Data Quality Assurance

FTPC Data Quality Assurance and Quality Control

   During data taking it is very important to monitor the quality of the data being taken. This should be done at least once a day and whenever the FTPC has been turned back on.

  •   Online histograms - "Panitkin Plots"
  •   FTPC Fast Offline QA histograms 
  •   FTPC temperature readings - check if the FTPC temperature readings are in the Slow Control Archive. There should be readings for both Ftpc body (West 6 readings, East 6 readings) and Ftpc extra (West 6 readings, East 7 readings) temperatures. It is especially important to check these after the FEEs have been turned off; there is a non-negligible possibility that the body temperature readings for FTPC East do not come up again. If this is the case, call an expert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast Offline QA Histograms

FTPC Fast Offline Histograms

 

 

Online histograms - "Panitkin Plots"

 

During a run, online histograms are collected for each sub-system. The online histograms give the first indication of detector hardware problems. Therefore it is extremely important to check these histograms in the control room on evp.starp.bnl.gov at the end of each run. They should also be saved so that they are available for future viewing via the RunLog Browser.

A histogram description has 9 arguments:
1 for 1-D, 2 for 2-D histo
histogram name
histogram title
number of bins x-axis
lower bound x-axis
upper bound x-axis
0 for 1-D histos, number of bins y-axis for 2-D histos
0 for 1-D histos, lower bound y-axis for 2-D histos
0 for 1-D histos, upper bound y-axis for 2-D histos

The following histograms are collected for the FTPC (they are on pages 25-27 up until January 3, 2008 when BEMC histograms were added. The FTPC histograms moved to pages 30-32 starting with run 9003070):

Please inform the FTPC group if you observe large scale changes in any of the FTPC histograms.
The plots on page numbers 26 and 27/ pages 31 and 32 starting with run 9003070 are the most important. They must be checked for every run.

Currently the sample histograms shown below are for the dAu 2007 Run 8340066
  • page 6:    FTPC event size on a log10 scale
                Contains the event size histograms for TPC, BEMC, FTPC, L3, SVT and TOF
                Args: 1,h11_ftp_evsize,log of FTPC Buffer Size,50,0.,10.,0,0,0

    •  
  • page 7:    FTPC fraction of total event in %
                Contains the event size fraction histograms for TPC, BEMC, FTPC, L3, SVT and TOF
                Args: 1,h105_ftp_frac,FTP Event Size Fraction (%),50,0.,100.,0,0,0

    •  
  • page 8:    FTPC event size on a log10 scale for the last 2 minutes
                Contains the event size vs time histograms for the TPC and FTPC
                Args: 2,h337_ftp_time_size_2min,FTPC Event Size vs time(sec),600,0.,600.,80,0.,8.

    •  
  • page 25/page 30:
                 % of FTPC occupied channels
                Args: 1,h49_ftp,FTPC Occupancy (in %),100,0.,100.,0,0,0

                FTPC event size on a log10 scale
                Args: 1,h11_ftp_evsize,log of FTPC Buffer Size,50,0.,10.,0,0,0

                 % of FTPC occupied channels for laser runs
                Args: 1,h51_ftp_OccLaser,FTPC Occupancy (in %) Lasers,100,0.,100.,0,0,0

                 Total charge in FTPC on log10 scale
                Args: 1,h48_ftp,log of Total FTPC Charge,30,0.,6.,0,0,0

                 % of FTPC occupied channels for pulser runs
                Args: 1,h50_ftp_OccPulser,FTPC Occupancy (in %) Pulsers,100,0.,100.,0,0,0
  • page 26/page 31:  FTPC chargestep histograms
                Args: 1,h109_ftp_west_time,FTPC West timebins,256,-0.5,255.5,0,0,0
                Args: 1,h110_ftp_east_time,FTPC East timebins,256,-0.5,255.5,0,0,0

                The chargestep corresponds to the maximum drift time in the FTPC (clusters from inner radius
                electrode) and is located near 170 timebins. This position will change slightly with atmospheric
                pressure. The other features of these plots are due to electronic noise and pile-up background.

                If there is no step visible near 170, something is wrong. Please contact an FTPC expert.

  • page 27/page 32:
                Args: 2,h338_ftp_west,FTPC West pad charge: pad vs row,10,0.,10.,960,0.,960.
                Args: 2,h339_ftp_east,FTPC East pad charge: pad vs row,10,0.,10.,960,0.,960.

                Red areas = hot FTPC electronics
                White areas = dead FTPC electronics

                Always check these 2 plots in the first run after an FTPC trip. If new red or white areas show up,
                first check the FTPC anode voltages. If the anode voltage readings are correct, please contact
                an FTPC expert.

                On December 17, 2007, Alexei masked out RDO 10 East. On page 27/32 RDO 10 East is now a white area.

 

 

Slow Control Archive

FTPC Slow Control Archives