Analog Gammasphere

Analog Gammasphere was the version of data acquisition used prior to updates.

Setting Up the Analog GS DAQ From Scratch

From a linux box type

 telnet gsts1 2009

That will give you a console window for the analog DAQ system. In here, type 'crtl x' that will reboot the VME processor. After it has rebooted, type

 </home/sga2/cur/startup_sga2.cmd
 sgaInit

Now the DAQ is ready and you have to specify where it should store your data. We recommend the following procedure:

Place a USB disk in the the USB docking station on the machine you want to store your data on. It should automount as something like /media/20140304. To use the disk it needs to first be exported. Do that as

 gsexportfs 20140304

Please notice that you should not specify '/media/'.

Now log into dgs1 as dgs and glxgears

 cd /home/sga2/cur/config
 cp a cmd file to c1.cmd
 edit c1.cmd for your purpose

Specify the directory to store the data as something like

 datadir gslinux1 /media/abcd/user/tltmp

Here is an example of a c1.cmd file that works on the disk named '/media/20140304' on gslinx1

#------------------------------------
# cmd file created by "savepars" command
# __ on SAT MAY 11 03:04:24 2013
datadir gslinux1 /media/20140304/user/tltmp
# note -- you should specify a new dir if
#         you have just rebooted
newexp myexp myexp
# note -- you may want to increment the run number below
newrun myexp 5
getimewin 3950 4030
bgotimewin 1950 2030
feradelay 8
setrecversion 1
tgecomoff 4095
tbgocomoff 0
sendto gslinux1
sendfrac 100
setmode +GC_MODE
setmode -TIME_VETO
setmode +HC_SUPPRESS
setmode +WRITE_GE_TIME
setmode -WRITE_GE_FULL
setmode -WRITE_BGO
setmode -WRITE_ALL_GE
setmode -WRITE_ALL_BGO
setmode +RF_TIMING
fileheader on
checkebevlen 1
ratealarm off
badcesdump 0

You can use this file as a template if you wish.

You should now be able to start the DAQ and see something like this:

 sga2: start
 acquisition started
 sga2: EB CES switch detected, but there was no overflow flag in CES=1, usi1=0!
  1083(8) ev/s; CES 50/50%; no ehi 0.5%; alarm off @ 03/05 12:30
  5968(20) ev/s; CES 54/46%; no ehi 0.5%; alarm off @ 03/05 12:30
  5740(20) ev/s; CES 49/51%; no ehi 0.5%; alarm off @ 03/05 12:31
  5132(18) ev/s; CES 49/51%; no ehi 0.5%; alarm off @ 03/05 12:31

It migh be good to look at the data file as see that it grows as

 ls -lt /media/20140304/user/tltmp/myexp

ensuring that you are taking data.

To stop the DAQ and take your data away

On the GAQ console, type

 stop
 closeall

on the machine where you have mounted your data disk, type

 gsunexportfs 20140304

using the datdisk name example from above. This ensures that we unexport the file so that we can eject the disk using the using the standard linux utility:

 locate icon of disk on monitor
 click 'safely remove Drive'
 confirm that icon coes away
 type 'df' to further confirm disk is unmounted

then you can turn your disk off and remove it.

Online data monitoring

cd to directory you want to use. Then get the GSSort packages as

  svn checkout https://svn.anl.gov/repos/gs_analysis/GSSort .
  or
  wget http://www.phy.anl.gov/gammasphere/doc/GSSort/src/src.tgz
  tar -zxvf src.tgz

then compile as

 make clean
 make -B GSSort

compile GSUtil_cc.so as

 rootn.exe
 .L GSUtil.cc++
 .q

Now create a chat file that looks something like this

#-------------------------------------------
# input
#
;input tape /dev/rmt/1mbn
input net 1101
;input disk greg.data
;input disk data/gsfma68
;input disk /cdrom/cdrom/gsfam137_6.data
;input disk /media/disk/user/data/a1/a1.r001.dat.022
#
#-------------------------------------------
# output
#
;output c1.root
;rootfileoption RECREATE
#
sharedmem c1.map 200000000
startmapaddress 0xab785000
#
#
#-------------------------------------------
# basic sort parameters 
#
echo
nevents         1000000000
printevents     100
gerfoffset      1000
beta            0.0
hiresdatamult   0.66666666666
firstfile       -1
nfiles          100
dumpevery       1
writerawfera
binbgo
nposwarn 10
#
# germanium multiplicity requirements in sort
#
cleanmultlim 0 100
dirtymultlim 0 100
totalmultlim 0 100
#
binpev1d tac2 8192 1  8192

There should be a c1.chat file in the package. If you copy the above line to a file, make sure you remove the first space in the lines. The lines starting with # or ; are comments and will not be executed.

Now start up roon.exe in a separate window. This will be the window where we monitor things from. The first thing to do is to determine the startmapaddress in the chat file, In this case, type

 .L GSUtil_cc.so
 sdummyload(200000000)

and enter the start addess reported in the chat file you are going to use. It is important not to get out of that rootn.exe session as the startmapaddress probably will change if you do. In the other window, start GSSort as

 ./GSSort -chat c1.chat

after you have updated the startmap address in the chat file. You should see data come in. Now in the window where you are running rootn.exe, attach youself to the map file and update like this:

 sload("c1.map")
 update()

you should now be able to see spectra as

 update()
 d1("sumehi")

or whatever spectra you want to look at.

VXI processsor boots

The VXI processors have dgs6 as their boot host. This is a scientific linux 6.4 blade computer sitting in the dgs rack. There is a pull out keyboard and monitor for dgs6 in the rack.

WARNING, PLEASE NOTE: If you reboot dgs6, do not use the latest kernel!! This kernel has problems with the network interface. Select the second kernel down and it will work OK.

The boot parameters for the vxi processors are documented below

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 listed
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.170:ffffff00 listed
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc1 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.171:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc2 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.172:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc3 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.173:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc4 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.174:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc5 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.175:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.lrc6 
  other (o)            : 

  boot device          : ln 
  processor number     : 0 
  host name            : dgs6 
  file name            : /vxboot/kernels/boot/niCpu030-t/vxWorks 
  inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.203.176:ffffff00 
  inet on backplane (b): 
  host inet (h)        : 192.168.203.184 
  gateway inet (g)     : 
  user (u)             : vxprod 
  ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh): 
  flags (f)            : 0x0 
  target name (tn)     : vxi7 
  startup script (s)   : /vxboot/daq/boot/resm/startup.mrc 
  other (o)            :

History: The hosting of the vxi processors was originally done by the 'shack' sun computer (which is still alive in the data room), then the hosting was taken over by the 'shack2' Dell linux box (a regular tower). We switched to the dgs6 rackmounted blade machine to save space in the shack.