Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

[shimomuramaya <maya AT cc.nara-wu.ac.jp>]

Dear sPHENIX

Here is the shift change meeting minutes on August 4. 

***************
General (Stefan/Kin)
    • It is clear now that we will not return to beam operations this run
    • Nevertheless, the commissioning continues full force
    • Switching to two-person shifts at midnight:  SL and Detector Operator
Current Priority Items (PC)
    • Make use of magnetic field, which we’ll have until Friday +/- 1 day:  
take data with tracking detectors:  TPC, MVTX, INTT, TPOT
Work Control Coordinators (Chris/Joel)
    • No Updates from WCC’s
Plan of the Day (Stefan/PC/all–to be revisited at end of meeting)
    • TPC magnetic field test by 5:30 to 6:00pm 
    • Then take cosmics data with coincidence trigger for INTT and TPOT 

========================================================================

Evening (Ross)
    • Magnet lost telemetry, Kin investigated.
        • Kin: Lee Flader has needed to change the script/save the project in 
order to solve the problem.
        • Red caution light in IR will be on as long as magnet is 'ON', even 
if at zero amps.  Check with Shift Leader and monitors, then proceed.
    • MVTX worked to add to big partition, no success yet.  Ran on GTM1 
successfully.
    • one gas checklist was submitted with a mis-click, unable to delete.
    • TPC spark detection development
Night (Joey)
    • Confusion about magnet state; call to CAS and Kin clarified status
    • ControlRoom1 computer froze and needed hard reboot
        • DO computer instructions were mostly sufficient to recover GUIs
        • Exception: MBD timing scope proved difficult due to a “firefox is 
already running” error
            • Had to kill existing firefox process which was using the same 
profile
    • Replaced ADC board in rack 1E1 crate 3 slot 3 - replacement board was 
tested prior to swap and worked OK
Day (Tristan)
    • HCal + EMCal + TPOT cosmics in the morning
    • DAQ development by Jaebeom starting around 10:45
    • IR swept for tools/magnetic material ahead of ramping up magnet
    • Magnet ramping for TPC tests started ~1:00

========================================================================

Magnet (Kin)
    •  Magnet is being ramped up for the TPC studies ( stopping at 0 A, 500 
A, and 2000 A and then full current). 

MBD (Mickey, Lameck)
    • Nothing new to update.
Trigger (Dan)
    • Working fine
GTM/GL1 (Martin/Dan/John K)
    • We have version 47. We held off on installing it last night. We are 
continuing with 46 through the weekend in order not to interrupt current 
testing (TPC, MVTX, DAQ). Also see the MVTX report - apparent behavior 
difference between gtm(0) and gtm1. Now that I thought about this - I 
disabled the fiducial tick now on the main gtm, maybe that had to do with it? 
Worth trying again.
 DAQ (Martin/John H)
    • DAQ testing/debugging is continuing, kicking into even-higher gear next 
week. After the imminent run23 end, we have a clear mission. Just for the 
record, I’m using seb01 (Emcal 1W3) as my go-to system.
    • I replaced the failed power supply on the intt3 Felix server PC.
MVTX (Cameron)
    • We were able to run the MVTX in Global mode on GTM1. We weren’t able to 
run it on the main GTM though. Jaebeom has been looking into it and we’re 
trying the main GTM again now. Still didn’t work when running rcdaq as phnxrc 
on operator1
TPC (Tom Hemmick, Jin, Takao, Evgeny, Charles, David, Bob, Ross, Nick, Luke, 
John K.)
    • Work on spark monitoring calibration finished yesterday 08/03
        • Thanks to David from Debrecen!
        • Using the spark monitoring system now
    • Today 08/04:
        • Decided to do Magnet Ramping test (thanks to Kin for coordinating):
        • Using diffuse laser as “standard candle” to get qualitative sense 
of gain
        • Raise one HV module to 4650 V, all others 4200 V
            • 0 A - done - 2nA response

    • 500 A - done - 2-3 nA response (i.e. stable relative to zero field)

    • 2000 A - done 3-4nA response (possibly higher GEM gain with higher 
field)

    • 4620 A (full field) - final measurement later today
    • Also testing spark monitor with module raised up to 4650 V
        • Saw one spark in U709 (red trace)

    • Weekend: 08/05 & 08/06
        • Full field running primarily for gathering stats for spark monitor
            • (David + Jin + Ross)
        • Secondarily, can take cosmics runs
            • Spark monitor takes priority, otherwise at cost of ~1 GEM strip 
per hour at operational HV 
            • Once spark protection works, start cosmic run with HCal cosmic 
trigger 
                • Need to move back to GTM0 from GTM1 for cosmic run
                • Front end configured, under 24*7 monitoring run when not 
used in big partition
                • Normal cosmic big partition procedure to bring in TPC
    • Next week, 
        • Full field cosmic running
            • Best be done with all tracking detectors for global tracker 
alignment (on top of studying TPC response alone)
            • Possibly mix in some diffuse laser shots, depending on laser 
debug status
        • B-Field scan may be requested again, after the understanding of 
diffuse laser with full GEM gain: aim is to observe changes in the laser 
pattern in data with B-field

HCal (Silas)
    • Replacement of pre-amp board to fix hot tower
        • (JaeBeom) Still hot.. Run of this morning 25134 (cosmics)

    • New HCal coincidence cosmics trigger:  should be utilized when taking 
cosmics with tracking detectors
    • Otherwise use standard cosmics trigger (any single tower)
    • In the past we were anxious to collect enough statistics and therefore 
not included EMCal
    • Now that there’s no more beam, we can include EMCal
EMCal (Sean)
    • Nothing new to report
TPOT (Hugo)
    • Nothing to report. Smooth cosmics data taking
INTT (Genki/Rachid)
    • The power supply module in INTT3 was replaced by Martin. Thank you so 
much!
    • We can try to measure cosmic ray this evening.
sEPD(Rosi)
    • Checking out south EPD electronics - 6 out of 6 interface boards have 
signal
    • Install North box after magnet off (? tbd)
Gas/Cooling ()
ZDC (Ejiro)
    • With no beam, immediate plans are:
        • Finish ZDC calibration using MBD mip information
        • Correlate MBD timing with ZDC timing (offline analysis)
        • Nothing new on the SMD
Background Counters ()

Online Monitoring (Chris)

*************end of minutes ******
Best, 

Maya
###################
Associate Professor
Division of Natural Sciences 
Nara Women's University 

BNL Bldg.510C Room2-223

Email: maya AT cc.nara-wu.ac.jp
Office: 631-344-2778
Cell : 631-504-2144
###################