Running Test Software

From pCT

Main Page -> Control & Readout Software Documentation and Howto's -> Running Test Software

This is a guide for how to install and run the test software.

Software Function

The test software consists of multiple tests which aims to provide a classification of the ALPIDE chip and scripts needed to run the ALPIDE in a beam environment.

Install

The software requires installation of the pct-online software.

It also requires a working version of rootpy, the installation guide can be accessed at http://www.rootpy.org/install.html

You need access to the project at https://git.app.uib.no/pct

Using a terminal in the location where you want to install the Test software:

$ git clone git@git.app.uib.no:pct/production_tests.git

$ cd production_tests

$ git checkout production-test-v2.0

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

You should now be able to use the test software.

Usage

The How to and usage for individual tests are listed in their dedicated pages linked below:

Tests


Data Taking

The test software can also be used to perform data taking. This information can be accessed here * Data Taking

Calibration Curves

The threshold of the analog front-end can be altered by changing certain DAC settings in the config files. Calibration curves for the relevant settings are linked below.

VRESETD

VCASN

ITHR

IDB

Trouble Shooting

If it is difficult to establish communication with the board/alpides the following error message may be displayed when running a text:

$  File "registertest.py", line 276, in <module>
    register_test(args['--board'], args['--tctype'], args['--chips'])
  File "registertest.py", line 48, in register_test
    board = BoardPTB()
  File "../bsp/board_ptb.py", line 43, in __init__
    super(BoardPTB, self).__init__(interface=MainSocket(49153, "192.168.1.10", "SOCK_STREAM"))
  File "../bsp/mainsocket.py", line 29, in __init__
    self.open_socket(socket_type)
  File "../bsp/mainsocket.py", line 55, in open_socket
    self.sock.connect((self.addr, self.port))
KeyboardInterrupt

Make sure that the necessary ports are open, this can be checked by the following command:

$ sudo iptables -L

If you need to open a port, this can be done with the following command.

$ sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --sport portnumber -j ACCEPT

For the VCU118 board, udp is used in communication. For the PTB tcp is used. You also need to specify if the port is source or destination. This is the --sport/--dport argument.


If you have issues with the offload. Make sure that you don't have any readout clients running in the background. This can be checked by using the top command anywhere in the terminal.

PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                               
36449 vei046    20   0  618664 114944  80376 S  99.7  0.2   0:51.09 run-pdtp-pru-parser