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XIA Pixie-32 User Manual

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Information furnished by XIA LLC is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, no responsibility is
 
assumed by XIA for its use, or for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties which may
 
 
 
 
result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of
 
 
 
 
XIA. XIA reserves the right to change hardware or software specifications at any time without notice.  
 
 
 
Pixie-32 
User Manual 
Version 0.2 
Software Revision: 3.5.0 
31057 Genstar Rd 
Hayward, CA 94544 USA 
Email: support@xia.com 
Tel: (510) 401-5760; Fax: (510) 401-5761 
http://www.xia.com/ 
 
 
 
   
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
  
July, 2018
 
 
 
 
XIA LLC 
 
   
 
 
 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
   

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Summary of Contents for XIA Pixie-32

  • Page 1                         assumed by XIA for its use, or for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties which may                  ...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2   Manual Convention Introduction Hardware Setup Software Installation Getting Started Start Application Configure tab [Boot] [Configure] [Oscilloscope] [Adjust Offsets] Acquire tab [Start] [Stop] [Statistics] [Analysis] Appendix Initialization file format Configuration file format List-mode data format...
  • Page 3 (1) year from the date of shipment. If any such product proves defective during this warranty period, XIA LLC, at its option, will either repair the defective products without charge for parts and labor, or will provide a replacement in exchange for the defective product.

  • Page 4: Manual Convention

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 2 Manual Convention The following conventions are used throughout this manual Convention Description Example Bold Bold text denotes items that ...click on the ​ M CA​ tab. you must select or click on in the software, such as menu items, and dialog box options.

  • Page 5: Introduction

    Pixie-32 modules in the chassis, it will detect new hardware and try to find drivers for it. (A Pixie-32 module will be detected as a new device every time it is installed in a new slot.) While there is no required order of installation of the driver software, the following...
  • Page 6 DSP, PixieCLib). “Sample” is default location for starting the viewer. Windows will detect new hardware (the Pixie-32 modules) and should find the drivers automatically. If not, direct it to the “Drivers” directory in the Pixie-32 software distribution installed in step 5. Verify in Windows device manager that the modules are properly installed as “Pixie32”...

  • Page 7: Getting Started

    (FipRegs_m00.txt in Configuration folder). The initialization file must have the list of serial numbers, matching those of modules installed in chassis. To start the Pixie-32 Viewer, open terminal, change into directory containing Python scripts and Pixie32.dll (usually Sample folder), and execute: python wx_pixie32.py p32.ini...

  • Page 8: Configure Tab

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Configure tab Prior to performing any operations with the instrument, FPGA must be booted with correct firmware file, and internal FPGA registers initialized with user-provided parameters. Locations of firmware and © 2017 XIA LLC...

  • Page 9: [Boot]

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 configuration files are read from the initialization file, and displayed above “​ C onfigure​ ” button box. Actions of clicking buttons are described below. [Boot] Load the FPGA firmware to the instrument. After successful booting, the front panel LED will start blinking.

  • Page 10: [Adjust Offsets]

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 [Adjust Offsets] Can be used to automatically set baselines to 10% of ADC range. The values of DCOffset parameter for each are written to file adjust_offsets_m##.txt (where ## is module number), so they can easily be pasted into configuration file.

  • Page 11: [Stop]

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Prepare for the run: open output files, initialize DMA and interrupts, and start data acquisition. In free-running mode, run time in seconds is displayed in ​ T ime,(s) ​ t ext box. When checkbox near ​ T ime​ is checked, run time is set by preset time entered in the text box, and during run is counting down.

  • Page 12: [Statistics]

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 [Statistics] During active run, display statistics (live time (seconds), fast peaks (number of triggers), number of events (number of recorded events), and calculated Input Counting Rate, Output Counting Rate, Dead Time) for selected module, for all 32 channels. Data is recorded in <base_name>.s## file (for format description see below).
  • Page 13 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 [Open] ​ b utton prompts to open list-mode data <base_name>.b## file. Once file is opened, it is parsed (by parser.exe​ , which should be in the current directory), outputting event information into <base_name>.b##_TS.txt file. If the binary file has already been parsed: the <base_name>.b## _TS.txt file has been generated, the time-consuming parsing can be skipped by unchecking the checkbox close to [Open]​...
  • Page 14 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Information from the parsed file for the selected event is displayed in the event window, along with recorded (if configured so) trace. After binary file is successfully parsed,​ [MCA]​ button is enabled, and it opens window, displaying time stamps vs event number, and energy histogram for the selected channel.
  • Page 15 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 © 2017 XIA LLC...

