ID |
Date |
Author |
Type |
Category |
Subject |
5034
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Mon Jul 25 23:43:20 2011 |
Manuel | HowTo | Electronics | Manual for 1201 Low Noise Preamplifier |
I found the manual for the Low Noise Preamplifier Model 1201 at this link and I attached it.
The one we have in the lab (S/N 48332) miss the battery packs and miss also the remote programming options input/output. Its inside battery compartment is empty and I found 2 unscrewed screws with washers and nuts inside the preamplifier box. The battery cable are disconnected and they have 2 green tape labels (-) and 2 red tape label (+).
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Attachment 1: ITHACO_1201_Instruction_&_Maintenance.pdf
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Attachment 2: DSC_3249.png
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5361
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Wed Sep 7 18:19:37 2011 |
steve | HowTo | VAC | stop pump down for overnight |
Quote: |
Jamie and Steve
We closed ITMX and ITMY chambers and started pumping around 11am
What we did before:
1, turned off AC power to PZT Jena HV ps
2, checked jam nut positions
3, cheched single o-ring shims
4, closed psl out shutter
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We are at 30 Torr of 7 hours of pumping with 2 roughing pumps.
Kiwamu will take over the rest of the roughing today. He will keep an eye on the pumping speed to be ~1-2 Torr/min and open up the manual RV1 valve if needed.
The present status is #3023 of "chamber open to vacuum open" mode and waiting the P1 pressure to drop to 500 mTorr
He will do the following to stop pumping at P1 = 500 mTorr
1, close V3
2, close RV1 with torque wheel
3, turn off PR1 & 3
4, disconnect metal hose between RV1 and PR3
I will start the Maglev tomorrow morning. |
5376
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Sat Sep 10 11:07:37 2011 |
rana | HowTo | SUS | Optical Lever Servo Tuning thoughts |
Now that we are in a moderately stable condition, its time to design the optical lever feedback transfer functions. We should think carefully about how to do this optimally.
In the past, the feedback shape was velocity damping from 0-10 Hz, with some additional resonant gain around the pendulum and stack modes. There were some low pass filters above ~30 Hz. These were all hand tuned.
I propose that we should look into designing optimal feedback loops for the oplevs. In principle, we can do this by defining some optimal feedback cost function and then calculate the poles/zeros in matlab.
How to define the cost function (? please add more notes to this entry):
1) The ERROR signal should be reduced. We need to define a weight function for the ERROR signal: C_1(f) = W_1(f) * (ERR(f)^2)
2) The OL QPDs have a finite sensing noise, so there is no sense in suppressing the signal below this level. Need to determine what the sensing noise is.
3) The feedback signal at high frequencies (30 Hz < f < 300 Hz) should be low passed to prevent adding noise to the interferometer via the A2L coupling. It also doesn't help to reduce this below the level of the seismic noise. The cost function on the feedback should be weighted apprpriately given knowledge about the sensing noise of the OL, the seismic noise (including stack), and the interferometer noise (PRC, SRC, MICH, DARM).
4) The servo should be stable: even if there is a negligible effect on the ERROR signal, we would not want to have more than 10 dB of gain peaking around the UGFs.
5) The OL QPDs are dominated by drift of the stack, laser, etc. at some low frequencies. We should make sure the low frequency feedback is high passed appropriately.
6) Minimize transmitted power rms in single arm lock etc. |
5455
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Mon Sep 19 02:33:34 2011 |
kiwamu | HowTo | General | Plan for this week |
GOAL1: Stable lock of DRMI
GOAL2: Measurement of the LSC input matrix in the DRMI configuration
/- - Daytime works - - /
+ Measurement of the arm lengths (Jenne / Kiwamu / volunteers)
+ Optimization of the oplev control loops (Paul)
+ Inversion and installation of the SUS input matrices (Jenne)
+ Tuning of the SUS damping gains (Steve)
+ Measurement of the modulation depths (Mirko)
+ Preparation of the green broadband PD (Katrin)
+ Fixing the Y arm green lock servo (Katrin / Kiwamu)
+ Installation of RFPDs (Anamaria)
+ Minimization of the AM sidebands (Anamaria / Keiko)
+ Preparation of a script for measuring the LSC input matrix (Keiko)
+ MC WFS (Suresh)
+ Online adaptive filtering (Mirko / Jenne)
+ Modification of C1ASS (Kiwamu)
+ Fixing IPPOS (volunteers)
+ Auto alignment of PRCL and SRCL (volunteers)
+ Loss measurement of the arm cavities (volunteers)
+ Fixing the ETMX SIDE slow monitor (volunteers)
/- - Nighttime works - - /
+ Locking of DRMI
+ Characterization of DRMI and complete the wiki page |
5456
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Mon Sep 19 11:49:32 2011 |
Jenne | HowTo | General | Plan for this week: SUS inversion |
Quote: |
+ Inversion and installation of the SUS input matrices (Jenne)
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It turns out that this is complicated, since there are so many people working with the IFO this week. What I would like to do is put in the new input matricies, and then do a free swinging test, to see if the suspensions are really diagonalized in the way that we want them to be. I can't do this during the day, since it will interfere with Paul's OpLev work. And at "night", I can't, since we'll be doing locking. So, this may be a late-night task. I'll write a script this afternoon that will put in all of the new input matricies, and then run the freeswing and the restore watchdogs scripts. Whomever is the last one to leave for the night can run the combo script.
EDIT: As of this time (~11:45am), ITMY has its new input matrix. |
5464
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Mon Sep 19 16:44:16 2011 |
Keiko | HowTo | LSC | Procedure for the demodulation board check |
Here I note the procedure for the demodulation board orthogonality check for the future reference.
