The Pickoff Card: Difference between revisions
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The VXI Pickoff Card received the single-ended signals for the Ge Center, Ge Sides, and BGO segments from the Slope Box. The VXI pickoff converted them to differential signal format before sending them to the digitizer. | The VXI Pickoff Card received the single-ended signals for the Ge Center, Ge Sides, and BGO segments from the Slope Box. The VXI pickoff converted them to differential signal format before sending them to the digitizer. | ||
[[File:VXI Pickoff cards Bottom.jpg|400px]] | [[File:VXI Pickoff cards Bottom.jpg|thumb|400px]] | ||
===VXI Pickoff Card Features=== | ===VXI Pickoff Card Features=== | ||
Revision as of 20:53, February 13, 2023
The "pickoff card" attached to the SBX of each detector receives the single-ended signals for the Ge Center, Ge Sides, and BGO segments from the Slope Box. It converts these to differential signal format before sending them to the rest of the DAQ system. The pickoff card was made from an FPGA-based design that provides a communication hub interfacing the preamp, power board, dongle and slope box to EPICS through a serial interface. Its analog signal paths are completely software controlled - new signal combination modes now enable new measurements. The new pickoff card automatically scans and collects data from the slope box, preamp, power board and dongle into dual-port memory so entire detector appears as one interface to the IOC, and mplements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.)
The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades)
The large 50-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates.
The VXI Pickoff Card received the single-ended signals for the Ge Center, Ge Sides, and BGO segments from the Slope Box. The VXI pickoff converted them to differential signal format before sending them to the digitizer.
VXI Pickoff Card Features
- Three gain range options (jumper selectable from the bottom of the pickoff card) for the Ge Center: 2, 5, 10 MeV
- There is a fixed Preamp Reset Clamp that drives the Ge Center back to baseline after a preamp reset. This sometimes has known oscillation problems (ringing) that can hinder resolution.
- There is an analog output on the VXI board. This LEMO output is shaped similar to a NIM Spectroscopy Amplifier, it is NOT what gets sent to the digitizer.