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The COLLECT Data Acquisition System 
Multi-parameter DAQ
in a small lab environment !!!!!
The POWER of LINUX, PAW and the CERNLIBs in a PC - CAMAC
system
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Open Source development at SourceForge.
Download the Software from Source Forge here
- COLLECT is a powerful multi-parameter data acquisition
system, running on a Linux PC.
It front-ends the Physics Analysis Workstation (PAW/PAW++)CERNLIB page) to a CAMAC crate.
The PAW system can be used as an online presenter as well as for
offline replay of the data. COLLECT
can be easily configured to any desired experiment by reserving the appropriate
space in the ntuple as well as loading the appropriate CAMAC commands for
the desired event strucuture. The event structure is determined by the
experiment and the various CAMAC modules used (ADCs, scalars, pattern modules
etc). developed by CERN (see the
- The Scientist
configures a C++ source file (in the current version) to reflect the experiment
configuration. The process is simple and can be done by any person with
a reasonable level of computing know-how. The CAMAC-NAF codes are defined
for the SETUP, START, GO, PAUSE and STOP operations. These NAF codes are
obained from the CAMAC module's manual. The ntuple size and structure are
also defined in this file. COLLECT
is then compiled using a makefile.
- At SETUP
time, COLLECT downloads the CAMAC
instructions to be processed during each CAMAC cycle to a List Sequencer
in the CAMAC crate. The appropriate resetting and initialising functions
as required are also performed. START then follows, and CAMAC cycles commence.
The List Sequencer buffers events to be transferred. Blocks of events are
written both to a PAW hbook disk ntuple and to PAW Global shared memory
(cyclically). PAW can then be used as an online presenter. During a run,
the normal UNIX pause, continue and terminate keyboard instructions are
used to trigger the operations of PAUSE, GO and STOP as defined previously.
After the experiment, PAW can be used to process and visualise the disk
ntuple.
- This software
was developed at theSRCNS
at the University of the Witwatersrand
by Sergio Ballestrero.
It has been tested using the following hardware : Kinetic Systems 3988 crate
controller (GPIB interface), Kinetic Systems 3982 List Sequencer, Ortec Octal
ADC 811, Ortec Quad 8k ADC 413A, Pattern Register SEN 16P2047, 12 channel
Scalar Lecroy 2551).
- The performance
with this system is a rate of 4kHz giving about 15% dead-time when 6 analog
signals are used.
- Upcoming improvements : XCOLLECT :
Work is being done on a GUI version with a more easily configured CAMAC
and ntuple setup file
Other Links
for Linux DAQ
Links for
LINUX HEP
Links for
CAMAC
Direct any enquiries with regards COLLECT to Simon Connell (COLLEC maintainer)
connell@src.wits.ac.za
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