1. prepare two function generators and make sure I an Q demodulation signals go to the data acquisition system.
2. sync the two generators
3. drive the function generator at the modulation frequency and connect to the LO input on the demod board
4. drive the other function generator at the modulation frequency + 50Hz the RF in
5. run "orthogonality.py" from a control computer scripts/demphase directory. It returns the amplitude and phase information for I and Q signals. If necessary, compensate the amplitude and phase by the command that "orthogonality.py" returns.
If you want to check in the frequency domain (optional):
1. 2. 3 are the same as above.
4. drive the function generator at the LO frequency + sweep the frequency, for example from 1Hz to 1kHz, 50ms sweep time. You can do it by the function generator carrier frequency sweep option.
5. While sweeping the LO frequency, run "orthogonality.py"
6. The resulting plot from "orthogonality.py" will show the transfer function from the RF to demodulated signal. The data is saved in "dataout.txt" in the same directory. |
5603
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Mon Oct 3 17:06:27 2011 |
Jenne | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | Kissel Button Generator |
Quote: |
>pwd
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/medm/c1lsc_tst/master/KisselButtonGenerator
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I copied the Kissel button generator scripts folder into scripts:
/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/KisselButtonGenerator/
Maybe this isn't the most intuitive place ever, since it's a script that only has to do with medm screens, but at least it's better than hidden in the depths of Koji's LSC medm path..... |
5650
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Tue Oct 11 15:19:17 2011 |
rana | HowTo | Environment | 40m map |
The Kinemetrics dudes are going to visit us @ 1:45 tomorrow (Wednesday) to check out our stacks, seismos, etc.
 
I put these maps here on the elog since people are always getting lost trying to find the lab. |
5651
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Tue Oct 11 17:32:05 2011 |
jamie | HowTo | Environment | 40m google maps link |
Here's another useful link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.13928,-118.123756 |
5734
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Tue Oct 25 11:48:02 2011 |
Katrin | HowTo | Electronics | solder tiny smd op amps |
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure to solder a tiny 4 x 4 mm op amp with 16 legs (AD8336).
I figured out that the best and fastest way to do it is
- to put solder with the soldering iron on every contact of the electronic board (top side)
- heat the bottom side of the electronic board with a heat gun
- use a needle to test if the solder is melted
- if it is melted place the op amp on the electronic board
- apply some vertical force on the op amp for proper contact and heat for 1 to 2 more minutes
- done
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5843
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Tue Nov 8 19:08:21 2011 |
Mirko | HowTo | Computers | New DV |
Quote: | To use the new ligoDV (previously GEO DV) to look at 40m data, open up a matlab, set up for mDV as usual,
and then from the /cvs/cds/caltech/apps/ligoDV/ directory, type 'ligoDV'.
Then select which NDS server you want to look at and then start clicking to get some plots. |
To start ligodv go in matlab to /cvs/cds/caltech/apps/ligoDV/ and call ligodv. Ligodv will start up when you are in another directory, but will give strange errors. Only seems to work with NDS2 server mafalda port 31200. This doesn't have all channels. When pointing it to fb port 8088 it freezes when you try to adjust the start/stop time. Make sure to ask for the correct UTC time, not the local time. |
6117
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Wed Dec 14 12:22:00 2011 |
Vladimir | HowTo | Computers | ligo_viewer installed on pianosa |
I made a test installation of ligo_viewer in /users/volodya/ligo_viewer-0.5.0c . It runs on pianosa (the Ubuntu machine) and needs Tcl/Tk 8.5.
To try it out run the following command on pianosa:
cd /users/volodya/ligo_viewer-0.5.0c/
./ligo_viewer.no_install
Press "CONNECT" to connect to the NDS server and explore. There are slides describing ligo_viewer at http://volodya-project.sourceforge.net/Ligo_viewer.pdf
Installation notes:
Use /users/volodya/ligo_viewer-0.5.0c.tgz or later version - it has been updated to work with 64 bit machines.
Make sure Tcl and Tk development packages are installed. You can find required packages by running
apt-file search tclConfig.sh
apt-file search tkConfig.sh
If apt-file returns empty output run apt-file update
Unpack ligo_viewer-0.5.0c.tgz, change into the created directory.
Run the following command to configure:
export CFLAGS=-I/usr/include/tcl8.5
./configure --with-tcl=/usr/lib/tcl8.5/ --with-tk=/usr/lib/tk8.5/
This works on Ubuntu machines. --with-tcl and --with-tk should point to the directories containing tclConfig.sh and tkConfig.sh correspondingly.
Run "make".
You can test the compilation with ./ligo_viewer.no_install
If everything works install with make install
If Tcl/Tk 8.5 is unavailable it should work with Tcl/Tk 8.3 or 8.4
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Attachment 1: ligo_viewer_40m2.png
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Wed Jan 11 14:06:28 2012 |
Leo Singer | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | HowTo for getting data from NDS off site |
This may or may not be general knowledge already, but Jamie and I added a HowTo explaining how to retrieve channel data from the frame builder via NDS, but off site on one's own computer. See the Wiki page:
https://wiki-40m.ligo.caltech.edu/How_To/NDS |
6383
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Wed Mar 7 23:28:41 2012 |
Lab Cleanup Crew | HowTo | Environment | True Beauty.... |
Or, how a lab should look at the end of every day.

