[Alex, Joe, Kiwamu]

Eventually all the front end computers came back !! 

There were two problems.

(1): C0DCU1 didn't want to come back to the network. After we did several things it turned the ADC board for C0DCU1 didn't work correctly.

(2): C1PEM1 and C0DAQAWG were cross-talking via the back panel of the crate.

(what we did)

* installed a VME crate with single back panel to 1Y6 and mounted C1PEM1 and C0DAQAWG on it. However it turned out this configuration was bad because the two CPUs could cross-talk via the back panel.

* removed the VME crate and then installed another VME crate which has two back panels so that we can electrically separate C1PEM1 and C0DAQAWG.  After this work, C0DAQAWG started working successfully.

 * rebooted all the front ends, fb40m and c1dcuepics.

 * reset the RFM bypath. But these things didn't bring C0DCU1 back.

 * telnet to C0DCU1 and ran "./startup.cmd" manually. In fact "./startup.cmd" should automatically be called when it boots.

 * saw the error messages from "./startup.cmd" and found it failed when initialization of the ADC board. It saids "Init Failure !! could not find ICS"

*  went to 1Y7 rack and checked the ADC. We found C0DCU1 had two ADC boards, one of two was not in used.

* disconnected all two ADCs and put back one which had not been in used. At the same time we changed the switching address of this ADC to have the same address as the other ADC. 

* powered off/on 1Y7 rack. Finally C0DCU1 got back.

* burtrestored the epics to the last Friday, May 21st 6:07am

To get a feel for the Capacitive Bridge problems, we setup a simple bridge using fixed (1 nF) caps on a breadboard. We used an SR830 Lock-In amplifier to drive it and readout the noise.

We measured the cap values with an LCR meter. They were all within a few % of 0.99 nF.

With a 0.5 V drive to the top of the bridge, the A-B voltage was ~2 mV as expected from the matching of the capacitors.

(** Note about the gain in the SR830: In order to find the magnitude of the input referred signal, one has to divide by G. G = (10 V)/ Sensitivity. 'Sensitivity' is the setting on the front panel.)

1. Directly measuring from Vs to ground gives 0.5 V, as expected. This is done to verify the calibration later on.
2. Shorting the A and B wires to ground gives ~0 V and lets us measure the noise. On the spectrum analyzer it was ~400 nV/rHz at 100 Hz and rising slowly to 4 uV/rHz at 100 mHz. In this state, the sensitivity was 10 mV, so the overall gain was 1000. That gives an input referred level of ~0.4 nV/rHz at the input.

3. Hooking up now to A-B: the signal is ~10x larger than the 'dark' noise everywhere. 2 uV/rHz @ 100 Hz, 10 uV/rHz @ 10 Hz, 50 uV/rHz @ 1 Hz. The spectrum is very non-stationary; changing by factors of several up and down between averages. Probably a problem with the cheapo contacts in the breadboard + wind. The gain in this state was still 1000. So at 1 Hz, its 50 nV/rHz referred to the input.

To convert into units of capacitance fluctuation, we multiply by the capacitance of the capacitors (1 nF) and divide out by the peak-peak voltage (1 V). So the bridge sensitivity is 50e-9 * 1e-9 = 5 x 10^-17 F/rHz.

If we assume that we will have a capacitive displacement transducer giving 1 nF capacitance change for a 0.1 mm displacement, this bridge would have a sensitivity of 5 x 10^-12 m/rHz @ 1 Hz. We would like to do ~50-100x better than this. The next steps should be:

1. Solder it all together on a PCB to have less air current sensitivity and decent contacts.
2. Use a low-noise FET input. Since the impedance of the bridge is ~5 kOhms at this frequency, we are probably current noise limited.
3. Estimate the oscillator amplitude noise sensitivity.

The measurement setup for the Capacitor Bridge Test is still sitting on one of the work benches.

