I installed a DC PD (Thorlabs PDA 520) in the beam path to AS55. I placed a 2" 90/10 BS on a flip mount that picks of enough light for the PD to spit out ~8V when the port is bright. Single arm continuous signal will be ~2V. While most of the light still continues towards AS55, the displacement from the BS moves the beam off AS55, so I used the flip mount in case anyone needs to use AS55. The current configuration is UP.

When we're done with loss investigations the flip mount should be removed from the bench.

I hooked the PD up to an ethernet-enabled scope and started scripting the loss map measurement (scope can receive commands via http so we can automate the data acquisition). The scope that was present at the bench and had been used for the MC ringdown measurements had a 'scrambled' screen that I couldn't fix so I had to retrieve another scope ("scope1"). I'll try to find out what's wrong with it but we may have to send it in for repair.

I made a crude sketch for how Lydia and I envision the connector situation on the back of the vme crates to be solved. Essentially the side panels of each crate extend about 2" (52 mm) beyond the edge of the DIN connectors. This is plenty of space for a simple PCB board. The connector of choice is D-Sub. We can split the 64 used pins into 2x 37 D-Sub OR (2x25 pin + 1x15pin). The former has fewer cables, but a few excess unused leads. A quick google search showed me that it is much cheaper to get twisted pair cables for 15 and 25 pin D-Subs. From what I remember, the used pins on the DIN connectors are concentrated on the low numbers end and the high numbers end, so might not need the 'middle' connector in many cases if we decide to break it up into three. I have to check this with Lydia though.

The D-Sub connectors would be panel mounted, for which we need a narrow panel piece with dsub cutouts. We can run horizontal struts across the vme crate from side panel to side panel. This way the force upon cable (dis)connection is mostly on the panel which is attached to the struts which are attached to the crate. This will also prevent gravitational sag or cable strain from pulling on the DIN connection, and we can use twisted pair cables with backshell, screws, and strain reliefs.

I was lookng into getting started with the PCB when Altium complained that the license is expired and to renew it. This is a relatively simple board layout so some free software out there is probably enough.

After fighting with Altium for what seems like an eternity I have finished putting my vision of the vme crate backplane adapter board into an electronic format. It is dimensioned to fill the back space of the crate exactly. The connectors are panel mount and the PCB attaches to the connectors with screws, such that the whole thing will be mechanically much more stable than the current configuration. A mounting bracket will attach to horizontal struts that need to be installed in the crates, mechanical drawings to follow.

I finished designing the PCBs for the VME crate back sides (see attached). The project files live on the DCC now at https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-D1700058. I ordered a prototype quantity (9) of the PCB printed and bought the corresponding connectors, all will arrive within the next two weeks. See also attached the front panels for the Acromag DAQ chassis and Lydia's RF amplifier unit (the lone +24V slot confuses me: I don't see a ground connector?). On the Acromag panel, six (3x2) of the DB37 connectors are reserved for VME hardware, two are reserve, and I filled the remaining space with general purpose BNC connectors for whatever comes up.

Just a few remarks, since I heard from Gautam that c1susaux is next in line for upgrade.

All units have already been configured with IP addresses and settings following the scheme explained on the slow controls wiki page. I did this while powering the units in the chassis, so I'm not sure where the short is coming from. Is the power supply maybe not sourcing enough current? Powering all units at the same time takes significant current, something like >1.5 Amps if I remember correctly. These are the IPs I assigned before I left:

I used black/white twisted-pair wires for A/D, red/white for D/A, and green/white for BIO channels. I found it easiest to remove the blue terminal blocks from the Acromag units for doing the majority of the wiring, but wasn't able to finish it. I had also done the analog channel calibrations using the windows untility using multimeters and one of the precision voltage sources I had brought over from the Bridge labs, but it's probably a good idea to check it and correct if necessary. I also recommend to check that the existing wiring particularly for MC1 and MC2 is correct, as I had swapped their order in the channel assignment in the past.

While looking through the database files I noticed two glaring mistakes which I fixed:

1. The definition of C1SUSAUX_BIO2 was missing in /cvs/cds/caltech/target/c1susaux2/C1SUSAUX.cmd. I added it after the assignments for C1SUSAUX_BIO1
2. Due to copy/paste the database files /cvs/cds/caltech/target/c1susaux2/C1_SUS-AUX_<OPTIC>.db files were still pointing to C1AUXEX. I overwrote all instances of this in all database files with C1SUSAUX.