STAR dump reader

(D. Karlen, June 2002)

A simple java application was written to directly view dump files from the STAR readout electonics. This program built upon the original program (ReadDataFile) from Mike Ronan. To create the dump file, execute the following command on the vxworks system:

d 0xc0000000,n > filename.dat

where n is the number of 16 bit words to read out. There are 2048 words in the header, and 1152 words for every time bucket. To read out 100 buckets: n = 2048 + 1152*100 = 117248. The vxworks output pipe overflows if n gets too large, causing a system crash.

Another way to create dump files is with the sq_irq program. This produces one file for each event, an in a slightly different format. These files can be read in by this program, provided the file extension is "irq".

The 1152 channels are indentified by the front end card (called a Location: 0-35), the ADC on the card (A or B), and the pin number (0 - 15). The numbering scheme of the front end cards is indicated below:

To run the viewer:

• download the following two jar files: rsd.jar and jas.jar (from Tony Johnson, SLAC)
• execute: java -cp rsd.jar;jas.jar readstardump.Run

(on unix systems replace the semi-colon with a colon).

This produces a window like the one below. Specify the file, read the data (only need to do this once), specify the channel, and plot...
 
 

The data shown above corresponds to about 30 fC injected and period between pulses = 2.6 us.
 

You can download the source code here:

• ExampleFileFilter.java
• MainFrame.java
• Run.java
• StarDumpData.java

The code has been updated on March 6, 2003... to correct an error in the ADC and pin naming. The current version is v.2. Send comments and questions to Dean Karlen.
 

Mike Ronan has adapted this code to read files produced by a simple DAQ program, sq_irq. You can find the code below:

• ReadIRQFiles.java
• StarDumpData.java

Note: the rsd code also reads the files produced by sq_irq: the file extension needs to be set to .irq to be recognized.