HiSPARC II Software User Guide
Contents
1. sawn aozeabazur spouse 39IA30 JAWIS vz sn awig O0E T E 2 OST T 0017 uoaa OT wdd talempley me i S48qunu uois49A meis ubija e 10jejeduico z u5 me SAS geseduor Z 4D me Ubly aaa Jojesedwor p 5 EF moj jana Jojesedwod up mu pres 90azsse zs 8 90056 r quasadd aaas TS spine sqo apmnesdo epnibuo sq5 1906117 pura NE 6 95dd ES auempuey m r pjoysaa aayy z ya ases 7 sJaqwnu uois4aA snes El PJOysauyy samo z up aes M 2 o 4Aeubi pu 2 Je3SelA Plousaa Jeu pup aaels ms 3 ploysaaug Jamo p up ases ms u Pjoysauyy sayy Z uo dagsel PI z zi pjoysazyy Jamoj Z up ease Pe fus BAE PlouseJu 484614 p up4egsep ms zos Z jeuueu5 Saejs piousean Jamoj T tp jesse get 40329320 T jeuueu e e s way ed 1966111 Z euueu 433584 SU 8T6EBZZST 65 0 20 800Z 0 0 T jguueu 483584 Dm dueyseum sqb Sane uoneaque sanshe1s 540443 seas suras uadx3 sbunjes squa 3 Figure 5 1 The Events Settings tab 23 5 1 MODES 4 AW SEDA Ld xe SHO uoneique SONILLAS JAYS Ve 0571 0021 wa or vods esop MEETS i i sJaqwunu uois48A US Wbljje e10je1educo z yD NE ons MO 242 Jozeseduor z 5 me 4y jaaaj sogesedwor p u Nee gt wojJa o ioyejeduio3 q YO me PUES 909zsse 7s 8 90056 p uasaud ares M spmnleS5d9 spmnel5d9 epnybuo sds 4eDbujjeuieyx3 NN 6 9Ddd ES DEMPIeH piouseag aayy z up eres Tm Siaqunu uolsJaA Ploysaya samoj2. 17 18 19 CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction The HiSPARC project measures muons from cosmic rays on the earth s surface with scintillator detectors The signals from these scintillators are converted into electrical signals by Photomultiplier Tubes PMTs HiS PARC electronics are used in combination with a personal computer to read the PMTs out In the original setup the HiSPARC electronics con sisted of multiple components and the settings had to be entered with dials and buttons on the hardware All the PC had to do was read out the digitised data and send it to the database The components of the HiSPARC electronics are now merged into a single device This HiSPARCH device is still read out by a PC but in the new setup the electronics are also controlled by the PC The settings can be entered in the LabVIEW software that sends them to the HiSPARCII device One device reads out two PMTs and the HiSPARCII software can handle two devices at a time a Master and a Slave so we can build detectors with four scintillators In this user guide we describe how to install the HiSPARCII hardware and software Chapters 2 3 and 4 and how to use the software Chapter 5 It is assumed that the rest of the detector is already installed i e the scintillators PMTs high voltage cables signal cables GPS antenna and antenna cable are there and are ready to use CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 Getting Started This chapter de
3. On the Statistics tab page Figure 5 17 on page 36 you can count the number of times each channel went over the thresholds The grey panels at the bottom of the page show in the left column the number of times the signal went over the thresholds in the last second If you push the Start Counting button in the middle the middle column shows the total number of counts and the right column the average per second You can set the number of seconds to count with the Time to count control Count for about 30 seconds and check the averages For the low thresh olds 250 mV this should be between 50 and 60 counts s and for the high thresholds 300 mV between 30 and 40counts s If this is not the case adjust the PMT High Voltage Adjusts do not forget the Apply Settings button and repeat the measurement until all averages are within the given range Now count again for 300 seconds and check if the averages are still right When the calibration is finished push the Save Settings button to save all settings to the hard disk You can exit the program by pushing the Stop Program button Check the values for the high voltage again when the program is taking data If the trigger is set to At least 2 low signals or At least 2 high signals 4 low and 4 high if you are using two devices the Pulse Height Histograms on the Statistics page should be the same for all the channels and have a peak at 2 400 counts 2 230 mV You can find an example of the Pulse Heigh
4. Section 4 1 with the default values for the ADC calibration Section 4 2 Then after the device s has have been taking data for several hours without writing to the database the full ADC calibra tion should be done and the PMT calibration should be done again This makes sure that the whole detector is on operation temperature during calibration In this chapter it is again assumed that the installation as described in Chapter 2 has been completed 4 1 ADC Alignment To make sure that all the ADCs in one device have the same scale and give the same value for a given voltage they have to be aligned This alignment can be performed with the HiSPARCII LabVIEW program When the program is started it runs immediately and a dialog box appears in which the user can select the mode to run in This mode should be Expert Mode for the calibration procedure You are now prompted for a password but if no password is set yet you can just click OK here After the calibration The signal from the PMTs is actually a negative voltage but before it is digitised it is converted to a positive voltage 1V at the analog input corresponds to 1 V at the ADC 17 18 CHAPTER 4 CALIBRATION you can exit the program with the Stop Program button see Figures 5 1 and 5 2 on pages 22 and 23 Now first make sure that nothing is connected to the analog inputs of the devices the PMT Inputs in Figure 2 1 on page 10 Go to the Calibration tab pa
