The testpoint.par file, located at /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/target/gds/param/testpoint.par, which tells GDS processes where to find the various awgtpman processes, was completely empty.  The file was there but was just 0 bytes.  Apparently the awgtpman processes themselves also consult this file when starting, which means that none of the awgtpman processes would start.

This file is manipulated in the "install-daq-%" target in the RCG Makefile, ultimately being written with output from the src/epics/util/updateTestpointPar.pl script, which creates a stanza for each front-end model.  Rebuilding and installing all of the models properly regenerated this file.

I have no idea what would cause this file to get truncated, but apparently this is not the first time: elog #3999.  I'm submitting a bug report with CDS.

The fsck on the framebuilder (fb) raid array (/dev/sda1) completed overnight without issue.  I rebooted the framebuilder and it came up without problem.

I'm now working on getting all of the front-end computers and models restarted and talking to the framebuilder now.

I have restored the damping of BS and PRM. Today is janitor day. He is shaking things around the lab.

[Valera, Suresh]

1) To see if there are significant dark-offsets on the WFS sensors we closed the PSL shutter and found that the offsets are in the 1% range.  We decided to ignore them for now.

2) To center the MC_REFL beam on the WFS we opened the PSL shutter, unlocked the MC and then centered the DC_PIT and DC_YAW signals in the C1IOO_WFS_QPD screen.

3) We then looked at the power spectrum of the I and Q signals from WFS1 to see if the spectrum looked okay and found that some of the quadrants looked very different from others.  The reason was traced to incorrect Comb60 filters.   After correcting these filters we adjusted the R phase angle in the WFS1_SETTINGS screen to suppress the 1Hz natural oscillation signal in the Q channels of all the four quadrants.  We repeated this process for WFS2

4) To see if the relative phase of all four quadrants was correct we first drove the MC_length and tried to check the phase of the response on each quadrant.  However the response was very weak as the signal was suppressed by the MC servo.  Increasing the drive made the PMC lock unstable.  So we introduced a 6Hz, 50mVpp signal from an SR785 into the MC_servo (Input2) and with this we were able to excite a significant response in the WFS without affecting the PMC servo.    By looking at the time series of the signals from the quadrants we set the R phase angle in WFS_Settings such that all the quadrants showed the same phase response to the MC_length modulation. 

     Using the larger response were were able to further tweak the R angle to supress the Q channels to about 1% of the I phase signals.

5)  I then edited the c1ioo.mdl so that we can use the six lockins just as they are used in MC_ASS.  However we can now set elements of the SEN_DMD_MATRX (sensor demod matrix) to select any of the MCL, WFS PIT and YAW channels (or a linear combination of them) for demodulation.  The change is shown below.  While compiling and model on C1IOO FE machine there were problems which eventually led to the FB crash.

ITMY, which is supposed to be fully free-swinging at the moment, is displaying the tell-tale signs of  being stuck to one of it's OSEMs.  This is indicated by the PDMon values, one of which is zero while the others are max:

UL: 0.000
UR: 1.529
LR: 1.675
LL: 1.949
SD: 0.137

Do we have a procedure for remotely getting it unstuck?  If not, we need to open up ITMYC and unstick it before we pump.

fb is now up and running, although the /frames raid is still undergoing an fsck which is likely take another day.  Consequently there is no daqd and no frames are being written to disk.  It's running and providing the diskless root to the rest of the front end systems, so, so the rest of the IFO should be operational.

I burt restored the following (which I believe is everything that was rebooted), from Saturday night:

/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1lscepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1susepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1iooepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1assepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1mcsepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1gcvepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1gfdepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1rfmepics.snap
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/snapshots/2011/Aug/27/23:07/c1pemepics.snap
 

I edited the C1SUS_SUMMARY.adl file and set the channels in alarm mode to show the values in green, yellow and red according to the values of the thresholds (LOLO, LOW, HIGH, HIHI)

I wrote a script in python, which call the command ezcawrite and ezcaread, to change the thresholds one by one.

