This note relates to Release 3 dated April 11 2016 of the MIDAS NewGen Data Acquisition System. This software replaces previous MIDAS software which used Tk for the GUI by software 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/CAEN/MIDASNewGenDataAcquisition/Screen 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/CAEN/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. 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 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. Notes on using the browser interface (2) ScreenA "CAEN Experimental Control" This starts ScreenB (3) ScreenB "User Guide" starts the web pages being written to guide you through the software. These pages are local to the server and do not require an internet connection Select "Hardware Control". This starts ScreenC. (4) ScreenC "VME Configuration" This starts ScreenD You need to come here initially to setup the VME 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. So for example V1751 is the module with the standard firmware and V1751PSD is the module with the DPP-PSD firmware. You should select the appropiate version. The hardware access used VME bus A32 (rather than direct optical links). For initial testing it is recommended that you use VME access. The V1730 module should be set to 0x17300000, the V1751 to 0x17510000 and the V1724 to 0x17240000. To load this configuration into the software click on "Activate Configuration" Note: To use the direct optical connection see http://npg.dl.ac.uk/MIDAS/MIDASNewGenDataAcquisition/base.html and select "VME Hardware Configuration". (5) Go back to ScreenC and select "VME Save/Restore" This starts ScreenG Ensure that the module you are using is selected and that the Data Base Key is 2015Aug25 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/CAEN/Mar2016. If you setup one module and wish to copy all setting to a second identical module copy the directory. Ie copy v1730pha#1 => v1730pha#2 etc. (6) Go back to ScreenC and select the module in use. This will start either ScreenE (V1740) or ScreenF (V1751) or other module. These screens allow you full access to all features of the module but you do need to known what you are doing! From this screen you can also restore the module settings NOTE: At present the module parameters are not restored automatically by SETUP. It is important to restore parameters for modules with DPP firmware since there are no sensible default values. If you RUN without good parameters the firmware is likely to crash. NOTE: All supported modules have reasonable (but I don't claim the best) parameters in the Mar2016 set. (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: messages like ReadRegisterAttributes failed: Name=v1720#1.VMEStatus; Code= 0x10004; Info= Register name does not exist during setup have been suppressed so messages like WriteVMERegister failed: v1751psd#1.Config Code= -1; Info= VME access error are to be taken seriously Code= -1 is possibly recoverable but check that the VME crate is powered on and its interface cables are in place. Code= -2 is a more serious error which normally requires that the VME crate is power cycled. In the terminal window for the data acquisition program (EXEC) look for messages like CAEN module 1 type V17241 group 64 at VME address 0x5000000 has data FIFO at address 0x5000000 CAEN module 2 type V17300 group 160 at VME address 0x17300000 has data FIFO at address 0x17300000 This is confirming the modules that the software will acquire data from. The last digit in the module type (ie V17241) is the firmware variant. 0 is the standard firmware; 1 is PHA firmware and 2 is PSD firmware. 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 VME module hopefully you will see the Counters "V17XX events" and "V17XX data" incrementing. Hint: For testing you will find that most modules now have an internal test pattern generator (see the module register). Also all modules 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: In most cases the internal trigger will not generate triggers if the threshold is simply set to 0 (default). See the module manual for details. However the input signal must CROSS the digital threshold. Hint: The CAEN firmwares tend to be a little fragile (in particular the DPP firmwares). Changing some parameters while going will crash the firmware. This seems to be module dependent. It appears you cannot change the parameter while the firmware is actually processing a trigger in the module but it may be OK if there is no data. There are now buttons "Pause Acquisition" which will stop the module processing triggers and "Resume Acquisition" which will reenable triggers. If you use these it seems that you can change most parameters without a full acquisition STOP. The current state of the module (idle or running) is displayed at the top middle of the module GUI. If the firmware crashes then all accesses to the module (including data readout) will give a VME Access Error. Error -1 is a VME bus timeout - this may recover; Error -2 is a firmware communications error - this probably will not If you can STOP acquisition do so. Power cycle the VME crate; restore parameters and SETUP again. The software in the workstation will recover once the crate is power cycled and the module starts to respond again. (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.