From steffen@amanda.spole.gov Wed Sep 26 12:16:55 2001 Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:30:44 +0000 (GMT) From: Steffen Richter To: Till Neunhoeffer Cc: Marc Hellwig , Darryn Schneider , Lutz Koepke , Ralf Wischnewski , Steve Barwick , Uli Schäfer Subject: The answer at last Re: TDC cables and DAQ upgrades Hi all, The cabling will be difficult. Although the cables have been tidied up at the connection points very nicely last summer (except for the patch panel) there is chaos on the cable trays and in front of racks 3/4/5. This makes it difficult to assess the situation. I think it is save to assume, that they are not to short. The problem area is where racks 3 and 4 and racks 4 and 5 meet. These areas are highly congested and it will be very hard if not impossible to have additional cables there and still be able to walk by w/o causing disaster. I think our only chance is to put additional cables between racks 4 and 5. Unfortunately, this place is extremely messy because of the DMADD and ADC LEMO cables coming from the ORBs. These are too short. To clean up the mess for good, one would need to replace these LEMO cables with longer ones to be able to bring them down right in front of the rack. As a next step all TDC/SN/Patch Panel/DMADD cables on top of the cable trays and in front of racks 3/4/5 need to be untangled an straightened out. The cables can be laid out on top of racks 3/4 in an orderly loop and than brought down at the required length to DMADD and patch panel. Taking pictures has been a bit difficult but I think they will illustrate the point. Marc and I tried quite a bit. The ones requested by Ralf come in a separate email. Keep in mind, that this is not just cosmetics. At the moment it is impossible to change any hardware in that area, since most is blocked by the cables. Anyone who has been here last summer knows what can happen by just walking by that area. So in summary I think the cable length specified by Till will do but we need to clean up some more cabling to fit these cables in. However, I think we should think ahead. If we are going to have a multibranch solution in the near future, we probably want to split up the TDCs between two crates. I think we can fit a third VME crate into rack 7 right under the SN VME crate, if we move the SN/AMANDA DAQ PCs down the rack and get rid of the unused NIM bin (see attached picture). We should therefore plan for an __ADDITIONAL__ 1m cable length. Otherwise we might be facing the same task again one year down the road. Not a pleasant thought. Also, what I have been missing in this discussion, is where Steve's hardware is supposed to go. I heard that plans to move it to the AMANDA A side have been scratched. Assuming that he will have one Wiener VME crate and one standard DAQ PC, the only other option I see is to move it to rack 1. For that we would have to move pamanda3 (HV/temp control) to rack 2 between the SWAMPS. To be able to do that we need to buy a bigger internal disk for that PC to get rid of the 3 external disks, which wouldn't fit in rack 2. When the plans get finalized, I can provide a list of brackets and cable mounting hardware that needs to be made/bought. Also please keep in mind, that I identified some heat shrink cable labels for LEMO cables that can be printed on station. That should be done as well if cables get changed. I hope this answer will help you in your efforts. Cheers, Steff On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Till Neunhoeffer wrote: > > Hi all, > > I hope to summarize the cables discussion in all detail in the following > mail. > > Summary: > > a) we need to replace 19 cables: > > TDC_05, TDC_14, TDC_19 are class 3: length 10 units: 5.03m > TDC_01 to TDC_18 are class 1: length 14 units: 7.06m > The classes differ in sink and source and connectors at the end. > > b) Responsibilities see below. > > c) Please Marc and/or Steffen could you assess the cabling situation in > MAPO, whether the current lengths of VME TDC cables used are ok or too > long or too short. Could you please also send some pictures so that we can > see the situation. Thanks a lot. > > > 1. test apparatus > Lutz is right that there should be two little metallic boxes at Pole. I > have contacted our electronics people and should know by tomorrow if it > is rather easy to build another of these check boxes quickly. > > > 2. cables and lengths > > Just to remind you: The cables we use are twisted for 18 inches and then > flat for another 