You can call this program with a button named "Change Thresholds one by one" in the menu come down when you click the  !  button.

I'm going to write another program to change the thresholds all together.

fb was requiring manual fsck on it's disks because it was sensing filesystem errors.  The errors had to do with the filesystem timestamps being in the future.  It turned out that fb's system date was set to something in 2005.  I'm not sure what caused the date to be so off (motherboard battery problem?)  But I did determine after I got the system booting that the NTP client on fb was misconfigured and was therefore incapable of setting the system date.  It seems that it was configured to query a non-existent ntp server.  Why the hell it would have been set like this I have no idea.

In any event, I did a manual check on /dev/sdb1, which is the root disk, and postponed a check on /dev/sda1 (the RAID mounted at /frames) until I had the system booting.  /dev/sda1 is being checked now, since there are filesystems errors that need to be corrected, but it will probably take a couple of hours to complete.  Once the filesystems are clean I'll reboot fb and try to get everything up and running again.

Fb is in a bad situation. It needs a MANUAL fsck to fix the file system.

HELP US, Jamieeeeeeeeeeee !!!

When Suresh and I connected a display and tried to see what was going on, the fb computer was in a file system check.

This was because Suresh did a hardware reboot by pressing a power button on the front panel.

Since the file checking took so long time and didn't proceed fast, we pressed the reset button and again the power button.

Actually the reset button didn't work (maybe ?) it just made some light indicators flashing.

After the second reboot the reboot message said that it needs a manual fsck to fix the file system. This maybe because we interrupted the file checking.

We are leaving it to Jamie because the fsck command would do something bad if unfamiliar persons, like us, do it.

In addition to it, the boot message was also saying that line 37 in /etc/fstab was bad.

We logged into the machine with a safe mode, then found there was an empty line in 37th line of fstab.

We tried erasing this empty line, but failed for some reasons. We were able to edit it by using vi, but wasn't able to save it.

I recompiled c1ioo after making some changes and restarted fb. (about 9:45 - 10PM PDT)  But it failed to restart.  It responds to ping, but does not allow a ssh or telnet. The screen output is:

allegra:~>ssh fb
ssh: connect to host fb port 22: Connection refused
allegra:~>telnet fb 8087
Trying 192.168.113.202...
telnet: connect to address 192.168.113.202: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
allegra:~>
 

Nor am I able to connect to c1ioo either....

 Glued.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll remove the optic from the fixture, and put it in the oven.

[Valera, Suresh]

   We wanted to continue the work with WFS servo loops.  As the current optical paths on the AP table do not send any light to the WFS, I changed a mirror to a 98% window and a window to a mirror to send about 0.25mW of light towards the WFS.   The MC locking is unaffected by this change.   The autolocker works fine.

   When the power to the MC is increased, these will have to be replaced or else the WFS will burn.

In the previous elog of mine, I looked at the nullstream (aka butterfly mode) to find out if the intrinsic OSEM noise is limiting the displacement noise of the interferometer or possibly the Wiener FF performance.

The conclusion was that its not above ~0.2 Hz. Due to the fortuitous breaking of the ITMX magnet, we also have a chance to check the 'bright noise': what the noise is with no magnet to occlude the LED beam.

As expected, the noise spectra with no magnets is less than the calculated nullstream. The attached plot shows the comparison of the LL OSEM (all the bright spectra look basically alike) with the damped

optic spectra from 1 month week ago.

From 0.1 - 10 Hz, the motion is cleanly larger than the noise. Below ~0.2 Hz, its possible that the common mode rejection of the short cavity lengths are ruined by this. We should try to see if the low frequency

noise in the PRC/SRC is explainable with our current knowledge of seismicity and the 2-dimensional 2-poiint correllation functions of the ground.

So, the question is, "Should we try to upgrade the satellite boxes to improve the OSEM sensing noise?"

