purposes. You can
exclude these from the handbook of instruments. To do this:

1. Login to the admin section.
2. Go to the page of the system/channel you want to exclude
3. Check the "Exclude from HOI" checkbox.

System from and to dates
------------------------
If you had several old systems that are no longer working, or if you have performed a major upgrade to your system,
it is a good idea to include this information to the HOI. Each system configuration includes the
fields **Configuration from** and **Configuration to** that define the time period that the system was active.