Beat that, Bridge kids! |
6389
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Fri Mar 9 10:17:06 2012 |
steve | HowTo | PEM | do not leave tables open |
Type: How not to
Please do not leave optical tables open! You will be held responsible for creating dirty optics. |
Attachment 1: P1080547.JPG
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6399
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Sat Mar 10 15:29:47 2012 |
Zach | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | ModeMatchr |
For your mode matching pleasure, I have added a tool called "ModeMatchr" to the SVN under /trunk/zach/tools/modematchr/
It uses the usual fminsearch approach, but tolerates a fully astigmatic input (i.e., w0ix ≠ w0iy, z0ix ≠ z0iy) and allows for transforming to an elliptical waist (i.e., w0fx ≠ w0fy, but z0fx = z0fy). It would be straightforward to allow for z0fx ≠ z0fy, but I have never seen a case when we actually wanted this. On the other hand, the elliptical output ability is nice for coupling to wide-angle ring cavities.
It also does the looping through available lenses for you , and retains the best solution for each lens combination in an output cell, which can then be combed with another function (getOtherSol). fminsearch is incredibly fast: with a 10-lens bank, it finds all 100 best solutions on my crappy MacBook in <10s.
I have also included the functionality to constrain the length of the total MMT to within some percentage of the optimal distance, which helps to sift through the muck .

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6415
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Wed Mar 14 13:27:15 2012 |
Zach | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | ModeMatchr |
I have added to ModeMatchr the capability to fix the total MMT distance. This is nice if you are coupling to a cavity some fixed distance away. The blurb from the help:
% Note: for any total length constraint dtot_tol > 0, ModeMatchr will use
% fminsearch to find the best solutions near your nominal dtot, and then
% omit solutions whose dtot lie outside your tolerance. For dtot_tol = 0,
% ModeMatchr actively constrains dtot to your value, and then finds the
% best solution. Therefore, set dtot_tol = 0 if you have a fixed distance
% into which to put a MMT.
Quote: |
For your mode matching pleasure, I have added a tool called "ModeMatchr" to the SVN under /trunk/zach/tools/modematchr/
It uses the usual fminsearch approach, but tolerates a fully astigmatic input (i.e., w0ix ≠ w0iy, z0ix ≠ z0iy) and allows for transforming to an elliptical waist (i.e., w0fx ≠ w0fy, but z0fx = z0fy). It would be straightforward to allow for z0fx ≠ z0fy, but I have never seen a case when we actually wanted this. On the other hand, the elliptical output ability is nice for coupling to wide-angle ring cavities.
It also does the looping through available lenses for you , and retains the best solution for each lens combination in an output cell, which can then be combed with another function (getOtherSol). fminsearch is incredibly fast: with a 10-lens bank, it finds all 100 best solutions on my crappy MacBook in <10s.
I have also included the functionality to constrain the length of the total MMT to within some percentage of the optimal distance, which helps to sift through the muck .

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6442
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Sun Mar 25 20:13:31 2012 |
rana | HowTo | SUS | Optical Lever Servo Tuning thoughts |
To start the optical lever filter design, I looked into the noise on ITMY. It should be similar to the other arm cavity optics since they have the same whitening electronics.
The RED/BLUE are with loops open. The MAGENTA/CYAN with loops closed. Looks good; the bandwidth is a few Hz and there is not much peaking,
To figure out the contribution from the dark noise I misaligned the ITMY until the sum on the QPD went to zero. Then I took the spectra of the OL{1,2,3,4}_OUT signals (they all looked the same).
To normalize them properly I took OL4, multiplied it by 2 to account for the incoherent sum of 4 channels and then divided by the nominal SUM (which was 14685 counts). I've left the OL3 un-normalized to show the ratio.
From this plot it seems that the dark noise is not a problem at any frequency (no need to amplify for the new ADCs).
I'm going to use the open loop spectra to design the optimal feedback control. The file is saved as /users/rana/dtt/ITMY_OL-120325.xml |
Attachment 1: Untitled.png
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6637
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Thu May 10 14:49:06 2012 |
Koji | HowTo | General | How to clean & bake black glass pieces |
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6833
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Tue Jun 19 20:26:50 2012 |
Jenne | HowTo | Locking | Summer Plan |
Jenne and Yuta's Summer Plan
These are the things that we'd like to accomplish, hopefully before Yuta leaves in mid-July
* Yarm mode scan
~ Measure residual motion of Yarm cavity when ALS is engaged
* Xarm mode scan
~ Align Xarm IR
~ Align Xarm green to cavity
~ Do mode scan (similar to Yarm)
~ Measure residual motion of Xarm cavity when ALS is engaged
* Hold both arms on IR resonance simultaneously (quick proof that we can)
~ Modify beatbox so we can use both X and Y at the same time (Jamie will do this Wednesday morning - we've already discussed)
* PRMI + Arms
~ Lock the PRMI (which we already know we can do) holding arms off resonance, bring both arms into resonance using ALS
* PRC mode matching - figure out what the deal is
~ Look at POP camera with video capture - use software that Eric the Tall wrote with JoeB to measure spot size
* DRMI glitches
~ Why can't we keep the DRMI locked stably?
* DRMI + Arms
~ Full lock!!
~ Make lots of useful diagnostics for aLIGO, measure sensing matricies, etc. |
7746
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Mon Nov 26 18:56:34 2012 |
Jenne | HowTo | Computers | Data logging suggestions |
We've been talking for a while about how we want to store data. I'm not in love with keeping it on the elog, although I think we should always be able to reference and go back and forth between the elogs and the data.
I have made a new folder: /data EDIT: nevermind. I want it to be on the file system just like /users, but I don't know how to do that. Right now the folder is just on Ottavia. Jamie will help me tomorrow.