As I feared, since I couldn't see the magnet-to-dumbbell joint from all angles, they ended up being off by ~1/3 of a magnet diameter. 

Because I don't want to deal with finding another failed glue joint tomorrow, I removed the magnet and dumbbell from the optic, and broke the manget off of the dumbbell.  As with yesterday, I kept track of which end of the magnet had been glued to the dumbbell. 

I got a new dumbbell, removed all the glue from the magnet, and reglued them together, in the fixture that ensures they are well aligned. 

Tomorrow I will come in and glue the magnet dumbbell assembly to the ITM.

 Barring other chores for next Wednesday, we're going to spend Wednesday afternoon populating the new cabinet with all of the optics hardware: posts, forks, dogs, everything!  It's going to be so organized and awesome!!

manufacturer info

Jamie and Shuresh moved in Jenne's 11 drawers cabinet and relocated old note book boxes on the inside of the vac tube.

 New gear box installed and tested by Fred KoneCranes.

 Follow full procedure for full strength, minimum risk

I think we should follow the established procedure in full, even though it will cost us a few more days.  I dont think we should consider the vacuum bake as something "optional".  If the glue has any volatile components they could be deposited on the optic resulting in a change in the coating and consequently optical loss in the arm cavity.

elog died b/c someone somewhere did something which may or may not have been innocuous. I ran the script in /cvs/cds/caltech/elog to restart the elog (thrice).

I have now banned Warren from clicking on the elog from home

Jamie is modeling our next generation  in-vac & clean room bonny suit that Jenne and myself already tested.

It is quite bearable with our traditional cleanroom beret-bouffant cap. Please use these in the future.

This will help to avoid the farther degradation of somewhat dusty 40m vac envelope.

It is the required dress code to enter the clean assembly room in the 40m.

 We have small, med, large and x-large in stock. I'm getting larger sizes.

It will not allow certain people to climb inside the vacuum chamber in dirty pants.

Dmass just reminded me that the usual procedure is to bake the optics after the last gluing, before putting them into the chambers.  Does anyone have opinions on this? 

On the one hand, it's probably safer to do a vacuum bake, just to be sure.  On the other hand, even if we could use one of the ovens immediately, it's a 48 hour bake, plus cool down time.  But they're working on aLIGO cables, and might not have an oven for us for a while.  Thoughts?

As we have seen in the past, both of the ITMs were more dusty than the ETMs, presumably because we have the vertex open much more often than the ends.  Kiwamu and I wiped all of the optics until we could no longer see any dust particles within a ~1.5 inch diameter area around the center. 

Since we have ITMX out for magnet gluing, I'll probably drag wipe both front and back surfaces before putting it back in the suspension cage.  All of the optics have clear dust on the AR surfaces, but we can't get to that surface while the optics are suspended.  For the ETMs this isn't too big of a deal, but it does concern me a bit for the ITMs and other transmissive optics we have.  I don't think it's bad enough yet though to warrant removing optics from suspensions just to wipe them.

 jamie, jenne, kiwamu, suresh, steve

ETMY and ITMY were treated the same way as ETMX. The BS chamber was closed with heavy vac door yesterday also. The IOO access connector's inner jamnuts are torqued to 45 ft/lbs as all vac door bolts.

The vac envelope is ready for pumpdown condition, except ITMX chamber with light atm door cover.

Jenne will summeries the condition of dust on the  TMs before and after the drag wipes.

 Repair work is delayed.  I need the "pickle pickers" that hold the magnet+dumbbell in the gluing fixture, for gluing them to the optic.  Here at the 40m we have a full set of SOS gluing supplies, except for pickle pickers.  We had borrowed Betsy's from Hanford for about a year, but a few months ago I returned all of the supplies we had borrowed.  Betsy said she would find them in her lab, and overnight them to us.  Since the problem occurred so late in the day, they won't get shipped until tomorrow (Thursday), and won't arrive until Friday.