Unless the experiment is supposed to continue today, the equipment shouldn't have been left on the bench. It should have been  taken back to the lab.

Also the cart with HP network analyzer used for the test was left in the desk area. That shouldn't have left floating around in the desk area anyway.

The people responsible for that, are kindly invited to clean up after themselves.

Using the three Marconis in 40m at 11.1 MHz, the Three Cornered Hat technique was used to find the individual noise of each Marconi with different offset ranges and the direct/indirect frequency source of the rubidium clock.

Rana explained the TCH technique earlier - by measuring the phase noise of each pair of Marconis, the individual phase noise can be calculated by:

S1 = sqrt( (S12^2 + S13^2 - S23^2) / 2)

S2 = sqrt( (S12^2 + S23^2 - S13^2) / 2)

S3 = sqrt( (S13^2 + S23^2 - S12^2) / 2)

I measured the phase noise for offset ranges of 1Hz, 10Hz, 1kHz, and 100kHz (the maximum allowed for a frequency of 11.1Mhz) and calculated the individual phase noise for each source (using 7 averages, which gives all the spikes in the individual noise curves). The noise from each source is very similar, although not quite identical, while the noise is greater at higher frequencies for higher offset ranges, so the lowest possible offset range should be used. It appears the noise below a range of 10Hz is fairly constant, with a smoother curve at 10Hz.

The phase noise for direct vs indirect frequency source was measured with an offset range of 10Hz. While very similar at high and low frequencies for all 3 Marconis, the indirect source was consistently noisier in the middle frequencies, indicating that any Marconis connected to the rubidium clock should use the rubidium clock as a direct frequency reference.

Since I can't adjust settings of the Marconis at the moment, I have yet to finish measurements of the phase noise at 160 MHz and 80 MHz (those used in the PSL lab), but using the data I have for only the first 2 Marconis (so I can't finish the TCH technique), the phase noise appears to be lowest using the 100kHz offset except at the higher frequencies. The 160 MHz signal so far is noisier than the 11.1 MHz signal with offset ranges of 1 kHz and 10 Hz, but less noisy with a 100 kHz offset.

I still haven't measured anything at 80 MHz and have to finish taking more data to be able to use the TCH technique at 160 MHz, then the individual phase noise data will be used to measure the noise of the function generators used in the PSL lab.

I also removed two of the AM stabilizers from the 1Y2 rack. The other one, which is currently running th MC modulations, is still in the rack, and there it is going to remain together with its distribution box.

I stored both AM stabilizers and the Stochmon box inside the RF cabinet down the East arm.

[Rana, Alberto]

Today we measured the phase noise of the oscillator used for the FSS.

The source is a Wenzel crystal at about 21.5MHz that Peter Kalmus built some time ago.

We basically used the same technique that Frank and Megan have been using lately to measure the Marconi's phase noise.

Today we just did a quick measurement but today next week we are going to repeat it more carefully.

Attached is a plot that shows the measurement calibrated for a UGF at about 60 Hz. The noise is compared to that specified by Wenzel for their crystal.

The noise is bigger than that of the MArconi alone locked to the Rubidium standard (see elog entry). We don't know the reason for sure yet.

We'll get back to this problem next week.

I reconnected the RF signal to the FSS and to the FSS' EOM so that we could lock the refcav again.

I then started a 3 sec. period trianglewave on the AOM drive amplitude to see if there is a direct coupling from RIN to Frequency. Ideally we will be able to measure this by looking at the RCTRANS and the FSS-FAST.

Alastair found that the foam hut that he and Jan put on top of the Rb clocks to temperature stabilize them was too good of an insulator. The Rb boxes had gotten very hot and became internally unlocked as seen on the front panel.

After we let them cool down with the box off, I turned them back on. After several minutes the 'Locked' light came back on. Some minutes after that the '1PPS Sync' light also came on, indicating that the two had become somewhat synchronized. It really means that the frequencies are kind of close: I think its roughly that f1-f2 < 2 mHz.

