MCE usage

MCE commanding

• mce_cmd - application for commanding the MCE.
• MCE Commands - especially those commands supported directly by hardware/firmware
• Virtual cards
• Python commanding library

Application Notes

• SQUID array setup
  • Array setup programs - software
  • Characterization and Locking SQUIDs with Multi-Channel Electronics [PDF] (Jun. 07, 2005)
  • "Functional Description of Read-out Electronics for Time-Domain Multiplexed Bolometers for Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Astronomy" [PDF] (vol. 151, no. 3-4, J. Low-Temp Phys, May 2008)
  • "Automated SQUID tuning procedure for kilo-pixel arrays of TES bolometers on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope" [PDF] (SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation Conf, Jun. 2008)
  • Tuning Algorithm for ACT SQUIDs - poster [PDF]
  • MCE-Cryostat Diagram - cartoons of squid chain setup, servo loop calculations, and word-sizes [PDF]

• Data acquisition
  • Data Modes
  • Filtered Data & the Digital 4-pole Butterworth Low-pass Filter
  • Raw 50 MHz Data
  • Rectangle Mode Data - recommended mode for high-rate acquisition
  • Fast Data Acquisition - high-rate acquisition without rectangle mode (deprecated)
  • The STOP Command
  • Dirfile support - set up MAS to write dirfiles directly

• Data files
  • Python data and runfile modules - mce_data.py)
  • IDL data and runfile scripts
  • MCE flat-file format
  • Runfile format v2

• Internal commanding
  • Internal Commands - notes on internal command implementation.
  • Ramp Generator
  • Arbitrary Waveform Generator -- for maximum length sequences and complex impedance measurements (CC v5.0.3+)

• Fast switching of the SQ2 feedback
  • Row-specific SQ2FB (fast switching)
  • Fast SQ2 Feedback and TES Biasing with an Address Card

• MCE servo control
  • Flux Jumping
  • FSFB Clamping Commands -- to prevent unlocked pixels from ramping

• Misc.
  • Special SQ1 Bias Commands
  • MCE temperature