I also can't find our magnet-to-dumbbell gluing fixture, so I asked her to send us her one of those, as well. 

I have 2 options for fixing ITMX.  I'll write down the pros and cons for each, and we can make a decision over the next ~36 hours.

OPTIONS:

(#1) Remove dumbbell from optic.  Reglue magnet to dumbbell. Reglue magnet+dumbbell to optic.

(#2) Carefully clean dumbbell and magnet, without breaking dumbbell off of optic.  Glue magnet to dumbbell.

PROS:

(#1) Guarantee that magnet and dumbbell are axially aligned.

(#2) Takes only 1 day of glue curing time.

CONS:

(#1) Takes 2 days of glue curing time. (one for magnet to dumbbell, one for set to optic.)

(#2) Could have slight mismatch in axis of dumbbell and magnet.  Could accidentally drop a bit of acetone onto dumbbell-to-optic glue, which forces us into option 1, since this might destroy the integrity of the glue joint (this would take only the 2 days already required for option 1, it wouldn't force us to take 2+1=3 days).

I broke the UL magnet on ITMX

The ITMX tower was shipped into the Bob's clean room to put the magnet back on.

 Since we found that all the magnets were relatively high (#5296) in the shadow sensors, we decided to slide the OSEM holder bar upward.

During the work, I haven't made the OSEMs far enough from the magnets.

So the magnets and OSEMs touched as I moved the holder.

Then the UL magnets were broken off and fell into the UL coil.

ITMX: 998245556

ETMX, ETMY: 998248032

ITMX was drag wiped, and the suspension was put back into place.  However, after removing all of the earthquake stops we found that the suspension was hanging in a very strange way.

The optic appears to heavily pitched forward in the suspension.  All of the rear face magnets are high in their OSEMs, while the SIDE OSEM appears fine.  When first inspected, some of the magnets appeared to be stuck to their top OSEM plates, which was definitely causing it to pitch forward severely.  After gently touching the top of the optic I could get the magnets to sit in a more reasonable position in the OSEMs.  However, they still seem to be sitting a little high.  All of the PDMon values are also too low:

Taking a free swing measurement now.

We've closed up ETMX:

• the optic was drag wiped
• the suspension tower was put back in place
• earthquake stops were backed off the appropriate number of turns, and de-ionized
• chamber door was put on

We ran one more free swing test on ETMY last night, after the last bit of tweaking on the SIDE OSEM.  It now looks pretty good:

ETMY

pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL   -0.323   1.274   1.459  -0.019   0.932  UR    1.013  -0.726   1.410  -0.050  -1.099  LR   -0.664  -1.353   0.541  -0.036   0.750  LL   -2.000   0.647   0.590  -0.004  -1.219  SD    0.021  -0.035   1.174   1.000   0.137

4.23371

 So I declare: WE'RE NOW READY TO CLOSE UP.

By looking at a longer data stretch for the SRM (6 hours instead of just one), we were able to get enough extra resolution to make fits to the very close POS and SIDE peaks.  This allowed us to do the matrix inversion.  The result is that SRM looks pretty good, and agrees with what was measured previously:

SRM

pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.869   0.975   1.140  -0.253   1.085   UR    1.028  -1.025   1.083  -0.128  -1.063   LR   -0.972  -0.993   0.860  -0.080   0.834   LL   -1.131   1.007   0.917  -0.205  -1.018   SD    0.106   0.064   3.188   1.000  -0.011

4.24889

Keiko, Kiwamu

We noticed that we have used wrong code for MICH degree of freedom for both of the ELOG entries on this topic (cavity lengths tolerance search). It will be modified and posted soon.

In preparation for tomorrow's drag wiping and door closing, I have clamped ITMX, ITMY, and ETMX with their earthquake stops and moved the suspension cages to the door-edge of their respective tables.  They will remain clamped through drag wiping.

ETMY was left free-swinging, so we will clamp and move it directly prior to drag wiping tomorrow morning.

