[ericq, Gautam]
We can reliably lock the DRMI with the arms held off on ALS. 
I have not been able to hold it at zero CARM offset; but this is probably just a matter of setting up the right loop shapes with enough phase margin to handle the CARM fluctuations ( or figuring out high bandwidth ALS...)
Right now, it's the most stable at CARM offsets larger (in magnitude) than -1. Positive CARM offsets don't work well for some reason.
The key to getting this to work was to futz around, starting from the misaligned arms DRMI settings, until brief locks were seen (triggering all 3 DRMI DoFs on POP22, since the correct AS110 sign was amiguous). I could tell from how the control signals responded to gain changes that REFL165Q, which was being used as the MICH error signal, was seeing significant cross coupling from both PRCL and SRCL, suggesting the demod angle of REFL165 had to be adjusted. I randomly tweaked the REFL165 demod angle until a 20 second lock was achieved, with excitations running. Then, I downloaded that data and analyzed the sensing matrix. This showed me that the REFL33 demod angle was ok, and the PRCL-from-SRCL subtraction factor determined with the arms misaligned was still valid. The main difference was indeed the SRCL angle in REFL165.
With the REFL165 demod angle properly adjusted, the DRMI would briefly lock, but the DRMI had become somewhat misaligned at this point, and the SRC could be seen to mode hop. Interestingly, the higer order modes had an opposite sign in AS110, with respect to the TM00. At that point, I went back to PRMI on carrier to dither-align the BS and PRM.
With alignment set, the DRMI would lock on TM00 readily, still only triggering on POP22. I set the AS110 angle, and moved SRCL triggering over to that, which sped up acquisition even more. The input matrix and FM gains from no-arms DRMI still work for acquistion; UGF servos were used to adjust overall gains a bit.
At CARM offsets larger in magnitude than -1, the DRMI lock seems indefinite. I just broke it to see how fast it would acquire; 3 seconds. 
Lastly, here is the sensing matrix at CARM offset of -4, measured over five minutes. REFL11 is the only degenerate looking PD. Thus, I feel like controlling the DRMI of the DRFPMI should be more managable than I had feared.

(I didn't include/excite CARM or DARM, because I'm not sure it would really mean anything at such a large CARM offset) |