Subject: 
             mvme162 insertion horror story
        Date: 
             Tue, 09 Jan 2001 10:44:39 -0600 (CST)
        From: 
             Bill Ashmanskas <ashmansk@hep.uchicago.edu>
          To: 
             svt@fnal.gov

     Alexei and I had a bit of a struggle to get the B0 test stand
     (b0svttest00.fnal.gov, 2nd floor west) to do I/O correctly.  I'm writing
     this down just so that we have a record of problems like this and
     hopefully can find and fix them faster next time around.  Initially, we
     were able to telnet to the CPU, saw that the FISION server was present
     (with the "i" command), and were able to see the message "attempt to
     connect from unauthorized host ..." when trying VME I/O from U.Chicago,
     indicating that the FISION server code was able to respond to network
     requests.  But we got bus errors when trying a simple read.  Pushing the
     CPU a bit allowed simple reads, but reading ID PROMs still gave
     unintelligible results.  Finally, we tried pulling out the CPU (actually
     the extender card) and noticed that no force was required--oops!  We
     pushed it back in with all of the force we could apply with our thumbs,
     and eventually got the front panel flush with the top and bottom edges of
     the crate, and everything worked.

     I believe this is a repeat of a sad story seen many times in our own
     electronics shop.  Too bad the crate CPU extender cards don't have the
     nice insertion/ejection handles that the custom boards have.

     -Bill