Excited ETMY

Tue Aug 23 17:20:45 PDT 2011
998180460

 

[Steve, Bob, Jamie, Kiwamu, Valera, Jenne]

The access connector is now in place, in preparation for pump-down.  Tomorrow (hopefully) we will do all the other doors.

Before lunch we took a closer look at two of the suspensions that were most problematic: ITMY and ETMY.  Over lunch we took new free swinging data.  Results below:

• For ITMY we discovered that the whitening on the UL sensor was not switching.  This was causing the UL sensor to have a different response, with a steeper roll of, which was causing all of the transfer function estimates to the other sensors to have large imaginary components.   We took new free swing data with all of the whitening turned OFF.  The result is a much improved matrix and diagnalization.  The input matrix elements are mostly the same, but the coupling is basically gone.  We'll fix the whitening after the pump down.

ITMY

pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.157   1.311   1.213  -0.090   0.956  UR    1.749  -0.490   0.886  -0.038  -1.042  LR   -0.251  -2.000   0.787  -0.007   1.066  LL   -1.843  -0.199   1.114  -0.059  -0.936  SD   -0.973  -0.205   1.428   1.000   0.239

4.34779

• ETMY has a very problematic SIDE OSEM.  The magnet does not line up with the OSEM axis, and since there is no lateral adjustment in the side OSEMs, there's not much we can do about this.  We're using aluminum foil to wedge the OSEM over as far as possible, but it's not quite enough.  With the OSEM plates horizontal there is a lot of POS->SIDE coupling.  With the OSEM plates vertical, the magnetic sits a little too close to the rear face, which can cause the magnet to get stuck to the LED plate.  We're trying to decide where to leave it now, but the new diagnalization with the OSEM plates vertical is definitely better: 

ETMX

pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL   -0.138   1.224   1.463  -0.086   0.944   UR    0.867  -0.776   1.501  -0.072  -1.051   LR   -0.995  -0.896   0.537  -0.045   0.754   LL   -2.000   1.104   0.499  -0.059  -1.251   SD    0.011   0.220   1.917   1.000   0.224

4.42482

excited all the optics. (with ITMY WTF OFF)

Tue Aug 23 11:52:52 PDT 2011
998160788

SUS update before closing up:

• MC1, MC2, ITMX look good
• MC3, PRM look ok
• SRM pos and side peaks are too close together to distinguish, so the matrix is not diagnalizable.  I think with more data it should be ok, though.
• all ITMY elements have imaginary components
• ITMY, ETMX, ETMY appear to have modest that swapped position:
  • ITMY: pit/yaw
  • ETMX: yaw/side
  • ETMY: pos/side
• MC3, ETMX, ETMY have some very large/small elements

Not particularly good.  We're going to work on ETMY at least, since that one is clearly bad.

