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2 Input Multichannel Scaler User Manual

1. 36 147 PER CU LS NOCERE ne ee an nee Sarnen ea 36 443 DIE REN 37 4 4 4 Close CONversaltn nes en nee ee eue 38 4 5 Controlling the MCA4 Windows Server via DLL iii 40 SIMPANT ONG E ee ee ee ee een een 41 SPENN 42 9 2 elei IVC ze ee ee EE 45 DO Pe CON Qi RTT T 46 SAU a ee 51 9 ACLONIMERUS nee een ee 62 6 Programming and Software Options ccccccccssececeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeseeeeseeeeeeseeeeseeeeeseeesseeeesseeeesseeeesseeeseeeaeenaes 64 TAPPETO ee ia ee 65 7 1 Absolute Maximum Raungs n esse ee sse seen 65 7 2 Recommended Operating Conditions sise 65 1 3 SDEEILAUON ae ee ee er ei ee ee 65 1 3 1 GATE MES NOR ee En reader 65 1 32 SNU 65 TS DEN PONS Ne 66 TA uic nio nie 66 re Ecc TT 66 7 4 2 M l channel Scaler uvaner 66 TO SE or a E cs anc ae EE te ne ei 68 TRE 68 Paik SOUDIG SON 68 7 8 PA NN 69 4 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Table of Figures Fio Device MANAGER a ea Ge alae EE on io oo 10 F0 2 2 Diver NE 10 510 23 CHOOSING the Fighit Todel ann sun nee een 11 Fig 2 4 Device Manager after successful driver installation 11 FIG 2 9 MESA rear Narr 12 FIG 2 5 Sotware starup STEEN see ee ee 13 Fig 2 7 MCA4 Settings select MCS Mode iii 14 Fig 2 8 MCS Settings for a simple measurement sise 14 FM SENSE 15 FG 2 10 ETNA 15 FOSS
2. FOSNES ONE Dvd a ie IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Introduction 1 Introduction The MCS4 is a member of a versatile family of advanced USB connected software controlled Multichannel Analyzers and Multiscalers In Multiscaling MCS mode the internal memory is used to accumulate spectra of up to 16M bins An automatic sequential mode allows to acquire up to 65536 sequential spectra each with a presettable number of sweeps with no dead time between each cycle or synchronized with an external signal The maximum count rate is 400 MHz dwelltime is gt 30 ns for one STOP input or gt 50 ns for two STOP inputs A versatile 8 bit digital I O port provides controlling external devices or to react on additional external signals The GO LINE compatibility allows to synchronize begin and end of the experiment across many measurement devices The 32 bit or 64 bit MPANT Windows Software is able to handle 6 MCS4 providing up to 12 MCS channels In field upgrade options enable upgrading of future firmware versions enabling new features 8 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Installation procedure 2 Installation procedure 2 1 Hard and Software Requirements For operating the MCS4 you need a standard PC with a high speed USB 2 0 port and Microsoft Windows XP or higher USB 1 0 ports do not work The maximum throughput rate is approximately 32 Mbyte sec This throughput rate is somewhat dependent on the computer hardware and operating system We do
3. MCS4 2 Input Multichannel Scaler User Manual Copyright FAST ComTec GmbH Gr nwalder Weg 28a D 82041 Oberhaching Germany CHADV e FEATURE I O MCS4 START STOP 1 STOP 2 FAST comtec GATE 1 GATE 2 Version 1 12 December 14 2015 Software Warranty FAST ComTec warrants proper operation of this software only when used with software and hardware supplied by FAST ComTec FAST ComTec assumes no responsibility for modifications made to this software by third parties or for the use or reliability of this software if used with hardware or software not supplied by FAST ComTec FAST ComTec makes no other warranty expressed or implied as to the merchantability or fitness for an intended purpose of this software Software License You have purchased the license to use this software not the software itself Since title to this software remains with FAST ComTec you may not sell or transfer this software This license allows you to use this software on only one compatible computer at a time You must get FAST ComTec s written permission for any exception to this license Backup Copy This software is protected by German Copyright Law and by International Copyright Treaties You have FAST ComrTec s express permission to make one archival copy of this software for backup protection You may not otherwise copy this software or any part of it for any other purpose Copyright 2015 FAST ComTec GmbH D 82041 Oberhaching Germany All
4. 001 006 O01 4 08 153 1379 6 62 Units 002 007 001 408 1100 1379 662 Ir inch fe 003 008 OG 408 20468 1379 662 infa M Date M FileName Paper margins c Zone manns 31 Harz Wertic Left Right Top Bottom m 0 54 0 63 20 00 10 00 15 00 15 00 EA IV Frame hne P E 9 p 408 pos a ee Comment 3 __Lancel Fig 5 6 Print dialog Setup Printer The Setup Printer menu item enables to configure the printer Exit The Exit menu item exits the MPANT program The server and any measurement data remain active MPANT can be easy restarted out of the file menu of the server program 5 2 Window Menu The Window menu enables arranging the Display windows Tile With the Tile menu item or by clicking the corresponding icon all opened and displayed MPANT Display windows are arranged over the full MPANT client area trying to allocate the same size for each window Cascade E The Cascade menu item or respective icon arranges all windows in a cascade display IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 45 MPANT Software Open All By selecting the Open All menu item all Display windows are opened Window list At the end of the Window menu all created Display windows are listed with their names the current active window is checked By selecting any of the names this window becomes the active window and is displayed in front of all the others 5 3 Region Menu The Region menu contains commands for
5. By selecting the Open All menu item all available Displays are shown The windows of the last opened Display become active Close All By selecting the Close All menu item all Display windows are closed IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 43 MPANT Software Compare The Compare menu item opens a dialog that enables to show two spectra with different colors in the same window The active display window can be checked as a primary window and there is a list of other spectrum windows that can be inserted as secondary windows Compare Display list Displays to be compared NES ADC 3 lt Remove Add All gt OF Cancel M ADC 8 Fig 5 4 Compare dialog Using the features of the software it is possible to create a shifted spectrum that has a characteristic peak at the same place as the primary spectrum see This way a view as shown in Fig 5 5 can be created WESMPANT MCA4 ADC1 8 l Bl x File Window Region Options Action Actionz Actiong Actond 8 x QBES Ek jet b k LEO LS ers Asp em Sd lets lem F1 F2 F3 F4 rs re r ra FajrtortiFt2 OFF speclA Time 4800 000 ADC1 Real 4800 000 Live 4788 000 Dead Count Total Rate ROI Net ADC 2 Real 3012 000 Live 3000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 1 876 718 Total 1 876 718 Rate 0 00 ROI 1 870 706 Net 1 858 424 ADC 3 Real 1004 000 Live 1000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 497 672 Total 497 672 R
6. Now click on Options Hardware Settings or amp l to get the MCA4 Settings dialog pop up Select Mode MCS and click on MCS Settings ref Fig 2 7 to get to the MCS Settings window Fig 2 8 MCS Settings ioj x Range Dwelltime fioa O00 nsec External Clock Sequential cycles 1 Sweep preset ho Timepreset ino RO Preset i ro o froze MCS Inputs Polarity TILE x Impedance hm vi vw Start rising edge v Stop rising edge M Channel Advance rising edge Apply Cancel Fig 2 8 MCS Settings for a simple measurement Set Range 1024 Dwelltime 100ns MCS Inputs Polarity to TTL Impedance 50 Ohm and click OK After starting the measurement a garden fence like spectrum begins to grow ref Fig 2 9 The distance of the peaks is 100 channels corresponding to 100 x 100ns 10us or 100kHz 14 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Installation procedure 5 x mn ZARI TUE lol xl 4 280 000 260 000 240 000 220 000 200 000 180 000 160 000 140 000 120 000 100 000 80 000 60 000 40 000 20 000 o 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 TotalSum 2 247 468 Cursor Start Time 02 26 2015 20 52 48 Counts Fig 2 9 Simple MCS spectrum 2 6 Installing more than one MCA4 MCS4 Module The software is able to operate up to 6 MCA4 modules with a single computer Just connec
7. Selected Spectra Format Erase nes fasc Liztmode write Listfile NoHistogramming Drop zero events Replay Cancel Save Sett Fig 5 21 Data Operations dialog 58 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software System Definition x GO Line Mot active System 1 System 2 System 3 System 4 Watch High at Start Low at Stop ss se Push Pull f Open Drain lt lt All lt lt All lt lt All All Start with Dia 4 GO Status Dig 0 3 Invert Value incr at Stop Jo T agbits Tagbits Cancel Save Sett Remote Clear before Start Fig 5 22 System Definition dialog Spectra The Spectra dialog box allows editing the list of calculated and dual parameter spectra Dualparameter and Calculated spectra f No CHN Range Type Name Condition Add Multi al a2 256x256 MAP Add Time 10 HTL al 2664256 TIA ATC xa 11 41 2 16384 Orsum OR 30 12 al 65536 HIS HY a1 Edit Delete Delete All OK Cancel Conditions Fig 5 23 Spectra dialog Sel The Slice option allows to create new single spectra displays showing a slice in a dual parameter spectrum Click on a dual parameter spectrum display to make it the active window then select the Slice menu item or toolbar icon The Slice dialog box is displayed Select x const or yzconst for the slice direction and the coord
8. UA aa AI 5 0 ns E mawaa nza wwa 5 0 ns EEE EEE 45 0 ns 5 0 ns R 41 25 ns 1 25 ns End of SWeep ade rice EE 10 ns between time bins esses eee nennen none He 2 Range 10ns channels 2 32000 50ns dwell time ref Fig 7 2 lt 0 1 Yo EEE EE 48 bit EEE eu linm m max 65536 spectra auto sequence mode esses eene nennen nnns 30 ns 4 some modes may be used simultanously 66 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 0 20 0 30 0 40 0 50 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 SN SN a a a eee VP a PPT PTT 100 LA A a dial d dd d L a SENDEN nn eee ns En En En ee Appendix MCS Noise Spectrum 13300000 13280000 13270000 T MUTET m ai soe Matec tof ttm obama h at dahin 1an tek a MLD ala de 1a bd id AL ded i sch ad led bat DL o D e 13250000 13240000 a NEM 0 05 0 5 RE EN EN 15226000 JE Ge Ee BE BE SE SE EE Ee SE SE ee Se ee 13210000 ERE 220000 AAA 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 22000 24000 26000 28000 30000 Channel Fig 7 1 MCS noise spectrum 32k range 50ns dwelltime MCS Differential Non Linearity 0 50 0 40 NN ae EN ee RE NEN aa pp PP PV ON add mmm mmm nu li Le 0 30 0 20 0 10 0 00 0 2000 4000
9. pr_ena 0 Preset enable flags MCS mode bit 0 runtime preset enabled bit 1 realtime preset enabled bit 2 sweep preset enabled bit 3 ROI preset enabled bit 5 ROI2 preset enabled enb ch 1 bit0 3 enable ADC chn1 chn4 thr1 ad20c62 LOWORD threshold 1 HIWORD zero in 64 bit ADC LSB s thr2 b370cc7 threshold 2 and zero thr3 9dc0b6c threshold 3 and zero thr4 9dc0b6c threshold 4 and zero width1 531 ffe LOWORD maxwidth1 samples per pulse HIWORD minwidth1 width2 531 ffe width3 531 ffe width4 531 ffe digio 0 LOWORD Use of Dig I O GO Line bit 0 status dig 0 3 bit 1 Output digval and increment digval after stop bit 2 Invert polarity bit 3 Push Pull output bit 4 Start System 1 with Dig 4 bit 5 Start System 1 with GO bit 8 GOWATCH bit 9 GO High at Start 30 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH digval 0 trigger 6 mcsmode 0 cycles 1 mcspol 10 svapol f dwellunit 0 dwelltime 10 swpreset 10 timepreset 10 000 unipolar 1 event cnt mode 1 fifosize 0 sca ffff sca2 ffff sca3 ffff sca4 ffff phafit 0 fitwidth1 29 fitwidth2 29 fitwidth3 29 fitwidth4 29 memsegs aa ctm8 125 mwidth1 0 mwidth2 0 mwidth3 0 mwidth4 0 gate 0 ctlsca 0 Software Description bit 10 GO Low at Stop bit 11 Clear before triggered start 0 255 DIG I O Output value bit 1 4 control trigger for scope mode bit 0 TRG_EDGE DOWN bit 1 TRG EDGE UP bit 2 4 TRG SRC 0
10. Ohmi M Start rising edge M Stop rising edge M Shope rising edge M Channel Advance rising edge WE Channel Advance rising edge Apply Lancel Apply Cancel Fig 4 7 MCS Settings for one left or two stop inputs right Clicking the MCS Settings button opens the MCS Settings or MCS2 Settings dialog as shown in Fig 4 7 The Range defines the number of time bins the Dwelltime can be set in units of 10 ns from 30 ns MCS or 50 ns MCS2 The measurement can be stopped automatically after a specified number of sweeps by checking Sweep preset If the checkbox ROI Preset is marked the measurement will be stopped after acquiring more events than specified in the interval between the boundaries defined in the corresponding edit fields The events are counted only if they are within the ROI limits i e gt the lower limit and lt the upper limit Another possibility is to acquire data for a given time via the Time Preset A series of measurements can be acquired into separate memory parts by checking Sequential cycles and specifying the number of cycles Each single measurement should be terminated preferably by a sweep preset condition The complete run stops after performing the specified number of cycles The spectra are then shown in a two dimensional view row by row in the MPANT program As the sequential mode is implemented in the firmware there is only a very small delay of 30 ns between the time s
