Run Coordinator report: Spring 2017 r5

Dear Collaborators,

I served as Run Coordinator from March 2nd to 8th, 2017.

Overall Summary

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The primary goal of this period was to continue production data taking and perform necessary systematic measurements before accelerator priority shifted to Hall C on March 6th. Data taking was reasonably productive, with beam available 109 out of the scheduled 152 hours (72% of the time), of which we used 94 hours. We took roughly 11B triggers, reaching a total of 48B triggers out of the planned 60B. The largest sources of downtime in the experiment were two separate problems with FCAL fAD250 boards and recurring connection problems between DAQ components. We accomplished several other tasks, including tests of the fADC250 firmware and the start of minimum-bias studies to understand the trigger efficiency.

Daily Notes

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Mar. 2) After re-establishing good beam delivery on the morning of the previous day, despite some monitoring/DAQ communication issues, we report our most productive day of the week with 3.1B triggers collected over the previous 24 hour period.

Mar. 3) Most of the previous day was taken up by various accelerator problems. Data taking resumed at 8PM, and 1.3B triggers were collected.

Mar. 4) The previous day shift was given over to several studies, including: Tagger/SC trigger studies; tests of fADC250 compressed mode; Hall A bleed-through tests; an empty target run. After this a total of 1.7B triggers were collected.

Mar. 5) At the beginning of owl shift, trigger problems were noticed that were traced to a bad fADC250 board in the FCAL. The board was disabled until it could be replaced in the morning. In the meantime, low photon flux data for trigger studies was taken, with a total of ~14 M triggers. In all, 2.3B triggers were recorded.

Mar. 6) Aside from a couple instances of needing to re-steer the beam, data taking went smoothly, with 2.7B triggers recorded.

Mar. 7) Day shift was dedicated to recommissioning beam delivery to Hall C. After this, injector and other accelerator problems delayed beam delivery to the hall until around 5 AM. <5 M triggers were taken before beam delivery was stopped at 8AM for scheduled beam studies. Systematic harp scans were also performed.

Mar. 8) We spent most of the day in controlled access. Accelerator beam studies were stopped after a couple of hours due to ice buildup that prevented the retuning of some problem cavities. Eventually low-current CEBAF running was restored, and we took data overnight starting at around 9PM, of a total of 1.0B triggers.