https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=The_Pickoff_Card The Pickoff Card - Revision history 2024-03-29T13:15:14Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.39.5 https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=4242&oldid=prev Jta at 00:59, July 19, 2023 2023-07-19T00:59:45Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 00:59, July 19, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l1">Line 1:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Pickofflabeled.png|475px|thumb|Figure 1. The <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">new </del>pickoff card, labeled.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Pickofflabeled.png|475px|thumb|Figure 1. The <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">SBX </ins>pickoff card, labeled.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">was made from </del>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 <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">signal paths for </del>GeCenter <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">time constant &amp; gain</del>, BGOsum <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">gain</del>, GeSide <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">signal selection </del>&amp; <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">mode, </del>BGOpattern signal <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">selection &amp; mode, DC offsets of differential </del>signals, <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">and BGO discriminator and preamp reset thresholds are completely </del>software <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">controlled</del>. New signal combination modes now also enable new measurements.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">SBX </ins>pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">SBX </ins>pickoff card <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">is </ins>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 <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">receives all </ins>analog <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">signals from the detector by directly plugging into the Slope Box, eliminating the &quot;grey cables&quot; that existed prior to the Gammasphere Upgrade.  From the 10 detector signals (Ge center contact, two Ge Side contacts and 7 BGO signals) the SBX pickoff generates the four digitizer signals </ins>GeCenter, BGOsum, GeSide &amp; BGOpattern<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">.  Many </ins>signal <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">conditioning and multiplexing options for these four </ins>signals <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">are included</ins>, <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">all controllable from </ins>software <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">through the FPGA's communication interface</ins>. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> </ins>New signal combination modes <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">built into the SBX pickoff's design </ins>now also enable new measurements <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">that were previously unavailable</ins>. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> These new features include</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The new pickoff card automatically scans and collects data from </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">slope box</del>, preamp, <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">power board </del>and <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">dongle into dual-port memory so entire detector appears as one interface </del>to the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">IOC, </del>and <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">implements data logging/histogramming memory </del>for <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">monitoring of various </del>system <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc). Furthermore, it implements </del>BGO discriminators with <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">fast serial interface </del>to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">so that the FPGA </del>of <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">the collector can form </del>the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. </del></div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* Software programmable DC offsets for all four digitizer signals</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* 16 different, software-selectable gain settings for </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">GeCenter signal</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* 16 different</ins>, <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">software-selectable decay time constants for the GeCenter signal</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* Software programmable voltage comparator to detect </ins>preamp <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">reset conditions</ins>, <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">connected to software programmable clamping circuit (DC level </ins>and <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">clamp time) for baseline restoration after preamp reset</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* 5 level programmable attenuation for the BGO sum signal</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* 16 different signal multiplexing/addition combinations for the GeSide channel providing access </ins>to <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">both side channels, a 2nd copy of </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">GeCenter at fixed 5MeV full scale gain </ins>and <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">many FPGA-based digital pulse signals </ins>for <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">diganostics and </ins>system <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">tuning</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* Individual </ins>BGO discriminators with <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">programmable threshold for every BGO scintillator, connected both to FPGA based rate counters and </ins>to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">via a fast serial interface for formation </ins>of the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">2nd-order </ins>suppression data</div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* Software selectable access, through the BGOpattern digitizer channel, to each BGO scintillator signal, the BGO pattern signal, or a 3rd copy of the GeCenter signal at fixed gains of either 8Mev full scale or 17MeV full scale</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">a circuit board </del>with <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">sections allocated to each of </del>its <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">functions</del>. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">cables are attached </del>to the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">bottoms of </del>pickoff <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">cards </del>for <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">the power input from </del>the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. </del></div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">SBX </ins>pickoff card, with its <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">various subsections highlighted</ins>. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">A </ins>DVI <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">cable attaches </ins>to the pickoff <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">card </ins>for <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">connection to </ins>the collector box. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">This DVI cable contains the four digitizer signals plus power and communications.  </ins>The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The data collected from these scanners are placed into a dual-port RAM inside the FPGA to make all collected status values available to EPICS.  </ins>All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Large 50-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates of the old system. 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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned prior to the upgrades</del>.  </div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Furthermore</del>, the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">previous design and layout </del>of the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">pickoff card </del>was <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">dominated </del>by the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">mechanics </del>of <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension </del>to the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">cable plant of the </del>cards. The <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male </del>and <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">female </del>connectors <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">allowing </del>the power<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">, monitoring </del>and control <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">signals of </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">complex </del>cable <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">to pass unhindered, </del>while <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">bringing out </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">detector </del>signals <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">analog </del>signals <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">to develop </del>the differential <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">analog signals used by the </del>digitizers. <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">  </del>The VXI pickoff <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">card sufficed </del>for the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">majority </del>of <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Gammasphere experiments because only </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">GeCenter </del>and <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">BGOSum were used</del>.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before the Gammasphere Upgrade) ==</ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Large many-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates of the old system. The VXI Pickoff Card received the single-ended signals for the Ge Center, Ge Sides</ins>, <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">and BGO segments from </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Slope Box. The VXI pickoff converted them to differential signal format before sending them to the digitizer.  Detector signals were sent as single-ended signals on coax cables that were part </ins>of the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">grey cables, running parallel with multiple power supply voltages plus communication.  All power for Gammasphere detectors </ins>was <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">generated </ins>by the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">bulk power supplies </ins>of <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">the VXI crates, that also had </ins>to <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">power </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">VXI </ins>cards. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> </ins>The <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">long cable runs </ins>and <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">many </ins>connectors <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">often resulted in noisy or marginal power for the detectors, and failing contacts in these cables caused an ever-growing maintenance issue.  The VXI pickoff passed </ins>the power and <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">slow </ins>control <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">through from the VXI cards to </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">grey </ins>cable while <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">intercepting </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">side and center Ge </ins>signals <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">plus </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">7 BGO </ins>signals<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">, converting them into </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">same GeCenter, BGOsum and GeSide </ins>differential digitizers <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">still in use today</ins>. <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> </ins>The <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">original </ins>VXI pickoff <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">did not implement the BGOpattern signals or support </ins>for the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">electric honeycomb in any way.  While sufficient for many experiments, the &quot;pass-through&quot; mechanical nature of the VXI pickoff card created mechanical contact difficulties.  The functionality </ins>of the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">VXI pickoff has been completely replaced </ins>and <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">significantly expanded upon by the SBX pickoff card</ins>.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">===VXI Pickoff Card Features===</del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* Three gain range options (jumper selectable from the bottom of the pickoff card) for the Ge Center: 2, 5, 10 MeV</del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* There was a fixed Preamp Reset Clamp that drove the Ge Center back to baseline after a preamp reset. They sometimes had oscillation problems (ringing) that could hinder resolution.</del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">* There was an analog output on the VXI board. This LEMO output was shaped similar to a NIM Spectroscopy Amplifier, and was NOT what gets sent to the digitizer.</del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> </table> Jta https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2938&oldid=prev Amujahid: /* The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) */ 2023-02-22T17:43:18Z <p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades)</span></span></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:43, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l13">Line 13:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 13:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===VXI Pickoff Card Features===</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>===VXI Pickoff Card Features===</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Three gain range options (jumper selectable from the bottom of the pickoff card) for the Ge Center: 2, 5, 10 MeV</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* Three gain range options (jumper selectable from the bottom of the pickoff card) for the Ge Center: 2, 5, 10 MeV</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* There was a fixed Preamp Reset Clamp that drove the Ge Center back to baseline after a preamp reset. They sometimes had oscillation problems (ringing) that could hinder resolution.