11. Options rADC 2 Save New Fit Cancel Real 3012 000 Live 3000 000 Dead 0 40 1420 1425 1430 1435 1440 1445 1450 1455 1460 1465 1470 1475 1480 1485 1490 1495 Count 1 876 718 Totalsum 135 543 Cursor 1420 1420 000 kev Counts 663 Total 1 876 718 Gross 74 913 Net 61 778 Mean 1 189 1 1438 x2 1453 dx 25 11 16 keV Rate 0 00 R l 0001 2563 2625 1164 97 1133 04 keV Centroid 2582 91 1173 88 kev ROI 1 870 706 Net 1 858 424 ADC 3 Real 1004 000 Live 1000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 497 672 Total 497 672 Rate 0 00 ROI 461 691 Net 109 892 ADC 4 Real 4956 000 Live 4946 000 Dead Count 12 258 170 o Total 12 256 170 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500 2750 3000 3250 3500 3750 4000 0 250 Rate 0 00 TotalSum 1 876 718 Cursor ROI 12 253 224 Counts Net 12 253 224 128 MB FIFO Acquisition OFF sx ai 0x Fig 5 9 Single Gaussian Peak Fit The full width at half maximum FWHM and Position of the Gaussian can be changed and a New Fit can be performed they even can be fixed to the entered value by marking the respective check box The Position and FWHM are displayed in channels and also in calibrated units if a calibration is available The area of the Gaussian is also shown For all values also the standard deviations are given The value of Q is the normalized chi 2 To take into account the systematic error of the line shape you may multi
12. The Cursor can be moved in x and y direction using the mouse and the arrow keys in ISO display only using the arrow keys A status window at the left side gives all information about the status of the MCA4 Below the different counting rates a progress bar shows the filling of the FIFO IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 41 BEaMPANT MCA4 File Window Region Options Actioni Action2 Actions MPANT Software lo x Actions 2 iE ES AE jet Alle LEO eL2 SEE Her A NASA OFF MIX Time ADC 1 4946 000 Real 4800 000 Live 4788 000 Dead 0 25 Count 3 067 757 Total 3 057 757 Rate 0 00 ROI 3 062 969 Net 3 034 311 ADC 2 Real 3012 000 Live 3000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 1 876 718 Total 1 876 718 Rate 0 00 ROI 1 870 706 Net 1 858 424 ADC 3 Real 1004 000 Live 1000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 497 672 Total 497 672 Rate 0 00 ROI 481 691 Net 109 892 ADC 4 Real 4956 000 Live 4946 000 Dead 0 20 Count 12 258 170 Total 12 258 170 Rate 0 00 ROI 12 253 224 Net 12 253 224 128 MB FIFO Acquisition OFF jm X F F2 F3 F4 F5 F jF7jFa rojFtolFtt ot MBGO 7 gt kh i zi Lr TNI Er er x Lr ce a rr i an E x AA 0 20 0 60 60 TotalSum 1 072 085 DEN More Fes ill rake P P Bi 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 Cursor Counts Es Pillay 6 1
13. Tu J n 08 0 39 37 Counts TotalSum 1 876 718 Acquisition OFF Fig 5 1 MPANT main window The server program MCA4 EXE automatically starts MPANT If you try to start MPANT before the server is started a message box warns that you should start the server first If you want to use the server without the MPANT display program you may rename the file mpant exe into mympant exe It will then not be found by the server and not started MPANT can be closed at any time without affecting the data acquisition and can be restarted out of the server menu or by a shortcut on the desktop MPANT has viewing capabilities for single and two dimensional spectra For ROI s the ROISum Net sum and the mean counts per channel i e ROISum divided by number of channels and the centroid is displayed lt x gt for single spectra lt x gt and lt y gt for two dimensional A single spectrum can be converted into a two dimensional one by specifying the x dimension in the display option dialog It is possible to drag a rectangle and zoom into this rectangle Rectangular ROI s can be set and the ROISum and Net ROISum is displayed The Net Sum is calculated the same way like in the single view by subtracting a linear interpolated background from the both outmost channels in x direction This Net sums are then summed up in y direction The ROI editing dialog is changed into a Rectangular Editing dialog for MAP and ISO displays
14. are accessible from the MPANT program which actually is the graphical user interface and which will appear now on your screen feaMPANT MCA4 u 10 x ag barokk mers es 2 mx dress Klrs rzira FeFo xis m ioj x TEST Scale Parameters zl Time Calibration Sweeps Comments Al Slice Total ROI Hard tting Rate Dat System Function Keys v Tool Bar v Status Bar Status Window gt Fit ROIs Output Open Save As 0 0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500 2750 3000 3250 3500 3750 4000 Totalsum 0 Cursor Acauisition OFF Fig 2 6 Software startup screen 2 5 2 Multiscaling measurement To setup a simple multiscaling measurement we need a square wave generator that provides 2 synchronous signals This can be achieved with e g a function generator with additional SYNC output Or you use 1 signal that is connected via a power splitter to the MCS4 In our example we have a function generator that is set to square wave with 0 3 3V amplitude like a low voltage TTL signal and a frequency of 100kHz We connect the signal output to STOP 1 and the SYNC output to START IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 13 Installation procedure Ex MES Settings SCAT START Input SAZ STOP2 Input S DAZ STOP Input SCAd CH ADV Input Setup name MCA4 Browse 1 Cancel Apply Load Set Save Fig 2 7 MCA4 Settings select MCS Mode
15. ctl Makes a single peak Gaussian fit for all ROIs in the active Display of MPANT and dumps the result into a logfile This is performed by the MPANT program and therefore can be made only if this application is running Similar to the fitroi command but using the argument allows to specify which spectrum should be evaluated independently of which child window is activated in MPANT MC A means STOP Makes a single peak Gaussian fit for all ROIs in the active Display of MPANT for which a peak value was entered in the MPANT Region Edit dialog and uses the results for a calibration This is performed by the MPANT program and therefore can be made only if this application is running Similar to the autocal command but using the argument allows to specify which spectrum should be evaluated independently of which child window is activated in MPANT deletes all ROIS in the active MPANT window IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description deleteallrois MC_ allows to delete all ROIs of a specified spectra 1 for means A1 The following commands make sense only when using the serial line or TCP IP control or DLL control interface MC_A Sends the status of MC A via the serial port and make it actual MC_H Sends the status of MC_H via the serial port and make it actual Send the status of the actual channel sendfile filename Sends the ASCII file with name filename via t
16. rights reserved This manual contains proprietary information no part of it may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission of FAST ComTec Grunwalder Weg 28a D 82041 Oberhaching Germany Tel 49 89 66518050 FAX 49 89 66518040 The information in this manual describes the hardware and the software as accurately as possible but is subject to change without notice IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 3 Table of Contents MON 8 2 BARN PO re 9 2 1 Hard and Software REquireMents c cccccsscccsececeeeeseeeceeeecaeeeceuceseueesaeeeseeeeeeeessueeseeseeseeseeseeseeseesaees 9 2 2 DN ANS ER 10 2 9 SOMWANE Installation une ee 12 2 4 Hardware INS TAN AU Ne 12 ZEIGEN U S nd ed a ee AUA 13 25 ME NA 13 2 9 2 Multiscaling measurement anne ea 13 2 6 Installing more than one MCA4 MCS4 Module sise 15 3 Hardware DES TN ONS 16 D KONE EEE EEE ENE EEE EE 16 32 Front PINNE 16 SNE SN ee ner enter 16 222 FEATURE VOR MIMS CN ee ee ee de 18 NNN ENT tmm 20 3931 EO UO RS TT EE 20 NTN 20 2 3 3 EP MN er 20 9 9 4 Spectrum SEAUENEING unseren aa 20 A SO Ware PSS ClO Er ee ee ela ee me ee co 21 Adel SEIVER T RE 9 SE EEE ENE me 21 FONN esken 21 212 FANS eee a ee nee le lee ee en ae ae een 22 FL RENT 22 ES SOE c 24 TNS NNN en 25 4 1 9 SLN 26 SO NEREENNER AA aa aa 28 AG Ge LOL AIO A AAA Aa 30 4 4 Controlling the MCA4 Windows Server via DDE iii 36 4 4 1 Open COM VSS AON EEE EE
17. this SET file any other setup file can be used if its name without the appendix A SET is used aS command line parameter e g MCA4 TEST to load TESTA SET The command line parameter can be used either by calling the program from a DOS box or by changing the properties of an icon on the desktop that points to the program IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 21 Software Description iol xi File Edit Format View Help Set devices to number of MCAd modules connected max 63 dewices l set chnum to number of ADC input channels for each module 0 4 chnum 0 4 4 4 set res to ADC resolution for each module 3 6dk 2 8k 1 4k 0 2k Pes 3 3 3 3 3 3 The status 15 read out every updaterate msec if possible updaterate 1000 Fig 4 2 MCA4 ini File 4 1 2 Action menus The server program normally is shown as an icon in the taskbar After clicking the icon it is opened to show the status window Using the Start menu item from the Action menu a measurement can be started In the status window every second the acquired events the counting rate and the time are shown Clicking the Halt menu item the measurement is stopped and via Continue proceeded As it is possible in the System Settings dialog to create up to four systems each containing different MCA s combined for simultaneous starting and stopping there are four Action menus Action1 Action4 4 1 3 File menu Clicking in the File menu on the Data item opens the Data Operat
18. 00 80 60 40 20 j 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 TotalSum 4 864 982 Cursor Counts Fig 5 2 MPANT Map and Isometric display A toolbar provides fast access to many used functions in the menu A status bar at the bottom gives help about the meaning of the toolbar icons A cursor appears when clicking the left mouse button inside the graphics area The cursor can be moved using the arrow keys To get rid of the cursor make a double click with the right mouse button outside the graphics area To define a region press the right mouse button and while keeping the button pressed drag a rectangle In zoomed state a scroll bar appears that allows scrolling through the spectrum In the following the several menu functions are described together with the corresponding toolbar icons 5 1 File Menu Load Add Save Display As Save MPA As These menu items provide the usual functions for loading and saving data either a complete data set when loading or saving a MPA data file or separated spectra when loading or adding a MP data file The Load function creates then a new spectrum for compare whereas the Add functions adds the data to the spectrum selected by the active window For saving a selected spectrum into a seperated file click on the respective display window and select Save Display As from the MPANT File menu If you want to have the data file seperated from
19. 4 separate systems that can be started stopped and erased together The use of the Digital Input Output and the GO Line can be defined It can be used either to show the ON or OFF status of the systems if the checkbox Status Dig 0 3 is marked At the respective pins 5 Volt are output if an acquisition is running and 0 V if not Alternatively it can be used for example with a sample changer by checking Value inc at Stop Here the 8 bit value entered in the edit field a number between 0 and 255 is output at the Dig I O port This value will always be incremented by 1 if the MCA4 is stopped The Invert checkbox allows inverting the logical level See also the commands pulse and waitpin how to handshake a sample changer or synchronize sequential cycles with a target mover see the control language in 4 3 The Radio buttons Push Pull and Open Drain define the output mode of the Dig I O ports It is also possible to use the digital input 4 as an external trigger for starting the system DESY control line If the corresponding checkbox Start with Dig 4 is marked a start command for the respective system will not immediately start the system After the start command the digital input will be permanently checked for its logical level If the level changes from high to low the data for the system is cleared and it will then be started It will stop if the level returns to high or vice versa if Invert is marked and can again be restarted with the next l
