All AIDA operations are controlled from the Dell T410 Workstation aidas1 using web browsers.

AIDA has multiple, independent data acquisition servers connected by an Ethernet network.

Response times to commands, information updates etc are ~10-60s - please be patient!



How To Start Run 

1) Workspace 1 - Firefox web browser - Run Control tab

   Select 'Update'

   Check DAQ stopped (green 'GO' button displayed)

   Check state of *all* data acquisition servers is 'stopped'
   Check histogramming and data transfer #1 is enabled for *all* data acquisition servers as indicated by 'H X' tags

   See attachment 1

2) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - TapeServer tab

   Select 'Reload'

   Check TapeServer stopped and disk file closed (green GO button displayed)

   See attachment 2

3) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - MERGE tab

   Select 'Reload'

   Check Merge Program paused - see banner 

   Merge State = GOing     :    paused     :    xfer enabled     :    output paused

   If not paused select 'Toggle Merge Program Pause State'

   See attachment 3

4) Workspace 1 - Firefox web browser - ASIC Control tab

   Select 'Reload'

   Check 'Act on ALL FEE64 modules?' selected

   Check 'Act on ALL ASICs' selected

   Select 'Select required function' -> 'Check ASIC Control'

   After ~60s a pop-up will appear showing the response from each ASIC of each data acquisition server.
   Check all ASICs are OK and status = 0x001F0000.
   Dismiss pop-up by selecting OK

   See attachments 4-5

5) Workspace 1 - Firefox web browser - Run Control tab 

   Start DAQ - select green GO button

   Wait (~60s) until state of all data acquisition servers (nnaida1, nnaida2 ... etc) updates 

   Check state of *all* data acquisition servers is 'going'
   Check histogramming and data transfer #1 is enabled for *all* data acquisition servers as indicated by 'H X' tags

   See attachment 6

6) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - MERGE tab

   Select 'Reload' several times and check *all* enabled data links (0-23) are active
         bright green = active, olive green = inactive, red = disabled 

   N.B. If some data links are inactive call for expert help and do NOT proceed!

   Observe active spinner in MERGER server terminal window

   See attachment 7

7) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - TapeServer tab

   Check 'Volume Name' and 'File Name'

   Start TapeServer and open disk file - select green 'GO' button

   See attachment 8

8) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - MERGE tab

   Select 'Reload' several times and check all enabled data links (0-23) are always active
         bright green = active, olive green = inactive, red = disabled 

   N.B. If some data links are *always* inactive call for expert help and do NOT proceed!

   Select 'Toggle Merge Program Pause State' to enable data merging 

   Select 'Reload' to observe merge rate (~ 9000 data items/s)

   Observe active spinners in MERGE and TapeServer server terminal windows adjacent to web browser

   See attachment 9

9) Workspace 1 - Firefox web browser - Run Control tab

   Select 'Start ASIC Data Readout'

   See attachment 10

10) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - MERGE tab

    Select Reload several times and check all enabled data links (0-23) are active
         bright green = active, olive green = inactive, red = disabled 

    N.B. If some data links are *never* active call for expert help and do NOT proceed!

    Select 'Reload' to observe merge rate (~ 0.5-2M data items/s)

    See attachment 11

11) Workspace 2 - Firefox web browser - TapeServer tab

    Select 'Reload' and observe number of blocks written to disk increasing

    See attachment 12

12) Workspace 1 - Firefox web browser - Control tab

    Select 'Save/Restore Settings'

    From 'Save/Restore Module Settings' tab

     select 'Reload'

     select 'Module Names' whose settings should be saved (usually all)

     select 'Generate new DB key' and make a note of the DB key generated
          the DB key will have the format YYYYMMMDD-HH.MM.SS

          The DB key will be used to name a directory to store AIDA settings
          and is created uid: npg, gid: npgstaff, perms 755. However, its
          contents are written uid: nfsnobody, gid nfsnobody. The default
          directory (DB Key) permissions do not work - change the permissions
          to 777 - before attempting to save data to this directory (DB Key).

     launch a terminal and change the permissions of the DB key directory using the command

     chmod 777 /MIDAS/DB/EXPERIMENTS/AIDA/[YYYYMMMDD-HH.MM.SS]

     select 'Save Settings' to save AIDA ASIC, LED and waveform settings to
     the directory (DB key)

11) Update BRIKEN Elog with the following information

    AIDA
    run filename (e.g. R99)
    [# data blocks]
    start date & time
    [stop date & time]
    ASIC settings DB key 
    additional comments
    your name

    Complete run sheet for written logbook