SPIDER Testbeam meeting 30/06/2009

Present  N. Watson (Birmingham), P. Dauncey (Imperial), D. Cussans,
 J.J. Velthuis (Bristol), J. Crooks, G. Zhang, M. Stanitzki (RAL)

Minutes: Marcel

Nigel reported that Birmingham is going ahead with producing the PMT board and 
it will have both LVDS and TTL outputs. Picking up from action of previous 
meeting, Dave reported on the state of the Fortis Software and Firmware 
issues. There have several mods done by rob Halssall for the testbeam, also a 
command-line tool which we'd need for the testbeam. Short version, it works at 
RAL, it doesn't work at Bristol. More details later in the minutes. Paul 
talked to Matt Warren about using the CALICE Clock fanout and got the answer 
that this is clearly a bit over the spec and we'd be much better off doing our 
own little and simple board. Jamie followed up on the Microcoax cable 
situation for the testbeam. To first order we have no spares, but we can 
borrow one for two weeks from Andy for the testbeam.

We then went quickly over the chip status (we'll all hear more details 
tomorrow) Gary reported on ISIS and said he is sceptical about ISIS 
participating on this testbeam. Paul and Marcel both said, that they will be 
ready and are quite optimistic. Nigel and Jan have been working on the 
Monitoring software and it works at Birmingham but not at RAL (suspected to be 
a ROOT issue). Jan also requested a wishlist, for plots we think we'll need 
for the testbeam. 
ACTION All: Send plot wishes to Jan

On Fortis, Jamie reported that the teststand upgrade has delayed everything by 
at least 4-6 weeks. Rebecca will test Fortis 1.1 and there are few tests and 
optimizations needs before she'd be happy to have Fortis 1.1 used in the 
testbeam. Dave asked how easy it is to change between 1.1 and 1.0. Jamie said, 
changing the daughterboard with the chip and lading different vectors will do 
the trick. Jamie pointed out that there a re more variants 9 working on fortis 
1.1 and we generally have more options( also high-res) for this one). The 
Conclusion was, that we can make that call quite close to the testbeam.

For the DAQ issues, Dave plans to come to RAL with his whole setup on Friday, 
if he can't sort things out beforehand. He'll need a rental car to move the 
kit, payments modalities to be discussed.

Jaap updated us on the Travel arrangements, Rui needs a ferry booking and a 
rental car agreement for his visa soon

ACTION: Jaap, Marcel Arrange transport 

Paul asked Dave if there is still a USBDAQ at Bristol and whether this could 
be shipped to Oxford. Dave said yes and he'll give it to Jaap tomorrow
ACTION Dave Jaap, transport USBDAQ to RAL 

Next meeting 7th of July, 1100