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Entry  Fri Nov 18 05:52:45 2016, Kurtis Nishimura, Channel offsets in GetTime() offsetInstructions.png
    Reply  Mon Nov 21 14:13:32 2016, Stefan Ritt, Channel offsets in GetTime() 
Message ID: 565     Entry time: Mon Nov 21 14:13:32 2016     In reply to: 563
Author: Stefan Ritt 
Subject: Channel offsets in GetTime() 

Cell 700 is arbitrary. You can choose any cell to align the channels to each other. The only requirement is that it's always the same cell for each event. Historically, Daniel chose cell #700 more or less arbitrary, but later we found out that this works with any cell. So for the publication we went with cell #0 (and that's why we have t_ch,0 in the paper), but cell #700 was left in the code because of lazyness. Feel free to replace 700 with any other number and you should get the same result. In a newer version of the software I use

// align cell#0 of all channels
float t1 = time[0][(1024-tc) % 1024];
for (int ch=1 ; ch<8 ; ch++) {
   float t2 = time[ch][(1024-tc) % 1024];
   float dt = t1 - t2;

   for (int i=0 ; i<1024 ; i++)
      time[ch][i] += dt;
   }

 

which is also a bit simpler. So time[ch] contains already the integrated time array (like 0.2 ns, 0.4 ns, 0.6 ns if at 5 GSPS, not the delta_t values as in the DRS.cpp code). Since the readout starts with cell # tc, the cell time[channel][1024-tc] is the physical cell #0 of the chip. The code makes sure that cell #0 in all 8 channels has the same time value.

Best regards,
Stefan

 

Kurtis Nishimura wrote:

Hello,

I have a question about the GetTime() method in DRS.cpp.  I understand how the DT values are applied for all channels, and I also understand from the evaluation board manual that the timing of each channel is synchronized at sample 0, so samples should really be aligned from channel-to-channel relative to sample 0.

However, DRS.cpp has the following snippet in DrsBoard::GetTime():

   if (channelIndex > 0) {
      // correct all channels to channel 0 (Daniel's method)
      iend = tc >= 700 ? 700+1024 : 700;
      for (i=tc,gt0=0 ; i<iend ; i++)
         gt0 += fCellDT[chipIndex][0][i % 1024];
      
      for (i=tc,gt=0 ; i<iend ; i++)
         gt += fCellDT[chipIndex][channelIndex][i % 1024];
      
      for (i=0 ; i<fChannelDepth ; i++)
         time[i] += (float)(gt0 - gt);
   }

I can see what this is calculating and applying such an offset, but I don't understand why things seem to be referenced to sample 700.  Is there a particular reason why sample 700 is chosen here?  This does not seem like a straightforward application of the attached instructions from the evaluation board user's manual.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

Thanks so much,

-Kurtis

 

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