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This version (27 Aug 2019 14:25) was approved by Andrei Cozma.The Previously approved version (26 Aug 2019 17:53) is available.

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Setting up the system

To get the system up and running follow the steps below:

Connect the DAQ board to the FMC HPC connector on the FPGA carrier board
Connect the ribbon cables between the DAQ board and the Laser and AFE boards. The DAQ board has labels on the silkscreen next to the AFE and Laser board connectors indicating which board these correspond to
Connect the SMA cables between the DAQ and the AFE board. It is recommended to match the TIA outputs with the ADC inputs using the labeling on the SMA connectors so that they have the same letter (A, B, C, D). Make sure that the P (positive) and N (negative) are matched between the boards.
It is is also possible to use one of the ADC channels to sample the laser dive signal by connecting the SMA outputs of the Laser board to one of the ADC channels

Insert the lens into the 1.5“ lens tube (the longer one) with the spherical surface pointing outwards. The tube comes with a retaining ring that is used to set the position of the lens inside the tube. Position the lens such that top of the spherical surface is aligned with the edge of the tube. Use the retaining ring provided in the box to lock the lens in place.
It is recommended to use the 1” tube provided in the box to limit the field of view of the system by screwing it on the 1.5“ tube in front of the lens.
Connect the external 12V power supply that comes with the kit to the Laser board
Plug the SD card that comes with the kit in the FPGA carrier board
Connect to the FPGA board a HDMI monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse
Power up the FPGA board
After the FPGA board boots power the laser board by pressing the S1 switch
After the FPGA boots the IIO Oscilloscope will start allowing to configure the system, capture and visualize data from it

Running the evaluation software

The IIO Oscilloscope enables viewing the raw data acquired on all the ADC channels as well as controlling some hardware settings through the LiDAR plugin.

IIO Oscilloscope data capture window

The main window of the IIO Osciloscope allows setting the length of the data captures and selecting the ADC channels that will be displayed on the plot. The length of the data capture must be always set to a multiple of 256 to match the internal data bus length, otherwise the plot will either hang or display incorrect data.

There are 5 channels under the axi-ad9094-hpc device, 4 of them (voltage0 to voltage3) corresponding to the physical data channels of the AD9094 and the 5th one (voltage4) showing the mux selections of the 4 TIAs on the AFE board. The mux selections channel is encoded on 8 bits with 2 bits for each TIA showing the actual bit values for the CHSEL0 and CHSEL1 TIA inputs. This channel is always selected. If it's interfering with the display of the other data channels it can always be multiplied with 0 using the Math function of the IIO oscilloscope.

IIO Oscilloscope LiDAR plugin

Sequencer Settings

A TIA channel sequencer implemented in the LiDAR HDL design that controls the mux selection independently for all the TIAs. The sequencer's operation can be controller from the LiDAR plugin using the options in the Sequencer Settings section. The sequencer can run in auto mode, meaning that it will change the mux selection at every data capture based on the sequence specified in the Auto Config section, which defines what the mux selection is for all the TIAs for 4 consecutive data captures. The length of the data capture is specified in the IIO Oscilloscope main window and a data capture is always triggered by the start of a laser pulse so that the start of the data is aligned with the transmitted laser pulse, which is time 0 for time of flight measurement.

In manual mode the 4 Manual Channel controls correspond to the 4 TIAs on the AFE board, starting with U2 on the left and continuing with U3, U4, U5 to the right. The values are in the range 0:3 and control the setting of the CHSEL0 and CHSEL1 pins of the TIAs.

The Pulse delay setting controls the delay between the time the TIA channel is changed a new laser pulse is generated. This delay is required to account for the time needed by the TIA to settle after the channel change.

Laser Pulse Generator Settings

The HDL design contains a pulse generator that precisely controls the timing of the laser pulses. The generator must be enabled before the data capture is started because the captures are triggered by the laser pulses. There are 2 parameters that can be controlled for the laser pulses - the frequency and the width, which actually define the total optical power of the system.

The system was certified for Eye Safety Class 1 with 20ns pulse width and 50KHz laser settings. When operating the system above these settings eye safety class 1 is not longer guaranteed and laser safety glasses (e.g LG2 laser safety glasses) must be worn all the time. It is recommended to wear laser safety glasses all the time irrespective of the laser setting to avoid any dangerous situations that might arise when modifying the software.

AFE Settings

The APD on the AFE board needs a negative bias voltage in the range 120V to 200V to work. This determines the sensitivity of the APD and is set through the APD Bias control.

The TIA output signal has an offset that can be compensated via the Tilt control. This helps bring the signal close to 0 and maximize the ADC range.

See the AFE board wiki page for a complete description of the signal chain.

Monitoring the status of the JESD Link

At system startup, besides the IIO Oscilloscope, the JESD 204B Eye Scan app starts to allow monitoring the status of the JESD204B link to the AD9094 on the DAQ board.

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