20. 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 22000 24000 26000 28000 30000 Channel Fig 7 2 MCS differential non linearity plot 32k range 50ns dwelltime MCS DNL Distribution 0 10 0 09 0 08 0 07 0 06 0 05 0 04 0 03 0 02 0 01 0 01 0 02 0 03 0 04 0 05 0 06 0 07 0 08 0 09 0 10 DN Fig 7 3 MCS DNL distribution IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 67 Appendix 7 5 Physical Case material SEN WAA ENE Shipping case 0 ussssnnnssnnnnnnnnnnnnnsnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnsnnnnner 7 6 Accessories Included e USB 2 0 A A cable 3m e Power supply 100 240 V 12 V 1 5 A DC e Power supply cord 7 7 Trouble Shooting e he POWER ON LED does not light up 1 check that power is applied to the external power supply 2 check the 12V supply cable is properly plugged in RR aluminum 260 mm x 48 mm x 275 mm E 1 7 kg 420 mm x 320 mm x 290 mm 4 kg 3 check that the external power supply works check it s output voltage e The MCA4 is not found by the host computer 1 check that the USB cable is properly plugged in 2 Remove the MCA4 power supply wait until the POWER LED is dark 10s and reapply power 68 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 7 8 Personal Notes IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Appendix 69
21. A4 Server program controls the MCA4 module but provides no graphics display capability by itself By using the MPANT program the user has complete control of the MCA4 along with the MPANT display capabilities To run the MCA4 software simply double click on the MCA4 Server Program icon To close it close the MCA4 server in the Taskbar 2 4 Hardware Installation Fig 2 5 MCS4 rear panel Installation of the MCS4 is as easy as connecting a cable Connect the power supply to the POWER connector and an USB 2 0 cable to the USB port At the host computer plug in the USB cable into a high speed capable USB 2 0 port Since USB is a hot pluggable interface the sequence of applying power and connecting the USB port is not important NOTE At the host computer a high speed 480 Mbit s capable USB 2 0 interface must be used When the power is applied the POWER ON LED on the rear of the MCS4 should be lit and a second later POWER GOOD as well When the software and driver are already installed the computer will detect the MCS4 automatically as soon as it is connected 12 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Installation procedure 2 5 Getting Started 2 5 1 Starting the Software First step is to start the MCA4 software by double clicking the corresponding icon This will automatically start the MPANT program as well On startup the MCA4 Server is iconized and one does not have to worry about it since all hardware settings
22. ANT Software The window of the MPANT program is shown here It enables the full control of the MCA4 via the server program to perform measurements and save data and shows the data on line in several windows feaMPANT MCA4 File Window Region MIX Time asada eree up peru Basse rue E EY OFF 4946 000 ADC1 7 ADC 1 Real Live Dead Count Total Rate ROI Net 4800 000 4788 000 0 25 3 067 757 3 067 75 0 00 3 062 969 3 034 311 ADC 2 Real Live Dead Count Total Rate ROI Net 3012 000 3000 000 0 40 1 876 718 1 876 718 0 00 1 870 706 1 858 424 F4 F2 F3 Fa FS F6 F Fe FojFioFtt Fi2 lol gt fe Turku fallout Chernobyl 3d 25 000 30 000 25 000 20 000 15 000 10 000 5 000 oll 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 TotalSum 3 067 757 0 TotalSum 497 672 Start Time 07 02 1986 12 14 32 Cursor Counts Counts ADC 3 Real 1004 000 Live 1000 000 Dead 0 40 Count 497 672 Total 497 672 Rate 0 00 ROI 451 691 Net 109 892 ADC 4 Real 4956 000 Live 4946 000 Dead 0 20 Count 12 258 170 Total 12 258 170 Rate 0 00 ROI 12 253 224 Net 12 253 224 128 MB FIFO CCE a i 70 000 50 000 60 000 40 000 EN 30 000 40 000 30 000 20 000 20 000 10 000 10 000 o 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Cursor TotalSum 12 258 170 Cursor Counts Start Time
23. D Processors Efi Sensors gt Software devices amp Sound video and game controllers lt gt Storage controllers pill System devices Universal Serial Bus controllers gt i WSD Print Provider Fig 2 4 Device Manager after successful driver installation Please check the Power Saving Options in the PC Settings If the PC goes to sleep during a running acquisition and shuts the USB port down the software will hang up So it is recommended to disable automatic going to sleep in the energy options IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 11 Installation procedure 2 3 Software Installation To install the MCA4 software on your hard disk insert the installation medium CD or USB Stick and start the installation program setup exe for the 32 bit software or setupx64 exe for the native 64 bit software A directory called C MCA4 for the 32 bit software or C MCA4 x64 for the native 64 bit software is created on the hard disk and all MCA4 and MPANT files are transferred to this directory Drive C is taken as default drive and MCA4 as default directory It is not mandatory that the MCA4 operating software is located in this directory You may specify a different directory during the installation or may copy the files later to any other directory The Setup program will install a shortcut on the desktop The icon directly starts MCA4 EXE The server program will automatically call the MPANT EXE program when it is executed The MC
24. DC4 Bit 3 indicates scope mode It is on so more data words follow Bit 4 47 are zero Bit 48 63 are the length of the counter data minus one in units of 16 bit words This size value is 11 or in hex format b for 12 16 bit words or 3 64 bit counter data The counter data follow then next real time live time and event counter The counter data are 64 bit values Here is an example of a counter data block 000b000000000008 0000000007735943 00000000075aacad 0000000000002710 000b000000000009 0000000007735943 00000000075aaed3 0000000000002710 000b00000000000a 0000000007735943 00000000075ab725 0000000000002710 000b00000000000b 0000000007735943 00000000075aaf24 0000000000002710 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 29 Software Description 4 3 Control Language A sequence of commands that are stored in a file with extension CTL can be executed by the MCA4 server program or MPANT with the Load or Run command Also the configuration files MCA4A SET or the header files with extension MP contain such commands to set the parameters Each command starts at the beginning of a new line with a typical keyword the case is ignored Any other characters in a line may contain a value or a comment Following methods are available to execute commands e Define one of programmable toolbar icons F1 F12 in the MPANT program with the command and click the icon see Options Function keys in the MPANT menu e Load the command file using th
25. E On Panel EE EE ee ounce 16 Fig 3 2 Circuit diagram of each GATE MCS input ranrrnrnnrennnnnnrnnnnrnnnnrnrnnnrnnnnnnnrnnnennnsrrnnnnernnasnnnennannnsenee 17 Fig 3 3 Circuit diagram of the FEATURE I O port sise 18 Fa ST DEN Gero uie REPE s mm 19 go 39 60 LINE RER c T 19 mie MU en Server WNdOM 21 SE GE oie os e 22 Fig 4 3 Data Operations dialog for MPA data left and selected spectra right 23 Fig 4 4 Replay Settings dial08 au une ae ee 23 Fig 4 5 About MCA4 dialog box and Installed items 24 Fig 4 6 Settings overview left PHA mode right MCS mode more than one MCA4 module 24 Fig 4 7 MCS Settings for one left or two stop inputs right 25 Fig 4 8 System Definition dialog box iii 27 Fig 4 9 Opening the DDE conversation with the MCA4 server in LabVIEW 36 Fig 4 10 Executing a MCA4 command from a LabVIEW application 37 Fig 4 11 Getting the total number of spectrum data with LabVIEW 37 Fig 4 12 Getting the data with LabVIEW wi alawahadaiie daieacetnecdudeuateaaaadaneoetaor 38 Fig 4 13 Closing the DDE communication in LabVIEW 38 Fig 4 14 Control Panel of the demo VI for LabVIEW 39 PIGS MP AN Man MAO a de EE Ode 41 Fig 5 2 MPANT Map and Isometric display nn en nennen nnns 42 meos sd File New Display AAO nis aaa 43 mle Moyes COM
26. EC d Sid hl SCA STOP Input GA 4d CH ADV Input Setup name Setup name MCad Browse MCA4 Browse Load Sett Save 1 Cancel Apply Load Sett Save Fig 4 6 Settings overview left PHA mode right MCS mode more than one MCA4 module 4 1 4 Settings Overview The Hardware item in the Settings menu opens the MCA4 Settings dialog box It enables to switch between PHA mode left figure and MCS mode right If more than one MCA module are installed the module A B can be selected in the upper right corner as shown right in Fig 4 6 Via the SCA combo boxes you can specify the signal you want to observe at the feature connector See chapter 3 2 2 You can observe for each channel the SCA ADC BUSY over the threshold GATE Input MCS Input or SVA event signals In PHA mode a List file can be written by checking the corresponding checkbox Write Listfile The data format can be ASCII or binary depending on the format settings in the data operations dialog The FIFO size can be selected between Full 128 Mb Medium 32 Mb and Small 8 Mb For real data acquisition the full size is recommended For adjusting parameters when using Scope mode a small FIFO size is useful as changes can be observed immediately whereas with a full FIFO size they are delayed by several seconds Since firmware version 5 16 On board Histogramming can be selected as an alternative to list mode Then the spectra are directly acqu
27. I list IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 47 MPANT Software Rectangular Regions of Interest of ADC1 11 u X Edit rectangular Regions of Interest of Pillay 6 m x Selected ROI Calibr Peak Name Selected AOI Calibr Peak Name 3 223 237 ja Co57 1 36 PE EFF fs k_ Min 2x42 M er zi Cancel meer EN 167 0 256 0 Clear All 3j 2 3 I rectangle 299 29 0 Co57 136 pena Clear All 353 36e 0 551 559 0 Add BL Ble 0 at Add 549 962 0 Madi 1112 1121 0 Mody a 1121 1133 0 MOO 1444 1459 661 6 Ca137 _ Dee 1783 17 0 zi ee Delete Active ROL Make Active san Min Max mm 4096 Save as Save as Fig 5 7 Slice and rectangular ROI Editing dialog Clicking on it in the ROI list can change the selected ROI In the MPANT spectrum display the total and net sum of the selected ROI is displayed ROI names are implemented The name can be entered in the ROI editing dialog Press Modify to insert a new name from the edit field of the selected ROI into the list x Edit Polygonal Regions of Interest Type Polygonal 3 Name banana Point OF 128 y 1 b Add Insert Change Next 5 egment Delete Delete All ROI Type Mame SUBROL Points 0500 04 circle 1 Cancel New FOI O0 0028 0016 00 0017 0043 DO 0027 0072 DO 0039 0047 esr 00 0045 0026 00 0036 0015 Clear All Modify 0503 OG pie PERE Ee Fig 5 8 Polygonal ROI Editing d
28. PARE a m SN a MBI MA ANI MOE 44 SAG ea 0 SOS 6 9 EEE eee nee eee 44 OS ad AO REE EE E E EE 45 Fig 5 7 Slice and rectangular ROI Editing dialog nenn nnnnnnnnne nen anime 48 Fi9 9 8 Polygonal ROL Editing dial 2 885588 AA einen nen 48 Fig 5 9 Single Gaussian Peak FIL nn ee aaa 49 Fig 5 10 Log file Options for the Single Gaussian Peak fit 50 wem sm COONS 00 RI 51 iG UZ COOP Palete ll AO ENTIRE 51 Fi9 9 132 Single Display Options JAI ile etes 52 Fig 5 14 Map Display Options dialog nene een ee ae keandee 53 Fig 5 15 Isometric Display Options dialoQ s u00404000nennonnennn nenn nennen nnnnnn nenne nnennn nenn ennennn nikanawa 53 Fig 5 16 Axis Parameters Qlaldd en ee 54 Fig 5 17 Scale irae esM T 55 Fid 5 18 Calibration dialog EEE EE 56 FOSS Eve 57 FIG 520 US AAN AA 58 Fig 0 21 Data Operations AIO TT m 58 FIG 0 22 System Definition MUA ia een Ud Ud eme eni 59 Fg OO EE SEE EEE en one 59 Fig TEEN 60 FSR 60 Fi 2 20 IOB dalog vr G1 PIG 0 27 gt PUNCHOM Keys J v r r re eee ine G1 Fig 5 28 MPANT with four systems enabled 63 Fig 7 1 MCS noise spectrum 32k range 50ns dwelltime nennen nnnnnn nennen 67 6 IMF FST ComTec GmbH Fig 7 2 MCS differential non linearity plot 32k range 50ns dwelltime
29. Range Specify the sweep range by editing the respective edit fields from and Preset The Replay Speed can be specified in units of 100 kB per sec To Use Modified Settings enable the corresponding checkbox otherwise the original settings are used To start Replay press then Start in the Action menu or the corresponding MPANT toolbar icon The menu item File About opens the About MCA4 window where some information of the System can be found Particularly the serial number is important for support purposes This serial number is unique for each MCAA system A click on the Installed button opens a dialog showing all installed features IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 23 Software Description About MCA4 x x EE Model MCAd 104 SERET Fu 3 74 ADC Installed ATI Installed ADC Installed ATC2 Installed ADCS Installed RTCS Installed Version 1 0 for Windows amp PAVista r o ADCS Installed ATC4 Installed ADC Resolution b4k Multizcaling Installed Copyright amp 2013 FAST LomTec Tag Bits Enabled Coine ADE1 2 Installed Installed Replay List files Enabled Coinc ADC3 4 Installed Fig 4 5 About MCA4 dialog box and Installed items The MPANT menu item in the file menu starts the MPANT program if it is not running sl x Module f MCS Settings FIFO Size Smal 8 ME On board Histogramming Write Listfile ASCII SEAT 5041 z SCAS 15643 SCAT START Input SCA3 STOP2 Input SLAP 150632 h
