Download ALTA Software Guide

ALTA Software Guide
Function:
•Program and control ALTA hardware.
•Display incoming data in a graphical form.
•Output raw data as *.alta files in c:\alta directory.
Drop-down Menus
•Open .alta: Fills on screen histograms with
values from a raw data file. Make sure a run
is not underway when doing this.
•Save Histograms: Writes on screen
histograms to a file.
•Clear Histograms: Same as CLEAR button,
clears the on screen histograms.
•FPGA: Opens FPGA control panel.
•Initialize Hardware: Loads electronics with
the last set of control values used.
•Restore Settings Files: Replaces the files
which hold the last set of control values with
default files tailored to a particular site. Does
not load the values into the electronics.
•Coincidence…Calibration: Opens the
software panel used to set the control values
for that particular board.
•Comment: Allows you to manually enter a
comment about a particular data run.
Automatically appears when a run is started.
Drop-down Menus
•Setup: Opens the test comment panel
described later.
•About Alta: Shows the version number of
the ALTA software.
FPGA Window
Uploads programs to the Field Programmable Gate Arrays
which are the processors used to control the ALTA boards.
Must be used any time that the electronics crate is powered off.
May have to be used to cure electronics problems.
Settings must be loaded into the FPGAs after they are
programmed. Usually done with ‘Initialize Hardware’.
•Program All FPGAs:
Loads programs into all the
FPGAs one at a time.
Successful should be
returned by all the boards.
This is the only command
that normally needs to be
used.
•Program Selected FPGA:
Lets you program only the
board marked under Select
FPGA with a file you select.
Generally only used for
internal testing purposes.
Control Panels
Common Items:
•CLOSE: The close button
of course closes the window.
•Restore Last: Reloads the
last saved settings for this
board. Whenever a value is
changed it is automatically
saved.
•Read Back: Refreshes any
panel entries which contain
values that are read from the
electronics.
•Send: Anytime a manual
entry is located next to a
‘Send’ button the value
entered is not transmitted to
the electronics until send is
pressed. The value sent is
read back into the Read Back
panel to confirm that it was
received correctly.
Coincidence Control
•CFD 0-2: Flash
whenever a signal in
that channel is above
threshold.
•Coin: Flashes
whenever the
coincidence
condition is met.
•Set Coin: Shows
how many counters,
1,2, or 3 are needed
for a coincidence.
•1SEC: Input for
GPS 1 second pulse,
no longer needed.
•TTT: Trigger to
Time Tag board used
to generate
BLATCH values.
•Coin En: Whether
that input channel is
enabled for forming
coincidences.
•Enable Input: Which channels are
used in the coincidence decision. Note
that a disabled channel is always
considered to have been hit.
•Coincidence Mode: Number of
channels that must have hits in them.
•Discriminator Threshold: Size of
pulse needed before a channel is
considered to have been hit.
High Voltage Control
•ADC READ: Reads back the
actual high voltages directly
from the high voltage modules.
These should be fairly close to
the set values.
•Cal DACs: Used for
calibrating the high voltage
supplies. Should not normally
be used.
•PMT High Voltage: ‘Set’ are
the voltages sent to the high
voltage controller. ‘Read
Back’ returns the values the
controller received.
There are two sets of voltages read back because the high voltage
controller and the high voltage supplies are two separate boards.
One reads the actual voltage being used through a voltage divider,
accurate to a couple percent, the other echoes back the value sent to
the controller.
Note: The high voltage at each site is unique, the above values are
not typical and should not be used.
Temperature Control
•One Sec: Flashes
on the GPS second.
•Auto Scan: Set to
scan temperatures
continuously, this is
the normal mode.
•CC/Auto: Set to
computer control,
which in this case is
manual control.
•R/W: Flashes
when the board is
read out.
•Set 0 – 3:
Temperature
channel being
either read or
controlled.
•All others: Used
for diagnostic
purposes.
•Read: Reads the current temperatures,
takes 4 seconds.
•Read Back: Reads the current low and
high set points. Only reading is
allowed, values cannot be changed.
•Low/High Set Point: Temperature that
the heat tape either turns on or turns off.
Calibration Control
•Trigger: Flashes
once every time
calibration board
fires.
•Set LED O/P:
Calibration pulses
sent to LEDs potted
into scintillators.
•In Trig Set:
Set to fire under
internal computer
control.
•1 Sec Sync:
Calibration set to
fire at the time
relative to the GPS
pulse.
•BNC Outputs:
One to each
scintillator LED.
•Ext Trigger:
Allows board to be
triggered with
external pulse.
Calibration Control
•TRIGGER: Manually generate a
trigger pulse.
•Sync Trigger: Trigger occurs at
same time relative to the GPS
pulse otherwise occurs whenever
the computer gets around to it.
•Cal Pulse: Selects where trigger
pulse goes. DAQ is no longer
used.
•Trigger: Internal computer
control or external panel input.
