This note relates to Release 8.1 dated Feb 2022 of the MIDAS NewGen Data Acquisition System.
This software is based around a Web Browser for the GUI.

The MIDAS GUI is built around a Web interface. Hence the graphic control screen are accessed using a Web Browser. 
FireFox is the browser recommended. Tab and JavaScript must be enabled. Also some diagnostic screens need popups to be enabled for the data acquisition application.

In /MIDAS/TclHttpd/Html/FEBEX/Screenshots you will find a number of screen captures.
These are used by the User Guide which is accessible from within the GUI using http://localhost:8015/FEBEX/MIDASNewGenDataAcquisition/base.html 

(1)   connect your browser to  localhost:8015    If you wish to use a browser running in a different system to that containing the data acquisition software (even your iPhone) then just replace localhost by the name of the data acquisition system. There is however just one session for each port (8015) and data acquisition system. You may have to modify Linux internal firewall settings since nowadays Linux does not by default permit any incoming IP connections.

   See ScreenA

The buttons are colour coded. 
   Green        important - must likely you will use these
   Blue         less important or less frequently used
   Orange       Rarely if ever used 
   Pink         All screens have a set of Pink buttons for optional functions
   Red          Documentation - either a popup window or a new tab screen containing text or a pdf file 

On each screen look for a "How to use this page" button in the lower right hand corner. These are coming to help you. 
Also some screens (for example the hardware module controls) have "What is this" buttons which explain the particular module register or feature.
All other red buttons will start documentation which may start a new tab (for example using a pdf viewer). When finished you may have to use the brower "back" button to continue.

Notes on using the browser interface

(2) ScreenA    "FEBEX Experimental Control"
    This starts ScreenB

(3) ScreenB    
    Select "FEBEX Hardware Control".  This starts ScreenC.

(4) ScreenC    "FEBEX HardWare"
    This starts ScreenD
    You need to come here initially to setup the FEBEX hardware configuration. See the section in the User Guide for further information and also the "How to use this page" button.

    There is an initial configuration:  to obtain  click on "Restore Configuration"
    The modules selected during the software installation appear. Note that most modules can have more than 1 firmware and these make the software control of the module and data format generated very different.

(5) Go back to ScreenC and select "Save/Restore Settings"
    This starts ScreenG
    Ensure that the module you are using is selected and that the Data Base Key is 2021Feb27-****  or a more recent version if available.
    Now click on "Restore Settings"  (However see the next paragraph). 

    You can restore module settings from this screen or you will find Save and Restore buttons on each module page. Both have the same effect. Settings will be written/read from 
    /MIDAS/DB/EXPERIMENTS/FEBEX/[uname -n]/2021Feb27****
    If you setup one module and wish to copy all setting to a second  module copy the directory use the Copy Settings feature. 
    
(6) Go back to ScreenC and select "FEBEX User Control"
    This will start a new screen 
    This screen allows you full access to all features of the module but you do need to known what you are doing!
    
(7) Go back to ScreenB and select "Data Acquisition Run Control"
    This starts ScreenH
    Click on the RESET button and wait until SETUP appears
    Now Click on SETUP and wait until GO appears
    Check that the Histogramming and Data Transfer options are as you want them. (Data Transfer is on by default if the Tape Server can be contacted). 
    Click on GO

   NOTE:

  Hint:
     If you change the "Acquisition Window" parameter for a module you must reSETUP.
     This parameter controls the length of the sample buffers and is passed to the data acquisition which checks the data format. If inconsistent the error (see Statistics) "Bad Event1" is reported. You must also create a histogram for the sample trace which is at least as large as the Window (but this is less critical). 


(8) From ScreenH select "Data Acquisition Statistics"
    This starts ScreenI
    If you have data coming into the FEBEX modules hopefully you will see the Counters "events" and "total input data" incrementing  (among others!)

have a Software Trigger feature which is available from the module screen: System functions: about halfway down the menu. In "continuous" mode a trigger rate of 10 per second is generated. 

  Hint: 


(9) From ScreenB select "Histogram Browser"
    This starts ScreenK
    The Stat and Rate histograms can be useful in counting data items from the modules. 

(10) From ScreenB select "Data Storage Control"
     This starts ScreenJ. Use the "How to use this page" button for information on what to do.
     

If you restart the HTTPD software during a session you will find that the browser contains a number of Tabs containing screens which are no longer known to the server. In this situation it is simplest if you close all the Tabs and restart from the base (ScreenA). If you find on clicking on a button to start a new screen (when that screen in fact already exists) that nothing happens then often you will find that retrying (click again on the button) will cause the Tab to open.