Description of the LArTPC DAQ-96 equipment delivered to PAB ------------------------------------------------------------- Revision: 19-APRIL-2007 1. Preamps. The DAQ-96 system contains 96 D-Zero preamps. I have a total of 104 of these preamps. 5 components on each preamp were changed to make their sensitivity and frequency response appropriate for LArTPC work. The noise level of these preamps is basically as low as you can get with a dual FET room temperature design. Because these preamps have been modified, D-Zero does not want them back, i.e. they now belong to the LArTPC project. I believe that it would be hard to get many more of these preamps from D-Zero at this time. Yes, D-Zero has 10% spares on their 56k channel system, but these spares are more or less permanently in use in what is called the "5k Cal Test Stand" at D-Zero. 2. PMB-16 cards. There are 6 of these cards in the DAQ-96 system. They hold the preamps and provide the Wire Bias Voltage and its filtering and provide post amp gain and signal filtering. The LArTPC project paid for and owns these cards. I have 10 of these cards. There are two different version which differ only in the low frequency cutoff of the post amp signal filtering (10kHz vs 20kHz). Two PMB-16 cards are needed for each wire plane. As has been described before my intent for the initial setup is to use one card of each low frequency cutoff option for the initial running. That way we can see in which direction we need to move the low frequency cutoff to provide the best filtering for each wire plane. Based on what we learn from the initial running I will modify the spare PMB-16 cards as necessary and then swap them into the running system when you folks think it is appropriate. The high frequency cutoff is not as much of an issue because its pretty clear where to set the high frequency cutoff and there is not as much noise up there as in the low frequency end. 3. Preamp Power Supply Chassis. There is one of these power supplies in the DAQ-96 system. It is located in the DAQ rack. It provides the "FET", "DRV", and "FLTR" power to the 6 PMB-16 cards in the big green preamp box. Part of this power supply chassis was paid for with money from the LArTPC project but most of it was made from spare parts that we had at MSU. The LArTPC project should use this power supply for as long as you want to. I only ask that if at some point you are finished with it then I would like it back (vs dumping it). 4. Preamp Air Blower. These is one of these in the DAQ-96 system. It is located in the top of the DAQ rack. It was paid for and belongs to the LArTPC project. To provides cooling air for the 30 to 40 Watts dumped in the preamp box. Its remote location helps eliminate the chance of mechanical vibration or electrical noise problems in the preamp box (the same technique is used on astronomy cameras). Points about this air blower: Right now it does not have an input air filter or mechanical protection over its air input. If you are going to use this system for a long time (and the shop like atmosphere in PAB is dirty from grinding or whatever) then it would be good to install a "shop vacuum" filter at the input to this air blower. The air blower was built so that it is easy to glue on such an input filter. I have shown this to Walter. Right now you need to turn ON the preamp air blower separately from turning ON the preamp power supply chassis. I made it that way because (at least in the beginning) I did not want any extra electrical connection between the preamp power supplies and anything else. At some point, when everything else is stable, I will add the connection between the preamp power supply chassis and the air blower so that the air blower starts up automatically when the power supplies are turned ON - and verify that the noise level is still OK. 5. ADF-2 cards. There are currently 3 ADF-2 cards in the DAQ-96 system. These are the VME cards that provide the ADCs and circular buffers. A 4th ADF-2 card will be needed if you want the DAQ-96 system to begin reading out such things as: which PMT tubes fired on a given trigger, or the value of the TPC HV or Wire Bias Voltages. These cards belong to D-Zero. Both the D-Zero firmware and the special LArTPC application firmware for the FPGAs on these cards was done at MSU. The LArTPC project should be able to use these cards for as long as you want to. The system at D-Zero uses 80 cards and I have 8 spare cards stored at D-Zero (there have been zero failures to date). A total of 100 ADF-2 cards were made. The 3 cards at PAB are from the initial build of 10 cards. They are exactly like the production build of 90 cards except that they do not have silk-screened front panels. D-Zero management does not know that these 3 ADF-2 cards are at PAB - they are officially stored at MSU. 6. SCLD card. There is one SCLD card in the DAQ-96 system. It is the card that receives the Trigger Signal and provides all of the timing and control signals for up to 4 crates full of ADF-2 cards. There are only 3 SCLD cards on the surface of the Earth. The running system at D-Zero uses one SCLD card and there is a known good spare stored at D-Zero. The 3rd SCLD card is officially at MSU. The LArTPC application of the SCLD card uses special firmware which was made at MSU. My verbal caution to folks at PAB about not damaging this card is because I have not way to replace it. Putting a TTL level Trigger signals into the SCLD is fine - just please don't shoot a 25 Volt pulser signal or something like that into it. The SCL Receiver mezzanine card on the SCLD card belongs to D-Zero. The hand made at MSU "external trigger input" mezzanine card on the SCLD card was paid for and belongs to the LArTPC project. 