30. Regions and ROl s Regions of Interest A Region can be defined by marking it in a display with the mouse using the right mouse button and dragging a rectangle over the area one is interested in A ROI i e an already defined region in a single spectrum can be shown zoomed by double clicking with the left mouse button on the corresponding colored area in the bar at the bottom of the spectra display A single mouse click with the left button on the corresponding colored area makes this to the selected ROI and lets the counts contained in this ROI be displayed in the information lines of the respective window Advance the selected ROI to the next or previous one using the or key from the numeric keypad Polygonal and curved ROI s in MAP displays are implemented in addition to the rectangular ROI s The boundaries can be polygonal circular annular or pie Make a choice of the shape using the Menu Region Shape or the corresponding toolbar icon Define the ROI using the right mouse button the TAB and the END key please read the help in the status bar and save the ROI using the toolbar icon Create new ROI I Advance the selected ROI to the next or previous one using the or key from the numeric keypad The ROI boundary is displayed by lines or circles and the ROI area can in addition be displayed in inverted color by enabling the checkbox Invert ROI Pixel in the MAP Display options dialog The sum and net sum of counts within the select
31. am then executes the command and after finishing it sends an Acknowledge message to the DDE client This can be used to synchronize the actions in both applications 36 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description ji gt mcaddde vi Diagram Fig 4 10 Executing a MCA4 command from a LabVIEW application 4 4 3 DDE Request The DDE Request is a message exchange to obtain the value of a specified item Only two items are defined for DDE request up to now RANGE and DATA The value is obtained as an ASCII string i e it must be converted by the client to get the numbers All other parameters concerning the setup can be obtained by the client application by reading and evaluating the configuration file RANGE The RANGE item can be used to obtain the total number of data i mca4dde vi Diagram ram Decimal Fig 4 11 Getting the total number of spectrum data with LabVIEW DATA With the DATA item the data is obtained The value of this item is a multiline string that contains in each line a decimal number as an ASCII string IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 37 Software Description FR gt mcaddde ri Diagram Fig 4 12 Getting the data with LabVIEW 4 4 4 Close Conversation After finishing the DDE communication with the server program it must be closed FR mcaddde vi Diagram Ioj X Fil Edit oe Project Windows Help O LI LI LI LI LI LJ UL oe a 4 En LE LL Ld LI na Ld UL E a 4 0 4 Fig 4 13 Clos
32. an acquisition is active When the left mouse button is pressed while the mouse cursor is within a toolbar icon it displays a short help message what the meaning of the toolbar icon is Status window The status window at the left side of the MPANT main window can be shown in a small or large size or can be hidden Save As Saves all parameters defined in the Options menu to the MPANT CFG or a user defined config file Open Loads a new configuration 5 5 Action Menus Start L The Start toolbar button erases the data and starts a new measurement The Halt toolbar button stops a measurement Continue The Continue toolbar button continues a measurement Erase X The Erase toolbar button erases the data If more than one systems are defined for starting and stopping combined MCAs together more groups of start halt continue erase icons appear in the toolbar for the respective systems 62 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software ini xi File Window Region Options Action Action2 Action3 Action ABS eise le hm oela kreoler Ae ES evel ler gt min meer e n F1 F2 ra r4 FS F6 F7 Fo FajFujrtjFi2 0 TotalSum 0 TotalSum 0 X 0 ini xi 1 2 E 0 5000 10000 0 5000 10000 TotalSum 0 Cursor TotalSum 0 Cursor Counts Counts Fig 5 28 MPANT with four systems enabled IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Programming and Software Op
33. an be seen from Fig 3 4 each individual bit might be configured as input only tri stated output pull up open drain or driver output small R l O with readback capability Wired OR AND connections are feasible 1 A peak maximum is detected when the actual input data is 6 lower than the previous maximum value since the threshold crossing 18 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Hardware Description 3 3V INTEGRATED CIRCUIT LOGIC GO Line i i i i DIGIO_OE x I DIGIO OUT x DIGITAL l O x DIGIO_IN x i i i i i i i i j Fig 3 4 Digital I O port details 3 3V INTEGRATED CIRCUIT LOGIC 3 3V PULL_GO_LOW GO LINE GO_INPUT Fig 3 5 GO LINE details The system wide open drain wired AND GO Line enables any connected device to start and stop all participating measurment equipment simultanously The GO line may be enabled disabled set and reset under software control IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 19 Hardware Description 3 3 Multichannel scaler 3 3 1 Introduction In MCS mode of operation the MCS4 counts STOP events relative to the START trigger signal The time resolution is equal to the selected dwell time The total measurement time is the spectrum length in time bins multiplied by the dwell time The maximum STOP count rate is 400MHz The maximum number of time bins spectrum length is 16M It can be selected in steps of 1 This time granularity allows to optimize the sweep l
34. as reject e g pile up detected cor GATE_ADCx must be 0 bit 12 15 SVA mode bit 0 3 SCA CH1 0 SCA 1 Over Threshold 2 GATE Input 3 MCS Input bit 4 7 SCA CH2 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 31 Software Description bit 8 11 SCA CH3 bit 12 15 SCA CH4 autoinc 0 1 Enable Auto increment of filename savedata 0 bit 0 auto save after stop bit 1 write listfile bit 2 listfile only no evaluation bit 5 drop zero events mpafmt asc format used in mpa datafiles dat binary asc ASCII csv CSV spe GANAAS emsa EMSA sephead 0 seperate Header fmt dat data format used in separated spectra extension MP dat binary asc ASCII csv CSV spe GANAAS emsa EMSA mpacaluse 0 use Calibration for shifted summing mpa files according to calibration smoothpts 5 Number of points to average for a smooth operation wndwidth 160 Sets width of server window wndheight 24 Sets height of server window sysdef 0 Defines which module belongs to a system relevant only for more modules MCS1 MCS1 parameters active 1 active range 4096 spectrum length MCS2 MCS2 parameters active 0 active range 4096 Spectrum length same as MCS1 range CHN1 Scopemode Channel 1 parameters active 0 active range 4096 waveform length CHN2 active 0 range 4096 CHN3 active 0 range 4096 CHN4 active 0 range 4096 ADC 1 ADC1 parameters active 1 active range 16384 spectrum length p
35. ate 0 00 ROI 481 691 Net 109 892 ADC 4 Real 4956 000 Live 4946 000 Dead 0 20 Count 12 258 170 Total 12 258 170 Rate 0 00 ROI 12 253 224 500 1000 1500 TotalSum 3 058 580 C 2718 2718 000 key Net 12 253 224 en e s 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 R Gross 75 039 Net 29 023 Mean 1 172 128 MB FIFO ROI 00021106 1169 1106 00 1169 00 keV Centroid 1131 88 1131 88 keV Acquisition OFF Fig 5 5 Compare two spectra AA FAST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software The Print menu item opens the print dialog It allows to arrange several pictures on a page into zones The number of zones in vertical and horizontal direction can be specified The Color can be black white RGB colored or Gray scale RGB is recommended also for black laser printers Some info lines containing date file name and title can be added For each page a temporary file PRINT1 WMF PRINT2 WMF will be created This file is in Windows Meta file format and can be exported into some other Windows applications Paper zones MF Enable Vert Horiz 03 or Thickness factor V rt Horiz ei Fontsize factor ro Colors C Ew PGR Add Add ll Remove Removes Change Gray Page 1 ID Hange Type Mame Pillay 5 HEGO 7 Turku Fall a 00000 04096 000 000 5 ADC 10 011 00000 04096 000 000 5 ADC 11 Mo lD Page Lett Top Width
36. ative fast NIM GATE MCS input signals Four outputs at the feature connector provide several selectable signals e g SCA BUSY etc for external usage The legendary GO line compatible with other FAST ComTec products allows for easy synchronization or triggering of other measurement equipment Furthermore a versatile 8 bit digital I O port allows for a whole bunch of experimental control monitoring or whatsoever other tasks Moreover the 8 bit digital I O port can be used for event and spectra tagging to allow for multi detector configurations sequential data acquisition etc 3 2 Front Panel Connectors 3 2 1 MCS Inputs The GATE MCS inputs provide a switchable 4 7kOhm pullup to 3 3V 4 7kOhm pulldown to GND or 500hm to GND input impedance Each input is equipped with a fast discriminator The threshold level can be chosen from 1 3V for TTL signals or 300mV for fast NIM signals 16 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Hardware Description TAY GATE MCS INPUTS ER 0 3V SIR 0 25W GND Fig 3 2 Circuit diagram of each GATE MCS input In MCS mode these inputs are used as START STOP 1 amp 2 and external channel advance CHADV NOTE For clean switching and oscillation free operation the input slew rate should be higher than 25V us IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 17 Hardware Description 3 2 2 FEATURE I O Connector 3 3V 22k 22R YA GO LINE 3 3V G Socket Mounted GND GND
37. be saved into single files If separate header is checked in the data operations dialog such spectra data is written into two separate files one with extension mp containing configuration data and one containing pure spectra data with an extension indicating the chosen format The mp file contains the settings in ASCII format using the control language described in section 4 3 Spectra data files with extension asc contain in each line one decimal number in ASCII containing the corresponding count value in the histogram Binary data files with extension dat are written with 4 bytes per data value as usual in the Intel world in reverse order i e the least significant byte comes first GANAAS data files with extension spe contain 10 data in ASCII format after a simple header This format is used by the IAEA gamma spectra evaluation program GANAAS EMSA data files are in ASCII with extension emsa and follow the NIST EMSA spectrum file format Another ASCII file format is the x y format with extension csv It can be read for example with Excel and contains the channel number and content as two decimal numbers in ASCII per line separated by a TAB character List files have the extension Ist and start with a header containing the usual report and configuration data in ASCII as in the mpa or mp files The header ends with a line containing DATA Then follows the data depending on the format chosen for the data file either in ASCII or b
38. by the value which was valid when the start command was executed Further execution of the CTL file is suspended see start Clears all spectra of system 1 Writes the settings into MCS6A SET Saves all configuration and spectra data An existing file is overwritten Loads mpa data the filename must be specified before with a command mpaname Adds mpa data to actual spectra the filename must be specified before with a command mpaname Subtracts mpa data from actual spectra the filename must be specified before with a command mpaname Sets actual input channel to MC A STOP1 for the rest of the control file Sets actual multichannel analyzer to MC B STOP2 Saves data of actual channel as separated spectrum extension MP An existing file is overwritten Loads data of actual channel the filename must be specified before with a command datname Adds data into actual spectra the filename must be specified before with a command datname Subtracts data from actual spectra channel the filename must be specified before with a command datname omoothes the data in actual spectra Clears the data of system 1 Exits the server and MPANT programs Displays a Messagebox containing Message and an OK button that must be pressed before execution can continue Displays a Messagebox containing Message an OK and an END button After the sp
39. d because it makes a good and fast display The check box Invert Roi Pixel changes the color inside ROI s to make them better visible Vector Contour paints colored contour lines To calculate the lines takes a lot of time and causes the mouse pointer changing to an hourglass But it gives very impressive colored pictures suited especially for presentation and when looking carefully at spectra details 52 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software SS tC Graphic Type x Dimension r 128 bitmap dot ds e v Invert Roi Pixel bitmap contour vector contour gt gt Single Lancel gt gt lsometric Fig 5 14 Map Display Options dialog From the MAP View dialog it is possible to change to Single view by clicking gt gt Single or change to Isometric View by clicking gt gt Isometric This can also be done directly via the respective toolbar icon B x Graphic Type View angles Fresession 0 00 deg Tilt 35 00 deg Monochrome v Hidden Height BLOD x histogram Cancel gt gt Map Fig 5 15 Isometric Display Options dialog In isometric mode several single spectra are drawn behind each other The Precession angle around the vertical axis can be chosen in multiples of 90 degrees This rotation can also be done directly using toolbar icons and The Tilt angle is between the x and y axis and can be chosen between 15 and 89 degrees The Height specifies the percentage of the z axis l
