HyCal Repairs, Testing, and Upgrades

This page will have information about the repairs, tests, and upgrades of HyCal that are necessary for the running of PRad II, the Hidden Sector Search experiment, and the π ₀ Transverse Form Factor experiment.

HyCal Cable Upgrades in Hall B

As a part of the HyCal upgrades, the cables that attach to the computing crates needed to be changed to LEMO connectors for use in the Flash Analog-to-Digital Converters (FADC) boards that will be used in the crates for the upcoming experiments. These cables need to be removed from their original boards and refitted with the proper end connectors. Following this, each of the cables needed to be tested and fixed if there were any issues. This was done by utilizing a modified 32-pin connector at the end that will lead to HyCal that completed the circuit between cables that were opposite one another and one that paired cables that were next to each other. These linked cable then had a voltage of 5V sent through them to see if there were any issues in carrying the signal. In the case of lone cables or where a pair failed a terminator would be used on one cable and the same 5V signal would be sent to confirm which cables did not work. There were a total of 60 bundles of 32, 27, and 25 cables to test. The current status of this work can be views on the following spreadsheet PDF (Cable Testing Check Sheet). Two cables were found to not function properly and needed to be re-soldered to their boards that will connect to HyCal and 3 of those boards needed their 32-pin connectors replaced due to them cracking or being otherwise unusable.

After testing each of the cables, the cables were then re-bundled into groups of 16. The labeling was done to preserve the previous numbering scheme and adding an extra identifier after a period. For example the sub-bundles of 16 made from board 10.3 would be labeled 10.3.1 and 10.3.2 respectively. Bundle X.Y.1 would always have cables 1-16 and bundle X.Y.2 would always have the rest (depending on whether the original bundle had 32, 27 or 25 cables to begin with). These will then be used to map to the DAQ system for the new experiments with the new boards.

Meeting Update Slides for this Project

• Cabling Status Updated Slides for June 6, 2024
• Cabling Status Updated Slides for July 19, 2024

Contributors

• Aruni Nadeeshani (Mississippi State University)
• Buddhiman Tamang (Mississippi State University)
• Erik Wrightson (Mississippi State University)
• Mark Taylor (JLab Fast Electronics Group)
• Thanks also goes out to the Hall B staff that helped with moving the floor grates to give better access to the cables.

This work was done in the Summer of 2024.

HyCal Optical Fiber Repairs

The optical fibers, plexiglass connectors, and light blocking coverings necessary for the Light Monitoring System (LMS) to send control signals to the HyCal modules required repairs to have all ~2000 modules in proper working order. These fibers can be used to test the various modules as well as be used as a control signal during experimentation and calibration. HyCal was brought to the ESB at JLab where an ePAS approval needed to be filed for the work as it involved clear UV-activated glue for securing the optical components to each module.

Initially, a map was made for the outer lead glass (PbGlass) and central lead-tungstate (PbWO