7. Wiener VME-64x Crate. There is one of these Wiener VME crates in the DAQ-96 system. It holds the: 3x ADF-2 cards, 1x SCLD card, and the Bit-3 interface in slot #1 to connect this VME crate to the DAQ computer. This crate cost $10k and belongs to D-Zero. It is currently officially at MSU. There is a spare crate stored at D-Zero to support the running system there. As far as I know, the LArTPC project should be able to use this crate for as long as you want to. D-Zero management does not know that it is at PAB. 8. Bit-3 VME Interface. There is one of these in the DAQ-96 system. The Bit-3 company was purchased by SBC and now by AT&T or something like that. This is a Bit-3 model #618 fiber optic pci to VME interface with the DMA memory map option. It is the common computer to VME interface used at Fermi in lots of systems. The one provided, for now, to PAB is owned by MSU. They cost $2k or $3k. Because the MSU Bit-3 cards are now at PAB the software person here can no longer run any of the test systems here (i.e. Philippe can not currently develop or test code for either D-Zero or LArTPC). We do have some D-Zero work coming up where we will need to be able to run the test system here at MSU. 9. DAQ Computer. There is one of these in the DAQ-96 system. The one that was supplied to PAB, for now, belongs to MSU and is scheduled to be installed as part of the online control system at D-Zero this summer during the shutdown starting in August. Thus we basically need it back in 3 months. 10. 32 Channel LArTPC Pulser. This pulser consists of: the battery operated pulser box itself, the pulser head with an output connector that matches the cryostat feedthrough connector, the fiber optic trigger signal to copper TTL trigger signal converter, and a long fiber optic cable. This pulser fires its 32 outputs in sequence (spaced one channel to the next by about 3.3 usec.) and has a fiber optic trigger signal output. The battery operation and fiber trigger output result in no extra ground connections or loops when you use this pulser (and thus hopefully no change in the noise level). This pulser setup was made with some LArTPC project money and lots of spare parts at MSU. The LArTPC project should use it for as long as you want but when you are finished please give it back to me (vs dumping it). You saw a clear demonstration of the advantage of this type of pulser setup last Friday afternoon. 11. Wire Bias Voltage input terminal block and input filters. The floating SHV input terminal block and the input filters for the three Wire Bias Voltage supplies were made at MSU with money from the LArTPC project. This equipment is mounted inside the green NEMA preamp box. It filters the Wire Bias Voltage supplies before they enter the "copper" box. This equipment was paid for and thus owned by the LArTPC project. 12. Preamp Low Voltage Fuse Block and power wiring. This equipment is mounted inside the green NEMA box. It provides the fuse protection for the preamp power wiring and there stages of common mode noise filters on the Preamp Low Voltage supplies. This equipment was made at MSU. It was mostly paid for with LArTPC money and has just a few MSU spare parts in it. This equipment now belongs to the LArTPC project. 13. Preamp Input Cable Assembly. There are 3 of these cable assemblies in the DAQ-96 system. They are very time consuming to make and were made at MSU. They are made from parts all of which were paid for with LArTPC money and thus belong to the LArTPC project. 14. Pleated Foil Cables and ATC Cards. There are 6 PFC cables and 3 ATC cards in the DAQ-96 system. They connect the analog output from the PMB-16 cards to the analog input of the ADF-2 cards. The 6 PFC cables run from the preamp box to the back of the DAQ rack. The ATC cards plug into the back of the Wiener crate in the DAQ rack. The 6 PFC cables are spares from D-Zero. If you want longer PFC cables (i.e. more distance between the cryostat and the DAQ rack) we could purchase longer cables of this type. They are made by 3M. The 3 ATC cards are from D-Zero. These are passive (connector adaptor only) cards. The 3 at PAB failed testing in a part of the card that is not used in the LArTPC application. They are junk for use in the D-Zero application. 15. The bulk of the detailed mechanical work on the outer NEMA box and the inner "copper" box was done at MSU. 16. DAQ-96 Software. This was written by Philippe Laurens at MSU. It is about 56k lines of c++ in the "engine" that talks with the VME hardware. This "engine" software is very closely derived from part of the system that controls the L1 Cal Trig at D-Zero. The GUI that the user works with and that sequences the various steps in the DAQ and plot generation process is about 11k lines of python/Tkinter. This is all new code for the LArTPC application. This code will run under either Lynx or windows. It uses ITC for communications between the parts of the DAQ system and standard HEP packages for generation and display of plots.