40. e Load command in the file menu e Enable remote mode in the server and send commands via the serial connection A special DLL is necessary which is part of the optional available MPANT EXTERNAL CONTROL software e Open a DDE connection and send the commands via DDE as described in section 4 4 The application name for opening the DDE connection with the standard MCA4 server program MCA4 EXE is MCA4 the topic is MCA4 Implemented are the DDE Execute to perform any command and the DDE Request with items RANGE and DATA e Send the commands over a TCP IP net using a remote shell and the optional available MPANT EXTERNAL CONTROL software It is necessary to have a TCP IP Winsock installed and that the remote shell daemon program MPA4NET is running See the readme file on the installation disk e Send the commands via the DLL interface from LabVIEW a Visual Basic program or any other application software including the complete source code of the DLL and examples optional available e From your own Windows application register a Windows message and then send the command as can be seen in the DLL source code The file MCA4A SET contains a complete list of commands for setting parameters An example is MCA4A 104 Device and serial number samplemode 1 Of bit 0 3 chn1 4 0 scope mode 1 phamode bit 4 7 chn1 4 pile up reject bit 8 Software PHA enable_dither 1 enable dithering improves the differential linearity of the ADC chip
41. ecified time 5000 msec the Messagebox vanishes and execution continues OK continues immediately END escapes execution Makes a beep The character may be replaced with or left empty The corresponding sound is defined in the WIN INI file in the sounds section Waits specified time 4000 msec 4 sec Outputs a pulse of 100 ms duration at dig 3 Waits 4000 ms for going the level at dig 7 going low After a timeout a Messagebox warns and waits for pressing OK Can be used for connecting a sample changer waits for going the level at pin 3 going low All Dig I O ports 0 7 can be used this way IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 33 loadcnf configfile run controlfile onstart command onstart off onstop command onstop off oncycle command oncycle off lastrun 5 numruns 5 onlast command onlast off exec program fitrois fitrois MC_A autocal autocal SP_1 deleteallrois 34 Software Description Loads a configuration stored in a config file like mca4a set Runs a sequence of commands stored in controlfile This command cannot be nested i e it is not possible to execute arun command from the controlfile called with a run command only if it was called with a load command The command is executed always after a start action when the acquisition is already running The command can be any valid command also run controlfile is possible Switc
42. ed ROI is displayed The net sum is calculated by subtracting a background integral by summing line integrals S y for each y coordinate using the mean value of the counts at the lowest and highest x coordinate of the ROI n 3 The Zoom item or respective icon enlarges a Region to the maximum Spectrum Display size Back 8 The Back menu item or clicking the corresponding icon restores the last zoom view Each time a Back command is clicked the view is stepped back one step Zoom Out e The Zoom Out menu item or clicking the corresponding icon enlarges the actual zoom view by a factor 2 if possible You can also use a mouse wheel for zooming in at out L O 3 D Clicking the Home menu item or the corresponding icon restores a Display to the basic configuration showing the complete spectrum Shape Selecting the Shape menu item opens a sub menu with the items Rectangle X Slice Y Slice and Rectangle Polygon Circle Annular and Pie to choose the ROI shape 46 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software Rectangle eet Kanal Sets the region shape to a rectangle with arbitrary dimensions To enter the rectangular region press the right mouse button drag a rectangle and release the button to define the region X Slice Sets the Region shape to the rectangle with maximal height Y Slice Sets the Region shape to polygonal To enter a polygonal Region using the mouse press the right button for each poin
43. ed in the ROI editing dialog and performs a calibration using the fit results You have then only to check use calibration in the calibration dialog opened with to use it 50 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software 5 4 Options Menu The Options Menu contains commands for changing display properties like scale colors etc hardware settings calibration and comments Colors The Colors menu item or respective icon opens the Colors dialog box Colors Colors Single digplay Display item Desktop Window Set Display item color Palette colors Color numbers Palette Map 32 31 Save Saves Retrieve j Cancel Fig 5 11 Colors dialog It changes the palette or Display element color depending on which mode is chosen The current color and palette setup may be saved or a new one can be loaded Physical Color Selection Cancel Red Green na 13 ALLE Blue Fig 5 12 Color Palette dialog To change on of the colors select Palette colors and click on one of the colors In the Color Palette dialog box the RGB values can be edited or for a 256 color video driver one of the Physical palette colors can be chosen Display ial The Display menu item or the corresponding icon opens for single spectra the Single view dialog box IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 51 MPANT Software Here the graphic display mode of single spectra can be chosen The Type comb
44. en New B Tile Hl Cascade New line Lhange ET Ti 5 j Removeslk add gt gt Changex lt Si Open New Insert Bemove _Removedik Canes Cancel Function keys Fig 5 26 Tool Bar dialog If it is enabled an array of icons in the MPANT Menu is shown Clicking the left mouse button with the cursor positioned on an icon the user can perform a corresponding MPANT Menu command very quick It is also possible to include icons for free programmable function keys F1 F12 into the Toolbar The function keys can be programmed in the Function keys dialog with any one of the commands described in 4 3 It can be accessed either by clicking the Function keys button or directly from the Options menu Programmable Commands X ef B ps fem p ease m ute CCE pr fant pe CCE ry enet AA pit watpin 1000 ia untze 0000 Cancel Fig 5 27 Function keys dialog The functions can be executed by clicking the corresponding icon in the toolbar or by the corresponding function key on the keyboard simultaneously with the CTRL key The MPANT window must be the active on the desktop and have the focus i e it must be the top window IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 61 MPANT Software Status bar With this menu item the Status bar at the bottom of the MPANT main window can be switched on or off A corresponding check mark shows if it is active or not The Status bar usually shows if
45. ength for the specific experiment Histogramming is performed in the onboard DDR2 memory providing the low dwell times 30 ns 50 ns and high count rates 400 MHz 3 3 2 Dwell time The internal dwell timer provides automatic time bin advancement in the range of min 30ns 1 channel MCS or min 50ns dual channel MCS up to 2 1 x 10ns 781h in steps of 10ns External channel advance is supported via the corresponding CHADV input Please note that the external channel advance signal is internally synchronized to a free running 100MHz clock An integrated control circuitry assures the minimum cycle time of 100ns thus guaranteeing no triggering on too fast ringing or spiky signals 3 3 3 Sweep counter The presettable sweep counter is 48 bit wide and increments on each valid START trigger event 3 3 4 Spectrum sequencing Sequences of spectra consisting of a preset number of sweeps may be automatically generated The number of sequences is in the range of 2 to 65536 When the preset number of sweeps is accumulated the sequence counter is incremented and a new set of sweeps is started 20 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description 4 Software Description The software is a layer of several parts A driver MCS6 SYS provides the communication via the USB port A server program MCA4 EXE controls the hardware and the data A graphical user interface MPANT EXE controls the server via a DLL DMCA4 DLL and provides gra
46. ength respective to the whole drawing it can be entered between 0 and 99 With hidden it can be specified whether the hidden parts are not drawn If Monochrome is checked the spectra are painted monochrome otherwise in color Ej By the Axis menu item or the respective icon the Axis Parameters dialog box is opened IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 53 MPANT Software Main Window v Start maximized Frame width E Style Rectangular z width 1 Font Cire Small Grid yond Enable W Enable width 1 width fi St le Dot Style Dot Tick uTick Size 3 Width 1 Size f Width 1 M Top M Bottom Use Calibration M Left M Right Use Calibration Fig 5 16 Axis Parameters dialog It provides many choices for the axis of a display The frame can be rectangular or L shape the frame thickness can be adjusted xWidth yWidth The font size can be chosen between Small and Large A grid for x and y can be enabled the style can be chosen between Solid Dash DashDot and DashDotDot Ticks on each of the four frame borders can be enabled the tick length and thickness can be chosen The style of the axis labeling depends on enabled ticks at the bottom respective left side If no ticks are enabled there only the lowest and highest values are displayed at the axis otherwise the ticks are labeled Use calibration changes the axis ticks and labels into calibrated values A check box Start
47. evel change A stop command for the system will finish the digital input checking By checking Clear before Start the spectra is cleared before the start As an alternative to controlling Start stop via digital input 4 also the GO line can be used by checking Start with GO This is better as the GO line controls the hardware directly The Use of the GO Line is controlled via the 3 checkboxes Watch High when ON and Low at Stop The GO line gates directly the hardware Low at Stop means that the GO line is immediately pulled down by the hardware when a sweep preset is reached or as fast as possible by the software at any other stop 26 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description System Definition Fig 4 8 System Definition dialog box IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 27 Software Description 4 2 File formats The mpa format is used to save all spectra in a single file It starts with an ASCII header containing the settings and then the spectra follow one after the other each proceeded with a header line like DATAO 16384 This means the first single spectrum with a length of 16384 channels DATA1 16384 This means the second single spectra CDATO 16384 This is the first dual parameter or calculated spectra with a length of 16384 channels The enumeration starts again at zero after all physical spectra The format of the data itself can be ASCII Binary GANAAS EMSA or CSV see below Individual spectra can also
48. he serial line The execution of a control file can be finished from the Server or MPANT with any Halt command IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 35 Software Description 4 4 Controlling the MCA4 Windows Server via DDE The MCA4 program can be a server for DDE Dynamic Data Exchange Many Windows software packages can use the DDE standard protocols to communicate with other Windows programs for example GRAMS FAMOS or LabVIEW In the following the DDE capabilities of the MCA4 program are described together with a demo VI Virtual Instrument for LabVIEW It is not recommended to use the DDE protocol for LabVIEW as also a DLL interface is available that is much faster The following should be seen as a general description of the DDE conversation capabilities of the MCA4 server program 4 4 1 Open Conversation application MCA4 topic MCA4 Any application that wants to be a client of a DDE server must open the conversation first by specifying an application and a topic name The application name is MCA4 and the topic is MCA4 i mcaddde vi Diagram Fig 4 9 Opening the DDE conversation with the MCA4 server in LabVIEW 4 4 2 DDE Execute The DDE Execute command can be used to perform any action of the MCA4 program Any of the Control command lines described in section 4 3 can be used For example a sequence of control commands saved in a file TEST CTL can be executed by specifying the command RUN TEST CTL The MCA4 progr