2. The natural unit of length of these cables is the > number of such sections. In the attached documents these lengths are > called "units" (how inventive). > > There are three "categories" (classes?) of cables that we use at > pole. Those from the DMADs to the TDCs (class 1), those from the DMADs > to the patch panel (class 2), and those from the patch panel to the TDCs > (class 3). These cables differ both in length and in the type of connector > that is needed at the end. I could distinguish between three types of > connectors: > > 1. The standard connection, where pin1 of the connector attached to > line1. These connections are called "ok". They have to be applied at cable > ends at VME TDCs and the patch panel. (Also the VME scalers use this > version, but they are not of concern here). > > 2. The inverted connection, where pin1 goes to line34. Here one just > attaches the connector the "wrong" way. The DMADs use this > nomenclature. 1999 it was decided to attach the connector the wrong way > rather than attaching it the right way and then inserting it the wrong > way. These connections are called "inv". > > 3. The CAMAC TDCs use the right orientation, but they do not have enough > space to accomodate the "noses" on the connectors that ensure the right > orientation. They are called "okcut", as the noses of the connectors were > cut off. > > > Today's lengths: > > class 1 (DMADs to VME TDCs): 14 units: 7.06m > class 2 (DMADs to Patch Pa): 4 units: 1.98m (no change nec.) > class 3 (Patch Pa to VME T): 10 units: 5.03m > > Ralf and I would like to ask Steffen and Marc to take a look at the > TDC cabling and offer an opinion on whether the current cable lengths to > the VME TDCs are adequate or if anything should be > changed. (Shorter/longer). It would also help a lot to get some photos of > the current situation. > > If the lengths are ok, from the attached (and somewhat difficult to > read) document I believe we need to replace the cables TDC_01 to TDC_19. > > TDC_05, TDC_14, TDC_19 are class 3 and should have length 10 units: 5.03m > all others are class 1 and should have length 14 units: 7.06m > > > 3. Responsibilities. > > I understand the situation such that Uli (Mainz) is ready to order the > high density connectors at CERN (40 days delivery time). > > Ralf is in charge to make the high density adapters. He will also order > the flat cables from the DESY store. > > Either one of them also orders the standard connectors we need (females on > adaptors and males on normal cables). > > Someone needs to finally make the cables. Ralf and I agree that making > them in the Northern hemisphere is a good idea. > > Cheers > Till > > > > On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Darryn Schneider wrote: > > > > > Sounds great for them to be made in Mainz! > > > > Steff, can you take a few digital photos and measure how long the > > cables should be. Thanks. > > > > Christian, doesn't sound like I can help much, but if there is > > anything I can do let me know. > > > > ciao, > > Darryn > > > > Christian Spiering writes: > > > > > >Dear Darryn, > > > > > >we propose that we (i.e. Ralf) buy the connectors and > > >cable and produce the short adapters which sit just in > > >front of the TDCs. We could make the crimping here > > >knowing how it was done 2 years ago. > > > > > >The long cable from DMAD to TDCs: Mainz knows how to > > >connect, and also had a special test stand for checking > > >polarity, short circuit (and presumable other things). > > >Could Mainz care about these cables and connectors ? > > >If not, Till should send drawing and two ends to UW, > > >possibly also the test apparatus. > > > > > >Does that sound reasonable to you? > > > > > > > > >Christian > > > > > > > -- > > Dr. Darryn Schneider darryn@alizarin.physics.wisc.edu > > Phone 1-608-262-3395 Fax 1-608-263-0800 > > AMANDA University of Wisconsin, Madison > > > > > -- Steffen Richter http://www.adventure-antarctica.de Winter-over Scientist steffen@adventure-antarctica.de AMANDA Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Steffen Richter wrote: > All, > > We'll get you the information about cable length on Monday. > > Cheers, > Steff > > On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Till Neunhoeffer wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > just to keep everyone in the loop. We have started to build a new cable > > testing device. It is small, i.e. transportable, and should be ready very > > soon. > > > > Cheers > > Till > >