I put the yellow box back on and have left it with a small gap on the bottom so that the hot air can get out. Hopefully, this will protect the clocks from the wind, but not cause them to overheat.

The signal going to the DAQ right now is DC-coupled, with a gain of 1. The peak-peak beat signal in this situation is 6300 counts.

My guess is that the clocks will by synchronized by tomorrow afternoon so that we can get the measurement done. Please don't disturb the clocks or the yellow box around them. Try to minimize any activity around that area.

[Jenna & Alastair]

We changed the locking time constant on one of the Rubidium clocks using the RbMon software that came with it. We had to use the ancient Dell laptop latitudeD810 because it has a serial port built in, and we couldn't get the usb->serial adapter to work right with the clock. We tried the usb connector on more than one computer, and we had installed the right adapter and the computer seemed to recognize it fine, it just wouldn't communicate with the clock. We even tried it with the Dell latitute laptop and it still failed to work, so the only way seems to be to use the serial port directly.

The clock has a default time constant of 18.2 hours because it's designed to be locked to a GPS clock which is less stable than the Rb clock itself, so we changed it to a time constant of .57 hours. We also changed the length of the BNC cables to get the DC offset to 10mV, but then as I was typing this, we opened up data viewer to look at the real time data and saw the output suddenly leap up, and found that the offset is now -5mV mysteriously, so we went to investigate and found that the gain of the SR560 was still set to 1 from a calibration. We beat one of the clocks with a marconi for a few minutes with the gain still at this level to do another calibration, and then hooked the clocks back up together and upped the gain to 100. The DC offset is currently about 2.5mV. We're going to leave them alone for a few hours, and then check to see what the signal looks like over that period.

 Alastair and I restarted the c1iovme around the time of my last elog entry (~3:20).

I took some measurements of the clock this morning, first without the box, then with the box, then without the box again. All the noise levels look pretty much the same. When I first put the box on, it was only propped up on one side, so I think the clocks got a bit overheated and the data looks ridiculous, which is the first plot. I took it off and let them cool down a bit, and then put the box on, this time with a generous 3 inch gap at the bottom all the way around, and it seemed to be fine after that.

The calibration for the data is pi (rad) /6415 (counts) /100.

Aidan: I edited this post to change the plots from Postscripts to PDFs.

We unsynched the clocks by unhooking the 1pps locking. I've added it to the plot of the other measurements here, and we've divided by a factor of sqrt(2) in the calibration to get the phase noise from just one clock, so the calibration is now

pi (rad) /6415 (counts) /100/sqrt(2).

I've also added the noise of the clock according to SRS to the plot.

The units of this plot are rad/rt(Hz). I've no idea why it just says magnitude.

 This is a known thing (at least to me and Rana), so it's not just you.  When you put in some points like your PD Spec, the units disappear, and I've never figured out how to get them back while keeping the points.  Thanks for putting the units in your entry though.  If anyone else does know how to get the units to 'stick' where they're supposed to be, that would be helpful. 

I took a look at the data from the middle of the night to see if it was significantly quieter than the data from the day, but it doesn't seem to be. The plot shows data from yesterday around 12:30pm and from this morning around 2am. It's a bit quieter at low frequencies, but not by much.

 Here's an overview of the rubidium measurement:

 We have two SRS FS275 Rubidium clocks which are locked together using the built-in PLL through the 1pps input/output. The default time constant for this locking is 18.2 hours because it's designed to be locked to a GPS. We changed this time constant to .57 hours (as decribed in this elog entry) to get the clocks to more reliably lock to each other. We then mix the 10MHz outputs together using a 7dbm mixer (see elog here and picture below)

The signal then goes through an AC-coupled SR560 with a gain of 100 and LPF at 10kHz, and is then fed into the DAQ. In the first picture below you can make out what all the lights are labeled, and in the second you can see what lights are on. I couldn't get a picture that did both in one, sadly.