In this folder, we will save all of the data which goes into the elog.
I propose that we should have a common format for the names of the data files, so that we can easily find things.
My proposal is that one begins ones elog regarding the data to be saved, and submit it immediately after putting in the first ~sentence or so. One should then make a new folder inside the data folder with a title "elog#####_Anything_Else_You_Want" Then, data (which was originally saved in ones own users folder) should be copied into the /data/elog#####_AnythingElse/ folder. Also in that folder should be any Matlab scripts used to create the plots that you post in the elog. One should then edit the elog to continue making a regular, very thorough elog, including the path to the data. Elog should include all of the information about the measurement, state of the IFO (or whatever you were measuring), etc.
Riju will be alpha-testing this procedure tonight. EDIT: nevermind...see previous edit. |
7747
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Mon Nov 26 19:27:59 2012 |
Riju | HowTo | | Testing AG4395A+GPIB |
Riju, Jenne
We have checked the transfer function of a bandpass filter using AG4395A network analyzer and retrieved the data through GPIB. The RF out signal of AG4395A had been divided by splitter with two outputs of the splitter going to through R and the filter which was connected to the A channel of the network analyzer. The GPIB data came in complex data format, from which the absolute value and phase had to be retrieved.
The plot for the TF is as following |
Attachment 1: tfmag.jpg
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Attachment 2: tfphase.jpg
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7765
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Fri Nov 30 09:59:53 2012 |
Steve | HowTo | General | How not to |
Clean cabinet S15 doors were left open. You have to lock it up! |
7768
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Fri Nov 30 14:21:18 2012 |
rana | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | The mystery of PDFs and you. As deep as the mystery of Rasputin. |
This is how to post PDF:
From DTT, print the plot as a postscript file.
Then use ps2pdf to make a archival PDF version (the flag is the key!). Example:
ps2pdf -dPDFX /home/controls/Desktop/darm.ps |
Attachment 1: darm.pdf
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Mon Dec 3 07:40:00 2012 |
Steve | HowTo | Alignment | how was the BS chamber misalinged |
Quote: |
Whoever was working around the BS chamber at 11 AM on Friday should admit it now and take the punishment.
For those of you who like to do work on the interferometer without reporting it in the elog because you think that what you did doesn't affect anything, this is your example of how our time can be wasted by such laziness.
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I'm taking full responsibility for this action and I told them after lunch Friday.
HOW NOT TO:
The BS isolation stack supported by two beam tubes and they can pivot around the pivot point. |
Attachment 1: BSsupport.jpg
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7794
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Wed Dec 5 17:38:41 2012 |
Riju | HowTo | | Photodiode transimpedance |
I have started making the circuit to measure the transimpedance for the photodiode PDA10CF using Jenne's laser. I will continue it tomorrow. |
7807
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Tue Dec 11 08:53:52 2012 |
Steve | HowTo | PEM | cables needs care |
How NOT to:
The janitor can not clean in areas like this. He may only steps on these cables accidentally as he dust wiping our chambers. |
Attachment 1: IMG_1839.JPG
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7809
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Tue Dec 11 10:09:04 2012 |
Ayaka | HowTo | PEM | cables needs care |
Quote: |
How NOT to:
The janitor can not clean in areas like this. He may only steps on these cables accidentally as he dust wiping our chambers.
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Sorry for the mess. I fixed it. |
7872
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Wed Jan 2 15:33:23 2013 |
Jenne | HowTo | Locking | We should retry in-air locking |
Immediate things to do include finishing installation of new TTs and re-routing of oplev paths in the BS chamber, but after all that, we should retry in-air locking.
The last time we (I) tried in-air locking, MICH wouldn't lock since there was only ~ 6uW of light on AS55 (see elog 7355). That was before we increased the power into the MC by a factor of 10 (see elog 7410), so we should have tens of microwatts on the PD now. At that time, we could barely see some PDH signal hidden in the noise of the PD, so with a factor of 10 optical gain, we should be able to lock MICH.
REFL should also have plenty of power - about 1.5 times the power incident on the PRM, so we should be able to lock PRCL.
Even if we put a flat G&H mirror after the PRM to make a mini-cavity, and we lose power due to poor mode matching, we'll still have plenty of power at the REFL port to lock the mini-cavity.
For reference, I calculate that at full power, POX and POY see ~13uW when the arms are locked.
POX/POY power = [ (P_inc on ITM) + (P_circ in arm)*(T_itm) ] * (pickoff fraction of ITM ~ 100ppm)
REFL power = (P_inc on PRM) + (P_circ in PRCL)*(T_prm) =~ 1.5*(P_inc on PRM) |
7873
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Thu Jan 3 19:19:59 2013 |
rana | HowTo | Electronics | cable racks |
Today I found 3 power cables in the orange Pomona cable tray, put in so that the cables were damaged and therefore dangerous.
Please think about what you are doing before doing it. Damaging these things because your are in a hurry or frustrated will just waste our time and damage our interferometer.
For reference, we only use the thick blue Pomona racks for power cables. We use the orange and black ones for thinner cables. Pay attention and keep the cables organized.
Cable Rack Selection
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7877
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Mon Jan 7 00:08:16 2013 |
Jenne | HowTo | Alignment | In-vac plan |
List of things to do, in order:
* Remove BS heavy door. Steve, please remove the BS door as soon as you have enough people to do so. I will be a little late, since I have a dentist appointment, but please don't wait for me. Jamie and Manasa can help you. Put on a light door.
* Remove MC light doors, make aluminum foil tube (not light access connector, yet).