•Trig Interval: How often to
generate a trigger in seconds.
Need to hit ‘enter’ or click on the
up or down arrows before it
registers a value entered with the
keyboard.
•DAC(nsec): Delay in nanoseconds
before each LED fires once a trigger
occurs.
•DAC(mV): Since of the pulse, in
mV, sent to the LEDs. Determines
how much light is produced.
TTAG Control
•ALATCH: An ALATCH value is present. The last value is
kept until a new GPS pulse occurs so this LED should blink
off momentarily once per second.
•BLATCH: Flashes when a BLATCH value is created by an
input trigger. In current version pulse is too short to see.
•1PS: GPS pulse received.
•Trig: Trigger pulse received. Normally coming from the
coincidence board.
•1SEC I/P: Input for the GPS ‘one pulse per second’. Must
be connected for the ALTA program to run.
•Trig O/P: A copy of the trigger signal is output on this line,
not normally used.
•1SEC O/P: A copy of the 1SEC I/P goes out on this line.
Can be used for testing the TTAG board if this line is
connected to the Trig I/P. Not normally used.
•Trig I/P: Trigger input which generates BLATCH values,
normally connected to the coincidence board.
There are no user software controls associated with this
board.
Analog Board
•R/W: Flashes when the computer reads the data stored
on the board.
•Event Wait: Stays on while waiting for the first event
to come in since the board was last read out.
•LO Gain: Shows that the low gain ADC channels are
activated.
•Chan 0-3: Shows which channels are currently set to
record ADC data. The board contains 4 channels but the
4th channel, channel 3, is not used.
•HI Gain: Identical to the low gain channel but with
higher amplification, these channels are no longer used
due to noise considerations.
The analog control software panel no longer appears
in the current version of the ALTA software. The LO
Gain light and low gain channel 0, 1 and 2 should be
lit with channel 3 not lit. HI Gain channels have
been disabled regardless of what their status LEDs
indicate.
Starting a Run
If the electronics crate was turned off at any time
since the last run the FPGAs must be reloaded and
‘Initialize Hardware’ done. After a power outage
most of the Temperature module lights and all three
of the Coincidence module ‘Set’ lights will be on
steadily, this is the easiest way to check.
If you aren’t sure what control setting were last
loaded into the electronics then do ‘Restore Settings
Files’ before ‘Initialize Hardware’. Restore
followed by Initialize can be done at anytime if
you aren’t sure about your current settings, even if
you didn’t have to reload the FPGAs.
Press the
button. And the Run
Comment window will appear:
This box can be used to enter any special
comments that might apply to the run. Hitting
enter or clicking OK closes it and starts the run.
Run Fails to Start
If an error message appears when starting ALTA32 or
when trying to enter Setup or start a run simply close
the ALTA program and restart it.
Possible errors include failure to find the GPS or
exception errors on startup. These occasionally occur
due to a timing conflict on the serial port used to read
in the GPS data and don’t generally represent a real
problem.
Main Window Features
•Event Status: Flashes green when an event
occurs that conforms to the expected default event
structure. Flashes red when an event doesn’t have
the normal data structure. Red flashes should be
rare unless you are doing a special run, for
example using non-standard coincidence settings.
•Current GPS date and time. When running this
time should be incrementing every second.
•CLEAR: Hitting clear not only clears the graphs
it also closes the current run file.
•Current temperature in the 3 doghouses and
inside the electronics crate.
•Display Mode: TDC/ADC is the raw
timing/energy data from the 3 detectors. Diff in
TDC displays differences between the TDC times
in each event. GPS shows graphs related to the
ALATCH and BLATCH values. The ALATCH
occurs every second so the first two GPS graphs
can be used to tell how many seconds have gone
by since the graphs were last cleared.
•Find Mean: Pressing this button displays the
mean value of all counts in each of the three
currently displayed graphs.
•Data Display: ‘Normal’ uses all incoming data in
the displayed histograms. ‘Filtered’ only graphs
events that generated a green light in the Event
Status display.
Main Windows Features Cont.
•Cursor Bin #: Current bin number of the red crosshair and the number of
counts in that bin.
•Zoom: Changes the x-axis scale to display more or fewer total bins.
•Center: The bin number of the center of the displayed region.
•Vert Scale: By default autoscales the y-axis to the bin with the most
counts but can also be manually adjusted.
•Stand Dev./Mean/Counts: Are calculated for all bins, inclusive, between
the adjustable Left Marker and Right Marker values.
•Peak: For the entire graph, not just the displayed area, lists the number
of events in the bin that has the most counts.
•Counts: For the entire graph, not just the displayed area, lists the total
number of counts in all bins.
Fields with up and down arrows can be adjusted either using the mouse
on the arrows or by entering a number and hitting enter.
Changing the zoom will automatically adjust the displayed range so that
the bin with the most counts is centered on the display. This is a useful
time saving feature for finding where the peak of the histogram is.