Patplayer

O² O² CRU
1

Dear all,

I would need some basic help to properly set-up the CRU readout chain for MCH.

At the moment I have been able to properly reset our SAMPA chip using the following command:

python ./patplayer.py -i 2:0.0 --idle 0xffffffffffff --sync 0xff0000fffff --reset 0xfffffff00000 \
  --sync-length=32 --reset-length=32 --sync-delay=0  --trg-rst

To proceed further, I would need to be able to send SYNC and PHYS triggers, either manually or at a fixed frequency. Looking at the documentation, I see the following option in patplayer.py (I’ve not yet upgraded to the latest version of the tools):

"--no-sync-at-start", help="Enable/disable automatically sending sync pattern when runenable goes high"

Does it mean that a SYNC signal is automatically sent when DETECTORS/daq_start.sh is executed? If not, what else is needed for this?

Also, is it possible to set-up the patplayer to send physics triggers at a fixed frequency?

I have also seen this other thread about RST and SYNC triggers for the TPC tests, and I am wondering if I’d run into the same problems as described there with the idle pattern, unless I update my fw/sw…

Thanks a lot in advance.

2

Dear Andrea,

Is there a specific reason why you don’t use the latest version? If not I would suggest to do so, because many things have changed since then (there’s no daq_start.sh anymore for example, fixes etc.).

For sending physics triggers with the patternplayer, you need to set the SYNC pattern to 0x10 beacuse bit 4 is the physics trigger in the TTCPON payload. (you can’t send a different SYNC pattern and physics triggers at the same time; physics trigger is basically your SYNC pattern) Select the same bit (4) as trigger for the SYNC pattern with the option
–sync-trg-sel 4
Then you can use the CTPemulator/LTU to send physics triggers periodically (which will trigger the patternplayer to ‘forward’ it as a pattern)

Best regards,
Tuan

3

Dear Filippo,

thanks for moving the thread…

Let’s see if I understood correctly. Would this command generate a single physics trigger?

python ./patplayer.py -i 2:0.0 --idle 0xffffffffffff --sync 0x01 --reset 0xfffffff00000 \
  --sync-length=32 --reset-length=32 --sync-delay=0    --sync-trg-sel 4 --trg-sync
4
  • (change --sync 0x01 to --sync 0x10)
  • –sync -length sets for how many clock cycles you want to send the pattern, so for a single (physics trigger) pattern use --sync-length 1
python ./patplayer.py -i 2:0.0 --idle 0xffffffffffff --sync 0x10 --reset 0xfffffff00000 \
  --sync-length=1 --reset-length=32 --sync-delay=0    --sync-trg-sel 4 --trg-sync
  • Then yes, it manually sends a single physics trigger (and then possibly others but only if there’s incoming physics trigger from the CTPemulator or LTU, which depends on what you configured)
5

Thanks! I will test the command and let you know.

6

Hi guys,

just saw this thread and wanted to comment on it, despite not being an expert in the Muon setup. The values i see for the patplayer are for TPC but don’t necessarily need to work for the MUONs. They might need to be adapted for how the MUONs connect their E-Links to their Dual-SAMPA boards. So the IDLE pattern and the RESET pattern need to be adapted.

TPC uses the E-Links with 160 Mb/s, so each “nibble” (4 bits) correspond to 1 E-Link. The MUONs use the E-Links with 80 Mb/s, so only 2 bits (half-nibble) belongs to 1 E-Link and the amount of E-Links for the Muons is double than for TPC.

Cheers,
Torsten

7

Hi Torsten,

thanks for the clarifications, this probably explains why I could not see physics triggers with the commands above. I will do try to better understand the way the pat player works, and do some more tests later in the week.

Cheers,
Andrea