DAQ system

DAQ System circled in red; one rack for each of the four "hemispheres" of Gammasphere

Gammasphere's DAQ system (data acquisition system) is now placed on relay racks by each of its four "hemispheres". Each of the racks for the DAQ consists of a power supply, a collector box, and a VME crate The data acquisition system observes, interprets, and modifies data taken from Gammasphere and appropriately presents it to the user.

When Gammasphere collects data, single-ended signals are first collected from the slope box for the Ge Center, Ge Sides, and BGO segment. The signals are converted to differential signals by the SBX, and are then sent to the collector box so the signals can properly be routed to the digitizers. The digitizers process and output the desired information to the user based upon their data specifications. The DAQ system is an FPGA-based design that provides communication hub interfacing the preamp, power board, dongle and slope box to EPICS through serial interface. Analog signal paths are completely software controlled.

DAQ System Function

The DAQ system prior to upgrades consisted of VME crates, IOC Modules, Digitizers and Trigger Modules. There were two types of Digitizers (Master and Slave) and well as Trigger (Master and Router).

Diagram of the digitizer to IOC process of the DAQ system.

DGS Commander EPICS Screens

This section contains an image map of DGS Commander and all subsequent EPICS screens

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