Chapter 13. Mesytec MSCF-16 Controls

13.1. Overview

The Mesytec MSCF-16 is a 16-channel shaping amplifier with CFD. The device can be remotely controlled via either USB or Mesytec's RC-bus. A GUI called MCFD16Control is provided as a part of NSCLDAQ to control the device through the USB protocol only. A key feature is the ability to generate a tcl script capable of configuring the device with the same settings displayed in the GUI.

The parameters that the GUI provides control over are the threshold, gain, pole zero, shaping time, configuration mode, remote control mode, and also monitor channel. All of these can be set individually or commonly depending on the mode setting selected in the GUI. The interface reflects whether or not the device is being configured in either of these modes and prevents the setting of individual settings while in common mode.

Finally, the control provided over the MSCF-16 through the GUI is made available through low-level drivers that can be used in any tclsh. The user can incorporate calls to these drivers in any script they want and can build input files to load into the GUI if desired. In the same manner, if the user is in need of control of the device through the RC-bus, there is primitive support for communicating with a device through a digitizer in the MxDC family in VMUSBReadout. The user can then make the low level calls through the MXDCRCProxy snit::type.