DAQ Meeting/20180530

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Agenda

• Bob : Set up LHRS ROC and DAQ under TS now by connecting to RHRS, and add QWeak ADCs, and put all Parity DAQ together under one config under TS control
  • (To Do from yesterday) LHRS Trigger Supervisor (TS) Control mode:
    • We need to get the T_Settle/MPS TTL signal from a new 726 Phillips Level Translator and send that signal to at least the Happex Timing Board QDC
    • We need to get the portserver telnet connection into the LHRS ROC #25 to work
    • We need to switch operation from the Prex.crl to Prex_ts.crl style CODA configuration control scripts and ensure that everything is connected and the ROCs have the correct hardware RAM numbers
    • Then the MPS signal will not come from the Counting House but from the RHRS directly using the RS45 cable number 21 connection - yesterday Tyler completed its connection (currently not inserted into the TI/Trigger Interface crate) from the RHRS VME crate to the LHRS VME crate
    • Ultimately we will want to sever the HEL/Helicity signal coming into the hall entirely, to avoid spurious signal leakage and contamination from the Injector's helicity information

• Long-range plan :
  • PAN, post-PAN and PAN-guin (Parity Analyze software) should all be rewritten, primarily to bring its functionality into the current group's control as JAPAN (Just Another Parity ANalyzer)

Minutes

• Morning - 9AM - Bob, Tyler, Chandan, Cameron : Connecting the LHRS correctly
  • To fix the LHRS ROC 25 'hallavme14' connectivity issues we:
    • Connected to the hatsv4 port 5 (see here for more information on DAQ portservers and console servers, serial port VXworks ROC-debugging, and common problems and solutions)
      • Changing portservers was not necessary, we used hatsv4 because it was available and hatsv21 wasn't obviously working at the time (we later put the connection back on hatsv21 port 4 on Thursday) - see here for a catalog and network map of every module and networking utility in the system
    • After telneting into the ROC we had to reset the Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM)
      • The NVRAM is responsible for storing the boot configuration information for the ROC so it can correctly boot itself from the network
      • However, the NVRAM in ROC 25 on the LHRS is not functioning correctly between boots and requires manually resetting the parameters after each boot
      • The NV in NVRAM comes from the fact that a battery prevents the RAM from getting erased while the ROC is powered off - the battery has gone bad for ROC 25 and must be replaced, and all other ROC batteries should probably be replaced as well so this isn't a problem
      • The NVRAM was reset using the older vmeram_14jul16.doc file as a starting point, and the correct settings are currently stored in apar@adaq3:~/doc/vmeram.doc
    • Plugged the ethernet connection into the lower of the two ports on the ROC so the MAC address would be allowed to DHCP correctly (see here for more information on DAQ ethernet network connections and common problems and solutions)
    • Added 'hallavme14' and 'hallavme14.jlab.org' hostnames to the /home/apar/.rhosts file to allow VXworks to do insecure logins via telnet (these peculiarities are also documented here)
    • These last three steps were what fixed our connectivity issue for telneting and SSHing into 'hallavme14' LHRS ROC 25
      • But we also had an issue where the Event Builder in CODA was taking forever to load
      • So we went into the database configuration in 'cedit' and removed the 'go' scripts from the configuration file
      • These scripts were trying to do things that were no longer needed or possible (i.e. EPICS variable reading), and so they caused significant delays - easily fixed by removing entirely - should be updated for actual Prex DAQ running later
  • To put the LHRS ROC under TS control we:
    • Connected the RJ45 cable number 21 between the R and LHRS ROCs, 26 and 25 respectively
      • Making sure that the polarity of the RJ45 cable was preserved at each junction (by placing the arrow at the top of the connection on each TI module and matching arrows at junctions along the cable)
      • With the signal leaving the 'happex4' RHRS ROC 26 on the right of the RJ45 set of two ports, and entering in the left of the two on the 'hallavme14' LHRS ROC 25 (the end-point of an RJ45 TS control connection needs to have 50 Ohm resistor end caps placed inside on the TI module, but we left this out, should be added later for completeness)
      • Making sure that the TI hardware ROC number is what it is claimed to be in the database (in hex) - indeed it was ROC 01 as specified in the script we started with
    • Edited the _ts .crl and cedit configuration to include the TS control and the TI board correctly
    • This all worked fine
  • We then restored hatsv21 port 4 to its rightful status as the LHRS portserver connection and tried to make a complete Injector + RHRS + LHRS + Counting House configuration under TS control but the RHRS had developed a problem (the ethernet connection was disconnected by some other people doing work in the detector hut and was fixed the next day)

• To Do :
  • Fix the RHRS connection and run with all components under TS control
  • Revive the EPICS system so that the configurations' scripts can run without pausing the Event Builder to take forever to start, or just force the scripts to run in the background, even if they fail
  • Synchronization of all DAQ signals should be revived as well

• Simplistic network map as it stands at the end of this week (see Network Map for more):

Location       - SSH Hostname - Software ROC# - Hardware ROC # and Branch - Serial Access Method
RHRS           - 'happex7'    - 26     - 02 branch 4 - serial port via portserver 'telnet hatsv3 2002' port 2
LHRS           - 'hallavme15' - 25     - 05 branch 4 - serial port via portserver 'telnet hatsv21 2004' port4 
TS             - 'happex4'    - no ROC - no ROC      - serial port via network 'ssh adaq:ttyS8\@acons1'
Counting House - 'halladaq6'  - 23     - 00 branch 1 - serial port via network 'ssh adaq:ttyS8\@acons1' 
Injector       -  'qweak1'    - 24     - 00 branch 2 - serial port via 'telnet' via network 'ssh pi@rpi12'