5. be more than 10 us Figure 5 5 Time Windows baseline of the signal cannot be determined and the histograms on the Statistics page will not be filled see also Section 5 6 Device Settings Thresholds The thresholds give the values above which or actually below which because all voltages are negative the signals on the analog inputs of the device s cause a signal in the trigger system The trigger system then decides whether the device starts recording data or not Each channel has its own threshold values and you can set both a low value and a high value See Trigger Settings for more information about the low and high values The Statistics tab page Section 5 6 and Figure 5 17 shows how many times the input signal was above the threshold in the last second Warning The threshold values are set in mV but this is only correct if the device is calibrated and the right gain and offset values are set on the Expert Settings Calibration tabs see Chapter 4 for calibration Integrator Times Here the RC time constant of the integrator circuit at the analog inputs can be set The controls can be set from 0 to 255 where 0 corresponds to a large RC time and 255 to a short RC time Photomultiplier Tube On the photomultiplier tube page the high voltage that is applied to the tube can be set The voltage supplied by the HiSPA RC II device is set in mV and transformed at the tube to a high voltage The factor between the voltage at the
6. calibration procedure is described in Chapter 4 CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED amp DsP GPS Timing Monitor nf xi Control Setup Monitor View Help M Time Status Signal Levels Time 16 02 37 UTC Antenna Open SV Level amp Antenna Short m 106 Date Feb 13 2008 Q Satelite Tracking mm ED Week 1466 TOW 316971 O Self Survey Active Ba 118 UTC Offset 14 seconds A sped ponen JEE Leap Second Pending En EN Position Decimal Degrees Test Mode Latitude 52355284 degrees Position Questionable Bs 154 Longitude 4950058 de dimen m IEE es mees s Q PPS Generated 0 00 Altitude 55 60 meters Temperature deg C 28 05 0 00 GPS Status Timing EJS 0 0 Self Survey Progress 100 Bias 150863 11 ns 0 0 0 Rev Made 7 Overdet Clock Time BiasRate 62302 ppb Ca OC TT r Lag Status GPS Status 0 Doing Fixes PPS Quant Error 8 2 ns TSIP O Data O Tx 0 Rx 6 COMB 9600 8 0 1 Figure 2 3 The DSP GPS Timing Monitor Chapter 3 GPS settings For comparison between detectors each event is given a time stamp by the HiSPARCII hardware To ensure that each event receives a correct time stamp the Global Positioning System is used for synchronisation of the detector clocks Each Master device has a GPS receiver to communicate with the GPS satellites In this chapter we describe how to configure this receiver It is assumed that the installation as described in Chapter 2 i
7. device present or not The Detector number is the unique number set on the Expert Settings Detector Settings tab On the Events panels the current Status the harware and software Version numbers and the coordinates of the GPS antenna are shown as well 5 4 Settings Besides displaying recorded events the Events Settings and Expert Settings tabs also contain the controls for all the settings of the device s There are two types of settings general settings and device settings You can set the same settings on the Slave device as you can set on the Master but the values can be different The general settings apply to both the Master and the Slave device or only to the H SPARCII program itself You can change the settings on the Events Settings tab in both the Normal Mode as 26 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM Trigger Settings Time Window Use only the external trigger In combination with external trigger f Don t use the external trigger Figure 5 4 Trigger Settings the Expert Mode and the settings on the Expert Settings tab only in Expert Mode 5 4 1 Events Settings General Settings Trigger Settings If a signal at the analog input exceeds its threshold value see the Thresholds tab a signal is sent to the trigger system which decides whether to record an event or not At this tab you can set under which condition this happens You can use the internal thresh olds system the external trigger an
8. number of HiSPARCII devices that have a flaw in the electronics This flaw causes an oscillation in the analog input signal that is filtered out if Filter data is set Because the filtering has not the desired effect for large fluctuations of the input signal a filter threshold is used This threshold is controlled by the Use filter threshold checkbox The software stops filtering if the fluctuation in the signal exceeds the threshold If a device with the flaw is used the filter should be used with a threshold i e both boxes should be checked For devices without the flaw the filter should not be used Enable writing to GPS receiver is the only control for which a change is effective immediately after pushing the Apply Settings button This control enables or disables writing the GPS receiver settings see Chap ter 3 If you are not adjusting these settings writing should be dis abled light on the button off Timer Settings On this tab page you can set the minimum time between Screen Updates between Device Checks both in seconds and between PC Clock Error Updates in minutes The screen is only updated if there are new events or new Second Messages from the device which contain the Singles information on the Statistics tab page see Sec 5 4 SETTINGS 31 Figure 5 12 Main Settings device tion 5 6 In a Device Check the device is asked for its current settings and it is checked wether they correspond to the setting