49. hes off the onstart feature Also a manual Stop command switches it off The command is executed always after a stop caused by a preset reached or trigger This can be used to program measure cycles For example the command onstop start makes a loop of this kind Switches off the onstop feature Also a manual Stop command Switches it off The command is executed in sequential mode after each cycle can be used together with waitpin command to synchronize with a beam or target mover Switches off the oncycle feature Defines the file count for the last run in a measure cycle file with this count or greater was saved with autoinc on After a instead of the onstop command the onlast command is executed Defines the file count for the last run in a measure cycle The last count is the present one plus the numruns number After a file with this count was saved with autoinc on instead of the onstop command the onlast command is executed The command is executed after a stop caused by a preset reached or trigger instead of the onstop command when the last file count is reached with autoinc on This can be used to finish programmed measure cycles Switches off the onlast feature Also a manual Stop command switches it off Executes a Windows program or PIF file Example exec notepad test ctl opens the notepad editor and loads test
50. ialog For polygonal circular annular and pie ROl s there is a special dialog to select and edit all the parameters The ROI definition parameters can be saved into a CTL file and reloaded using the File menu like any control file Note that the selected ROI can be advanced in any activated spectra display by pressing the and key from the numeric keypad X projection Y Projection z5 Projections of ROI s in dual parameter spectra to the x and y axes are implemented There are menu items X Projection and Y Projection in the Region menu They create new single spectra displays showing the respective projection of the selected ROI in a dual parameter spectrum in the active window 48 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software By selecting the Fit menu item or the respective icon a single Gaussian peak fit with linear background is performed for the currently marked region The fitted curve is displayed and a dialog box shows the results Res MPANT MCA4 E 10 xl UANI File Window Region Options Actioni Action2 Actions Actiond 10 x MIX x Time 4946 000 Range m Fix 1438 a lt 11464 ADC 1 PWHM 13 279 Real 4800 000 0 0099 Live 4798 000 1 485 0 0045 keV Dead 0 25 Pos fi 451 717 0 0052 Count 3 067 757 661 751 0 0024 keV Tu Lier Area 84492 304 counts 17 6026 0 36 counts s Rate 0 00 ROI 3 062 969 7 Iterations Q 3 66 Net 3 034 311 Logfile DATA TXT
51. igital VO input voltage c RS EATE 0 3 3 V 7 3 Specifications 7 3 1 GATE MCS inputs Input impedance selectable ONE E EEEE 50 Q to GND or F SM m 4 7 kQ Input voltage range positive TTL slow NIM 0 3 3V 5 V compatible negative fast NIM essere 0 800mV Input threshold voltage positive TTL slow NIM rrrnnnnnnnnnnrnnnrnvnnrrnrnnnenvnnnevnnnnennannnnnnsnnnsene 1 3V negative fast NIM rrrnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnrnnnrnvnnnrnnnnnvnvannnnrnnnennrnnnnnnnnnn 300mV Pulse width high low MCS START and CHADV rue min 1 0 ns MCS STOP Tand 2 ce ee min 0 8 ns Frequency MCS START and GHADY sense max 100 MHz MCS STOP 1 4642 van ae aae max 400 MHz Slew rate requirement usssensnvnnsnrnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnansnnnnnnnansnnnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn min 25 V us 7 3 2 SCA outputs Output voltage at IC pin UU min 2 4 V E EE AAA max 0 4 V Output impedance series resistor 22 Q SCA outp t pulse width EEE NU 120 ns 2 respect maximum input power limit 3 Maximum DC undershoot below GND must be limited to either 0 5V or 10mA During transitions undershoot to 2 0V or overshoot to 7 0V is allowed provided this lasts less than 10ns and with the current is limited to 200mA IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 65 7 3 3 Digital I O ports R Pull R I O Input voltage at IC pin Outpu
52. inary In ASCII format one data word is written in hex format per line In binary format each stop event is written with 8 bytes as usual in the Intel world in the reverse order i e the least significant byte comes first A single event is a 64 bit number 8 bytes or in scope mode a multiple of such 8 byte numbers The lowest two bits 0 and 1 are the channel number 0 3 for ADC1 ADC4 Bit 2 is a flag for pileup detected Bit 3 indicates scope mode If it is on more data words follow Bit 4 47 is a 44 bit event time If the RTC option is enabled it is in units of 8 ns otherwise in units of 1 msec With tag bits enabled the 8 most significant event time bits are used for tagging and represent the 8 dig I O input bits Bit 48 63 are the 16 bit ADC value or in scope mode the length of the waveform data minus one in units of 16 bit words This size value can be 4095 8191 16383 or 32767 The waveform data follow then next Here is an example of list file data DATA ad 20000000266 f0 ad4f 0000000266 2 ae0c0000000266 3 ae820000000266f1 ae850000000573a1 ad500000000573b2 ae0e0000000573a3 The software adds at the end of a list file a small data block containing the counter values 28 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description The format follow the scheme of scope mode data it can be distinguished by the waveform length that is only 12 16 bit words The lowest two bits 0 and 1 are the channel number 0 3 for ADC1 A
53. inate Clicking the create button creates the new display window In the title bar of the new window the name of the dual parameter spectra and the slice coordinate is shown IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 59 MPANT Software The slice position can be changed using the scroll bar in the Slice dialog or by entering the value in the edit field and pressing the button which is labeled Set after creation of the slice view Clicking its close field can close the Slice dialog Created slice spectra displays remain visible and their coordinates can be changed later using the Slice utility again The position of the Slice dialog with respect to the MPANT main window can be saved in the MPANT CFG file Rectangular ROI s are visible in the slice spectra display and can be created here LE 5 x const o Create u const _ Fig 5 24 Slice dialog Replay The menu item Options Replay opens the Replay settings dialog ref 4 1 3 Replay x M Replay Made Use Modified Settings Filename ED ev mcad smca4d TESTPB5 Ist E AJ C Statt Range from 0 000 Preset 0 000 Speed 11000 JO kB zec OF Cancel Fig 5 25 Replay dialog 60 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software Selecting the Tool Bar Menu item opens the Tool Bar Dialog Box It enables arranging the icons in the Tool Bar x v Enable v Help over Toolbar M Help over Statusbar Commands Customized Toolbar Separator 3 Op
54. ing a run presently in PHA mode only No Histogramming prevents calculating any spectra to save computing time and concentrate the system on writing the list file 22 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description Data Operations al x Data Operations a OI xj Spectra z Filename Filename TEST mpa Browse speci amp Browse M Save at Halt Save Load fr MPA Save Load C MPA Selected Spectra calbr Add Suh Selected Spectra Formal Erase C New Spectra Format Pts 5 Smooth Erase New Spectra Binary Seperate Header AsCI Listmade Write Listfile NoHistogramming Drop zero events Replay Cancel Save Sett Cancel Save Sett Fig 4 3 Data Operations dialog for MPA data left and selected spectra right The menu item File Replay opens the Replay dialog It enables evaluation of list data The Replay software licence is usually programmed into the MCA4 module or by an optional USB dongle x MF Replay Mode Use Modified Settings Filename ED evinced ymcat TES TPBS let n fe All C Statt Range from 0 000 Preset 0 000 Speed 1000 10 kB sec OF Cancel Fig 4 4 Replay Settings dialog Enable Replay Mode using the checkbox and specify a File name of a list file extension LST or search one by pressing Browse With the radio buttons it is possible either to choose the complete list file by selecting All or a selected Start
55. ing the DDE communication in LabVIEW The following figure shows the Panel of the described VI for LabVIEW 38 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description Fig 4 14 Control Panel of the demo VI for LabVIEW 39 Software Description 4 5 Controlling the MCA4 Windows Server via DLL The MCA4 server program provides access to all functions parameters and data via a DLL dynamic link library So the server can be completely controlled by the MPANT software that provides all necessary graphic displays NOTE The complete documented source code of the DLL including a library with fundamental VI s and an example VI for LabVIEW and an example Visual Basic and C program is available as an option The DLL DMCA4 DLL is an interface providing functions to communicate with the server program Most of these functions send messages to the server as you do it when operating the server program by sending Windows messages via mouse clicks Please do not expect any functions in this DLL for controlling the hardware directly All software using the DLL interface requires that the server program is running The DLL was mainly developed as an interface between the server program and MPANT not as a nice developing tool for customers But by looking at the programming examples and some hints in the DLL documentation it should be easy to develop own programs that are able to control the server like MPANT does The ser
56. ion and the dialog opens as shown in Fig 5 18 56 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software Comments Up to 13 comment lines with each 60 characters can be entered using the Comments dialog box The content of these lines is saved in the data header file The first line automatically contains the time and date when a measurement was started The second line contains the title of the spectra Note that editing this line changes the spectra name This is the only method to change the name of physical ADC spectra The description of each comment line can be changed by editing the file COMMENT TXT CI j x Starttime 0720271386 12 14 32 Humber Turku fallout Chernobylk3daps Sample Place Ref Date Amount Unit Geometry Detector Remarks more more Fig 5 19 Comments dialog IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 57 MPANT Software Hardware Lud The Hardware settings dialog box allows to make all the respective settings ref 4 1 4 JE Made C MES 2MES ADC Settings FIFO Size Fu 128 Mb Write Listfile Binary SCA 504 M ESSA T S a2 TEE Goad 5C54 Setup name mcaa Browse i Cancel Apply Load Set Save Fig 5 20 Settings dialog Data m H The Data Operations dialog allows to edit format settings and to load and save spectra data ref 4 1 3 Ex Filename TEST mpa Browse v Save at Halt Save Load v MPA p E
57. ions dialog box This dialog allows to edit the data format settings and perform operations like Save Load Add Subtract Smooth and Erase The Radio Buttons MPA Selected Spectra and New Spectra provide a choice between handling of the complete data set MPA or selected spectra or to load new selected spectra for compare Mark the checkbox Save at Halt to write a MPA file containing the configuration and all spectra at the stop of a measurement The file name can be entered If the checkbox auto incr is crossed a 3 digit number is appended to the file name that is automatically incremented with each saving The format of the data can be ASCII extension for separated spectra ASC binary DAT GANAAS SPE EMSA EMSA and CSV CSV If Separate Header is not checked the Header and data is saved together in a file with extension MP otherwise the file with extension MP contains only the header and the data is written separately into a file with appropriate extension The buttons Save Load and Erase perform the respective operation With Add and Sub spectra can be added or subtracted from the present data The checkbox calibr can be checked to use a calibration and to shift the data then according to the calibration The Smooth button performs an n point smoothing of selected single spectra The number of points to average can be set with the Pts edit field between 2 and 21 Check the Write Listfile checkbox to write a listfile dur
58. ired in the MCA4 RAM In this mode it is possible to exit the software and then even to disconnect the USB cable without affecting a running acquisition When starting later the software the acquisition is still running OK takes all settings and closes the dialog Apply sets all settings without closing the dialog Cancel cancels all changes Pressing Save writes all settings into the file MCA4A SET and MCA4 set resp the entered 24 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Software Description setup name The file name is built by attaching A set and set to the shown name where HH is the serial number of the MCA4 Browse lets you search for settings files Load Sett loads one When loading a settings file the file with the serial number fitting to the device in the file name is loaded if one is found otherwise or when the software is running in demo mode the file MCA4A SET for the first MCA4 module 4 1 5 MCS Settings ef x Range 4096 Range 4096 bd Dwelltime 100 000 nsec Ewelltime 100 000 nsec External Clock External Clock Sequential cycles Sequential cycles Sweep preset fio Sweep preset 10 Timepreset ino Timepreset 10 000 FOI Preset NEN ROL Preset por o asd por fo 40 MCS Inputs FOI Preset Polarity NIM 0 3 V Pol E 4096 Impedance 50 Ohm MCS Inputs E Polarity TTL 1 3 Start rising edge Stop rising edge Impedance 50
