Pre-release testing on hardware

[crnbaker]

Test plan for testing on lab machine with drivers installed and hardware connected (before release).

Mock mode

• [x] Check unit tests pass pytest -v -m "not integration and not only_without_driver"
• [x] Check integration tests pass pytest -v -m "integration and not only_without_driver"

Tests on Spectrum Digitizer Netbox DN2.593-16

Unit tests

In tests/configuration.py

• Set SINGLE_CARD_TEST_MODE = SpectrumTestMode.REAL_HARDWARE
• Set STAR_HUB_TEST_MODE = SpectrumTestMode.REAL_HARDWARE
• Set TEST_DEVICE_IP equal to the device IP address shown in the Spectrum Control Centre
• Set TEST_DEVICE_NUMBER = 1
• Check the card configuration options match the Nextbox (default settings should be correct):

  NUM_MODULES_PER_CARD = 2
  NUM_CHANNELS_PER_MODULE = 4
  NUM_CARDS_IN_STAR_HUB = 2
  STAR_HUB_MASTER_CARD_INDEX = 1

• Set ACQUISITION_LENGTH = 4096

Then:

• [x] Check unit tests pass pytest -v -m "not integration and not only_without_driver"

Integration tests (without a signal generator connected)

In tests/configuration.py

• Keep the same setup as shown above for the unit tests
• But since no trigger signal will be connected to the device, make sure to set INTEGRATION_TEST_TRIGGER_SOURCE = TriggerSource.SPC_MASK_SOFTWARE.

Then:

• [x] Check integration tests pass pytest -v -m "integration and not only_without_driver"

Integration tests (with a signal generator)

Signal generator setup:

• The example scripts used by the integration tests configure a sample rate of 40 MHz and acquisition length of 400 samples, generating 10-microsecond long waveforms.
• So configure the signal generator to generate sine wave bursts shorter than 10 microseconds, e.g. 5 cycles at 1 MHz (a 5 microsecond burst)
• Set the burst repetition rate 10 Hz
• Set the sync (trigger) output to a level > 1 V (the example scripts used as integration tests configure the external trigger level to 1V)

Connect signal generator to Netbox:

• Connect the signal generator output to channel 8 (i.e. channel 0 of the master card of the Netbox)
• Connect the trigger signal to 'Trig In' (EXT_0) on the Netbox

In tests/configuration.py

• Keep the same setup as shown above for the unit tests
• But set INTEGRATION_TEST_TRIGGER_SOURCE = TriggerSource.SPC_MASK_EXT0.

Then:

• [x] Check integration tests pass pytest -v -m "integration and not only_without_driver"

Run example scripts with the Netbox

Manually run each of the example scripts in the example_scripts directory, with the signal generator set up as for the Integration tests (with a signal generator) above. You will need to temporarily modify the if __name__ == '__main__': of the scripts so that:

• Mock mode is disabled
• The device IP address is correct
• The device number is set to 1 (the index of the master card of the Netbox)

Then:

• [x] Verify that the plotted waveforms match the expected data (5 cycles at 1 MHz)

Tests on Spectrum PCIe Digitizer M2p.5961-x4

Unit tests

In tests/configuration.py

• Set SINGLE_CARD_TEST_MODE = SpectrumTestMode.REAL_HARDWARE
• Set TEST_DEVICE_IP = None
• Set TEST_DEVICE_NUMBER = 0
• Set NUM_MODULES_PER_CARD = 1
• Set NUM_CHANNELS_PER_MODULE = 2

Then:

• [x] Check unit tests pass pytest -v -m "not star_hub and not integration and not only_without_driver"

Integration tests

Using the same configuration as above, and ensuring software triggering is selected in configuration.py:

• [x] Check integration tests pass pytest -v -m "not star_hub and integration and not only_without_driver"

[crnbaker]

Changes made during the above tests can be seen in the linked pull request.