A self contained Linux based data acquisition system for 2D detectors with delay line readout

This article describes a fast and self-contained data acquisition system for 2D gas-filled detectors with delay line readout. It allows the realization of time resolved experiments in the millisecond scale. The acquisition system comprises of an industrial PC running Linux, a commercial time-to-digital converter and an in-house developed histogramming PCI card. The PC provides a mass storage for images and a graphical user interface for system monitoring and control. The histogramming card builds images with a maximum count rate of 5 MHz limited by the time-to-digital converter. Histograms are transferred to the PC at 85 MB/s. This card also includes a time frame generator, a calibration channel unit and eight digital outputs for experiment control. The control software was developed for easy integration into a beamline, including scans. The system is fully operational at the Spanish beamline BM16 at the ESRF in France, the neutron beamlines Adam and Eva at the ILL in France, the Max Plank Institute in Stuttgart in Germany, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and at the future ALBA synchrotron in Spain. Some representative collected images from synchrotron and neutron beamlines are presented.     

Data acquisition systems for linear and area X-ray detectors using delay line readout

Digital systems for fast readout of linear and area position sensitive detectors based on commercially available CAMAC modules are described. The first version of the system has been used extensively for synchrotron radiation work carried out at the EMBL outstation in Hamburg during the last five years. A second system allowing measurements at count rates up to 600 kHz on a continuous source has been recently installed. An overview of the complete acquisition and information processing system is also given.