Overview over the different labview programs to acquire data.

The complete program with all vi's and subvi's, drivers and manuals is stored in \\Pcstarb\users\finalreadout\  or on CD.
You can find all manuals in \\Pcstarb\users\finalreadout\documents\ . Manuals for the PCI-9812 card, Labview driver for the PCI-9812 card, Labview manual, Labview G-Programming-Reference manual, ...
You can find the PCI9812 Labview drivers in \\Pcstarb\users\finalreadout\driver\  (is installed on the computer in the USA)
You will only need the Labview NT driver.

The drivers for the card are installed in  \\pcstarb\programme\pcilv\. The name of the Labview driver library is Plv.llb . (Put a copy of Plv.llb in the Labview folder in /Labview/user.lib)

Starting the program:

There are different versions of the program:
 
name of the program properties required vi's and subvi's
25.06.final-read-out-fast.vi  fastest version of the read-out program,
reduced graphical display (only displays the actual measurement, the gauss-fitted histograms of the drifttime with the values and the drifttime);

writes out several files:

  • last-drifttime.dat  :  value of the latest drifttime in ns; (ascii value)
  • drifttime-backup.dat  :  the actual drifttime (in ns) will be appended with time and date and the number of the top and bottom signals;(ascii table)
  • rawdata"X".bin  :  binary file of the rawdata; "X" is for the numbers of 0 to 9 for the file-loop; overwrites always the oldest file; 
  • currentfile.dat  :  stores the name of the newest binary rawdata file of the file-loop;(ascii value)
  • 25.06.final-read-out-fast.vi
  • Gaussian-calc.vi
  • gauss-fit-3.vi
  • gauss-fit-histo.vi
  • draw-gauss-curve-histo.vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-(modified).vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-Prep(modified).vi
25.06.final-read-out .vi  slow version of the read-out program,
full graphical display ( displays the actual measurement, all gauss-fitted signals with values, the gauss-fitted histograms of the drifttime with the values and the drifttime, up to 150% slower as the fast version)

writes out the same 4 files as the fast version;
 
  • 25.06.final-read-out.vi 
  • Gaussian-calc.vi
  • gauss-fit-2.vi
  • draw gauss curve.vi
  • gauss-fit-histo.vi
  • draw-gauss-curve-histo.vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-(modified).vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-Prep(modified).vi
25.06.final-read-out-read-binary.vi  same program as 25.06.final read out .vi, but without  driver for the card; to anlayse the rawdata offline (rawdata must be a binary file); stores only the drifttime in a file. Total length of one sample must be 1000 timebins (4 channels * 250 timebins=1000 data points)
  • 25.06.final-read-out-read-bin.vi 
  • Gaussian-calc.vi
  • gauss-fit-2.vi
  • draw-gauss-curve.vi
  • gauss-fit-histo.vi
  • draw-gauss-curve-histo.vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-(modified).vi
  • Levenberg-Marquardt-Prep(modified).vi
25.06.write-binary-rawdata.vi writes only rawdata in binary form in a file with the name "rawdata"Now at run #".bin", without fitting signals or any calculation.
  • 25.06.write-binary-rawdata.vi

Writing rawdata in a binary file:

The binary rawdata written out by labview has following structure:
The length of one rawdata sample is limited by the internal memory of the card. So the data length is 4 channels * 250 timebins  = 1000  (2 byte integer) in the range of -32752 to +32768.
The data is stored as unscaled 16-bit integer in big endian form. To get the values in mV you have to divide them by 32.752.

(remark: Labview handles binary files in "big endian" form; if you want to read them with root, you have to swap the bytes in each number to get the right number);
 

Running more than one card:

For 2 cards make 2 copies of the program and name them *-card0.vi and *-card1.vi .
Than you can run the program 2 times. Make the parameter for the card order default (right click on value -> data operations -> "Make current value default"). So 0 for card 0 and 1 for card 1 and than save it.
Be sure that you have 2 different pathes to store the files or rename the filenames of the stored files on the blockdiagram (must be 4 files: last-drifttime.dat, drifttime-backup.dat, rawdata"X".bin, currentfile.dat).
 

To open a program just doubleclick it in the explorer or open it in labview. Every necessary subvi or driver-subvi  will be loaded automatically. If you start it the first time or or on an other computer, you have perhaps to relink the path for the subvi's or the driver-subvi's (right click on subvi and select "relink to subvi" from the scroll down menu.

When starting a program the front panel of the program will appear at the screen with all available control, displays and parameters.


 
 
 


This Page was updated by Tobias Titz.
Last modified: Fri June 22 16:05:19 CET 2001