59. lr TDI Socket Mounted TITTET 22R 116 DIGITAL 100 7 M ye Lt re tt a e a 7 SO CVO EN RR ER D RS E E E DIGITAL 104 12 FEATURE LS i El DIGITAL 105 8 FEATURE 74 EE DIGITAL 106 I 3 a er DIGITAL 107 13 CONNECTOR Imm LS SCA OUT 4 2 z f N t ae as al a Hi GND Fig 3 3 Circuit diagram of the FEATURE I O port Single channel analyzer SCA Outputs When a maximum of the sampled analog ADC data is detected the corresponding maximum value is evaluated for lower and upper level thresholds LLD and ULD If the maximum falls in between LLD and ULD the pulse is accepted as valid and a SCA output pulse of 120 ns is initiated Other signals can be selected at the nominal SCA ports 1 SCA 120ns pulse for each valid SCA event 2 ADC BUSY over the threshold OR input FIFO full dead time 3 GATE input signal as discriminated 4 MCS event 2 5ns pulse for each detected count edge 5 SVA event as internally validated 6 Digital I O ports A very versatile 8 bit digital I O port is implemented on the FEATURE I O connector Since the corresponding resistors are socket mounted they can be easily user configured in a most flexible way This I O port is fully software controllable and each single 1 bit port is individually configurable It might be used for external alerts sample changer control status input outputs spectrum event tagging etc As c
60. maximized allows to define if the MPANT main window should start in maximized size It is necessary to save the MPANT options to make these settings permanent 54 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH pe Or Scaling f ol The Scaling menu item or the corresponding icon opens the Scale Parameters dialog box Scale Parameters X Counts Range Maximal jer 364 Minimal 0 M Auto scale Counts Scale Linear Logarithmic Color scaling Linear Minimum auto scale f Logarithmic Adapt Color Cancel Fig 5 17 Scale Parameters dialog It enables changing the ranges and attributes of a Spectrum axis By setting the Auto scaling mode the MPANT will automatically recalculate the y axis maximum value for the visible Spectrum region only To keep the same height of the visible region for a longer time deselect the Auto scaling mode Then with the scroll bar thumb one can quickly change the visible region scale otherwise the scale will be changed automatically The Minimum auto scale mode helps to display weak structures on a large background Lin Log scale g iu 10 For a Lin scale all data intervals have the same size With Log scale the intervals will be small for small y values and large for large y values All options have effect only on the active Display IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 55 MPANT Software Calibration nz 10 2 Using the Calibration menu item or the corresponding icon open
61. none softw 1 4 CH1 4 5 extern bit 5 O normal 1 auto bit 6 single shot bit 16 mcs mode bit 17 2mcs mode bit 18 sequential mode bit 19 ext clock cycles for sequential mode bit O start with rising edge bit 1 stop1 rising edge bit 2 stop2 rising edge bit 3 ch adv rising edge bit 4 FAST NIM bit 5 4k7 MCS Inputs for external trigger and SVA bit 0 trigger ch1 with rising edge bit 1 ch2 rising edge bit 2 ch3 rising edge bit 3 ch4 rising edge bit 4 FAST NIM bit 5 1 4k7 0 50 Ohm choice of units in dialog O ns 1 usec 2 msec 3 sec in units of 10 ns sweep preset value time preset unipolar or bipolar 0 count only stored events 02128 MB 1 32 MB 2 8 MB LOWORD upperlevel SCA 1 HIWORD lowerlevel SCA 1 bit0 1 chn1 O max 1 fit 2 flattop 3 reserved bit2 3 chn2 bit4 5 chn3 bit6 7 chn4 LOWORD fitwidth gaussian HIWORD pulsewidth flattop Bit0 1 SEGMENTS CH1 0 3 1x32k 2x16k 4x8k 8x4k segments Bit2 3 SEGMENTS CH2 Bit4 5 SEGMENTS CH3 Bit6 7 SEGMENTS_CH4 coincidence time in units of 8 ns flattop range for Mean calc LOWORD upper HIWORD lower LOWORD Bit0 13 meanrange Bit 15 14 Method O left 1 cft 2 right HIWORD roileft bit 0 3 GATE ADC1 4 1 Gate must be active for pulse processing bit 4 7 GATE POL1 4 1 active high bit 8 11 REJECT ADC1 4 1 use GATE
62. not expect any problems with host compatibility as we do not use something else than any USB hard disk or memory stick Of course it is necessary that the PC has a true USB 2 0 port Older PCs that do not have USB 2 0 on the motherboard can use a PCI card providing USB 2 0 ports We have no good experience with such PCI cards the throughput will be much lower typically only 15 20 Mbyte sec And some cards may not work at all So we recommend a computer with true USB 2 0 ports on the motherboard as is now standard even for laptops First check you have all shipped equipment available e Transport case e MCS4 module e Power supply module 100 240 V AC 12 V DC e Power line cord e USB 2 0 A A cable 3 m e User manual e CD or USB stick with operating software IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 9 Installation procedure 2 2 Driver Installation To install the driver please start the device manager You can do it by right clicking the computer shortcut on the desktop and selecting Manage from the drop down menu then Device Manager Another way is to select in the Start Menu Settings Control Panel then System Device Manager File Action View Help 2 L A Computer Management Local 4 System Tools Task Scheduler i Event Viewer a Shared Folders Local Users and Groups Performance d Device Manager 4 3 Storage ts Disk Management ze Services and Applications amp Audio inputs and outputs jE C
63. o box gives a choice between dot histogram spline and line The Symbol combo box gives a choice between None Circle Triangle down Triangle up Cross Snow flake and Diamond The symbols can be filled by checking Fill error bars can be displayed by checking Error Bar Dot means that each spectra point is shown as a small rectangle or the specified symbol the size can be adjusted with the size combo box Histogram is the usual display with horizontal and vertical lines spline means linear interpolation between the points and line means vertical lines from the ground to each spectra point If the displayed spectra range contains more channels as pixel columns are available in the video graphic display usually only the maximum value of the channels falling into that pixel columns is displayed But it can also explicitly specified by marking the check boxes Max Pixel Mean Pixel Min Pixel or All which value will be displayed It is also possible to display all three possible Pixel values in different colors that can be chosen in the colors dialog For the Mean Pixel a Threshold value can be entered channel contents below this value then aren t taken into account for the mean value calculation As plotting all values costs a lot of computing time for very large spectra it is replaces automatically by Max and Min pixel for spectra with more than 1 million counts Single Display Options X T
64. omputer gt Disk drives amp Display adapters ej DVD CD ROM drives eld Floppy disk drives EA Floppy drive controllers 5 Human Interface Devices cg IDE ATA ATAPI controllers ZA Imaging devices Keyboards Mice and other pointing devices gt K Monitors gt Network adapters Other devices Da MCA 4 Ports COM amp LPT gt fp Print queues den Printers D Processors fi Sensors gt Software devices Sound video and game controllers lt gt Storage controllers gt pill System devices Universal Serial Bus controllers dh WSD Print Provider Fig 2 1 Device Manager CVICC Manager More Actions The new device is displayed as MCA 4 in a class Other devices Please right click it and select Update driver from the drop down menu How do you want to search for driver software gt Search automatically for updated driver software Windows will search your computer and the Internet for the latest driver software for your device unless you ve disabled this feature in your device installation settings Browse my computer for driver software Locate and install driver software manually Fig 2 2 Driver Installation Cancel Windows offers to search automatically for updated driver software or browse the computer for the driver software Don t try the automatic installation it will probably not work Select to browse manually for the driver and select for exam
65. pectra when using a sweep preset For some measurements it is desired to synchronize the sequential cycles to an external signal from a sample changer or target mover This can also be done by using the Digital I O port together with the IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 25 Software Description waitpin command Just define any of the function toolbar icons in the MPANT program by a command like oncycle waitpin 3000 and click on this toolbar icon Now in sequential mode when a sweep preset is reached after each individual cycle the acquisition stops until the voltage level at Dig I O 7 gets low If the voltage is still high after 3000 msec a message box will pop up and warn that a time out happened See section 4 3 about more details and on the syntax of control language commands For the MCS Inputs the Polarity can be selected between TTL 1 3 V threshold and NIM 0 3 V signals For each of the MCS inputs you can select between the rising and the falling edge Usually for TTL signals rising edge should be active and for negative fast NIM signals rising edge should be deselected as the leading edge has the better timing OK takes the settings and closes the dialog Apply sets the parameters in the hardware without closing the dialog Cancel closes the dialog and cancels all changes 4 1 6 System Definition The System item in the settings menu opens the System Definition dialog box Several MCA s can be combined to form up to
66. phical displays This chapter describes now the server program The window of the MCA4 server program is shown here It enables the full control of the MCA4 to perform measurements and save data This program has no own spectra display but it provides via a DLL dynamic link library access to all functions parameters and data The server can be completely controlled from the MPANT software that provides all necessary graphic displays The view of the server window depends on the number of active input channels here all 4 ADC channels are active ioj xj File Settings Action 1 Action 2 Action 3 Action Fig 4 1 MCA4 Server Window 4 1 Server functions To start the software just double click a shortcut icon linking to the server program The server program performs a test whether the hardware works well on this computer then starts MPANT and gets iconized Usually you will control everything from MPANT but it is possible to work with the server alone and independently from MPANT 4 1 1 Initialization files At program start the configuration files MCA4 INI and MCA4A SET are loaded Parameters that can be set by editing the MCA4 INI file are the update rate in msec for the refresh of the status and the voltage calibration factors The number of ADC channels and resolution is set automatically The file MCA4A SET contains the default settings It is not necessary to edit this file since it is saved automatically Instead of
67. ple for Windows 7 or 8 the wdmdriv win folder on the CD or Software stick 10 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Installation procedure Select the folder that contains drivers for your hardware gt ga WOWI E E 425 Removable Disk F b di catalog b di htm i manuals jS SanDisk 4 i wdmdriv p P serwer 3 b ud wista J win2k di win di ia64 di x64 Ju x86 Fig 2 3 Choosing the right folder Please don t go deeper into the folder structure the processor type x86 x64 etc is found automatically After pressing OK the driver installation will proceed The device manager will then show a FAST ComTec MCS6 USB Driver in a class FAST ComTec USB Device as shown in Fig 2 4 File Action View Help e 9 2558140 RER 85 f Computer Management Local 4 k Wowi 4 if System Tools amp Audio inputs and outputs Task Scheduler pill Computer 8 Event Viewer ca Disk drives amp 1 Shared Folders WA Display adapters Local Users and Groups DVD CD ROM drives Performance EP FAST ComTec USB Device d Device Manager 4 53 Storage eld Floppy disk drives f Disk Management Floppy drive controllers Es Services and Applications Og Human Interface Devices Gg IDE ATA ATAPI controllers S Imaging devices p amp Keyboards gt A Mice and other pointing devices amp Monitors amp Network adapters Y Ports COM amp LPT allaluc More Actions fn Print queues dmh Printers