9. proper baseline In that case it tries again at the end of the recorded signal If this doesn t work either the values for the histograms cannot be calculated and the program gives an error for the baseline 999 The number of errors for each channel is shown to the right of the baselines On the Statistics page you can also see the Singles for each threshold This is the number of times the signal on the analog inputs exceeds the threshold In the left column on the Singles panel the number of singles in the last second is shown If the Start Counting button is pushed the program counts the singles for a longer period of time In the middle column you can see the total number of singles over this period and in the right column the average per second You can set maximum time to count with the Time to count control but the counting can always be stopped by pushing the Counting button again 5 7 Calibration In Figure 5 18 the Calibration tab page is shown For information about the calibration process see Chapter 4 5 7 CALIBRATION 35 Figure 5 16 The Status Errors tab THE HISPARC II PROGRAM CHAPTER 5 36 SNILNNOD LLS 921 0092 zer yy z jeuueu sn o 09 28b Lb262 O p moj z jBuueyD 5 3uno 03 eunt S eun ISp STI b69 9z1 48 17 jpuuey IZI 68 002 661 ase ES web moj redden ZYD AIS ZUD SvW zuD I5 ZUD SY tb puoaas sad abeuaay oL puoaes jse S S 002 002
10. puosas sad abe1aAg TYD AIS TUD SYW TUD AIS T D SUW sajbuls uone nae auyaseq s3uno Jay sauyaseg Ul 540443 JO 43SQUINN 13538 300W Ova 25280 12501 4 ogam 7 SONILLAS JAYS Wy uSOWd dOLS SONILL3S AlddY 866 000 05 lt 5842 0051 lt fe y suno Jay jebaqur 7 squno2 304 14blay asd 00021 00051 00521 00001 0052 1 1 1 1 1 uoneqie 0005 0052 0 1 1 DOT 002 DOE 00b 00s 009 002 008 006 0001 OOTT 002T DOET DOPT sjesbazul ue4503sH SANSHEIS 0001 008 009 00b 002 I i 1 1 00r ost ooz osz DOE ose 00t 0st 00S sqyBiay asind we1bojsiH 54043 SEIS JOIAAG H3l1SVMW T Dor lt XA sead Jo 1aquiny S 1 T or suyas yadx3 stij ybiy z jeuuey 19p moj z Jeuuet z l 454 T jeuueu E b Mo Tjeuueu puoaas 3521 sajbuis T Jauueu aes Z uuey gt 4835244 T jeuueu 4a3seu 5 5 31 syead Jo saquinu Wwe4603SIH Z BUUEYD aae sbunjes sjue a The Statistics tab Figure 5 17 5 7 CALIBRATION 37 Figure 5 18 The Calibration tab
11. two devices connect them with the two small UTP cables One cable from Master LVDS Data Out to Slave LVDS Data In and the other cable from Slave LVDS Data Out to Master LVDS Data In 2 Connect the Module I O USB port on the device with a USB cable to the PC If you are using two devices connect both 3 Connect the cable from the GPS antenna to the Master device 4 Switch the device s on Wait until Windows has started and connect the power cable from the adaptor to Power In on the device 5 Connect the GPS Receiver USB port on the Master with a USB cable to the PC 6 After the ADC calibration see Chapter 4 connect the PMT signal cables to the PMT Inputs on the front of the device PMT 1 to Mas ter input 1 PMT 2 to Master input 2 and if you are using a Slave device PMT 3 to Slave input 1 and PMT 4 to Slave input 2 7 After the ADC calibration and step 6 connect the PMT control cables to the PMT Controls 2 6 USB Drivers When the devices are used for the first time and the USB cables are con nected Windows will notice and starts a wizard to install the device If this wizard asks for a location of the driver files enter the directory where 10 CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED Figure 2 1 The front of a HiSPARCII Master device Figure 2 2 The back of a HiSPARCII Master device 2 7 GPS 11 the FTDI USB drivers are located the USB drivers directory of the HiS PARC II software 2 7 GPS If the HiSPARC
12. z Up BAIS M Plousaa sayy p upeaels per IBSEN pioyseay Jamo 7 YD ALIS Mr proyseau seubly z YD jeje me ploysaayy Jamo z up dansen 51 EAF Proysesyy 4ayBiy T ya 42352 ms zos z jeuueu aes ploysaay samo T 42 deje TT m used 1266111 Z JauueyD 423524 a su BT6EGZZST 65 05 40 800Z 0 0 T joue 48352 21 dueaseum sad uoneaqe sonsheas 5140443 smeas 29418394 Sd5 03 Sunum ejqeu3 G gt apow dya ui Appaup yeas 18jJnq DYYdSIH aseqejea Hol Zos paowsseg Jequnw 403283eq sbunes ure sbunjas LIE 13538 3aow Ova 285290 peo 01 8349 SSNILI3S JAYS Wvrasoud dOLS SONILLAS Addy sburges ure sn out Usrt DOT T 0s0 T 1 D sues uadx3 Rui eprapduy sadel sbunyas sjua 3 re 5 2 The Ezpert Settings tab Figu 24 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM DAQ Mode is for long term data taking In this mode the events are written to both the Central and the Local Database if there is one and it is not possible to change any settings while the program is in DAQ Mode The Normal Mode and the Expert Mode each have their own settings file on the hard disk to which settings can be saved When the Save Settings button is pushed it depends on the mode the program runs in to which file the settings are saved The Expert however is able to write to the Normal file as well see also Section 5 2 When the program starts it loads the settings o
13. HiSPARC II Software User Guide Version 2 1 1 Jeroen van Leerdam May 28 2008 Amplitude mv I n 1 I 1 1 I 1 000 1 050 1 100 1 150 1 200 1 250 1 300 Time us For information about the HiSPARC project visit http www hisparc nl This user guide the HiSPARCII software and other HiSPARC II information can be found on http www nikhef nl jleerdam Contents 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 2 8 4 1 4 2 4 3 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5 5 6 5 7 Introduction Getting Started Hardware zo out ce Bath eel en hs Pa sede ed WA WAA ee ba et SEAT Eo Rant A Ra doe A WA Software Installation s s s ss eac sa en Databases uu and ak dx td en E WA DEVICES vo sube eo our mo BAE ee uu en eB Se oles US BHD rivers Baren aaa Xem xeu IA petis Sy d icd P SAL p dix doct a Melt rd ited nl In En renden a GOR or dae Calibration ges Dow temo Reed Gems ed we varanen Dm ues GPS settings Calibration ADC Alignment 2459 teresa de a BR e EB ADC Calibration x ck xe ER Bn is rd PML Calibrations ugue Du RE e velde The HiSPARC II Program Modes dre etw AA ger p Buttons Persad 20s Savard d epu eet eG eae rui oa Events msn ok Bo Eo A hoe ee Eee ue wa SebbIngs ant vern ee der RT IR Ede ek Oh Roe tee ice eee cen 5 4 1 Events Settings 5 4 2 Expert Settings Status EMOS mi dee XS a Boel is MG SLALISLICSS ii a E A a NA SS Calibration ta A A es Rt he Bee Be gud xu 13 17