* Open laser shutter, lock PMC. (Required slight tweaking of input steering.) Confirm power level into vacuum <100mW.
* Lock MC and check spot positions of MC (quickly. this shouldn't take all day, hopefully).
------------------------------- End of work for Monday. See following elog ------------------------------------------------
* Move TT1 to be as close as possible to the location indicated on the diagram, then align it.
* Make sure beam out of Faraday is hitting the center of the optic.
* Make sure beam reflected off of TT1 hits center of PZT2. Only use actuators for the final alignment, then confirm that they aren't close to the edge of their ranges.
* Lock down TT1 with dog clamps.
* Put light access connector on MC.
* Swap PZT2 out with TT2. Should be at correct spot, according to diagram, and beam should be hitting center of optic. Alignment only to the ~few degree point here.
* Re-level BS table.
* Fix oplevs that need fixing. (Manasa should have the plan on one of the diagrams).
* Put target on PRM cage.
* Align TT2 so that beam goes through PRM target.
* Open ITMX heavy door. (Probably Tuesday morning).
* Place freestanding target in front of PR2. Ensure TT2 is aligned to go through PRM target, and hit center of PR2. Again, save actuators for fine-tuning.
At this point, I think we should (temporarily) install one of the G&H mirrors as a flat mirror facing the PRM, and see if we can lock that cavity using REFL. We will want to have already created a model for this case, to compare our observations to. Or we could align the full PRMI, and try to lock that in air.
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8190
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Wed Feb 27 19:27:29 2013 |
Annalisa | HowTo | COMSOL Tips | Mirror support Eigenfrequency |
I studied the eigenfrequencies of a mirror support using COMSOL.
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Attachment 1: IronSupport.png
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Attachment 2: IronSupportEigenfreq.png
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Mon Mar 4 20:03:42 2013 |
Annalisa | HowTo | COMSOL Tips | Study of mirror mount eigenfrequencies |
I studied the eigenfrequencies of a mirror mount designed with COMSOL.
I imposed fixed constraints for the base screws and for the screw connecting the base with the pedestal. Note that the central screw is connected to the base only for a small thickness, and the pedestal touches the base only with a thin annulus. This is in way to make a better model of the actual stress.
Shown in fig. 2 is the lowest eigenfrequency of the mount.
I' going to change the base and study the way the eigenfrequency vary, in way to find the configuration which minimizes the lowest eigenfrequency.
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Attachment 1: MirrorSupport1.png
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Attachment 2: MirrorSupportEig1.png
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Attachment 3: pedestal.png
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Attachment 4: Base2.png
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Tue Mar 5 14:59:32 2013 |
Steve | HowTo | VAC | dry-forepump replaced |
TP3 turbo pump's dry-foreline pump was replaced.
How to do it:
The pump should be replaced when it's performance <1.0 - 1.3 Torr
Set up valve configuration as shown at Atm1: close in this order VAEE, VASV, VABS, VASV, VASE, VA6 and V5,
Turn TP3 off at it's controller in the rack. Wait till is stops, so you can read 760 Torr at TP3 foreline gauge
Disconnect intake, exhaust vacuum seals and replace pump. Reconnect vacuum fitting and start it up.
Confirm operational details on the front of the controller: 50 K_RPM, 0.2A and <100 mTorr
Reset valves in reverse order
PS: the average life of the tip seal on the Varian SSH-110 dry-pump is about 1 year
This pump " ser LP1007L556 " seal made new record of 668 days: thanks to Bob Taylor who is replacing these seals
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Attachment 1: changingforepump.png
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Attachment 2: TP3wFp600.jpg
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Sun Mar 10 13:29:29 2013 |
Koji | HowTo | IOO | How to calculate the accumulated round-trip Gouy phase |
How to calculate the accumulated round-trip Gouy phase (and namely the transverse mode spacing) of a general cavity
only from the round-trip ABCD matrix
T1300189 |
8441
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Thu Apr 11 03:25:29 2013 |
Jenne | HowTo | SUS | Idea for how to properly balance SUS actuators |
We have calibrated the overall actuators of each suspension independent of the optical levers. So, we know how much we are
moving the optic in POS in real units as a result of the dither we inject for the lockin measurement. The amount the oplev beam
appears to move if there is only POS motion is
d/cos(theta)
where theta is the oplev's angle of incidence and d is the distance the optic has moved in POS. None of the of the steering mirrors in the
oplev path matter.
I propose that I will add an option in the lockin path to subtract away the apparent angle from the oplev output just before the signal
goes into the lockin module. Then we will be balancing the actuators based on only the actual angular motion.
The success of this technique depends on how well we know our actuator calibration and the oplev angle of incidence. This also
assumes that the oplev beam is centered on the optic, so we don't have beam displacement from A2L of the oplev beam, which then
makes another apparent angular motion. I suspect that we are close enough that we won't have to worry about this effect. |
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Wed Jul 24 19:21:56 2013 |
Jamie | HowTo | SUS | SUS MEDM screen modernization |
I started poking around at what we want for new SUS MEDM screens. Rana and I decided we'd start with the ASC TIPTILT screens:

It's missing some things (like SIDE OSEMS) but it should provide a good starting point.
I copied the entire <userapps>/asc/common/medm/asctt directory to a new directory in our sus area:
controls@rossa:/opt/rtcds/userapps/release 0$ cp -a asc/common/medm/asctt sus/c1/medm/new
I then removed all the useless file name prefixes. We still need to go through and sed out all the ASC stuff in the MEDM files themselves.
