How MIDAS is currently used at UMN K100

notes for 2016-05-11 phone meeting with Amy et al

1. Check phonons — with SQUIDtuningGUI
   1. need to turn off Data Logging to avoid excess series (maybe make automatic)
   2. Display is bursty/laggy if triggering is set on threshold
      1. generally Display is good if random triggering
2. Adjust phonons if railed
   1. relock, change driver offsets — with SQUIDtuningGUI -or- Settings in DCRC_UI -or- ODB browser interface
3. Issue with spontaneous re-writing of phonon ODB settings
   1. one phonon channel's settings get written to another channel
   2. seems to happen while adjusting with SQUIDtuningGUI, sometimes
   3. related/responsible issue: display after hitting SQUID Control will sometimes show settings for a different channel than that selected
4. Set up runs — with ODB browser interface
   1. SeriesInfo tag, trigger settings (also can use SQUIDtuningGUI), Beginning/End/During randoms, charge bias, data logging, …
5. Start sets of series using Tools:Flash-and-Take in DCRC_UI
   1. it might be nice if this tool also included
      1. Randoms settings
      2. Bias settings
      3. Series Info
      4. Trace Length
      5. best if these showed the current values and allowed user to update them
      6. Automatically set data logging
   2. we have never automated sets of series to scan over settings, such as a bias sweep
      1. we know one can write one's own sequence but we have never tried
      2. something more user-friendly?

1. not MIDAS after plugging in DCRCs
   1. start it through TELNET (wr 15 0, wr 15 20),
   2. check FET heater,
   3. set up Timing Link (allegedly this occurs when you Start a Run)
2. Use ODB Browser Interface to enable correct DCRCs
3. Turn on DCRCDriver, TowerFE, TriggerFE under Programs on MIDAS Browser Interface
4. Start SQUIDtuningGUI to look at traces
   1. will sometimes find that programs crash. Can generally restart.
   2. GUI will often crash too, can ctrl-c and restart
   3. when these things happen sometimes MIDAS Run is still going -
      1. stop on MIDAS Browser Status tab
      2. sometimes stuck “in transition”, on ODB go to Run Info and set three “Transition” settings to zero
5. ZAP SQUIDs using DCRC_UI Tools Zap function
6. Tune SQUIDs with SQUIDtuningGUI
   1. generally use GUI only
7. Find QET biases
   1. currently there is no IbIs tool that we use
   2. we do “mini-IbIs”: basically a 3-data-point IbIs done by reading baseline voltage from SQUIDtuningGUI trace
8. Measure Tc's - use test signal with SQUIDtuningGUI

1. SQUIDtuningGUI
   1. name is a misnomer: used for lots of other things besides SQUID tuning (checking channels, mini-IbIs, Tc measurement)
   2. minor quibbles:
      1. QI, QO buttons are disabled unless you hit “Deselect All”
      2. when Trace Length setting changed, does not immediately take - need to hit Enter multiple times
   3. it would be nice if:
      1. it could show multiple channels simultaneously (LabVIEW DAQ did this)