14. II hardware is used for the first time the GPS receiver needs to be configured This process is described in Chapter 3 After this every time the Master device is switched on the GPS receiver needs some time to track the available satellites and calculate UTC time You can watch the status of this process with the DSP GPS Timing Monitor software see Figure 2 3 For this you should have connected the GPS receiver port of the Master device to the PC as described in Section 2 5 To start the program execute GPS DSPMon exe in the installation directory After installation of the LabVIEW software there should be a link in the Start Menu The monitoring program needs the number of the GPS receiver COM port You can change this number by clicking the right mouse button in the lower right corner of the window COM6 9600 8 0 1 in Figure 2 3 The LabVIEW program only receives the right GPS information if e all Status lights are green e the Time is UTC e the Rcvr Mode in GPS Status is 7 Overdet Clock Time e at least four of the satellite SV numbers in Signal Levels are green more is recommended Make sure you check this every time you restart the Master device and before you start the LabVIEW program to take data The GPS information is not needed for the calibration procedure so you don t have to check this before starting the calibration process 2 8 Calibration Before a HiSPARCII device can be used it needs to be calibrated The
15. The Password is required to enter the Expert Mode of the program This password is not necessarily the same as the password required to send events to the Central Database The default value is an empty string The program uses the value of the Database control to send events to the Buffer Database This value should be the Data Source Name DSN of the ODBC Data Source that directs to the Buffer Database If Start directly in DAQ mode is set the program will go to DAQ Mode 30 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM Main Settings Timer Settings Detector Number Password ix Jena ae Restart required to change HISPARC HsPARC buffer m tti Filter Use wa iv GEE s filter Enable writing to GPS receiver Figure 5 10 Main Settings general as soon as it is started and skips the dialogs that usually appear You can use this setting if the PC is configured to automatically logon to Windows and to start the HiSPARCII program at logon This way the program will automatically resume taking data after a restart of the PC This is often desirable for long term data taking as Windows has a habit of forcing a reboot after an automatic update If the PC can also be configured to automatically power up after a power failure only a crash can stop the data acquisition The Filter data and Use filter threshold checkboxes control the fil tering of the digital signals in the HiSPARCII software Filtering is necessary for a
16. device and the high voltage is approximately 1000 The voltage can vary from 300 mV to 1500 mV but the maximum voltage you can apply is set on the Expert Settings Main Settings tab This tab also shows the supply current for each tube 28 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM Figure 5 6 Thresholds Figure 5 7 Integrator Times Figure 5 8 Photomultiplier Tube 5 4 SETTINGS 29 Figure 5 9 Comparator Thresholds Comparator Thresholds Apart from two at the ADCs the devices have two extra thresholds which show whether the input signal was above a voltage that you can set on this tab These voltages are set from 0 to 255 For the low threshold this corresponds to approximately 2V to 7V respectively For the high threshold this is 2V and 11 V For each event you can see whether the signal went over these thresholds in the Trigger Pattern on the Events Settings or the Expert Settings tab 5 4 2 Expert Settings General Settings Main Settings On the Main Settings tab page you can set several pro gram parameters To make changes on this tab page effective a restart of the program is required in addition to pushing the Apply Settings button and with the exception of Enable writing to GPS receiver The Detector Number is the unique number assigned to the detector This number is used in the databases for identification and must be correct to enable the Buffer Database to send events to the Central Database
17. e to choose between the Normal Mode and the Expert Mode When you select a version the program will start running after it gives a warning if only one device is or no devices are connected In the Normal version you can set all the settings for data taking like thresholds trigger settings and PMT settings and write events taken with these settings to the Local Database In Normal Mode you cannot change any settings for the DAQ Mode and you do not have access to the settings on the Expert Settings tab page like the calibration settings The Expert Mode runs the same as the Normal Mode but is password protected and now you have access to all settings The Expert password can be set on the Expert Settings Main Settings tab page see Section 5 4 2 Finally the 21 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM 22 DOSZ 0002 oost 0001 00S 0 m Eid eue E 0052 0002 oost 0001 00S 0 En O sz pe ar ou OT AAA S Ppeanu u progama Ed ef EE Au wor zee anasnauop J anemiup ef TS sjeubis ubi p Sjeubis moj p orders eR Sus UNE SRUBIS MOE e ncn dran OR o RR Dnm CDCCIOCCETEENT vor emer aw 4614 1 auueyD spubsubuz ej seubswoz J vor 01 4614 7 uueu pubs 454 T u6 mot ER ERI 15891 10 1509 10 Eede cob NN Aw MoT 1 jeuueu z of C gt AW mo 7 auueyo mopu aun sbunjes 186641 usaji duo aqn seydginwojoyg sawa soesbarur spipuseut usaya duo aqn sendanwozoyg
