ATLAS AMT 0.1 MiniDAQ software
Software v1.0 Documentation v1.1
University of Michigan
16 July, 1999
B. Ball, J. Kuah, J. Hollar, and E. Munson
Overview
The ATLAS MiniDAQ software is designed to program and acquire events from an
AMT 0.1 mezzanine card setup. It uses user-level routines from the ATLAS
interface library, which is implemented in LabWindows/CVI. The MiniDAQ program
is operated through a set of user-defined CVI user interface panels. The
function eventLoop
in the ATLAS interface library is the core of the MiniDAQ system. It allows
continuous polling for GUI or hardware events while the system is active. This
function also allows counters to be updated and user “hook” functions
to be called on each iteration of the loop.
The MiniDAQ uses a user hook function to read data from the AMT 0.1. This is
done through a VMIVME 2510B parallel IO module in a handshaking mode. The
MiniDAQ stores the acquired data in a buffer, where it can be saved to a file
or printed to standard IO. The ATLAS interface library also allows the data to
be sent over TCP/IP to multiple remote clients as it is acquired.
User Interface Panels and Controls
This is the main panel of the user interface. All other sub-panels are accessed
from this panel. Resets of the AMT 0.1 are controlled by the
AMT Reset, Event Reset, Bunch Reset,
and
Full Reset
buttons. A Full Reset performs three consecutive VME writes in the order
Reset -> Event Reset -> Bunch Reset. The
Access AMT 0.1 JTAG
button brings up sub-panels allowing JTAG programming of the AMT 0.1.
When a run is started, the user is prompted to select Disk or None (standard
IO) as a storage preference. This choice is unrelated to sending the data over
TCP. The packets are sorted and labeled as TDC header or trailer, group header
or trailer, mask flags, single measurement, combined measurement, error, or
debugging. If disk is chosen, the user is prompted to select an appropriate
file in which to save the data as a text file. Time and date of the beginning
and end of a run are recorded if data is saved to a file.
The GUI also includes buttons to pause a run, resume a paused run, or end a
run. Finally, a
Help
button and a
Quit
button are included. If the
Help
button is selected, the next control selected will display a help message.
This panel allows programming of the AMT 0.1 Setup and Control registers. This
process uses the 2510B module to send the appropriate bit strings and clock
controls to the AMT JTAG interface.
The Cold Start AMT 0.1
button resets the DLL (Delay Locked Loop) and loads the control and setup
registers. Change Control
and
Change Setup
bring up sub-panels allowing bits in the control and setup registers to be
toggled on or off. The
Program AMT 0.1
button loads the control and setup registers with the values selected in
Change Control
and
Change Setup
. In addition, several status display buttons, a
Reset TAP
button, a
Help
button, and a
Quit
button are included.
The Control Register panel and the five Setup Register panels allow the JTAG
state bits of the AMT 0.1 to be toggled on and off. The panels can be cycled
through with the Previous
and
Next
buttons, and the
Done
button returns to the JTAG Control panel to apply the changes. Once the
changes are applied, the Control and Setup panel states are saved and the
panels are hidden. Hitting the Cancel button at any time exits the Control or
Setup panels and returns everything to the previous state.
Data Storage Structure
During an acquisition run, the data words from the AMT 0.1 are stored in a one
thousand-word array of 32-bit integers. This array is then formatted to include
a six-word header before the actual data. In order to do this the MiniDAQ
checks the packet type of each data word to see if it is an AMT 0.1 header. If
it is an AMT 0.1 header, it checks the ID against the last ID received to avoid
duplicate data. If the ID is different, it prepares the six-word header and
reads in data until an AMT 0.1 trailer is received. The final structure of the
buffer for each event is as follows:
Header
Data
The first word of the data section immediately follows word six of the header
section. All words are 32-bit integers.
Sending Data to Remote TCP/IP Clients
The ATLAS interface library includes functions for operating a DDE (Dynamic
Data Exchange) server. The MiniDAQ is therefore automatically registered as a
server when eventLoop
is called. If there is a need to send data to remote clients, the MiniDAQ can
be operated together with a CVI based “DDE client/ TCP server”
program running on the same machine. This program receives data from the
MiniDAQ over a single DDE connection, and then transmits it over TCP to
multiple remote clients, which can be either CVI-based or UNIX-based. There
should only be one MiniDAQ running at a time, as the ATLAS interface library
will register each DDE server under the same name.
The DDE server is operated at the ATLAS interface level, and only the function
SendData(*data, sizeof(data)),
where
data
is a pointer to the new data buffer, needs to be called in the MiniDAQ. This
is done in the function
DDE_Send(void),
which fills the buffer when a new event is detected. The entire one
thousand-word buffer will be sent over DDE, with any unfilled elements of the
array sent as zeroes. A one-second delay is introduced between sends to avoid
overwriting DDE data.
The DDE -> TCP exchange is handled automatically by the Server/Client
program once data is sent over DDE. If
SendData
is called without a DDE connection, the send request will be ignored. The DDE
server will shut down on quitting the MiniDAQ. The purpose of this system is to
avoid the overhead of running a TCP server handling multiple connections
directly in the MiniDAQ program. For more information on the DDE/ TCP system,
see [5].
Configuration Issues
The MiniDAQ program is written in C and compiled under LabWindows/CVI 4.0.1.
Some or all of the visual interface routines may have to be altered to compile
it under other graphical software packages. The code for the DDE server in the
ATLAS interface library is written with CVI routines, so it should be compiled
under CVI if data will be sent out over DDE. Since DDE operates only under MS
Windows, the DDE server part of the program can not be run on other platforms.
In addition, the appropriate VME and VXI controller and software must be
installed correctly. These are described in [6].
References
[1] LabWindows/CVI Programmer Reference Manual. July 1996: National Instruments
[2] LabWindows/CVI Standard Libraries Reference Manual. July 1996: National
Instruments
[3] LabWindows/CVI User Manual. July 1996: National Instruments
[4] ATLAS MiniDAQ Interface Library Software. June 1999: E. Munson and B. Ball
[5] DDE Client/ TCP Server System Software. June 1999: J. Kuah and J. Hollar
[6] ATLASinterface Library Configuration Issues. December 1998: E. Munson
1
1. Total length of this event, including this word
2. Run number
3. Event ID
4. Record Type
5. Reserved
6. Reserved
1. Total length of data record, including this word
2. First real data word
3. Second real data word
4. Third….