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* There was a fixed Preamp Reset Clamp that drove the Ge Center back to baseline after a preamp reset. They sometimes had oscillation problems (ringing) that could hinder resolution.</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></del></div></td><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-added"></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* There was an analog output on the VXI board. This LEMO output was shaped similar to a NIM Spectroscopy Amplifier, and was NOT what gets sent to the digitizer.</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>* There was an analog output on the VXI board. This LEMO output was shaped similar to a NIM Spectroscopy Amplifier, and was NOT what gets sent to the digitizer.</div></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2937&oldid=prev Amujahid: /* The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) */ 2023-02-22T17:43:06Z <p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades)</span></span></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:43, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l6">Line 6:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 6:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Large 50-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates of the old system. 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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">in </del>the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">previous system</del>.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Large 50-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates of the old system. 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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">prior to </ins>the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">upgrades</ins>.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The </del>previous design and layout of the pickoff card was dominated by the mechanics of having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension to the cable plant of the cards. The design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male and female connectors allowing the power, monitoring and control signals of the complex cable to pass unhindered, while bringing out the detector signals on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to the analog signals to develop the differential analog signals used by the digitizers.  The VXI pickoff card sufficed for the majority of Gammasphere experiments because only the GeCenter and BGOSum were used.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Furthermore, the </ins>previous design and layout of the pickoff card was dominated by the mechanics of having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension to the cable plant of the cards. The design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male and female connectors allowing the power, monitoring and control signals of the complex cable to pass unhindered, while bringing out the detector signals on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to the analog signals to develop the differential analog signals used by the digitizers.  The VXI pickoff card sufficed for the majority of Gammasphere experiments because only the GeCenter and BGOSum were used.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2936&oldid=prev Amujahid at 17:25, February 22, 2023 2023-02-22T17:25:49Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:25, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l6">Line 6:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 6:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Large 50-conductor grey cables ran between the Slope Box on each detector to the Pickoff cards in the VXI crates <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">of the old system</ins>. 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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The previous design and layout of the pickoff card was dominated by the mechanics of having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension to the cable plant of the cards. The design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male and female connectors allowing the power, monitoring and control signals of the complex cable to pass unhindered, while bringing out the detector signals on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to the analog signals to develop the differential analog signals used by the digitizers.  The VXI pickoff card sufficed for the majority of Gammasphere experiments because only the GeCenter and BGOSum were used.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The previous design and layout of the pickoff card was dominated by the mechanics of having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension to the cable plant of the cards. The design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male and female connectors allowing the power, monitoring and control signals of the complex cable to pass unhindered, while bringing out the detector signals on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to the analog signals to develop the differential analog signals used by the digitizers.  The VXI pickoff card sufficed for the majority of Gammasphere experiments because only the GeCenter and BGOSum were used.  </div></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2935&oldid=prev Amujahid: /* The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) */ 2023-02-22T17:25:09Z <p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades)</span></span></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 17:25, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l7">Line 7:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 7:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"></ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-side-deleted"></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The previous design and layout of the pickoff card was dominated by the mechanics of having to be plugged in as an “inline” extension to the cable plant of the cards. The design used a “pass-through” motherboard with male and female connectors allowing the power, monitoring and control signals of the complex cable to pass unhindered, while bringing out the detector signals on headers. The actual “pickoff” card plugged into these headers to gain access to the analog signals to develop the differential analog signals used by the digitizers.  The VXI pickoff card sufficed for the majority of Gammasphere experiments because only the GeCenter and BGOSum were used. </ins></div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2934&oldid=prev Amujahid: /* The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) */ 2023-02-22T16:46:47Z <p><span dir="auto"><span class="autocomment">The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades)</span></span></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:46, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l6">Line 6:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 6:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The large </del>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Large </ins>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:VXI Pickoff card top view.jpg|thumb|400px|Figure 2. The VXI system, with old pickoff cards at the end of cables.