It makes heavy use of macro substitution, which is good (it's what we're using now). So once we clean up all the channel names, we should just be able to swap out the pointers in our overview screens to the new screens (or rename things). In the mean time, during development, you can run:
controls@rossa:/opt/rtcds/userapps/release 0$ medm -x -macro "IFO=C1,ifo=c1,OPTIC=ITMX" sus/c1/medm/new/OVERVIEW.adl
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Tue Aug 13 11:54:40 2013 |
Alex Cole | HowTo | Electronics | RF PD Fiber-Coupled Laser Operation |
This post pertains to the fiber-coupled diode laser mounted in rack 1Y1.
To turn the laser on, first turn the power supply's key (red) to the clockwise. Then make sure that the laser is in "current" mode by checking that the LED next to "I" in the "Laser Mode" box in lit up. If the light is not on, press the button to the right of the "I" light until it is. Now press the output button (green). This is like removing the safety for the laser. Then turn the dial (blue) until you have your desired current. Presently, the current limit is set to around 92 mA.
To turn the laser off, dial the current back down to 0mA and turn the key (red) counterclockwise. |
Attachment 1: photo_(4).pdf
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Mon Aug 19 10:03:17 2013 |
Steve | HowTo | General | how not to leave a cable |
We can not leave cables connected like this. This is a burned toast award. |
Attachment 1: NONOcable.jpg
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Fri Aug 23 21:01:38 2013 |
Alex Cole | HowTo | Electronics | Automated Photodetector Frequency Response System |
This post describes how to use the Automated Photodetector Frequency Response System.
On the mechanical side, turn on:
-the diode laser (in rack 1Y1)
-the RF Switch (in rack 1Y1)
-the reference PD (under the POY table)
-the AG4395A Network Analyzer
The NA’s RF output should go to the laser’s modulation input, the reference PD’s output should go to the NA’s R input, and the RF Switch Chassis’s output (which is the combination of the two switches’ COM channels using a splitter) should go to the NA’s A input.
Once this is done, navigate into /users/alex.cole and run PDFR.sh. This script collects data for each photodetector under consideration by switching using a python script and communicating with the NA via GPIB. It then sends all the data to RF.m, which fits the functions, plots the latest data against canonical data, and saves the plots to file.
The fitting function, fit.m, also outputs peak frequency to the command line. This function uses PD name data (e.g. ‘REFL33’) to choose an interval with minimal noise to fit.
The main script prompts the user to press enter after each NA sweep to make sure that measurements don’t get interrupted/put out of order by RF switching.
Once you're done, you should turn off the laser, NA, RF Switch, and reference PD.
Troubleshooting
Sometimes, the NA throws up and doesn’t feel like running a particular sweep. If this happens, it’s a good idea to keep the matlab script from trying to analyze this PD’s data. Do this by opening up RF.m and commenting out the calls to ‘fit’ and ‘canonical’ for that PD.
If fit.m complains about a particular set of data, it is often the case that the N/P ratio (where N is order of approximation and P is number of points in the interval) is too high. You can fix this by reducing N or making the PD’s frequency range (chosen in the fnew_idx line) larger.
Choosing a single PD
If you only want to grab the transfer function for one PD, first look up which switch input it belongs to. This information is contained in /users/alex.cole/switchList. To turn the switch to a particular input, type something like:
python rf.py “ch7”
This command uses TCP/IP to tell the switch to look at channel 7. Switch input numbers range from 1 to 16, though not all of them are in use.
Once the switch is looking at the correct input, you can run a sweep and download the data by typing /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/netgpibdata/NWAG4395A -s 1000000 -e 500000000 -c 499000000 -f [filestem for output] -d [path of directory for output] -i 192.168.113.108 -g 10 -x 15. |
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Mon Sep 2 03:51:14 2013 |
rana | HowTo | General | How To Coil Cables |
http://youtu.be/pEd7ru24Vx0 |
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Tue Sep 3 10:54:33 2013 |
Steve | HowTo | General | How To Coil Cables |
B grade Nobel is awarded.
If cables could dream?
This skill should be mandatory for LIGOX graduates. |
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Thu Oct 3 00:01:59 2013 |
rana, jenne | HowTo | LSC | steps to full IFO |
In moving now to full IFO locking, there are a number of sub-states to diagnose:
- PRMI + 1 arm
- Measure sensing matrix as arm is scanned into resonance. Compare time series of sensing matrix elements with New LoopTickle simulation. But first, we need more than 1 LOCKIN screen in the LSC! That will allow us to measure all of the elements of
simulataneously.
- Measure 3f PRMI noise spectra as a function of arm position. Look for trouble.
- DRMI + 1 arm
- Same as PRMI above.
- Want to find why this is unstable sometimes. Make stable for t > 10 minutes.
- Maybe add some QPD->ASC for SRC angular control, but how? Will this still work after the arms are resonant or will it be swamped by carrier contrast defect? Will Berlusconi ruin all of the Italian gelateria? Only time can tell...
- FPMI (non optically recombined) for ALS diagnosis
- PRFPMI (iLIGO configuration)
- this ought to be easier than DRFPMI
- will let us tell if our ALS is good enough to handle the coupled cavity pole
- DRFPMI (aLIGO style)
Which to do first and in what order? |
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Thu Oct 3 01:18:57 2013 |
Koji | HowTo | LSC | steps to full IFO |
I vote on PRMI+1arm -> PRFPMI |
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Tue Oct 8 00:21:01 2013 |
manasa | HowTo | Green Locking | ALS arm stabilization |
Step by step procedure for stabilizing arms using ALS servo:
The procedure is the same for both the arms.
