Slice Status Status Update

(Apr.28, 2005)

Since our last meeting, Jason and Alex joined the efforts at SX5.
They have been working on the calibration code for the chambers, based
on the PeripheralCrate/DCS library.

 While working on the Peripheral Crate Jason came across two DMBs that were not responsive. Together with the two TMBs that also showed such
non-responsiveness we were still fine for reading out the intended 6
chambers. We suspected a peripheral-backplane related issue. Careful inspection of the two suspect TMBs showed, however, that jumper
settings prevented the TMB from using its actual geographical address.
Having corrected this, both TMBs and DMBs were accessible again.

 Jason upgraded the firmware on all DMBs and wired up the prototype
FED crate which includes the new DDU and DCC. All six DMBs were connected to this new DDU. Jason and Alex's calibration tests were done
with these DMB/new-DDU, the latter being readout via the spy channel on
the EMU DAQ pc. You probably have seen by now Stan's report on this (if not I can forward it to you).

 The timing of the TMBs is still work in progress. Not having any local expertise, this obviously will take somewhat longer to accomplish than originally expected. However, earlier attempts last Friday night by Martin vd Mey showed that UCLA can get to the system and control it remotely. As the TTC configuration is important for anything Peripheral Crate and anything TF crate we dedicated a fair amount of time on solving some issues that showed up in the TTC crate.

 Over the last weekend we have been working on a TTC mystery in which we were unable to send one particular TTC command whereas all other commands seem to complete successfully. Contrary to last year's Beam Tests we are now using a CAEN USB-VME bridge. After having called in expertise from our TTC colleagues it turned out that we were looking at a convoluted problem in which the hardware address of the TTC was changed from its default (something which the software obviously did not expect) and -more importantly- the TTCvi apparently did not make proper contact with the VME backplane. As of yesterday morning we have a fully working TTC system again which we used to check whether (randomly generated) L1As made it through our system.

 The trigger path from the MPC to the SP and back to the TTC is worked on by Dan Holmes, together with support from Darin and Lev. The interconnectivity between the MPCs (which are in the PeripheralCrate) and the SP (after ~180m of fiber/duct) was tested. Each input channel of the SP was tested and SP firmware was updated. As of today, Dan is able to (artificially) generate L1Rs that go from the SP, over the VME backplane to the specially prepared CCB and from its frontpanel enter into the TTC. The TTC then distributes the L1A which we see arrive at the various "clients", i.e. the CCBs in the Peripheral Crate, FED crate and back into the TF crate.

 The DAQ path to the central DAQ has not been established: the CMS-DAQ group still has to set up an FRL (receiving end of our S-Link data) in our counting house. At Monday's Central-DAQ meeting Frans mentioned that they will do so by the end of next week.

In summary: given the manpower we have made significant progress over the last week. Besides, the set-up at SX5 is in many aspects very different from our Beam Test environment. I hope to see some data flowing by the time Central-DAQ provides us with the FRL hook-ups. At this moment, however, priority goes to establishing and formalizing the procedures to time-in and calibrate our system.

best regards,
 Frank