OVERVIEW & OPERATIONS WINDOWS:

  1. Overview

    The Endcap EMC comprises Tower, Shower Maximum (SMD), and both Pre-Shower, and Post-Shower, Detector subsystems.

    Briefly:

    The towers are read out by single anode PMT's housed in magnetically shielded boxes and associated Front End Electronics (FEE) crates located on the back of the STAR poletip; the SMD, Pre- and Post-Shower on the other hand, are all read out by Multi-Anode PMT's (MAPMT) and compact FEE enclosed in shielded boxes (also on the back of the poletip). The High Voltage for the (MA)PMT's, LV power for the FEE, data collectors and slow controls all reside in the EEMC racks located along the Wide Angle Hall (WAH) west wall. An air blower for tower FEE crate cooling and a chiller unit giving H2O cooling of the MAPMT FEE box electronics are also located there.

    The EEMC systems for shift crews/experts to control and monitor are the following:

      LV power (Wiener PL500 dual supplies for the FEE)
    1. Tower FEE (ETOW)
    2. MAPMT FEE (ESMD)
    3. High Voltage for all phototubes (HVSys controllers and base HV)

    High voltage for both PMT and MAPMT have a common controller system ("HVSys") for their Crockroft-Walton bases. Separate VME crates in the EEMC WAH racks contain the slow controls (VxWorks CPU) and data collector modules, respectively. The screens allowing control of these various systems are indicated briefly below and further discussion of startup, normal operation/monitoring, trouble shooting alarms, and etc., are given in other sections of this writeup, which is organized to allow interactive use with a web browser.

    In addition to operation as a stand alone STAR detector subsystem, the EEMC is an important part of STAR triggering for much of the physics program. Hence QA of its operational health, including all aspects related to trigger performance is essential. Such monitoring is done via the "J-evp plots" produced during each run and whose rudimentary description relevant to the EEMC is also given elsewhere in this document. Run-by-run conditions may supersede information contained herein; be sure to consult current directives from the EEMC experts and run coordination.

  2. Controls screens/Windows - these are usually open in desktop sessions on the Endcap EMC slow controls computer "eemc-spin" (user = online; pwd = .... ), if not see instructions directly below.

    1. Top level EEMC control screen; launch from a session connected to the STAR slow controls computer (currently) "sc3": sysuser@sc3.starp.bnl.gov -X; (key - same as eemc-spin pwd ....,) via "eemc_main_ff" from any directory (note: the "_ff" extension gives fixed font which generally works best on current Linux platforms).

      1. All status indicators and mini-displays should be green during normal operation.
      2. Global on/off and configure operations are available at this top level but it is recommended to use the detail level screens (launch with brown buttons) to give more options and operation feedback.
      3. Laser screen _not_ in use (1/06 and subsequently).

    2. HVSys -- CW base HV -- (click on EEMC top level screen "detail" for HVSys):
      1. 3 controllers each w/ 4 branches are indicated at bottom of GUI.
      2. PMT CW bases -- 60 boxes displayed on GUI outer radius.
      3. MAPMT CW bases -- 48 boxes displayed on GUI interior.
      4. An example of sector 12 level screen (click detail) for the 5 Tower (12T_) and
        4 MAPMT (12S_ and 12P_) boxes is given here .

    3. Tower FEE -- (click on EEMC top level screen "detail" for Tower Fee):
      1. Top level crate status is given for the 6 Tower crates.
      2. Indication of monitoring activity (and state, a.k.a. "installed/uninstalled").
      3. Detailed configuration and trigger LUT loading -- "Master Reload" does everything!
      4. An example of a Tower crate level screen (click detail) for crate 1 is given here

    4. MAPMT FEE -- (click on EEMC top level screen "detail" for MAPMT Fee):
      1. Top level MAPMT box status is given for all 48 boxes (12 sectors)
      2. Indication of monitoring activity (and monitoring paused/unpaused).
      3. At GUI upper left, power supply status and associated 4-sector or all-sectors configuration buttons
      4. Additional monitoring features (e.g., "center plate temperature") at GUI upper right.
      5. An example of a MAPMT FEE box screen (click detail) for 6S1 is given here.

    5. Crates and LV power -- (click on "power" from EEMC top level screen):
      1. Shows crates and power supplies controlled by CANBus.
      2. #90-91 VME crates: slow controls and data collectors( #90 example.)
      3. #92-94 towers LV dual supplies ( #93 example.)
      4. #95-97 MAPMT LV dual supplies ( #96 example.)

    6. VxWorks/IOC monitor (window) -- use for error message check and Input/Output Controller (IOC) command line action.
      1. In general a session will be open ... if not, (from eemc-spin) open a terminal window and log into a control room "gateway" machine (e.g., daqman, startrg, etc.) and from there log into the eemc server connected to the VxWorks monitor:
        1. e.g., "ssh evpops@daqman.starp.bnl.gov (key - same as eemc-spin pswd ...)".
        2. from there, "telnet eemc-serv 2003" ... at prompt for login: username = [eemc]; pswd = [same as EEMC computers (in 2024) w/o last 4 digits]. Then hit "return" a few times to get the VxWorks "->" prompt.
      2. If connection fails due to existing process window -> find the session that is connected to VxWorks/IOC and either use it or kill/restart as above. [Note: one can view the process/PIDs owned by "operator" via the "ps -fu evpops" command; to kill the telnet process, identify its PID (e.g., corresponding to "telnet eemc-serv 2003") and use the command "kill [-9] PID".]