0. Check that the ALS arm servos are turned OFF and not sending any signals to the ETM suspensions.
1. Find the beat note by varying the laser temperature (moving the slider for SLOW_SERVO2_OFFSET).
Tip: It is easier to have the arms locked using IR PDH while searching for the beat note. Also check the stability of the MC. Unstable MC will cause the PSL temperature to drift and thereby affect the beat frequency.
2. Once you have the beat note, check if the beat amplitude is ~ -15 to -20 dBm. If the amplitude is small, then the alignment needs to be fixed (either the green input pointing at the end tables or the PSL green alignment). This is important because the UGF of the phase tracking loop (should be above 1KHz) changes with the amplitude of the beat note.
Also the beat frequency should be < 100 MHz; preferably below 80 MHz.
3. Disable IR PDH locking if you had used it while searching for the beat note.
4. Press CLEAR HISTORY button for the phase tracker servo. Check if the phase tracking loop is stable (phase tracker servo output counts should not be ramping up). If the phase tracker is not stable, check the servo gain and phase margin of the loop.
5. Turn OFF all filters in the ALS arm servo filter module except for FM5 (phase compensation filter). With ALS arm servo gain set to zero, enable the arm servo and allow ALS control signals to be sent to the ETM suspensions.
5. Open dtt and look at the power spectrum of the ALS error signal (C1:ALS-BEAT?_FINE_PHASE_OUT_HZ).
6. Set ALS arm servo gain +/- 0.1 to check the sign of the servo gain. Wrong sign of gain will make the loop unstable (beat note moving all over the frequency range on the spectrum analyzer). If this happens, set the gain to zero immediately and clear history of phase tracker servo. If you have set the correct sign for gain, the servo will stabilize the beat note frequency right away.
7. Once you know the correct sign of the servo gain, increase the gain in steps while simultaneously looking at the power spectrum of error signal on dtt (it is convenient to set dtt measurements to low bandwidth and exponential measurement settings). Increase the gain until you can see a slight bump close to the UGF of the ALS servo (>100Hz).
There have been times when this servo gain was in a few hundreds; but right now it varies from +/- 10-20 for both the arms. So we are stepping up gain in steps of +/- 2.
8. Enable filters (FM2, FM3, FM6, FM7, FM8). Wait to see the rms noise of the error signal go down (a few seconds).
9. Enable boost filter (FM10). There also exists a weaker boost filter (FM4) which we don't use any more.
Note:
1. Beat frequency changes affect both the servo gain and sign of gain. So if you lose stability of ALS servo at any point, you should go through all the steps again.
2. At any point if the ALS arm servo becomes unstable (which can happen if the MC loses lock or if the beat frequency was too high ), change the servo gain to zero immediately. Turn OFF all the filters except for FM5 (if they were enabled) and reset phase tracker servo (CLEAR HISTORY button in the phase tracker filter module). Masayuki has written the down script that does all this. The script will detect arm servo loop instability by continuously looking at the feedback signal. Details about the script can be found here.
Here is a cheat sheet that can give you an idea of the SLOW SERVO2 offset range to scan in order to find the beat note:
PSL temperature X offset Y offset
31.58 5278 -10890
31.52 5140 (not recorded)
31.45 4810 (not recorded)
31.33 4640 -10440
31.28 4500 -10340
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Mon Oct 28 18:57:27 2013 |
Masayuki | HowTo | LSC | read 'scope and spectrum analyser datas |
The command to get the data from spectrum analyzer right now
From command line, put ./netgpibdata -i 192.168.113.108 -d AG4395A -a 17 -f meas01
(EDIT JCD: You must first be in the correct folder: /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/netgpibdata/)
(EDIT JCD again: "meas01" in the command line instruction will be the name of the filename. Also, the output file meas01.dat has a comment in the first line that must be deleted before you can plot the data. This sucks, and we should write a script to strip that line, then make nice plots.)
Please take notice that although IP address of AG4395A is same as written in the help of netgpibdata, the GPIB address is not same. It's 17.
How to use 'scope from control room.
Open the browser. Put the IP adress of 'scope (192.168.113.25) into adrress bar of the browser. If it's on the network, below screen will open.

You can control 'scope, get the data, and so on from control room.
Please take notice that Google Chrome cannot connect the 'scope. So you have to use the Firefox or other browser.
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Wed Oct 30 08:32:55 2013 |
Evan | HowTo | Computer Scripts / Programs | matplotlibrc |
FYI, you can trick out matplotlib by creating a matplotlibrc config file. This allows you to set defaults for plot size, trace color, fonts, grids, etc., analogous to what is achieved in ATF:1840 for Matlab.
Note also that matplotlib supports LaTeX by default (if you have LaTeX installed), which means, for example, that you can include true square roots on your spectral densities:
plt.ylabel('Voltage spectral density (V/$\\sqrt{\\mathrm{Hz}}$)')
Since the backslash is used for escape characters in python, you must escape LaTeX backslashes.
For maximum effect, you can set the following lines in your matplotlibrc file:
text.usetex = True
text.latex.preamble = \usepackage{txfonts}
Then all text and mathematics in your plot will be sent through LaTeX for processing and will appear in Times.
Also, why is the conversion from watts to volts V = 50 * sqrt(W) and not V = sqrt(50 * W)? |
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Wed Oct 30 14:58:44 2013 |
Steve | HowTo | General | shutting down a computer |
We have tried to ssh into c1iscey yesterday morning. It just did not work. We have just tried it again (now) and it did work.