OPTIC		M	cond(B)
MC1		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.733   1.198   1.168   0.050   1.057  UR    1.165  -0.802   0.896   0.015  -0.925  LR   -0.835  -1.278   0.832  -0.002   0.954  LL   -1.267   0.722   1.104   0.032  -1.064  SD    0.115   0.153  -0.436   1.000  -0.044	4.02107
MC2		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    1.051   0.765   1.027   0.128   0.952   UR    0.641  -1.235   1.089  -0.089  -0.942   LR   -1.359  -0.677   0.973  -0.097   1.011   LL   -0.949   1.323   0.911   0.121  -1.096   SD   -0.091  -0.147  -0.792   1.000  -0.066	4.02254
MC3		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    1.589   0.353   1.148   0.170   1.099   UR    0.039  -1.647   1.145   0.207  -1.010   LR   -1.961  -0.000   0.852   0.113   0.896   LL   -0.411   2.000   0.855   0.076  -0.994   SD   -0.418   0.396  -1.624   1.000   0.019	3.60876
PRM		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.532   1.424   1.808  -0.334   0.839   UR    1.355  -0.576   0.546  -0.052  -0.890   LR   -0.645  -0.979   0.192   0.015   0.881   LL   -1.468   1.021   1.454  -0.267  -1.391   SD    0.679  -0.546  -0.674   1.000   0.590	5.54281
BS		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    1.596   0.666   0.416   0.277   1.037   UR    0.201  -1.334   1.679  -0.047  -0.934   LR   -1.799  -0.203   1.584  -0.077   0.952   LL   -0.404   1.797   0.321   0.247  -1.077   SD    0.711   0.301  -3.397   1.000   0.034	5.46234
SRM	NA	NA	NA
ITMX		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.458   1.025   1.060  -0.065   0.753   UR    0.849  -0.975   1.152  -0.199  -0.978   LR   -1.151  -1.245   0.940  -0.243   1.217   LL   -1.542   0.755   0.848  -0.109  -1.052   SD   -0.501  -0.719   2.278   1.000  -0.153	4.4212
ITMY		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.164   1.320   1.218  -0.086   0.963   UR    1.748  -0.497   0.889  -0.034  -1.043   LR   -0.252  -2.000   0.782  -0.005   1.066   LL   -1.836  -0.183   1.111  -0.058  -0.929   SD   -0.961  -0.194   1.385   1.000   0.239	4.33051
ETMX		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.623   1.552   1.596  -0.033   1.027   UR    0.194  -0.448   1.841   0.491  -1.170   LR   -1.806  -0.478   0.404   0.520   0.943   LL   -1.377   1.522   0.159  -0.005  -0.860   SD    1.425   3.638  -0.762   1.000  -0.132	4.89418
ETMY		pit     yaw     pos     side    butt UL    0.856   0.007   1.799   0.241   1.005   UR   -0.082  -1.914  -0.201  -0.352  -1.128   LR   -2.000   0.079  -0.104  -0.162   0.748   LL   -1.063   2.000   1.896   0.432  -1.119   SD   -0.491  -1.546   2.926   1.000   0.169	9.11516

Indeed it was suspenseful.

We tried finding where the clipping happened, but we couldn't find any obvious clippings.

So we checked centering of the beams on all the optics associated with the AS path, starting from BS, SR3,... to the AS optical bench.

And during the work some of them were recentered.

At the end we found no clipping. To make sure we tested the available range (no clipping range) by exciting the angular motion of BS with AWG (f ~ 1Hz, a ~ 1000).

The beam looked successfully coming out at the most of the angular oscillation point.

Where was the AS clipping?! Ah, the suspense...

After the MC1 and MC3 OSEMs were  repositioned  MC had to be realigned and the beam spots had to be recentered on the actuation nodes.  

To do that I had to change the input beam direction into the MC  and the coil offsets.   

I also measured the resultant spot positions

spot positions in mm (MC1,2,3 pit MC1,2,3 yaw):
    0.1354   -0.2522   -0.1383   -1.0893    0.7122   -1.5587

The MC1 and MC3 yaw can be improved further after the chambers are closed and evacuated.  The PZT adjustments needed to realign the input beam pointing are quite small and should not pose a problem.

excited all the optics ---

Tue Aug 23 01:08:00 PDT 2011
998122096

We will begin drag wiping and putting on doors at 9am tomorrow (Tuesday). 

We need to get started on time so that we can finish at least the 4 test masses before lunch (if possible). 

We will have a ~2 hour break for LIGOX + Valera's talk.

I propose the following teams:

(Team 1: 2 people, one clean, one dirty) Open light doors, clamp EQ stops, move optic close to door.  ETMX, ITMX, ITMY, ETMY

(Team 2: K&J) Drag wipe optic, and put back against rails. Follow Team 1 around.

(Team 3 = Team 1, redux: 2 people, one clean, one dirty) Put earthquake stops at correct 2mm distance. Follow Team 2 around.

(Team 4: 3 people, Steve + 2) Close doors.  Follow Team 3 around.

