1 restart megha-session

The data acquisition system will continue to do whatever it is doing (ie collection of data and writing to tape) unless commanded to change state from the Midas GUI. Termination of a megha-session or logout from the Sun will not change the state of the data acquisition system. (Except see section 1 of the User’s Guide about the effect of logout from charissa1)

If the data acquisition system is setup and running when you start megha-session the session startup will contact the data acquisition servers and restore your experimental configuration.

However it is probably a good idea to check that the CAMAC configuration has been restored correctly. All you have to do once the session is running is from the Base Frame select CAMAC and then Control. When the CAMAC Configuration & Control Frame starts check that the window shows your hardware configuration (i.e. that it is not empty). To restore a hardware configuration click on the button Save/Restore Configuration and select the file to restore from (normally this is the file named latest).

2 restart X Termimal

Just login and continue. If you had been running a megha-session just restart as in (1).

3 restart Sun workstation (charissa1)

Login and follow the instructions in the User’s Guide to restart the Tape Server. Since the Tape Server has been restarted you may have to remove any tapes in use and insert new ones. You cannot add further data to the tapes if data files on the tapes where being written when the workstation was restarted. If the Tape Server state was STOPPED then you should be able to append further data to the tapes.

Then start a megha-session. STOP data acquisition. Load any tapes required. You are now ready to GO data acquisition.

[NOTE – If you logout of charissa1 any running Tape Server you started will be deleted. On login you should restart these as described in Section 1 of the User’s Guide]

4 restart Sun workstation (other than charissa1)

Just login and continue. If you had been running a megha-session just restart as in (1).

5 restart the Tape Server

The Tape Server runs in a terminal window in charissa1. It can be restarted by killing the running program (Ctrl+C) and then restarting. See Section 1 of the User’s Guide for details.

The Tape Server is in fact a number of tasks (typically 6). In most cases killing the master task using Ctrl+C will cause all Tape Server tasks to end. However if the fault causing you to kill the server is related to a tape drive problem this may not happen. You will find that the restart does not work correctly in which case the quickest solution is to reboot the workstartion.

[NOTE – If you logout of charissa1 any running Tape Server you started will be deleted. On login you should restart it as described in Section 1 of the User’s Guide]

6 restart Sunsort

It has been noticed that Sunsort can get into a state where it appears to sort the same data block over and over again! You will notice this because Sunsort will be sorting data even when there is no beam. To get back to a more sane state first exit sunsort . Then restart as you did on login.

7 restart VME processor

From the Experiment Control window click on Redisplay. Make sure that the options are as you want them (look in particular at the Enabled checkboxes) and then click on the big yellow SETUP button. When this has finished you are ready to GO again.

Normally the Histogramming Enabled button should be checked and the Histogram option E+T selected. See the User’s Guide for details.

8 power cycle CAMAC crate

Always STOP data acquisition if at all possible.

When you power cycle a CAMAC crate it is necessary to initialise the CAMAC crate controller.

Go to the Megha Main Menu window

Click on CAMAC

Select RS232 CC from the list

This will start the RS232 Crate Controller Setup & Monitor window. Select the CAMAC crate you have power cycled from the menu (it will be in the range 1 => 7). Click on the button Initialise Controller.

This is actually a safe operation and so you can initialise a crate which is already initialised without damage. If you get an error report try it again before getting worried since the RS232 interface may be in a mess following the power cycle.

Then go to the CAMAC Configuration & Control window and click on RESET electronics and then use Save/Restore Setup to restore all adjustable parameters and get all your CAMAC hardware back into a good known state.

[NOTE All Crate Controllers can be initialised by using the CAMAC Reset item in the Advanced Menu on the Data Acquisition Experiment Control window.]

[NOTE All Crate Controllers are initialised and all CAMAC modules have their settings reloaded from the current save file during the SETUP procedure.]

9 power cycle MEGHA Amp crate

Normally all parameters are stored within the crate controller NVRAM and are thus not lost. You may however save/restore amplifier settings using the Megha Amplifier Controller window.

It has been noticed that the Megha amplifiers can lose their settings. You can force reset the amplifiers by using the Reload current Amp settings button. See the Megha Control section in the User’s Guide for more details.