I finished assembling the frequency generation unit for the upgrade. I tested it through to check that the power levels are as expected at the various connection (see attached png, showing in black the design power values, and in red the measured ones).

Because of some modifications made on the design along the construction, I have to recalculate the SNR along the lines.

I can now start to measure phase noise and distortion harmonics.

A document with a description of the design and the results of the characterization measurements will be available in the end.

I've taken the FSS frequency generation box out of the 1Y1 rack. It's sitting on one of the electronics benches. I'm measuring its phase noise.

A few weeks ago, on Jul 24, Rana and I measured the phase noise of the FSS frequency box (aka the 'Kalmus Box'). See elog entry 3286.

That time, for some reason, we measured a phase noise higher than we expected; higher than that of the Marconi.

I repeated the measurement today using the SR785 spectrum analyzer. Here is the result:

(The measurement of July 24 on the plot was not corrected for the loop gain. The UGF was at about 30 Hz)

To make sure that my measurement procedure was correct, I also measured the combined phase noise of two Marconis. I then confirmed the consistency of that with what already measured by other people in the past (i.e. Rana elog entry 823 in the ATF elog).

This time the noise seemed reasonable; closer to the Marconi's phase noise, as we would expect. I don't know why it was so bad on July 24.

The shoulder in the Marconi-to-Marconi measurement between 80Hz and 800Hz is probably due to the phase noise of the other Marconi, the one used as LO.

I'm going to repeat the measurement connecting the setup to the DAQ, and locking the Marconi to the Rubidium standard.

Ultimately, the goal is to measure the phase noise of the new Sideband Frequency Generation Box of the 40m Upgrade.

Today I put the FSS frequency box back into the 1Y1 rack.

To power it on, I turned on the 24V and 15V Sorensen switches in the same rack.

The PMC crystal board in the same rack should not be affected (it runs with 10V), but, to make sure it was not powered, I disconnected it from its crate. Since the board was disconnected from the EOM for the PSL table's upgrade, I wanted to avoid having the RF output floating.

We just have to remember to plug it back in, when we need it again.

 I just turned on the other Sorensen's too in 1Y1.

I measured the phase noise of the LO output of the FSS box from the DAQ. I'm attaching the results.

As we expected, the measurement is limited by the internal phase noise of the Marconi.

The measurement was done as shown in this diagram.

The differences between this setup and the one used previously is the lack of the 50 Ohm terminator in the mixer output and

that the SR560 readout with the G=100 should come before the first SR560 via T, so as not to be spoiled by the high noise of the G=1 SR560.

I removed the 50 Ohm in-line terminator when I did the measurement with the SR785. The for some reason I was getting more noise, so I removed it.

Now I put it back in and I did the measurement with the DAQ. I also moved the SR560 that amplifies the signal for the DAQ, Tee'ing it with the input of the in-loop SR560.

Now the setup looks like this:

And the phase noise that I measure is this:

Comparing it with the phase noise measured with the previous setup (see entry 3506), you can see that the noise effectively is reduced by about a factor of 2 above 10 Hz.

With the setup now working, we should now test the power filtering for the crystal and amplifier.

I found this very interesting German maker of cool cable cutting tools. It's called Jokari.

We should keep it as a reference for the future if we want to buy something like that, ie RF coax cable cutting knives.

http://www.jokari.de/en.htm

Yeah, this looks nice.

And I also like to have something I have attached. This is "HOZAN P-90", but we should investigate American ones
so that we can cut the wires classified by AWG.

Last week I noticed that the high power amplifiers in the Frequency Generation Box became hot after 2 hours of continuous operation with the lid of the box closed. When I measured their temperature it was 57C, and it was still slowly increasing (~< 1K/hr).
According to the data sheet, their maximum recommended temperature is 65C. Above that their performances are not guaranteed anymore.

