Towards the final ATLAS Pixel Detector Control System

The innermost part of the ATLAS experiment is a pixel detector, built by 1744 individual detector modules. To operate the modules, readout electronics, and other detector components, a complex power supply and detector control system (DCS) is necessary. This includes a large number of crates, which house the different hardware components as well as a PC net where the different control projects are running. To test the final detector after its assembly before it is installed in the ATLAS cavern, a large test system has been set up at CERN, which allows to operate ca. 10 % of the detector in parallel. Since autumn 2006 this system is in permanent operation. As nearly everywhere the final control hardware is used, its reliability could be investigated and the performance of the control software could be studied. After an overview on our DCS hardware, we report on the experience with the control software