0perations Overview
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There are 6 active crates on the poletip containing FEE cards which convert PMT pulses to digital data and also can fire LEDs and the laser. The data get sent to a tower data collector (TDC called ETOW) where they can be read out into a stand alone data acquisition system in a VME crate (mini_DAQ) and/or passed along to STAR DAQ. There are laser and LED pulser systems that can pulse the various towers. There is a HV system (HVSys) that controls the high voltage of the pmt tubes. All controls are operated from a main program on the Creighton SC3 computer. There are also 48 MAPMT boxes, configured separately from the Tower FEE crates, and read out by a separate TDC (ESMD). These read out the SMD and pre/post shower detectors. They also can be fired by LEDs. During the run the data is read out by STAR DAQ but the data can also be read by a VME crate computer in our electronics rack in parallel. This is done mostly for diagnostics during the run and calibrations when STAR is in the assembly building.