These amplifiers aren't properly dissipating the heat they produce since they sit on a plastic surface (Teflon), and also because their wing heat dissipator can't do much when the box is closed. I had to come up with some way to take out their heat.
The solution that I used for the voltage regulators (installing them on the back panel, guaranteeing thermal conduction but electrical isolation at the same time) wouldn't be applicable to the amplifiers.

I discussed the problem with Steve and Koji and we thought of building a heat sink that would put the amplifier in direct contact with the metal walls of the box.
After that, on Friday I've got Mike of the machine shop next door to make me this kind of L-shaped copper heat sink:



On Saturday, I completely removed the wing heat dissipator, and I only installed the copper heat sink on top of the amplifier. I used thermal paste at the interface.

I turned on the power, left the lid open and monitored the temperature again. After 2 hours the temperature of the amplifier had stabilized at 47C.

Today I added the wing dissipator too, and monitored again the temperature with the lid open. then, after a few hours, I closed the the box.
I tracked the temperature of the amplifier using the temperature sensors that I installed in the box and which I have attached to the heat sink.
I connected the box temperature output to C1:IOO-MC_DRUM1. With the calibration of the channel (32250 Counts/Volt), and Caryn's calibration of the temperature sensor (~110F/Volt - see LIGO DOC # T0900287-00-R), the trend that I measured was this:



Conclusion
The heat sink is avoiding the amplifier to overheat. The temperature is now compatible with that of the other component in the box (i.e., crystal oscilaltors, frequency multiplier).
Even with the lid closed the temperature is not too high.

Two things remain untested yet:
1) effect of adding a MICA interface sheet between the heat sink and the wall of the chassis. (necessary for gorund isolation)
2) effect of having all 3 amplifiers on at the same time

I am considering opening air circulation "gills" on the side and bottom of the chassis.

Also we might leave the box open and who ever wants can re- engineer the heat sink.

For posterity.
- Ideally we would like that the heat sink had the largest section area. A brick of metal on top the amplifier would be more effective. Although it would have added several pounds to the weight of the box.
- We need these amplifiers in order to have the capability to change the modulation depth up to 0.2, at least. The Mini-Circuit ZHL-2X-S are the only one available off-the-shelf, with a sufficiently low noise figure, and sufficiently high output power.

Here are the results of my phase noise measurements on the 7 outputs of the Frequency Generation Box. (BIN=95L applied by DTT). See attached pdf for a higher definition picture.

The plot shows that the phase noise of the 11 MHz outputs (Source, EOM modulation signal, Demodulation signal) is as low as that of the Marconi. The Marconi is limiting my measurement's resolution.

The mode cleaner signal's oscillator (29.5 MHz output, blue trace) is higher than the 11MHz above 1KHz.

The 55MHz signals have all the same phase noise (traces overlapped), and that is higher than the 11 MHz ones from about 100Hz up. i don't know what's going on.

I need to use the spare 11MHz Wenzel crsytal to have a better reference source for the measurement.

We need a distribution unit in the LSC rack to: 1) collect the demod signals coming from the Frequency Generation Box 2) adjust the power level 3) generate 2nd harmonics (for POP) 4) distribute the demod signals to the single demodulation boards.

The base line plan is the following:

The box can be build up gradually, but the priority goes to these parts:

I need help for this work. I know exactly how to do it, I just don't have the time to do it all by myself.

 Besides the Distribution Box, the demodulation part of the upgrade would still require two steps:

1) upgrade the Band Pass Filters of the demodulation boards (I have all the parts)

2) cabling from the distribution box to the demod board (one-afternoon kind of job)

I measured the amplitude noise of the source outputs and the EOM outputs of the Frequency Generation box.

the setup I used is shown in this diagram:

(NB It's important that the cables from the splitter to the RF and LO inputs of the mixers are the same length).