18. er mode will return to the saved value after the self survey has finished asp GPS Timing Monitor Be Dx ro E EH EH Eu vo ES 24 CES E o f oo o foo o foo o foo o foo i Figure 3 1 The Setup menu in the GPS monitor Receiver Configuration Overdetermined Clock Stationary H sas _sethece Figure 3 2 GPS Receiver settings Timing Outputs Figure 3 3 Timing Outputs 16 CHAPTER 3 GPS SETTINGS Self Survey Parameters Figure 3 4 Self Survey settings Figure 3 5 Position settings Packet Masks and Options ATA Figure 3 6 Packet Masks and Options Chapter 4 Calibration To send the signal on the analog inputs of a device to the computer it needs to be digitised This is done with four 12 bit ADCs two per channel that mea sure voltages from approximately 0 to 2V To make sure all ADCs give the same digital value for a certain voltage applied to the inputs and to determine what that particular value is the device needs to be calibrated This has to be done for both the Master and the Slave device if you are using one After the calibration is completed it is necessary to make sure that all the scintilla tor PMT combinations give the same response for a given particle that goes through the detector This is done by adjusting the PMT high voltages To get the best results the PMT calibration Section 4 3 should be per formed after the ADC alignment
19. es of a few important quantities calculated for each channel by the HiS PARCII program are added to the histograms on the Statistics tab page Figure 5 17 These quantities are the Number of Peaks the Pulse Height and the Integral of a recorded signal The Histogram number of peaks counts the number of peaks in the recorded signal Only peaks higher than 60 ADC counts 2235 mV are taken into account where the height is the difference between the highest and the lowest point of the peak and not the height relative to a fixed point The Pulse Height is the maximum or actually 34 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM minimum of the signal in the full recorded time This value is calculated relative to a baseline that is determined by taking the average of the first data points where the PMT still is at its base voltage The third histogram shows the values of the Integral of the recorded signal This integral is the sum of the heights of the signal relative to the baseline for each point where this height is larger than four ADC counts 2mV All the histograms have a maximum value above which entries are no longer plotted The number of entries above this maximum is shown in the counters below the histograms The baselines are also shown on the Statistics page for each event These values should be around 200 ADC counts after the calibration procedure If the signal already varies too much in the first data points the program can t calculate a
20. essed data is written to the Local Database Pushing this button has immediate effect so there is no need to push the Apply Settings button except if you want to save the Write to local DBase setting see also Save Settings 5 3 EVENTS 25 APPLY SETTINGS STOP PROGRAM SAVE SETTINGS Write to local DBase DAQ MODE RESET Figure 5 3 Buttons On the Expert Settings tab page Figure 5 2 there is another Save Set tings button to the right of the main six Save Settings to Normal Settings This second Save Settings button that is only on the Expert Settings page saves the current Expert Settings to the Normal Settings This has no effect on the saved Expert Settings but the old Normal Settings will be lost 5 3 Events Every time there has been a trigger and the device recorded the input signals for a number of microseconds see also Section 5 4 1 an event is shown on the Events Settings and Expert Settings tab pages and is written to the database if the program is in DAQ Mode or if it is writing to the Local Database An event consists of two or four traces dependent on whether you are using two devices or not a GPS time stamp a trigger pattern and a detector number The Traces contain the measured ADC data and this is plotted on the screen The GPS timestamp shows the date and time of the event The Trigger pattern shows over which thresholds the input signal went at the time of the trigger and whether there was a Slave
21. f the mode it is started in The DAQ Mode uses the Expert Settings 5 2 Buttons In Figures 5 1 and 5 2 the Settings tabs of the program are shown In the middle you can see a panel with six buttons Figure 5 3 This panel is visible at all the tabs and contains the main controls of the program Stop Program This button stops the running of the program After push ing it a dialog is shown in which you can choose to run again or to exit the program DAQ Mode After pushing this button the program will restart and go into DAQ Mode Data will be written to all databases Pushing the DAQ Mode button while the program is in DAQ Mode will result in a restart to the select mode dialog Apply Settings All settings values with the exception of the Write to local DBase button can be changed without having immediate effect Only after pushing Apply Settings the new settings are processed and sent to the device s Save Settings Pushing this button will save all current settings to the hard disk When you restart after saving the saved settings are restored Save Settings writes the settings as they were at the last time that Apply Settings was pushed so always apply first and then save Reset This button restores the default factory settings Pushing it results in loss of all current settings This only affects the settings of the mode you are in Write to local DBase If this button is pushed and the light is on all measured and proc
22. ge of the program Figure 5 18 on page 37 and push the Start Cal ibration button The alignment process is now started and the calibration parameters in the lower left and lower right corners of the screen should be changing Obviously if only a Master is used only the Master values change The alignment is performed in six steps so it finishes when the Calibration Steps in the upper right corner of the screen reach seven Select Yes save calibration settings in the dialog box that appears Note the settings are not saved to the device but on the PC hard disk If you use another device with the same PC the calibration procedure must be repeated 4 2 ADC Calibration After the alignment process one has to determine the scale and offset of the ADCs These quantities are represented by the Gain for ADC values and Offset for ADC values controls on the Calibration tabs on the Expert Settings tabpage see Figure 5 2 on page 23 and Figure 5 13 on page 32 These controls have to be set for each channel so two times for each device After alignment the values should be approximately 0 57 mV and 114 mV respectively which are the default values The voltage on the analog input on the device is calculated with Voltage ADC Gain ADC value ADC Offset 4 1 The Gain for ADC values and Offset for ADC values should be set correctly on the Calibration tab pages because the HiSPARCII program uses these values to calculate other device se
