ELOG 40m

Configuration

linux1 httpd/conlogger fixed

I think I fixed the conlogger web interface on linux1.

Steps necessary to do this:
0. Run "/etc/init.d/httpd start" to start up httpd right now
1. Run "/usr/sbin/ntsysv" and configure httpd to be started automatically in the future
2. Copy /cvs/cds/caltech/conlogger/bin/conlog_web.pl to /var/www/cgi-bin and chown to controls
8. Hack the conlog_web.pl to (0) use /usr/bin/perl (1) not use Apache::Util, and (2) function with the newer version of CGI.pm
9. Enjoy!

The following steps are optional, and may be inserted between steps 2 and 8:
3. Try to install Apache::Util (via "perl -MCPAN -e shell" followed by "Install Apache::Util")
4. Notice that the installation dies because there is no C compiler installed
5. Bang head in disgust and abomination over a Linux distribution shipping without a C compiler installed by default
6. "yum install gcc"
7. Annoyed by further dependencies, go to step 8

139

Thu Nov 29 11:10:54 2007

Without the RGA controller responding, the RGAlogger script just hangs. Rather than fix it, I just put it to sleep by commenting out the line in op440m crontab file. Once we get it running again, we'll move the cronjob to op340m.

138

Thu Nov 29 10:36:47 2007

alberto

Configuration

Computer Scripts / Programs

Agilent 82357B GPIB to USB Interface Installation Procedeure

To run the Agilent Automation-Ready CD provided with the interface is only the first step of the installation. Apparently there should be also a second CD with the drivers for Windows XP but I couldn't find it. So, after Installaing the IO Libraries Suite from the CD, I had to install the drivers with an executable downloaded from the Agilent's website at:

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=1188958&nid=-35199.0.00&id=1188958

and only then I could plug in the interface.
Anyway, I burned a cd with the file and put it together with the other one.

137

Wed Nov 28 21:51:52 2007

I replaced the front-end differential receivers for the ISS's "inner-loop" sensor and monitor diode inputs with lower-noise THS4131's (formerly THS4151's). I verified operation by taking the transfer function from the "PD+" and "PD-" inputs (separately) to the testpoint following the differential receiver; the surgery appears successful.

I measured the dark spectra at the ISS's DC PD BNC ports and found a noise floor of ~ 16 nV/rtHz, compared with a floor of ~ 22 nV/rtHz last week. This seems to add up, assuming the DC PD port has 0dB gain: the 4131 has a rated noise of 1.3 nV/rtHz and the 4151 a noise floor of 7.6 nV/rtHz, a difference of 6 nV/rtHz. The other change made in that time was to add a larger power supply bypass capacitor in the PD.

There are two of the old 4151 chips still on the ISS board on the two "outer-loop" channels that we don't use. If I dig up any more 5131's I will replace these too for completeness.

There is currently no light on the ISS diodes; I'm not sure where it's intended to come from.

136

Wed Nov 28 19:44:18 2007

I found the HEPA turned off completely. I turned it on.

135

Wed Nov 28 19:02:41 2007

Andrey

New WIKI-40M page describing Matlab Suspension Modeling

WIKI-40M Update

I created the WIKI-40m page with some details about my today's talk on the 40-m lab meeting.

The address is:

http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/40m/Modeling_of_suspensions

(or you can go to the main page, http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/40m/ , and click on the link "Modeling of suspensions").

The WIKI-40m page describes my transfer functions and contains the pdf-file of my presentation.

134

Wed Nov 28 17:41:34 2007

I investigated the FSS a bit more today. I looked at the signals coming out of the FSS frequency reference, and saw that both the LO and PC drive were distorted, non-symmetric waveforms. In addition, the LO path had a 3dB attenuator, meaning the mixer was starved. I placed mini-circuits SLP-30 filters in both paths, and now both are nice sine waves. I also took out the 3dB att. With this work, and the CG slider maxed out at 30, the FSS open loop gain (for real this time) goes up to ~250kHz. Still needs more investigation.

133

Wed Nov 28 17:15:26 2007

rana

Configuration

SUS

ETMY damping / watchdogs

Steve has noted that ETMY was often tripping its watchdog. I saw this again today.

So I checked the damping settings. Someone had set the SIDE gain to +1. The gain which gives
it a Q of ~10 is +10. I set the SIDE gain to +20. I checked and the ETMX gain is -16 so now
they're at least similar. I have updated the snapshot to reflect the new value.

Hopefully now it will be more well behaved.

132

Wed Nov 28 16:46:28 2007

I tried installing Scientific Linux on Tiramisu. The installation process was so bad (really)
that I quit after 15 minutes. Its back to booting Ubuntu as if nothing had ever happened. Let
us never speak of Scientific Linux again.