The results of the measurements are shown in the following plot:

Considerations:

1) both Crystals (29.5MHz and 11MHz) have the same noise

2) the 55MHz source's noise is bigger than the 11 MHz (~2x): the frequency multiplication and amplification that happen before it, add extra noise

3) the noise at EOM outputs is ~2x bigger than that of the relative sources

When I have the chance, I'll plot the results of my calculations of expected noise and compare them with the measurements.

I stored the Busby Box, the Rai's Box and the SR554 preamp in the RF cabinet down the Y arm.

I uploaded all the material about the RF frequency Generation Box into the SVN under the path:

https://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:30889/svn/trunk/docs/upgrade08/RFsystem/frequencyGenerationBox/

I structured the directory as shown in this tree:

I'm quickly describing in a section of the Rf system upgrade document with LIGO # T1000461.

I completed a LIGO document describing design, construction and characterization of the RF System for the 40m upgrade.

It is available on the SVN under https://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:30889/svn/trunk/docs/upgrade08/RFsystem/RFsystemDocument/

It can also be found on the 40m wiki (http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/40m/Upgrade_09/RF_System#preview), and DCC under the number T1000461.

I tested the new table top frequency stabilization system(TTFSS),
I haven’t finished it yet, and accidentally fried one amplifier in the circuit.

We received three sets of a new TTFSS system which will replace the current FSS.
It needs to be checked that the system works as specified before we can use it.

- Result

I followed the instruction written on E10000405-v1
The first test inspected how much the currents were drawn from the +/- 24 V power supply.
+24 V drew 350 mA and -24 V drew 160 mA as shown on pwr supply’s current monitor.
They exceeded the specified value which was 200 +/- 20 mA, but nothing went wrong during the test.
Nothing got overheated, all voltage outputs were correct so I proceeded.
I have gone down the list to 6, and everything works as specified.

- Correcting the document for the test procedure

I found a few errors on the instruction document. I’ll notify the author tomorrow.

- How GVA-81 amplifier on D0901894 rev A got fried

During the test, I used a mirror on a stick that looked like a dental tool to see under the board.
Unfortunately, the steel edge touched a board and caused a spark. The voltage on -24 dropped to -16.
I think this happened because the pwr supply tried to decrease the current from shorted circuit,
as I shorted it only short time ( a blink of an eye), it could not reduce the voltage to zero.
When I was checking the power supply and about to adjust the voltage back to the right value
(about 4-5 seconds after the spark,) smoke came out of the circuit.

Koji investigated the circuit and found that a GVA 81 amplifier was broken.

This was checked by applying 5V to the amp, and slightly increasing the current.
The voltage dropped to zero as the amp was broken, so its circuit was shorted.

I’ll see if I can replace this at EE lab at Downs.
If I cannot find a spare one, I’ll replace it with a resistor and resume the test procedure.
Because it amplifies LO signal, which won’t be used during the test.

We found that a transistor was broken from yesterday spark too. We partially fixed TTFSS, and it should be enough for  testing purpose.

From yesterday test, we found that the RF amplifier for LO signal was broken. There was no spare at the electronic shop at Downs,

so we shorted the circuit for now.  Another part which was broken too was a transistor, Q3 PZT2222A, on D0901846.

It was removed and two connections, which are for Q3's 1 and 3 legs, are shorted. Now the voltages out from the regulators are back to normal.

We are checking a MAX333A switch, U6A on D0901894. it seems that the voltage that controls the switch disappears.

There might be a bad connection somewhere. This will be investigated next.

  Q3, a PZT2222A transistor, on D0901846 is replaced by a GE-82. However, the board is still not fully function.

Since Q3, PZT2222A, was broken, I went to Wilson house and got some SP3904's for replacement. But somehow, I broke it during

installation, and did not notice it, and resumed the test. When I got to test 8 on the list, the TTFSS did not work as specified.