68. ply the errors with the square root of Q Click on Save to append a line containing the results to a Log file with the specified name OK closes the dialog and lets the fitted function in the display also if it is refreshed whereas after Cancel the curve no longer will be shown in a refreshed display Options opens a new dialog box to define the information in the log file IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 49 MPANT Software Logfile Options x Header Print in each line Filename ROI number v HUI Sum v HUI Met Sum v FOI Centroid unit v RO Centroid v Range a b v Calibrated Position Ask for new logfile New line Filename New line Start time New line Real time 2 Deadtime wv Position channels Iv v Live time Iv v Total Sum w Peak Area counts w Peak Area counts s v Calibrated FHM v FM channels v Maormalized chi Print Header Cancel Fig 5 10 Log file Options for the Single Gaussian Peak fit The several quantities are written in standard text format with Tabs as separators and a Newline character at the end of each line so the file can be read with standard calculation programs like EXCEL Click on Print Header to write a header line Fit ROIS With the Fit ROIs item for all ROI s a Single Gaussian Peak Fit is performed and the results are dumped into the log file Auto Calib Makes a Gauss fit for all ROI s in the active Display for which a calibration value was enter
69. rena 0 bit 0 realtime preset enabled bit 1 livetime preset enabled bit 2 Event preset enabled bit 3 ROI preset enabled roimin 0 lower ROI limit for ROI preset roimax 16384 upper limit roimin lt channel lt roimax evpreset 1 ROI preset or event count preset rtpreset 1000 000 real time preset sec Itpreset 1000 000 live time preset sec bitshift 2 bit shift between ADC LSB s and spectrum resolution caloff 0 000000 calibration parameter offset calfact 1 000000 calibration parameter factor calfact2 0 calfact3 0 calunit keV calibration unit caluse 0 bit 0 1 use calibration higher bits calibration formula ADC 2 the following section concerns parameters of ADC2 The following commands perform actions and therefore usually are not included in the MCA4A SET file 32 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH start halt cont erase savecnf savempa loadmpa addmpa submpa MC_A MC_B savedat loaddat adddat subdat smooth erase exit alert Message waitinfo 5000 Message beep delay 4000 pulse 100 waitpin 4000 waitpin3 4000 Software Description Clears the data and starts a new acquisition of system 1 Further execution of the CTL file is suspended until any acquisition stops due to a preset otops acquisition of system 1 if one is running Continues acquisition of system 1 If a time preset is already reached the time preset is prolongated
70. s the Calibration dialog box xl Use Calibration M Unit kev Calibration Points Channel Channel Value Cursor Fit Add gt gt 1451 72 661 6 EEE 2501 24 117323 Remove 293292 1332 48 Clear All Value po pl x 4 06621 0 0626 0 452938 2 be 005 Calibrate Lave as Cancel Fig 5 18 Calibration dialog Choose between several calibration formulas Enter some cursor positions and the corresponding values The actual cursor position can be entered by pressing Cursor or the last fitted peak position by pressing Fit Click on Add to insert the calibration position into the list then on Calibrate The obtained coefficients can be inspected together with the statistical error or they can be changed and entered by hand If use calibration is on the calibrated values are displayed together with the channel position of the cursor For MAP spectra the dialog is slightly different and allows to select by two radio buttons between the calibration of x and y axis For a selected parameter there is only one calibration If any ADC is already calibrated in a single spectrum and it is used also in a MAP spectrum the calibration is the same here The fastest way to get a good calibration is to create ROI s around peaks with known energy and enter the energy in the ROI editing dialog see Fig 5 7 Then use the Auto Calib function in the region menu You will immediately get a calibrat
71. t the TAB key for a next polygon and the END key to close it Circle lO Sets the Region shape to circular To enter a circular Region using the mouse click the right button at the center move the mouse and press the END key to finish Annular Sets the Region shape to annular To enter an annular Region using the mouse click the right button at the center and first circle and press the END key at the second circle Pie lo Sets the Region shape to pie To enter a pie Region using the mouse click the right button at the center and first radial end point press the END key at the second radial line end point Create B The Create menu item creates a new ROI from the current marked Region IR ES D e D By selecting the Delete menu item or the respective icon the current active ROI is deleted and the previously defined ROI is activated Edit With the Edit item a dialog box is opened which enables editing the ROI list i e create a new or delete change and activate an existing ROI Also the peak values for an automatic calibration can be entered here A ROI can be edited and added to the list It can also be made to the Active ROI that is the special ROI that is used by the server program to calculate the events within this ROI and look for an event preset The ROI list can be cleared and it can be written into a file with extension CTL which can be directly loaded into the server to restore the RO
72. t them at an USB port switch on the power and install the driver when you are prompted When starting the software you will be asked to edit the MCAA INI file as more than one MCA4 modules are found and the notepad editor will be automatically started with MCA4 INI loaded Edit the line devices 1 accordingly and save the file lolx File Edit Format wiew Help Set devices to number of MCA4d modules connected max 6 dey 1ces 2 Set chnum to number of ADC input channels for each module 0 4 chnum 0 4 4 4 set res to ADC resolution for each module 3 54k 2 8k 1 4k 0 2k Fesz3 3 3 3 3 3 The status 15 read out every updaterate msec 11 possible updaterate 1000 Fig 2 10 Editing MCA4 INI That is all you have to do next time when you start the software all modules will be found and can be operated IMF FIST ComTec GmbH 15 Hardware Description 3 Hardware Description 3 1 Overview The MCAA4 series is a family of USB connected multichannel analyzers All settings are software selectable No jumper switch etc configurations are necessary MI F FIST ComTec LED ON means MCS active START STOP 1 amp 2 CHADV Fig 3 1 MCS4 front panel A 1GBit internal DDR2 RAM is configurable as large FIFO buffer for listmode data transfer or as histogramming memory for onboard spectrum acquisition Four onboard discriminators at the four rightmost BNC connectors allow for either positive TTL slow NIM or neg
73. t voltage at IC pin 7 4 Performance 7 4 1 General DDR2 Memory Memory modes Data throughput Basic operating modes Reference oscillator 7 4 2 Multichannel scaler Dwell time modes Internal dwell time External channel advance Trigger uncertainty Trigger START delay Count STOP delay Dead time Sweep repetition time Differential non linearity Sweep counter Sweep counter preset range Spectrum sequencing End of sequence dead time Appendix default pull Up 16 93 9 V ae uU ncvot c outucasu usa aaraa 1 0 kO default series resistor uu024200022000000000 Benno nnnnn nennen nennen 22 0 Nene A E ee min 2 0 V ee ee oe max 0 8 V VA min 2 4 V EVEN REE EEE max 0 4 V 1Gbit 32M x 32 bit UA Listmode MSIOJAIM MUNO engen Cardmode USB transfer rate wwwwwwmmmamamamamimwnia meni nennen nme nennen 32 MB s Multichannel scaling nennen nenne nenne nenn nennen nenn MCS SAD YA Soest ee ee 50 ppm PA a a de anne 3 ppm year de ne Re el tt E internal auto external C1 Channel MOS aa min 30 ns 2 channel MOS een aaa min 50 ns max 2 1 x 10 ns 32 days VES vr 10ns COGS SENEST ane een rising falling period internally asured rrrrnnnnnnrnnnnnvnnnnvrnnnrnnnnnrnnnnnernnnnner min 100 ns V
74. the header containing the configuration first open the data operations dialog using the toolbar icon showing the 4 yellow diskettes select Selected Spectra and check Seperate Header as shown in Fig 5 7 When saving data you have the choice between several formats like binary DAT ASCII ASC GANAAS SPE EMSA emsa and CSV CSV format by selecting it from Save type As To read a CSV file with Excel load it as a text file and configure TAB characters as seperators When you load data select a header file extension MP This file contains the information about the size and format of the data file which is then automatically read With Add the data is added to the present data 42 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software The data read from a file is shifted according to the calibration if it is available and Use Calib is checked in the MCA4 Data Operations dialog see Fig 4 3 This dialog can also be used to load spectrum data from a file into an existing display window New Display With the Open New menu item or the corresponding icon a new Display window can be created and shown as the active window In the Open New Display dialog box the spectrum for the new display can be selected Open New Display Range Mame 4096 ADC 81952 Turku fallout Chermobyl 3day 4096 Single amp 256x125 MEGO 128x128 Pillay Cancel Fig 5 3 File New Display dialog Open All
75. tions 6 Programming and Software Options The MCS4 can be controlled by user written programs using the DLL software interface with example programs for Visual Basic LabVIEW and C that is available as an option Furthermore LINUX software is available as an option containing a driver library and console test program A Windows software similar to the LINUX package that runs without the server using a stand alone DLL is also available on demand for customers who own one of the two available library packages 64 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH Appendix 7 Appendix 7 1 Absolute Maximum Ratings Input voltage any GATE MCS input short duration only 1 7 5 5 V any FEATURE I O port cccccccccccceeeeeeeceeeceeeceeeceeeseeeeeeaes 0 5 5 5 V DC power supply seesseesseeeeeeennneene nene nnne nnne nnn nnn nnns 14V DC input current any GATE MCS input uuussesseenennenennennennnnnnnnennennn ernennen 70 mA any DIGITAL I port a ea sa cena 10 mA Input power any GATE MOS IHNPUE an ee ee max 0 25 W 7 2 Recommended Operating Conditions Power ed O eeen ecs mU i desepeEd nominal 12 V 15 W voltage range ERROR FUN us EVA e Operating temperature range oa seccccescccceeccceeseccsuceeceueecceueeesaueesceueecsuucessseessueeessueeesseeesseeseesaenss 0 to 50 C GOL Z Cn min 1 kO to 5 0 V O min 2 KQ to GND D
76. ver program has a built in command interpreter The syntax of these commands is described in chapter 4 3 and in the MPANT on line help look for How to use the command language It is recommended to send commands like range 16384 to the server via the RunCmd DLL function i e RunCmd 0 range 16384 if you want to set parameters like a spectra length The alternative method is to store all settings parameters into the DLL by calling the DLL function StoreSettingData setting 0 and then calling NewSetting 0 to send a message to the server to read new settings from the DLL This method will not work for changing a spectra length to avoid the problem of any undefined memory pointers The range parameter should be changed by the server program only or by sending a range command The recommended usage of the DLL is reading parameters like Status Settings Strings Cnt numbers ROI boundaries using the corresponding DLL functions but for any actions or setting any parameters the command interpreter should be used It is important that the DLL is loaded first by the Server program and that it is loaded from the same path by all programs using it Otherwise it does not work to access the shared memory The dmca4 dll is installed by the installation program into the standard Windows folder for 32 bit or 64 bit DLLs respectively Please make sure that there is nowhere else any file dmca4 dll 40 IMF FIST ComTec GmbH MPANT Software 5 MP
77. ype Max Pixel Threshold l Mean Pixel 1 A da Min Pinel None 2 7 AI Fil Custom Farmula Error Bar 2 Dimension Cancel gt MAP Fig 5 13 Single Display Options dialog The button labeled Custom Formula provides spectra that are calculated in a special DLL named FMPA3 DLL This DLL allows to calculate spectra and to display it with the MPANT program The source code of this DLL is part of the optional DLL software interface so it is possible to program customer defined functions Select a single spectrum and open the Display options dialog Press then the button labeled Custom formula A dialog box Custom transformed spectra is opened Here the formula for the calculation can be selected and the parameters can be edited A new display window showing the calculated spectra can be created Error Bars can be activated in the display options dialog for the calculation of the error bars also the DLL is used Formula 6 calculates a Fourier transform of a wave form acquired in scope mode see Fehler Referenz nicht gefunden It is possible to change to a two dimensional view of the spectrum by specifying the x Dimension and clicking the button gt gt MAP from the Single Display Options dialog For MAP displays the Display Options dialog is changed and enables a choice between four Graphic types bitmap dot vector dot bitmap contour and vector contour Bitmap Dot is recommended as a standar

2 Input Multichannel Scaler User Manual

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