Alibava

Useful links:

• Official documentation:
  • https://twiki.ific.uv.es/twiki/bin/view/Atlas/ALiBaVa
  • https://twiki.ific.uv.es/twiki/pub/Atlas/ALiBaVa/alibava.pdf
  • https://twiki.ific.uv.es/twiki/pub/Atlas/ALiBaVa/ALIBAVA_quick_start_guide.pdf

• Alibava DAQ software: http://sourceforge.net/projects/alibava/

• Alibava forum: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=alibava-general

• To buy Xilinx Platform Cable USB II: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/programmable-logic/7059737/

• iMPACT: Xilinx’s software to flash Alibava’s firmware. http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/22648.htm

• How to run iMPACT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNzgzbvjPLA

• How to install Xilinx’s drivers in Ubuntu: http://www.george-smart.co.uk/wiki/Xilinx_JTAG_Linux

General considerations

The readout chain is a set of boards and cables which are prototypes and are not fully tested, for this reason you must be specially careful in the power up in order to avoid overcurrents. The rule to follow is to plug all the connectors before the power supply.

Alibava firmware

There are three different versions of the Alibava firmware. The official version comes with the Alibava board. The other two firmware versions were created to work with pairs of beetles in the I2C directions 0x10-0x12 and 0x14-0x16.

To upload the firmware you need to use the Xilinx Platform Cable USB II and the iMPACT Xilinx software

Alibava software

We are currently using version alibava-0.3.0-1, that can be downloaded from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/alibava/. To avoid problem the motherboard must be reset with the blue button before launching the program with root permissions.

If communication is sucessful, you should see this:

• Reseting the board

• Sending Beetle configuration

• Sending Trigger configuration

Otherwise there may be error messages, possibly due to firmware mismatch.

Below the functions that integrates the software are detailed:

Pedestals:

Used to take a pedestal run . The number of events that we will take is listed under "Max. no of events ". Extra noise from 1st channel of each Beetle - to investigate.

Additionally, the software allows you to save the pedestals or load them from a file (from Settings drop-down menu), so this functionality can allow us to know how to read output data files.

Calibration:

This feature uses the test pulse functionality, injecting more and more charge in each step. The step settings can be tuned.

Laser Sync:

This feature can be used in conjunction with the trigger output to perform a timing scan. It’s useful to know the timing settings where we are reading the Beetle in Laser Run mode. The trigger out is designed to input a laser which impinges on the sensor. In the absence of sensor we could use the soul of a Lemo cable without mesh to induce directly a signal in the pitch adapter, the closer (even touching) put the "antenna" better.

With this function we perform a scan in the injection timing signal using the trigger output. We can tune the timing settings taking data with the Beetles in Laser Run mode. The trigger out signal is designed to be used as a trigger for the pulsed laser that will impinges on the sensor. For testing purposes, as we don’t have a sensor bonded to the pitch adapter, we used the core of a lemo cable as an antenna to induce a signal directly in the pitch adapter.

The ‘Latency’ parameter, into Settings->Beetle, is another useful setting. The pulse remains 1.2 us in high state, and in order to see both rampings on the oscilloscope’s screen we had to set the latency to 130, (vfs may be placed between 0 and 50) and then we did a scan of about 1500 ns with a step of 2 ns.

-- AlvaroDosil - 04 Jun 2013
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