Koji checked and found out that -15V, Nref, Vref voltages output did not work correctly. So the SP3904 I installed was removed

and replaced with another SP3904 by Koji, and Vref is working. 

Q4 transistor is broken as well and it was replaced by GE 82.

Q1 might be broken too since -15V out is not working.

I'll go to Wilson house to get more transistors next week.

After the broken parts have been replaced, I have to make sure that I separate the power supply board from the rest of the circuit and

check if all V outputs are  working, then reconnect the board and check if the current input is reasonable before resume the test.

I hope the wrong input voltage problem today wouldn't damage anything else.

How much current do you need for each voltages?

GE-82 was the only PNP transister I could find in the lab. It's too old but we just like to confirm any other components are still functioning.

Similarly, we can confirm the functionality of the other components by skipping those current boost transisters,
if we don't need more than 30mA.

We found a small PCB defect which is an excess copper shorting circuit on the daughter board,

it was removed and the signal on mixer monitor path is working properly.

 We were checking the new TTFSS upto test 10a on the instruction, E1000405 -V1. There was no signal at MIXER mon channel.

It turned out that U3 OpAmp on the daughter board, D040424, was not working because the circuit path for leg 15 was shorted

because of the board's defect. We can see from fig1 that the contact for the OpAmp's leg (2nd from left) touches ground.

We used a knife to scrap it out, see fig 2, and now this part is working properly.

Today I checked the CCD cables which is connected to the VIDEOMUX.

17 cables are type of RG59, 8 cables are type of RG58. I have not figured out the type of other cables(23 cables) yet.

The reason I am checking the cables is for replacing the cables with impedance of 50 or 52 ohm by those with impedance of 75 ohm.

After I figures out which cable has not proper impedance, I will make new cables and substitute them in order to match the impedance, which would lead to better VIDEO signal.

To check the impedance of each CCD cable, I went to the VIDEOMUX and looked for the label on the cable's surface.

Type of RG59 is designated to the cable of impedance 75ohm. I wrote down each cable's input or output channel number with observation(whether it is of type RG59 or not).

The result of observation is as follows.

For 23 cables that I have not figured out their type, cables are too entangled so it is limited to look for the label along each cable.

I will try to figure out more tomorrow. Any suggestion would be really appreciated.

Today I checked all the CCD cables which is connected output channels of the VIDEOMUX.

Among total 22 cables for output, 18 cables are type of RG59, 4 cables are type of RG58.

The reason I am checking the cables is for replacing the cables with impedance of 50 or 52 ohm by those with impedance of 75 ohm.

After I figures out which cable has not proper impedance, I will make new cables and substitute them in order to match the impedance, which would lead to better VIDEO signal.

Today, I labeled all cables connected to output channels of VIDEO MUX and disconnect all of them since last time it was hard to check every cable because of cables too entangled.

With thankful help by Yuta, I also checked which output channel is sending signal to which monitor while I was disconnecting cables.

Then I checked the types of all cables and existing label which might designate where each cable is connected to.

After I finished the check, I reconnected all cables into the output channel which each of cable was connected to before I disconnected.

4 cables out of 22 are type of RG58 so expected to be replace with cable of type RG59.

The result of observation is as follows. 

I could not figure out where 10 cables are sending their signals to. They are not connected to monitor turned on in control room

so I guess they are connected to monitors located inside the lab. I will check these unknown cables when I check the unknown input cables.

Next time, I will check out cables which is connected to input channels of VIDEIO MUX. Any suggestion would be really appreciated.

Today I checked all the CCD cables which is connected input channels of the VIDEOMUX.

Among total 25 cables for output, 12 cables are type of RG59, 4 cables are type of RG58, and 9 cables are of unknown type.

The reason I am checking the cables is for replacing the cables with impedance of 50 or 52 ohm by those with impedance of 75 ohm.

After I figures out which cable has not proper impedance, I will make new cables and substitute them in order to match the impedance, which would lead to better VIDEO signal.