23. he higher the voltage the more high pulses we get and the more the histogram shifts to the right What we want to do now is making sure that we get the same histogram for all the PMTs If we would count the number of pulses that exceed a certain threshold pulse height in a given amount of time we are actually measuring the surface of the pulse height histogram to the right of this threshold If we make sure that the count surface for a given threshold is the same for each PMT the pulse height histograms are the same We can adjust the count surface by adjusting the PMT high voltage The higher the voltage the more counts we get Connect the cables from the PMTs to the front of the device s as described in Chapter 2 Section 2 5 Set the trigger to Use only the external trigger again as in Section 4 2 We can set our theshold pulse height 20 CHAPTER 4 CALIBRATION on the Events Settings Thresholds tab pages Figure 5 6 on page 28 The program uses two thresholds a low one and a high one Set the low threshold to 250 mV and the high threshold to 300 mV You can enter these values in the boxes to the right of the slide controls Do this for each channel so two times for each device Now go to the Events Settings Photomultiplier Tube tabs Figure 5 8 on page 28 and set the PMT High Voltage Adjusts to 800 mV this corresponds to approximately 800V at the PMT Push the Apply Settings button to send these values to the device s
24. in voltage applied on the analog input You can set a gain and an offset for each ADC so two per channel These values are determined in the calibration process see Chapter 4 5 5 STATUS ERRORS 33 Figure 5 15 Offsets 5 5 Status Errors Figure 5 16 shows the Status Errors tab page Messages from all errors that occur are displayed here This page also shows information about the HiSPA RC II devices You can see here whether a Master and a Slave device are connected or not what the status of the devices is whether the device has a GPS receiver or not and whether the device has detected a connection to a Slave device or not For the Master device its temperature is shown as well T his temperature is measured on the GPS receiver The status of the device is set to bad a red Status light on this page if the program did not receive any data from the device for more than two seconds or if the device does not respond to the request to send its settings in a device check If the status is bad the program will try to restore a normal connection to the devics If this process times out after ten seconds the connection to the device is terminated the Connected light switches off and there will be no further communication with the device until the program is restarted If the Master device is disconnected the Slave will be as well 5 6 Statistics If an event is shown on the Events Settings and Expert Settings pages valu
25. input on the devices or both For the internal trigger you can set the minimum number of high and low over threshold signals there must be before the device starts tak ing data If you use only a master device the maximum number of signals you can get is obviously two With the and or switch you can set whether you want at least n low signals and m high signals or at least n low signals or at least m high signals Time Window If there is a trigger the device starts recording the input signals for a specified time On this tab you can set the time it records before the time of the trigger Pre Coincidence Time the time within which all over threshold signals must come to cause a trigger Coin cidence Time or Trigger Window and the time it measures after the Coincidence timewindow Post Coincidence Time The Coincidence T ime also counts for the total measuring time so the total time is the sum of these three The Pre Coincidence Time can be set from 0 to 2 us the Coincidence Time from 0 to 5 us and the Post Coincidence Time from 0 to 8 us The total time cannot be more than 10 ys Al though it is possible to use a Pre Coincidence Time down to zero this is not recommended If the Pre Time is smaller than 0 125 us the 54 SETTINGS 27 Trigger Settings Time Window Pre coincidence time us ENEN ENNE TENEN KEKEN 0 5 1 1 5 Coincidence time us aaa 0 i 2 4 Post coincidence time us Ds DENNEN 0 2 4 6 8 Total time cannot
26. l included in the HiSPARCII software package e the HiSPARCII LabVIEW program e the DSP GPS Timing Monitor software e FTDI USB drivers 2 3 Software Installation To install the LabVIEW software or actually the LabVIEW runtime en gine unzip the HiSPARCII software and go to the Installer directory Execute setup exe and follow the instructions You have to enter the in stallation directory for the software here After installation you can start the HiSPARC II program by executing HISPARCII x y z exe in the instal lation directory where x y and z are the version numbers The installer creates a link to this file in the Start Menu Note To use the HiSPARCII software properly the user that runs the program must have write permissions for the files in the installation direc tory and files in the GPS subdirectory The administrator must either intall the program in a directory where this is the case or give the user these permissions in another directory 2 4 Databases Data from a HiSPARCII detector can be stored in two different databases There is a Central Database that is located on the Nikhef institute and it is possible to have a Local Database at the location of the detector although the latter is optional If a Local Database is used it is recommended to install it on a machine different from the detector s Data from all HiSPARC detectors in the Central Database can be accessed through the HiSPARC website The Local Databa
