User Interface

1. How to start ?

Type "ladder0" in an xterm application and the main control window will appear.

2. Main Control Window

This window is divided in six frames, which are described below. (You can also click on the frame or even the button you want in the following picture to get details)

a. Control Mode

There 3 modes of operation :

The Full Control mode : in this mode the control system has access to the complete ladder. Obviously, the initialisation of the system can only be done in this mode.
The Acquisition mode : in this mode the control system has only access to the Readout Boards. The system is automatically put in this mode after the initialisation. The system must be in this mode during acquisition (or the Readout Board won't accept any trigger).
The Calibration mode : not implemented yet.

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b. Main Control

The "Start" button : once the power supplies are on, the initialisation of the system is done automatically by clicking on this button. Note : you must be in "Full Control" mode to use this button.
The "Refresh" button : It Detects the chips in latchup, fix them and read the Costar's parameters
The message text gives information about the status of the system. ("initialising", "biasing", etc...)

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c. Power Supply

The power supplies are divided in 3 parts :

Low Voltage Power Supply : The "on/off" button switch on or off all the +2V and -2V for the ladders and the +5V for the Connection and ADC Boards.
High Voltage Power Supply : The "on/off" button ramp up or down the high voltages for the silicon detectors.
Readout Board Power Supply : This power supply is always on by default but you can switch it on or off in case of necessity.

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d. Ladder Status

This frame is divided in 3 parts :

The first one ("N Side" and "P Side" in the picture) gives a status of the Alice128C chips. It shows the alarms in case of latchup or JTAG problem, etc...
The second one ("FEE" in the picture) gives a status of the Costar chips (the chips which measure the temperature, leakage currents, etc...).
The last one gives a status of the power supplies

You can use the "View" button to open the Ladder Control Window.

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e. Readout Board Status

This frame gives the status of different functions of the Readout Board :

Status of the trigger clock. (TRCK field of the Readout Board Record)
Status of the Giga-Link.(GLER field of the Readout Board Record)
Number of latchup event detected.(LUEV and LUCT fields of the Readout Board Record)
Temperature of the Readout Board.(TMP1 field of the Readout Board Record)
Number of events received by the Readout Board.(NBEV field of the Readout Board Record)

You can use the "Expert" button to open the Readout Board Expert Control Window.

3. Ladder Control Window

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This window gives information about one ladder. In the large array in the center of the window, one column represents one module in the ladder (there are 16 modules in total). The upper part of this wondow concerns the N side and the downer part, the P side.(Click on the part you are interested in the following window to get details)

a. Bypass

This line shows which module which is bypassed (in black) or not (in green) (this is the 'HYBY' field in the A128CRecord)

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b. Init JTAG

This line shows the status of the Jtag initialization of each module. If one module goes red, it means that there is no Jtag communication to this module (this is the 'JFHY' field in the A128CRecord)

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c. Latchup

This line shows which hybrid has been switched off automatically (because of latchup)(this is the 'LAHY' field in the A128CRecord). Note : this line is not updated during the 'acquisition mode', as the connection board is not accessible in this mode. It is only updated in full control mode when the button 'Refresh' of the main window is pressed.

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d. Costar parameter

This array shows the alarm status of the parameters read by the costar chip on each hybrid (Temperature, Guard ring leakage current, Bias ring leakage current and Power Supply voltage). The actual value of these parameters can be seen in the Module Control Window accessed by clicking on one of the numbered buttons of the 'View Module' line.

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e. Read Costar

This line allows to enable or disable the reading of the Costar chip of each module independently. Note : when the costar on one module is not working or not functionning it is recommanded to disable it on this line in order to disable the alarm.

The 'Read Costar' button on the left allows to read all the Costars chip on the ladder. Obviously, this only works in 'Full Control' mode.

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f. View Module

Clicking on one the numbered button on this line opens the corresponding Module Control Window.

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g. Temperature monitoring

Here is displayed the mean temperature of all the modules.

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h. Expert Window

Clicling on this button opens the Ladder Expert Control Window

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h. Power Supply

In this frame is displayed the alarm status, monitored voltage and monitored current of each power supply. Clicking on the alarm rectangle on the left of each power supply box opens the Power Supply Window corresponding to the selected channel.

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4. Module Control Window

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back to Ladder Control Window

(Click on the part you are interested in the following window to get details)

5. Power supply Window

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back to Ladder Control Window

(Click on the part you are interested in the following window to get details)

6. Readout Board Expert Control Window

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(Click on the part you are interested in the following window to get details)

7. Ladder Expert Control Window

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(Click on the part you are interested in the following window to get details)