Control application for either the CAEN V812 constant fraction discriminator or the CAEN V895 leading edge discriminator for the VM-USB Readout control server. This application uses the V812 control widget caenv812gui
The configuration file format is described below in the section CONFIGURATION FILE below.
If the user does not supply any additional parameters following the configfile, a dialog is popped up to allow them to accept or modify the default values (host=localhost, port=27000). If at least the host is provided, it is used and the dialog is not presented. If the host is provided but the port is not, the default value of 27000 is used. IF the host and port are both provided they are used.
Irregardless of how the host an connection ports of the VMUSBReadout are specified, they are output to stdout so that you an know what they are.
The configuration file for the control panel is actually a Tcl script.
the script sets variables which, contain the configuration. Only the
name and base variables are
required. The name variable must match the name of
a slow control module for the V812/V895 in the VMEUSB readout control configuration script.
The base should be the base address of that module.
The full set of configuration variables are:
nameName of the module in the configuration script for the VMUSBReadout.
baseBase address - this is for documentation purposes. It is mandatory but just displayed
thresholdsThis is an array with integer indices from 0-15 and contains the integer threshold values in units of mV. The values should be the absolute values of the thresholds e.g. not -2 but 2 for -2mV threshold.
widthsA two element list indexed 0 and 1. widths(0) applies to channels 0-7 while widths(1) applies to channel 8-15. The manual for the module says this value is from 0 to 255. where 0 corresponds to a 12ns width, 255 a 206ns width, with a non-lineary function between them. In otherwords use an oscilloscope to arrive at the correct value if it is important for timing.
majorityTHe majority level.
enablesA bitmask where set bits enable the corresponding channel. The least significatn bit of the mask is channel 0 e.g. 0x5 enables channel 0, and 2.
deadtimes (V812 only)A two element array of deadtime values indexes are 0 and 1. deadtimes(0) applies to channels 0-7 while deadtimes(1) applies to channels 8-15. Don't blame me. this is how the module works. A value of 0 represents 118ns while the value 255 represents 1625ns. Don't assume a linear function connecting these two endpoints.
Note that the deadtime is at least the width if it is longer than the programmed deadtime.