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This page gives user-level instructions on how to run the S800 data acquisition (DAQ) system for an experiment. Presently this is run from the linux machine u6pc5 in data-U6.
The S800 Readout GUI is invoked by either clicking the icon S800 DAQ in the desktop of u6pc5 or by navigating in a Linux terminal to the directory /user/s800/converged_daq and typing godaq
. The Readout GUI window will appear. IMPORTANT NOTE: When running Readout GUI, make sure that the environment variables needed by the system are properly defined. This can be done from a Linux terminal by typing: . /usr/opt/nscldaq/xxxx/daqsetup.bash
, where xxxx
is the nscldaq version (xxx = 11.0-020, on Feb 2016).
Before beginning taking data is necessary to initialize the system. This is done by clicking Start
in the ReadoutGUI. After initializing the contollers, the ReadoutGUI window will show the Begin
button active. In addition, three additional buttons should appear at the end of the window. They can be used to start the GUI associated with the MCFD, Delay XLM, and Trigger ULM modules. Make sure that the system is fully initializing before opening those GUIs.
The figure below shows the Readout GUI window after initializing the system. After clicking Begin
, the “Event Builder” window will pop out, displaying information about the Readout session. Data can be recorded on disk by checking out the box Record
. To end a data run, simply click End
.
The S800 electronics includes a Mesytec CFD (MCFD), used to “filter” the detector signals going to the Scaler and Mesytec TDC. The configuration parameters of the CFD (thresholds, delays, fraction, etc.) can be remotely adjusted via a MCFD GUI developed by the NSCL DAQ group. During tuning of the S800, one typically needs to adjust thresholds only.
The MCFD GUI is invoked by either clicking the icon MCFD GUI in the desktop of u6pc5 or by navigating in a Linux terminal and typing $DAQBIN/MCFDControl16 –protocol usb –serialfile /dev/ttyUSB0
. The environment variable DAQBIN is defined by sourcing the daqsetup.bash file in directory /usr/opt/nscldaq/xxxx/bin, where xxxx is the nscldaq version number (11.0-015 on Oct 26, 2015).
This window appears when the “Init” button is pressed on the VME crate controller tab as part of the initial setup of the S800 USB daq. It can also be accessed by pressing the “Show GUIs” button. The delay module allows software configurable delays to be applied to each of the signals indicated in the Channel column, which then form the TDC stops. It is configurable to enable delays to be set with beam on target, as the needed delay may change depending on experimental conditions.
Some important things to remember:
The Trigger GUI appears when the “Init” button is pressed on the CAMAC crate controller tab as part of the initial setup of the S800 USB daq. The Trigger GUI is a visual display of the various Gate and Delay Generators and logic elements that make up the configurable trigger of the S800. The logic of the trigger decision is readily discerned from a visual inspection of this GUI. Setting the trigger configuration is also done using this GUI by right clicking on any of the wires to put that signal onto one of the four “Trigger Inspect” channels available at the patch panel of Data-U6. By inspecting the various delays, widths and overlaps the user trigger can be configured. The Trigger GUI is discussed in greater detail here.
The GUI used to display scalers rates can be open from the icon S800 Scalers in the desktop of u6pc5. Alternatively, open a terminal on u6pc5, and type ./goscalers from directory /user/s800/converged_daq/scalers.
The GUI includes two pages labeled “s800” and “ratios”. Page “s800” includes all the scaler channels; page “ratios” displays ratio values calculated between several pairs of channels. In addition, the GUI includes a panel showing the time evolution of the live time calculated from the live-to-raw trigger ratio, and the live-to-raw clock ratio. The figure below shows the page “ratios” from the scaler GUI.
A list of scaler channels can be found here.
There are several common reasons why the S800 DAQ may fails to start. The list below describes what to do to fix these problems.
Sometimes, particularly if the previous S800 DAQ session ended in an uncontrolled way, there may be old processes running (CCUSB and/or VMUSB and/or S800 event builder) that will prevent Readout GUI to begin a run. Whenever this happens (typically after clicking Begin
), the system sends an error message complaining about one of these processes still running. If you find yourself in this situation try:
ps aux | grep Readout
to ensure that Readout is indeed not running/usr/opt/nscldaq/xxxx/bin/ringbuffer status
, where xxxx is the daq version, e.g. 11.0-020producer
) is -1. (Don't worry about the ringbuffer s800filter, which is automatically killed when starting ReadoutGUI)kill -9 PID
When clicking Begin
in the S800 Readout GUI, you get the error message: “No data sources are running so a run cannot be started”. Very likely, the setting file .settings.tcl is missing. On a Linux session in u6pc5, type ls -lisa ~/stagearea
. You should see a hidden file .settings.tcl. If no, try the following:
One of the most common reasons why the S800 DAQ fails to start is because the CCUSB and/or VMUSB are claimed by existing programs. This is shown by the error messages displayed by the system. If you find yourself in this situation try the following:
ps aux | grep Readout
kill -9 PID
, where PID identifies any CCUSBReadout or VMUSBReadout processes that show upkill -9 PID
, where PID identifies any tclsh ReadoutShell process that might show upgodaq
to see if this works nowIn the rare case that the RunControl GUI gets “frozen”, it is possible to reboot the whole system manually. This operation requires to turn off the VME and CAMAC crates, and the spdaq computer, all them located in the rack seating near the FP box in the S3 vault. Then, the system must be turned back on in the following order. First, CAMAC crate, second VME crate, and third spdaq.
OBSOLETE. Documentation is currently under development.
In order to run the combined S800 + Gretina daq, the following steps need to be taken:
1. On spdaq48 in /user/s800/operations/daq/usb/TclXXUSB do:
wish ./RunControl.tcl
or, on devop2 (the S800 MAC machine)
click on the operations folder on the lower icon bar and select runcontrol.command
2. On a dataU machine logged in as the experimental account (e11007 for the June 2012 testing period) do
godaq
3. On spdaq44 do:
/usr/opt/daq/10.1/bin/ringbuffer status. The output should look similar to:
+----------------+------------+-------+-------------+--------+---------+---------+------+-------------+ |Name |data-size(k)|free(k)|max_consumers|producer|maxget(k)|minget(k)|client|clientdata(k)| +----------------+------------+-------+-------------+--------+---------+---------+------+-------------+ |0400x |8195 |8195 |100 |-1 |0 |0 |- |- | |s800 |8195 |8195 |100 |7485 |0 |0 |- |- | |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |9143 |0 | |segatest |8195 |8195 |100 |-1 |0 |0 |- |- | |spdaq48.0400x |8195 |8195 |100 |17205 |0 |0 |- |- | |spdaq48.segatest|8195 |8195 |100 |-1 |0 |0 |- |- | +----------------+------------+-------+-------------+--------+---------+---------+------+-------------+
Upon start of run there will be another client of the s800 ring, which is the pushToGEB process. This should die on end run.
The S800 daq will now be in slave mode, and run control is done from the NSCL daq window.