The problem - "discovered" by Volker and Ken - of the high dark countrate of the Cu PMT has been solved. 

(when the Cu mirror was moved in, the dark countrate was very high ... also without ion beam) 

I asked Graziano Savino to check the vacuum gauges along the target side of the ESR (west side). 
The gauges at the laser window sections (which we do not use here!) - NW and SW - were still on. 
Volker remembered that, in the past, for the lowest dark countrate at the Cu PMT --> ALL GAUGES MUST BE SWITCHED OFF. 
Graziano turned them off and Sebastian and I checked the Cu PMT rate in DAQ1. 

Attached you can clearly see the difference: from 7500 cps to 400 cps. 

When the Cu mirror is retracted the dark countrate is 200 cps.  

Danyal

PS The slow increase in one plot is due to the fact that Graziano switched on the light in the ESR. 

Sometimes we see a broad sideband at lesser schottky frequencies to the high intensity thorium beam.

Pic 1 shows the relative broad sideband on the left.

Pic 2 depicts the vanishing of the sideband after ~1-2 minutes.

> Sometimes we see a broad sideband at lesser Schottky frequencies to the high-intensity thorium beam.
> 
> Pic 1 shows the relative broad sideband on the left.
> 
> Pic 2 depicts the vanishing of the sideband after ~1-2 minutes.


These are not the sidebands. Maybe some short-lived fragments survive even after the scrapers are used?

The connection to the XUV and Cu were lost during the nightshift.

The XUV detector was in the park position,
BUT the Cu mirror was in the "Measurement position" (moved in / active).

This could be one of the main problems that we had much lesser ion beam intensity since the UNILAC and SIS18 failures last night.

Check regularly if the connection to the XUV and Cu detectors are still active and the detectors move in (after injection) and out (after killing the ion beam). 

Therefore, 2 programs should run on the computer where you can also see the running Schottky.

One of the programs is for the XUV and one is for the Cu mirror.
There the Automisation button should be activated!!!

ID 30 contains the manual how to run / start and operate both detectors.

The additional signals from PMTs and XUV detector needed for spectroscopic analysis in the second DAQ are patched to AP Messhütte (MH) via the red patch panel at the inside of the target region. The patch channels F1 to F8 (also labeled A to H in red on white) are used and extended by a cable bundle to reach below the mirror chamber. Inside the MH the signals arrive at the red patch panel and are forwarded to the blue patch panel close to the laser DAQ using channels 1 to 8 (also labeled A to H).
 
The entire connection for these 8 channels from the mirror chamber to the blue panel has been tested with a pulser signal of ~115mV amplitude. After transfer the amplitude has decreased to ~40mV, see also attached fotos.

The signal transport time from the mirror chamber to the blue panel is ~407 ns. This was measured by patching a logic puls from ESR to MH and back to ESR, as show in the delay_ESR... foto attached.  

Konstantin and I generated a signal in the Messhütte and sent it to the ESR. 
There, we used a 44m BNC cable that was sufficently long to reach all detectors. 
Our signal was connected instead of the PMT/PD. Hence, it was a roundtrip measurement.
In the Messhütte we checked the delay between the generated signal.

PD North 1460(1)ns
PD South 1455(1)ns
Particle North 1239(1)ns
Particle South 1179(1)ns
UV North 1322(1)ns
UV Middle 1322(1)ns
UV South 1321(1)ns
Cu 1322(1)ns

We also checked the time delay of our cable to the detectors by measuring the reflection of the unterminated cable. 
Function generator to detector: 1520(5)/2 ns
Function generator to scope: 5.1(5) ns
Total: 765(3) ns

MBS error "TDC data ready wait" solved. Common stop trigger (20 kHz) was missing. (according to Sebastian)

The MesyTec Shaper & Constant Fraction (MSCF) is used to process the PMT/det signals for the ADC in the second DAQ.
It can be setup on its front panel, but single channel setup is very tedious.
Remote control of the settings is possible using an epics server and client.

All of the following is done with the "litv-exp" user:

server: atpnuc001 (in the screen session "E142")
client: lxg1275 

The server should run undisturbed, but in case of a power failure, you can start the server like this:
> ssh litv-exp@atpnuc001
> cd e142
> ./E142_start_ioc.sh

To check server:
> ssh litv-exp@atpnuc001
> screen -x (CTRL-a CTRL-d to leave screen)

To connect the client gui for remote control, do:
> ssh litv-exp@lxg1275
> E142_epics
The panel is more or less self-explaining. 
One thing has to be noted: the Monitor Channel selection is shifted by -1.
I.e., [ch 1] is button [0], etc.

The MSCF settings can be stored and loaded to/from file by using a bash-script.
The settings will be saved/loaded from: 
/u/litv-exp/e142/mscf_settings/
files names are "setting_e142.<linux_timestamp>"

The scripts are also in /u/litv-exp/e142/mscf_settings/
use 
./mscf_save.sh                   for saving the current settings to a new file
use 
./mscf_load_last.sh              to load the last settings file (by timestamp in the filename) 
use 
./mscf_load_file.sh <filename>   to load the settings of a specific file