Lesson learned: always shut down the computer from a TERMINAL Do not turn it off by the manual power switch. |
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Fri Jan 24 12:44:25 2014 |
Gabriele | HowTo | LSC | Procedure to measure PRC length |
Here is how to measure the PRC length with a set of distance measurements in the optical setup.
We need to take distance measurements between reference points on each mirror suspension. For the large ones (SOS) that are used for BS, PRM and ITMs, the reference points are the corners of the second rectangular base: not the one directly in contact with the optical bench (since the chamfers make difficult to define a clear corner), but the rectangular one just above it. For the small suspensions (TT) the points are directly the corners of the base plates.
From the mechanical drawings of the two kind of suspensions I got the distances between the mirror centers and the reference corners. The mirror is not centered in the base, so it is a good idea to cross check if the numbers are correct with some measurements on the dummy suspensions.
I assumed the dimensions of the mirrors, as well as the beam incidence angles are known and we don't need to measure them again. Small errors in the angles should have small impact on the results.
I wrote a MATLAB script that takes as input the measured distances and produce the optical path lengths. The script also produce a drawing of the setup as reconstructed, showing the measurement points, the mirrors, the reference base plates, and the beam path. Here is an example output, that can be used to understand which are the five distances to be measured. I used dummy measured distances to produce it.

In red the beam path in vacuum and in magenta the beam path in the substrate. The mirrors are the blue rectangles inside the reference bases which are in black. The thick lines are the HR faces. The green points are the measurement points and the green lines the distances to be measured. The names on the measurement lines are those used in the MATLAB script.
The MATLAB scripts are attached to this elog. The main file is survey_v2.m, which contains all the parameters and the measured values. Update it with the real numbers and run it to get the results, including the graphic output. The other files are auxiliary functions to create the graphics. I checked many times the code and the computations, but I can't be sure that there are no errors, since there's no way to check if the output is correct... The plot is produced in a way which is somehow independent from the computations, so if it makes sense this gives at least a self consistency test. |
Attachment 2: survey_v2.m
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global sos_lx sos_ly sos_cx sos_cy tt_lx tt_ly tt_cx tt_cy
%% Survey of the PRC length
%% measured distances
d_MB2_MY = 2000.0;
d_MB3_MX = 2000.0;
d_MB1_M31 = 400.0;
d_M32_M21 = 3000.0;
d_M22_MP = 2000.0;
... 210 more lines ...
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Attachment 3: distance.m
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function d = distance(c1, c2)
d = sqrt(sum((c1-c2).^2));
end
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Attachment 4: draw_beam.m
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function draw_beam(c1, c2, color)
plot( [c1(1), c2(1)], [c1(2), c2(2)], color, 'LineWidth', 2)
end
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Attachment 5: draw_measurement.m
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function draw_measurement(c1, c2, color, name)
plot( [c1(1), c2(1)], [c1(2), c2(2)], color)
text( (c1(1)+c2(1))/2, (c1(2)+c2(2))/2 + 20, name, ...
'FontSize', 5, 'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', ...
'VerticalAlignment', 'middle')
end
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Attachment 6: draw_point.m
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function draw_point(c)
plot(c(1), c(2), 'go', 'LineWidth', 2, 'MarkerSize', 3);
end
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Attachment 7: draw_sos.m
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function draw_sos(C, angle)
global sos_lx sos_ly sos_cx sos_cy tt_lx tt_ly tt_cx tt_cy
c(:,1) = [-sos_lx/2, -sos_ly/2 + sos_cy-sos_ly/2]';
c(:,2) = [-sos_lx/2, sos_ly/2 + sos_cy-sos_ly/2]';
c(:,3) = [sos_lx/2, sos_ly/2 + sos_cy-sos_ly/2]';
c(:,4) = [sos_lx/2, -sos_ly/2 + sos_cy-sos_ly/2]';
c(:,5) = [-sos_lx/2, -sos_ly/2 + sos_cy-sos_ly/2]';
m_lx = 25.4*2;
... 18 more lines ...
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Attachment 8: draw_tt.m
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function draw_tt(C, angle)
global sos_lx sos_ly sos_cx sos_cy tt_lx tt_ly tt_cx tt_cy
c(:,1) = [-tt_lx/2, -tt_ly/2 + tt_cy-tt_ly/2]';
c(:,2) = [-tt_lx/2, tt_ly/2 + tt_cy-tt_ly/2]';
c(:,3) = [tt_lx/2, tt_ly/2 + tt_cy-tt_ly/2]';
c(:,4) = [tt_lx/2, -tt_ly/2 + tt_cy-tt_ly/2]';
c(:,5) = [-tt_lx/2, -tt_ly/2 + tt_cy-tt_ly/2]';
m_lx = 25.4;
... 18 more lines ...
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Fri Jan 24 13:10:12 2014 |
Jamie | HowTo | LSC | Procedure to measure PRC length |
Quote: |
I wrote a MATLAB script that takes as input the measured distances and produce the optical path lengths. The script also produce a drawing of the setup as reconstructed, showing the measurement points, the mirrors, the reference base plates, and the beam path. Here is an example output, that can be used to understand which are the five distances to be measured. I used dummy measured distances to produce it.

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This path does not look correct to me. Maybe it's because this is supposed to represent "optical path lengths" as opposed to actual physical location of optics, but I think locations should be checked. For instance, PRM looks like it's floating in mid-air between the BS and ITMX chambers, and PR2 is not located behind ITMX. Actually, come to think of it, it might just be that ITMX (or the ITMs in general) is in the wrong place?
Here is a similar diagram I produced when building a Finesse model of the 40m, based on the CAD drawing that Manasa is maintaining:

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