ONCS Subsystem Status

Chris Witzig (BNL), Stephen Pate (NMSU)

DC Meeting

PHENIX Collaboration Week

22-June-1998

• Chain Test Software

• Subsystem Support Tests

• Counting House Computing

• High Voltage

PHENIX Chain Test Software

• ONCS has obtained access to various “real” PHENIX hardware such as a Master Timing board, Granule Timing board, Programmable Pulse Generator, DCM

• ONCS control software for these boards has been developed within the context of the ONCS control

environment (CORBA) • ONCS is very close to having a complete setup of a

PHENIX chain (DC FEM, timing system and DCM) and will use this to finish release 1 - a standalone version of the one-granule-DAQ system

Example: Granule Timing board from Netscape

ONCS DAQ support for the Subsystems

PDAQ is a small but powerful data acquisition system which ONCS has provided for the tests made by the subsystems

SAM5305 (32-chann. Voltmeters)

CAMAC

VME

VxWorksprocessor

DL600 (TTL input register)

Hall probe frame

Angle encoder

Applications so far:

• TEC test beam at the AGS• Magnet mapping prototype (PEH)• Lead Glass gain pre-calibration and test (902)• Drift chamber FEM board test (Stony Brook)• TEC Pre-amp/Shaper board test (Instrumentation)• Pad chamber prototype cosmic stand (820)• TEC gain test (832)

PDAQ in the TEC Test beam setup of April ‘97

LC 2249W LC 2228A

CAMAC

VME

G-2boards

Hammondboard

SGI

DD_SERVER

Disk

data

DD Pool

ConsumerPstuff

VxWorks>

VxWorksprocessor

TEC

beamline / triggerdetectors

The TEC testbeam setup

This was the (successful!) first field test of the PDAQ system back in April 1997

The Magnet Mapping Test Setup

SAM5305 (32-chann. Voltmeters)

CAMAC

VME

VxWorksprocessor

DL600 (TTL input register)

Hall probe frame

Angle encoder

For the magnet mapping we turn a frame (“mapping fixture”) equipped with hall probes in the volume of the field.

This system was used to read out 96 digital voltmeter channels measuring the hall probes. In addition, we read out an angle encoder to measure the angle of the mapping fixture.

ONCS support for the Subsystems

This is just to show that PDAQ is used as a workhorse in many different setups.

Counting House Computing Environment (1)

• Decision has been taken to use as ONCS supported platforms:

– Sun/Solaris

– PCs running Linux (red hat)

• This choice is compatible with RCF

• The intent is to make it easy to develop code at RCF and run in the counting house (and vice versa)

Counting House Computing Environment (2)

• Goal is to provide a good computing infrastructure in the counting house as early as possible

• First computers to be installed in late June/early July• 10 PCs running Linux, 4-6 Sparcstations, Sun

Enterprise 3000 (== main ONCS computer), Xterminals, printers, FAX,... by Oct 98

•The CLAS Experiment of Hall B at Jefferson Lab and PHENIX at RHIC both chose to use LeCroy 1458 high voltage hardware.

•We have also both chosen to use the EPICS controls system for our ancillary systems.

•An EPICS-based system for controlling the LeCroy high voltage hardware has already been written at CLAS, and we have been allowed to port this software to PHENIX. Thanks to Mark Ito of CLAS for all his help in the porting process!

High Voltage Status

Jefferson Lab High Voltage Software

• An ASCII configuration file, giving addressing, voltage and current limits, and other info, is created by the user.• This configuration file is used to create both the database in the IOC and a graphical user interface (GUI).• Saving, restoring, alarm handling, channel enable and disable, HV crate on/off, and other functions can all be handled from this GUI (see next two slides).• In addition, various EPICS tools permit scripts to manipulate the entries in the database, so that changes in large numbers of high voltages channels, such as in an iterative calibration procedure, can be done automatically.

This “main menu”lists each detectoras a “group” for which variousfunctions (save,restore, alarms,enable/disable) areavailable. For eachHV crate, there isan on/off button(just one in this testsetup). Clicking onthe “details” buttonfor a group gives a display like that on the next slide….

This detail window shows the individual voltages and currents forthree channels in this test setup. Enable/disable functions are availableboth for individual channels and for the whole group. The demandvoltage can be changed by entering a new number in the “Set Vol.”field.

HV Modules Supported

• 1469 --- fully supported now

• 1461 --- soon

• 1471 --- some work required, since JLab never supported this module

HV To-Do List

• Convert from EPICS 3.12 to 3.13 (Mark Ito)

• Graphical User Interface (SP)

• Module Support (CW + Student)

• Documentation and Education (SP, CW)