  • Page 16: Appendix

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Appendix Initialization file format Typical name is p32.ini, but can be anything, the filename is provided as argument to the wx_pixie32.py script. The file should contain at least 5 lines, without blank lines. Description of .ini file format: firmware path (.bin file).
  • Page 17 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 There is a constraint concerning the sum value of the two trigger filter parameters: ​ 2 <= FastLength + FastGap <= 63​ . FastThreshold: This is the threshold used by the trapezoidal trigger filter (regular) in the FPGA.
  • Page 18 Sets preamplifier exponential decay time constant, in microseconds BLScale: The Pixie-32 measures baselines continuously and effectively extracts DC-offsets from these measurements. The DC-offset value is needed to apply a correction to the computed energies. To reduce the noise contribution from this correction baseline samples are averaged in a geometric weight scheme.
  • Page 19 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 ExtTrigEnable: Enable or disable external trigger: = 1, use external trigger = 0, do not use external trigger TrigMode: Specify the trigger mode: = 0, regular trigger mode = 1, not supported = 2, not supported...

  • Page 20: List-Mode Data Format

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 LongPulseDuration: Length of the long pulse detection period. Note the constraint: ​ 1 <= LongPulseDuration <= 63 LongPulseThreshold:​ Threshold of the long pulse detection. Note the constraint: ​ 1 <= LongPulseThreshold <= 255 CooloffPeriod: The length of the adaptive cooloff period Note the constraint:​...
  • Page 21 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 parameters. However, for all options the following 4 words will always be included in the event header as the first 4 words. Data Description [28:15 [9:6 [31] [30:29] [14:10] [5:0] Bits [5:0]​ – channel number; ​ b its​ ​ [ 9:6]​ – module number;...

  • Page 22: Statistics File Format

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 If trace recording is enabled, trace data will immediately follow the last word of the event header. Since raw ADC data points are 12-bit numbers, two 12-bit numbers are packed into one 32-bit word, as shown below.

  • Page 23: Api Functions

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Along with statistics registers, FPGA configuration registers are read back. Their values are recorded in hex format as 32-bit words, 12 registers per each of 32 channels (768 words total). After statistics file is generated, PIxie_Acquire_Data(0x4500) will parse it, extract FPGA configuration parameters from the register values, read in the configuration parameter file, and compare values written to hardware and read back.

  • Page 24: Api Function: Pixie_Boot_System

    S32 status =​ ​ P ixie_Boot_System (uint16 Boot_Pattern, uint8 ModNum); Description: Use this function to boot one or all Pixie-32 modules in the chassis. Before booting the modules, it scans all PXIe crate slots and finds the address for each slot where a Pixie-32 module is installed.

  • Page 25: Api Function: Pixie_Acquire_Data

    Version 0.2 Boot_Pattern ​ ​ i s an unsigned 16-bit integer that represents a bit mask used to control the boot pattern of the Pixie-32 modules: Bit 0: ​ i gnored Bit 1: Boot signal processing FPGA (​ u sing file path from configuration file) Bit 2: ​...
  • Page 26 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 file_name ​ is a string which specified the (path and) filename for the data generated during the run. (with “.bin” extension. Full name of the output binary file would be filename.b##, ## is ModNum. ModNum ​ is an uint8 which specifies the module number that this function targets within the chassis (valid range: 0-15).

  • Page 27: Api Function: Pixie500E_Getnumbermodules

    Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 ● Pixie_Acquire_Data(0x3500, NULL, "file_name.bin", 0)​ : stop data acquisition. When using Custom ISR, user is required to close the output file. To make sure that all data processed by FPGA is transferred, FPGA is automatically flushing data path with zeros (thus the binary output file might contain zeroes at the end).
  • Page 28 Pixie-32 User Manual Version 0.2 Description: Function used to match module number (index in device handles array) with its serial number. Calling Parameters: U8 ModNum: ​ 0 -based module number (0--15 for these chassis) Return Parameters: U32 serial_number ​ : 32-bit decimal integer serial number (actually only 16 lower bits are valid, because in EEPROM BoardVersion and SerialNumber form one 32-bit word).

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