BLTWG Meeting 12/14/2009

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  • Time: 11:00 EST
  • Place: EVO and ESNET (with telephone bridge)
  • Connecting: instructions are here
  • Present: Richard J., Jim M., Igor S., Liping G., Alex S., Tim W., David L., Bill C.


Agenda

  1. Understanding the Primakov beam energy resolution requirements -- discussion
  2. Progress finalizing results for the tagger magnet resolution -- Alex
  3. Status report on diamond radiator fabrication -- Richard
  4. Update on Microscope electronics -- Igor
  5. Other progress reports -- others

Notes

Status of Microscope Electronics

  • Control board: FPGA firmware debugging is complete!
    • all functionality there. Robust against Ethernet problems (failing links, traffic etc.)
    • inputs/outputs understood, but calibration of DAC may be necessary. Change of its reference voltage may be necessary to remove the systematic shifts present with the current less-than-required supply voltage.
    • yield of good boards is poor for now: only one of the three prototype boards has a functional DAC. One more may be restored. It is suspected that the ball grid array DAC chip was not soldered on (reflow processed?) with the proper temperature profile. The DAC manufacturer specifies tight processing requirements and it is not clear the company populating the boards is aware. We are currently talking to them to establish where the problem lies with that procedure and make sure this is not a problem in the future.
  • Backplane (control/amplifier board interface and signal feed-through)
    • Layout complete and light-sealing details work out. Design sent in
    • Manual assembly (at least for the prototype) is intended to save cost - all components are through-hole.
  • Amplifier board: in the process of population issues of component reel length came up. Longer reels have been purchased and the company (Sierra) is ready to resume board population upon receipt of parts.
  • Low-level software (microscope comm. protocol-aware Ethernet packet communication routines) exists. General, socket-based, Java-based layers nearing completion (will become part of a proper microscope monitoring suite.) Bench testing of these software layers in the next few days.
  • Full system bench-top test expected in the next few weeks, pending receipt of boards (subject to academic schedules.)