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2933&oldid=prev Amujahid at 16:44, February 22, 2023 2023-02-22T16:44:33Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:44, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l2">Line 2:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 2:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 for GeCenter time constant &amp; gain, BGOsum gain, GeSide signal selection &amp; mode, BGOpattern signal selection &amp; mode, DC offsets of differential signals, and BGO discriminator and preamp reset thresholds are completely software controlled. New signal combination modes now also enable new measurements.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 for GeCenter time constant &amp; gain, BGOsum gain, GeSide signal selection &amp; mode, BGOpattern signal selection &amp; mode, DC offsets of differential signals, and BGO discriminator and preamp reset thresholds are completely software controlled. New signal combination modes now also enable new measurements.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">) </del>Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">)</ins>. Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">.</del>). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in read-only memory. At startup, the EEPROMs of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2932&oldid=prev Amujahid at 16:37, February 22, 2023 2023-02-22T16:37:12Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:37, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l1">Line 1:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 1:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Pickofflabeled.png|<del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">500px</del>|thumb|Figure 1. The new pickoff card, labeled.]]</div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>[[File:Pickofflabeled.png|<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">475px</ins>|thumb|Figure 1. The new pickoff card, labeled.]]</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 for GeCenter time constant &amp; gain, BGOsum gain, GeSide signal selection &amp; mode, BGOpattern signal selection &amp; mode, DC offsets of differential signals, and BGO discriminator and preamp reset thresholds are completely software controlled. New signal combination modes now also enable new measurements.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>The &quot;pickoff card&quot; attached to the [[The Slope Box Extension|SBX]] of each detector receives the single-ended [[Detector Signals|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 for GeCenter time constant &amp; gain, BGOsum gain, GeSide signal selection &amp; mode, BGOpattern signal selection &amp; mode, DC offsets of differential signals, and BGO discriminator and preamp reset thresholds are completely software controlled. New signal combination modes now also enable new measurements.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2931&oldid=prev Amujahid at 16:36, February 22, 2023 2023-02-22T16:36:52Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:36, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l4">Line 4:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 4:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.) Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.) Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">ROM</del>. <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"> </del>At startup, the <del style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">EEPROMS </del>of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc.). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">read-only memory</ins>. At startup, the <ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">EEPROMs </ins>of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc.). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> </table> Amujahid https://wiki.anl.gov/wiki_gsdaq/index.php?title=The_Pickoff_Card&diff=2930&oldid=prev Amujahid at 16:34, February 22, 2023 2023-02-22T16:34:29Z <p></p> <table style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122;" data-mw="interface"> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <col class="diff-marker" /> <col class="diff-content" /> <tr class="diff-title" lang="en"> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">← Older revision</td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;">Revision as of 16:34, February 22, 2023</td> </tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l4">Line 4:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 4:</td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.) Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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 implements data logging/histogramming memory for monitoring of various system parameters (preamp reset rate, detector voltages, etc.) Furthermore, it implements BGO discriminators with fast serial interface to the [[Collector Box|collector box]] so that the FPGA of the collector can form the [[Detector Signals|electric honeycomb]] suppression data.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br/></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td><td style="color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Figure 1 shows the pickoff card, a circuit board with sections allocated to each of its functions. Parts of the pickoff card are dedicated to the processing of specific [[Detector Signals|signals]], like the Ge center, Ge sides, and BGO sum and BGO pattern. It is designed to stack up with the SBX power board, and has protruding connectors on two different sides to do so. It has connectors for an optional Raspberry Pi, which is meant to enable standalone detector operation. DVI cables are attached to the bottoms of pickoff cards for the power input from the collector box<ins style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">. The FPGA of the SBX pickoff performs automated scanning of the Preamp, the Power Board and the Slope Box continuously in the background using scan programs stored in ROM.  At startup, the EEPROMS of both the Preamp and the Dongle are also read. Within the pickoff firmware, scanner machines run these scan programs with the help of transactor machines that perform individual reads/writes tailored to the specific communications protocols of each device (speed, signal types, etc.). All scanners can be paused to allow EPICS to manually insert commands to the transactors to set any detector device to new values. The status information collected by all these scanners is then written into a dual-port RAM by an arbiter machine. Values in the dual-port RAM are read by EPICS just like any register of the pickoff FPGA, hiding all device-specific timing from EPICS</ins>.  </div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>== The VXI Pickoff Card (Before Upgrades) ==</div></td></tr> <tr><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td><td class="diff-marker"></td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>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. Signals had to be sent to the shack to be converted and conditioned in the previous system.  </div></td></tr> </table> Amujahid