Later, we'll do BS door and Access Connector.  BS, SRM, PRM already have the EQ stops at proper distances.

[Kiwamu, Jenne]

After the IFO was aligned in air one final time, we tapped on a few OSEMs until we were happy with all of the centering of all of the optics' OSEMs.  All are within 0.05 of their halfway values, with the exception of one each on MC1 and MC3, one of which is within 0.06, and the other 0.08.  Because of the realignment pain of dealing with MC OSEMs, we elected to leave these alone.  Also, since we obviously didn't open the MC2 tank, we don't know how they are, although the numbers look reasonable. 

Also, we took photos (to be posted on Picasa in a day or two) of all the main IFO magnet-in-OSEM centering, as best we could.  SRM, BS, PRM all caused trouble, due to their tight optical layouts.  We got what we could.  Various people have been looking at these for the past 2 weeks, and I think they're all fine, even if we didn't get stellar photos.

We are now prepared for pumping.  For real this time.

[Keiko / Jenne / Jamie / Kiwamu]

 We did the following things today :

  + fixed the AS clipping issue

  + realigned all the oplevs

  + checked and adjusted the all OSEM DC values, including PRM, SRM, BS, ITMs, ETMs, MC1 and MC3

Since we touched the OSEMs the alignment has changed somewhat.

Right now Jenne, Suresh and I are working on the "confirmation alignment".

Once we find the alignment is still good (steerable by the PZTs and the DC coil bias), tomorrow we will do the drag&wipe and door closing.

I made a quick sketch of how to include two more RF PDs on the REFL beam, given the space we have on the table. We want to install REFL33 and REFL165, 3f signals for the the two modulation frequencies we are using. The point is to make the distance from first beam splitter the same to all PDs so that we can use only one lens before this BS to make the beam the right size. Currently there are 2 PDs on the refl beam, REFL11 and REFL55, predictably. So the drawing shows 4 PDs. Drawing is to scale but is a bit coarse. Hopefully we'll take pictures once we're done.

Reference from current BS splitting beam to the existing PDs.

[Kiwamu, Suresh]   This is a belated elog entry from last Friday night + Saturday morning! 

    We shifted the SRM tower across the beam and away from the door by about 5mm. 

                  After the input beam from MC was aligned to the Y-arm,  Kiwamu noticed that the AS beam was being clipped and that the correction had to start from SRM onwards as the beam had become offcentered on the SRM.  So we shifted the SRM tower by about 5mm away from the door and transverse to the beam and rotated it by a few degrees to center the OSEM offsets.  After this we aligned all optics along the AS beam path to extract the AS beam from the chamber.    We then aligned each optic in the vertex so that their beams overlap at the AS port with the reflection from ITMY.  Then we aligned BS to center the beam on ETMX and then looked for flashes from the Y arm.

      At this point Kiwamu checked and found that the input beam from the MC had shifted.  It was landing on the ITMY about 5mm below the center.  And (inexplicably) it was still centered on ETMY!  The Y- green which traced the cavity axis (since this was still flashing) was not coincident with the IR beam.   So all the work we did in aligning the AS beam and the vertex optics work was lost..... and had to be done again.

Cranes are  checked and they are ready for lifting. At the east end will use the manual Genei-lift to put door on.

[Kieko / Kiwamu]

 The AS beam shows a little bit of clipping and right now this is the only concern for the alignment of the interferometer.

Other than that everything is okay including :

  + Beam centering on all the suspended optics

  + Arm cavity alignments. The Fabry-Perot fringes from both arm cavity were found on the AS camera.

  + POX/POY/POP, they are still successfully coming out from the chambers

  + IPPOS/ANG

  + Alignment of the green beams and the associated optics. Both green are reaching to the PSL table

We need to check/fix the AS beam clipping and once it's done we will readjust the OSEM mid range and the oplevs.

Then it will be ready for the drag/wipe and door closing.