NSCLDAQ distributes with it a program called VMUSBReadout that supports the readout of the Wiener VM-USB VME controller. The following document will instruct the reader in how to set up a basic experiment consisting of a CAEN V785 peak sensing analog-to-digital converter, a CAEN V775 time-to-digital converter, and a Struck SIS3820 32-channel latching scaler. The level at which this tutorial is written assumes the following:
No programming experience in Tcl
Some familiarity with the C++ language
Access to the required electronics
Ability to wire up a signal processing circuit from a block diagram
A version of NSCLDAQ 11 has been installed on the system in /usr/opt/nscldaq/11.x-yyy, where x is any minor version and yyy is any path version.
The reader has already read the VMUSBReadout User's Guide found at the NSCLDAQ website or in the /usr/opt/nscldaq/11.0/share/pdfs directory.
In addition to simply setting up the experiment, the user will be instructed at how to interpret the output of the devices using the dumper program for simple debugging and then on how to develop a basic SpecTcl application tailored to the specific experiment. The SpecTcl implementation will give an example of how to write an event processor using a framework independent data unpacker as well as supporting its potential reuse on event built data.