27. ngth in the order of microseconds to the Ext Trig In input at the back of the Master device see Figure 2 2 on page 10 Repeat the pulse every second or so Each time this trigger is given an event should appear on the screen and the ADC value can be read off Use values for the DC voltage of zz 30 mV and 2000 mV and if you want more measurements values in between After calculating the ADC calibration values do not forget to enter them on the Expert Settings tab page and to push the Apply Settings button The settings can be saved by pushing the Save Settings button 4 3 PMT Calibration Now that the devices are calibrated we can take a look at the signals from the scintillators PMTs We have to calibrate this part of the detector as well because each PMT behaves differently for a given high voltage applied toit When a muon goes through a scintillator plate it causes a pulse at the output of the PMT For the calibration we will assume that this pulse is completely characterised by the maximum height it reaches or actually the maximum depth because the PMT s pulses are negative Because we deal with statistical processes and this pulse height depends on the energy of the muon the signal will be different for each particle that goes through the detector However a histogram of pulse heights over a long enough time should always be the same In approximation these histograms only depend on the high voltage applied to the PMT t
28. s done We will use the information from Sections 2 3 and 2 7 in particular To change the GPS receiver settings both the HiSPARCH LabVIEW soft ware and the DSP GPS Timing Monitor are needed The LabVIEW pro gram runs immediately after the executable is started A dialog box appears in which you can select the mode for this session This should be Expert Mode You are prompted for a password but if there is no password set yet you can just click OK here After the GPS configuration is done you can exit the program by clicking the Stop Program button see Figures 5 1 and 5 2 on pages 22 and 23 Do not save settings at exit See Chapter 2 Sec tion 2 3 and Chapter 5 for more information about the LabVIEW program and Chapter 2 Section 2 7 for the DSP GPS Timing Monitor Changes in the GPS settings can be made by pushing the Enable writing to GPS receiver and the Apply Settings buttons on the Expert Settings page in the HiSPARCII LabVIEW program Figure 5 2 The GPS settings can now be written with the GPS monitoring program Set the GPS Receiver Timing Outputs Self Survey Position and Packet Masks and Options settings in the Setup menu Figure 3 1 to the values indicated in Figures 3 2 to 3 6 If you change any values most of the default values should be correct do not forget to push the save buttons Set SV Set Receiver Set PPS Set Qualifier When this is done save the settings with Save Configuration in the Setup menu In
29. s of the program or not The PC Clock Error Update writes the difference between the time on the PC clock and UTC to a file This difference is used by other HiSPARCII applications Device Settings Main Settings If the Reset button on this page is pushed the device will be reset The program restarts with the saved settings The Maz PMT voltage control sets the maximum PMT voltage that can be set with the Photomultiplier tube controls see Section 5 4 1 Calibration With the Common offset you can shift the ADC scale up or down For a higher Common offset value the ADCs will give higher values or lower if you consider negative values The Common Offset is determined in the calibration process see Chapter 4 32 CHAPTER 5 THE HISPARC II PROGRAM o rose iso doses Mas Figure 5 13 Calibration Settings Figure 5 14 Gains The Internal voltage on inputs control is used by the HiSPARCII program in the calibration process For normal usage of the program this control can be ignored With the Gain for ADC values and the Offset for ADC values you can calibrate the device further after the calibration procedure This must be done to make sure that the program converts voltages and ADC values the right way The voltage for a given ADC value is calculated with Voltage ADC Gain ADC value ADC Offset Gain and Offset The Gain and Offset values determine with the Common Offset the value that the ADC gives for a certa
30. scribes how to install and initialise the HiSPARCII hardware and software The procedures for initialisation of the GPS receiver and calibration of the detector are explained in more detail in Chapters 3 and 4 respectively The HiSPARCII program can be used with either one or two HiSPARCII devices With one device you can use two channels scintillators and with two devices you can use four The installation procedure is the same for both options Note To install the LabVIEW program and device drivers you must have administrator rights in Windows 2 1 Hardware To use the HiSPARC TII hardware you need e a HiSPARCII Master device with power and USB cables e a HiSPARCII Slave device with power and USB cables optional e two short UTP cables to connect Master and Slave optional only if Slave is used e an extra USB cable for the GPS receiver in the Master e a GPS antenna with cable e a PC with Microsoft Windows XP installed If you use two HiSPA RC II devices make sure that one of them is a Master device and the other one is a Slave The electronics and the software will not work properly with two Master devices or two Slave devices The difference between them is a GPS receiver The Master has one and the Slave hasn t The GPS antenna connection Figure 2 2 should not be there on a Slave device 8 CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED 2 2 Software To control and read out the HiSPARCII hardware you need the following software that is al