Today, I check the cables in similar way as I did the last time.

I labeled all cables connected to input channels of VIDEO MUX and disconnect all of them since last time it was hard to check every cable because of cables too entangled.

Then I checked the types of all cables and existing label which might designate where each cable is connected to.

After I finished the check, I reconnected all cables into the input channel which each of cable was connected to before I disconnected.

4 cables out of 25 are type of RG58 so expected to be replace with cable of type RG59.

9 cables out of 25 are of unknown type. These nine cables are all orange-colored thick cables which do not have any label about the cable characteristic on the surface.

The result of observation is as follows.

Note that type 'TBD-1' is used for the orange colored cables because all of them look like the same type of cable.

Today I could not figure out what impedance the TBD-1 type(unknown type) has.

Next time, I will check out the orange-colored cables' impedance directly and find where the unknown output signal is sent. Any suggestion would be really appreciated.

I had a number of delinquent items on the sign out list from the 40m. I returned about half, and ordered replacements for most of the other half.

I put the photodiodes on the SP table, and the 560 on the electronics  bench.

As the suspension work winds down (we'll be completely done once the ETMs arrive, are suspended, and then are placed in the chambers), I'm going to start working on the RF system. 

Step 1: Figure out what Alberto has been up to the last few months.

Step 2: Figure out what still needs doing.

Step 3: Complete all the items listed out in step 2.

Step 4: Make sure it all works.

Right now I'm just starting steps 1 & 2.  I've made myself a handy-dandy wiki checklist: RF Checklist.  Hopefully all of the bits and pieces that need doing will be put here, and then I can start checking them off. Suggestions and additions to the list are welcome.

 There's also a page dedicated to the progress in the PD upgrade process:

http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/40m/Upgrade_09/RF_System/Upgraded_RF_Photodiodes

There you can find a pdf document with my notes on that.

Today I worked on how to measure cable impedance directly.

In order to measure the impedance in RF range, I used a function generator which could generate 50MHz signal and was initially connected to the table on the right of the decks.

The reason I am checking the cables is for replacing the cables with impedance of 50 or 52 ohm by those with impedance of 75 ohm.

After I figures out which cable has not proper impedance, I will make new cables and substitute them in order to match the impedance, which would lead to better VIDEO signal.

To test the VIDEO cables, I need a function generator generating signal of frequency 50 MHz.

In the deck on the right of PSL table, there was only one such generator which was connected to the table on the right of the deck.

Therefore, I disconnected it from the cable and took it to the control room to use it because Rana said it was not used.

Then, I tired to find on how to measure the impedance of cable directly but I did not finish yet.

When I finished today works, I put the generator back to the deck but I did not connect to the previous cable which was initially connected to the generator.

Next time, I will finish the practical method of measuring the cable impedance then I will measure the cables with unknown impedance.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

www.avalontest.com has fixed the 25MHz oscillation.  Contact: Jim Burnham 760-536-0191

Actually, NOT FIXED.

I keep a set of new TTFSS for 40m in electronic cabinet along the North arm.

The set number is #6. It is working and has not been modified by me.

Other two sets,# 5 and #7, are kept at PSL lab.

I looked at this web page: http://www.teledyne-cougar.com/Index.asp for the RF company that Rich has recently started using.

There are ~15 amplifiers that they sell which have a NF < 2 dB and work in the 10-100 MHz band. We should call them to find out if they will package some amps for us or at least sell us a few with eval. boards so that we can make our own.

Joon Ho and I took a look at the RF stuff that Alberto left, and we determined that we've got most everything that we need.  On Monday, Joon Ho will list off the stuff that we're missing, and we'll have Steve order it.

Joon Ho also replaced the temporary front panel to the RF generation box with Alberto's fancy new panel.  Pics are here (although you have to sign in as foteee to see them). 

Work on the frequency distribution box will continue on Monday.