uTCA Guide

General Guide

--+++ General Crate Setup Two power modules (supplied by 48V), one MCH for slow communication, one AMC13, 12 uHTRs. There are other variations now with HCAL phase 1 and the ngFEC (an FC7 card). The crate supplies the AMC13 and uHTRs with two voltages: 3.3V and 12V. When only the 3.3V is available a blue light will be lit near the bottom of the card next to the release handle. Pulling the handle out will also cause the blue light to come on since it cuts the 12V power to the card. Other lights can be lit or blinking as well, but these are usually more card specific. When the cards have both voltages the blue light should turn off. Again, the other lights (usually red, orange, yellow) are card specific and can be on or off. Specifically the AMC13 turns all of its lights off when under full power and the uHTRs have both blinking and steady red lights that stay on.

The two brands of crate common to HCAL are Vadatech and Schroff. The Vadatech are the preferred brand because they have been more reliable in terms of power and also have their own 48V power supply built in. The Schroff requires a separate power supply. The power enters through the power module. Each crate has two slots for the modules. For a vadatech crate one module powers the entire crate (12 slots + mch and AMC13) and the other module is a backup. For the Schroff each power module powers half of the crate. This requirement of two power modules in the Schroff crate also makes it less desirable. The power modules convert the input voltages and have various controls.

Each card has a set of possible states from M1-M8 (M Status Guide [1]).

[1] https://indico.cern.ch/event/489996/contributions/2299441/attachments/1343873/2025111/Schroff_MTCA_Tutorial_KIT_Karlsruhe.pdf

DanielArcaro - 14 Jul 2017