31. se is only locally accessible In general data from the devices is sent to both the Local and the Central Database As an intermediate step it is stored in a Buffer Database that is located on the same PC as the LabVIEW program From there it is sent to the other databases To enable LabVIEW to write to this Buffer Database MySQL must be installed on the PC to act as a database server and the database should be created along with an ODBC Data Source that directs to it In the future all this will be done by the HiSPARCII installer but for the moment it has to be done manually In the rest of this guide we will assume that the 2 5 DEVICES 9 connection with the Buffer Database is there although this is not necessary to run the program and read out the detectors without storing the data 2 5 Devices Important Never plug or unplug the Module I O USB cables that connect the HiSPARCII devices to the PC with the device power on This causes errors in the operating system USB drivers that Windows cannot handle F irst connect the cables and wait until Windows has started and then swich the device power on Switch the power off before unplugging the cables again For the USB cable to the GPS receiver it is the other way around This cable must be connected with power on and disconnected before switching off the Master device The following has to be done to install the HiS PARCI devices see also Figures 2 1 and 2 2 1 If you are using
32. t Histograms in Figure 5 17 although this is for a different trigger condition so the Master Channel 2 histogram is not the same as the histograms for the other channels Chapter 5 The HiSPARC II Program The HiSPARCII LabVIEW program is used to control and read out the HiS PARCII devices and to send the data from the detectors to the database It needs to be installed on the detector s PC and before usage the detector should be calibrated as described in the previous chapters In this chapter all the pro gram settings are explained and it is shown how to use the software The program can be started by executing HISPARCII x y z exe in the installation directory where x y and z stand for the version numbers In the installation process a link to this file was created in the Start Menu When the program starts it runs immediately and the user is asked to select a mode to run in These modes are explained in Section 5 1 For the Expert Mode a password is required but this is set to an empty string by default so just click OK if there is no password set yet You can exit the program by pushing the Stop Program button see Figure 5 1 After the exit the program window is still open and it can be restarted by clicking the run arrow in the left upper corner 5 1 Modes The HiSPARCII program can run in Normal Mode Expert Mode or Data Acquisition Mode DAQ Mode After starting the LabVIEW program or clicking the run arrow you hav
33. the Position settings we did not set an Accurate Position This posi tion must be determined by the receiver in a self survey If the receiver has never been used before a self survey is started automatically if the Master 13 14 CHAPTER 3 GPS SETTINGS device is switched on Because we changed the self survey parameters the process has to be restarted by clicking Restart Self Survey in the Control menu After the self survey process that takes one hour if the Survey Length is set to 3600 fixes see Figure 3 4 the determined position will be stored If for some reason a position is already stored in this case the Stored Po sition light in Status is green instead of yellow this old position should be deleted with Delete Pos in the Position settings Figure 3 5 The GPS receiver will now start a self survey Note It is very important that the position stored in the GPS receiver is correct If the coordinates are wrong the timestamps given to the events are off by an unknown amount of time However this is not immediately noticed because the error is only a fraction of a second Every time the GPS antenna is moved or a different GPS receiver Master device is used with the antenna a self survey should be performed The GPS monitor should look like Figure 2 3 now except if there still is a self survey in progress In that case the GPS Status indicates the progress of the self survey and the Revr Mode is Full Position 3D This receiv
34. ttings and to display events If it is for some reason impossible to perform the calibration procedure described in this section you can use the default values after aligning with the HiSPARCII program although this is not recommended The ADC calibration values can be determined by applying a known voltage to the analog inputs of the device and reading off the corresponding ADC value from the output of the HiSPARCII program After a minimum of two of these measurements at different voltages the Gain for ADC values and the Offset for ADC values can be calculated with Equation 4 1 For the voltage ADC measurements the Gain for ADC values should be temporarily set to 1 0000 and the Offset for ADC values to 0 0 To do this enter the values in the controls and push the Apply Settings button see Figure 5 2 on page 23 and Figure 5 3 on page 25 For these settings the voltage that is displayed in the graphs on the Events Settings tab and 4 3 PMT CALIBRATION 19 the Expert Settings tab is equal in value to the ADC output If a DC voltage is applied to the inputs this will appear in the graphs as a line at a certain ADC value The device s should be triggered to show this line in events To do this set the Trigger Condition on the Events Settings Trigger Settings tab page Figures 5 1 and 5 4 on pages 22 and 26 to Use only the external trigger and push the Apply Settings button again Now apply a positive pulse between 0 and 3V and a le
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