131

Wed Nov 28 16:18:15 2007

Alberto

Metaphysics

Environment

so clean you can eat on it

I tidied up the desks in the lab, brought the Spectrum Analyzers back to the Salumeria (you don't want to know about that), sorted a lot of stuff and boxed up what I didn't know (you can find it in a couple of carton boxes on the table).
The blackmail with the pie might not work next time.
Please, preserve the common sort.

Alberto

Attachment 1: DSC_0180.JPG

Attachment 2: DSC_0181.JPG

130

Wed Nov 28 12:43:53 2007

Andrey

Here was the PDF-file of my presentation

I was making a report with powerpoint presentation during that Wednesday's 40-m meeting.

Here was the pdf-file, but LATER IN THE EVENING I CREATED A WIKI-40M-page describing the algorithm, and now the pdf-file is ON THAT WIKI-40M PAGE.

NOTE ADDED AFTER THE PRESENTATION: I double checked, I am indeed taking the root-mean-square of a difference, as we discussed during my talk.

My slide #17 "Calculation of differential length" was wrong, but now I corrected it.

129

Wed Nov 28 08:47:29 2007

The rga is not working since Nov 10
The controller is broken.
pd65-m-d23

Attachment 1: pd65d23.jpg

128

Wed Nov 28 04:21:46 2007

Quote:

Rana, Tobin

We looked at the RF PD signal to the FSS (siphoning off a signal via a minicircuits directional coupler) and also took an open loop transfer function of the FSS. In the transfer function we saw the step at 100 kHz (mentioned by Rob) as well as some peculiar behavior at high frequency. The high frequency behavior (with a coupling of ~ -20 dB) turns out to be bogus, as it is still present even with the beam blocked. Rearranging the cabling had no effect; the cause is apparently inside the FSS. The step at 100 kHz turns out to be a saturation effect, as it moved as we lowered the signal amplitude, disappearing as we approached -60 dBm. (Above the step, the measurement data is valid; below, bogus.)

Transfer functions will be attached to this entry.

Some things to check tomorrow: the RF signal to the PC, RF AM generation by the PC, LO drive level into the FSS, RF reflection from the PC, efficiency of FSS optical path, quality of RF cabling.

I would also add to Tobin's entry that we believe what Rob was seeing was saturation.

With the bi-directional coupler in there, the RF signal into the FSS board clearly went UP if moved the offset slider away from zero.
With a scope looking at the IN2 testpoint, we can see that there's less than 2 mV offset at zero slider offset.

One tangential thing we noticed with the coupler is that, in lock, the amount of reflected RF is around the same as that going in to the mixer.
I have always wanted to look at this but have only had uni-directional couplers in the past. I think that the double balanced mixer is inherently
not a 50 Ohm device during the times where the diodes are being switched. IF that's the case we might do better in the future by having an RF
buffer on board just before the mixer to isolate the PD head from these reflections.

127

Tue Nov 27 20:47:00 2007

Attachment 1: fss-tf0001.pdf

126

Tue Nov 27 16:18:58 2007

Reduced the common gain to 22dB in the mcup script, so that the WFS would not blow the lock. The above measure of the OLG was done without the mcWFS running, so may be a low estimate as compared to when the alignment is perfect.

125

Tue Nov 27 15:47:17 2007

After the FSS running pretty quick, I checked the MC loop. I used TPA 1&2.

MC loop
UGF: 70kHz
Input Gain: 29dB
Boost Level: 2
phase: 40 deg

Attachment 1: MCsmall.jpg

124

Tue Nov 27 15:45:08 2007

It's unclear (to me, at least) what was the end result of the FSS path tweaking before Thanksgiving. Today I measured the open loop gain, and it was still around 100kHz, even with the gain sliders maxed out, but it looked really crappy with a sharp cutoff around the UGF. Then, on a lark, I pushed around the "Input Offset Adjust" slider, which sums an offset into the signal coming out of the mixer. By moving this slider to 7V, I got the UGF to 500kHz with 45 deg of phase. That would be fine, and we could go offset hunting, but the same thing happens if one puts in a large negative value! I don't really understand what's going on, but it seems like weirdness in the electronics. Unfortunately the web interface to the conlog is not running (presumably because the `new' linux1 doesn't have its apache server running) and my command line conlog efforts have been stymied. So, I don't know what the historical settings of this offset are, but zero is definitely not a good setting right now. Here's a snapshot:

FSS
UGF: 500kHz
CG : 24dB
FG : 19dB
input offset: 7V
Phase Adjust: 1.09V
Phase Button: 0
RF Amp Adjust: 7.38V

margins:
phase: 45 deg
gain: 8dB

Attachment 1: FSSsmall.jpg

122

Mon Nov 26 10:17:31 2007

steve

Omnistructure

SUS

etmy sus damping restored

20 days plot is showing etmy loosing damping 4 times.
I zoomed in with each event. Three of them could of been triggered
by garbage loading just outside. However attachment 2 plot demonstrating that small earthquake or seismic event
did not tripped etmy damping.
The fourth event was preceded by a 4-5 hrs of continous rise of the rms motion at C1:SUS-ETMY_LLPD_VAR

Attachment 1: etmyrms20d.jpg

Attachment 2: etmyrmseq.jpg

121

Wed Nov 21 14:31:41 2007

I `tweaked' the FSS path today. Here's what I did:

1) Shut down the FSS autolocker

2) Turn off FSS servo

3) Assume the beam coming back from the AOM is double-first-order, and don't make any changes large enough to lose it.

4) Tweak the alignment of these components to maximize the incident power on the RC reflected diode:

a) PBS before AOM
b) AOM
c) curved mirror after the AOM

5) Translate the AOM such that the beam moves away from the PZT, then when it levels off (no more power gains with movement),
move it back just a little bit so there's a teensy drop in power. This should but the beam as close to the edge as possible,
but whether or not it's the best place is still to be determined.

6) Lock the FSS, and align the mirrors into the frequency reference cavity.

After all this, the RC transmitted power went from .57 to .73 -- probably not a big enough change to account for the missing loop
gain, but we'll know more once the loop gets measured (after Alberto stops hogging the Agilent network analyzer).

Other possible routes include a systematic check of the upstream path (e.g., the Pockels cell) and just increasing the pickoff fraction for the FSS.

120

Tue Nov 20 18:35:20 2007

If you can't get MatLab to run in emacs try adding the following to the .emacs file

(setq matlab-shell-command-switches '("-nojvm"))

This stops the gui opening.

To start MatLab type M-x matlab-shell.
To enter MatLab mode M-x matlab-mode.

I've done this on LINUX3.

To run MatLab in emacs under windows one can use MatLabShell http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram/matlabShell/index.html

119

Tue Nov 20 18:02:54 2007

I've updated the PSL_MAIN screen. The old version may be found in cvs/cds/caltech/medm/old/medm/psl.

Attachment 1: PSL_Screen.tif

118

Tue Nov 20 13:06:57 2007

Alex put the new hard disk into linux1 along with a fresh install of linux (CentOS). The old disk was too damaged to copy.

Alex speculates that the old disk failed due to overheating and that linux1 could use an extra fan to prevent this in the future.

117

Tue Nov 20 11:10:07 2007

epics access from matlab

I installed "labca", which allows direct access to EPICS channels from within Matlab. It comes with both Linux and Solaris binaries (and source) but I've only tried it on linux.

To set it up, run these shell commands:

pushd /cvs/cds/caltech/users/tf/build/labca_2_1/bin/linux-x86
setenv PATH ${PATH}:`pwd`
cd /cvs/cds/caltech/users/tf/build/labca_2_1/lib/linux-x86
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:`pwd`
popd

Then start matlab, and within matlab type:

addpath /cvs/cds/caltech/users/tf/build/labca_2_1/bin/linux-x86/labca
help labca
foo = lcaGet('C1:PSL-FSS_RCTRANSPD')

It seems like reasonably well-written software, and is being actively maintained right now. If we like it, I can build a more recent version, install it in a more permanent location, etc.

116

Tue Nov 20 10:11:33 2007

Summary

PSL

PMC pole measurements

We measured the PMC pole in the following way.

1. Reduced laser power by rotating lambda/2 plate at laser output. Thermal effects in the PZT distort resonance peaks. Reducing power too much leads to problems with digitisation error.

2. Sweep NPRO PZT (C1: PSL-FSS_INOFFSET) using trianglewave. Record ramp, PMC transmission and reference cavity transmission ('C1: PSL-FSS_FAST','C1: PSL-ISS_INMONPD_F','C1: PSL-FSS_RCTRANSPD_F).

3. Since the PZT cannot sweep a full FSR in the PMC we looked at the sideband resonances within the reference cavity to calibrate the actuator.
Result: 7.35 +/- 0.22 MHz/V

4. Use #3 to calibrate the x axis of the PMC transmission.

5. Fit PMC resoances to an Airy function to get finesse. Take an average, weighted according to the resnorm. Calculate cavity pole frequency.
Result: 380kHz +/- 59kHz. This corresponds to a finesse of ~936. According to this plot the nominal pole is at 488kHz and the finesse is 732.

This is by no means a definitive measurement due to the misshapen resonance peaks recorded.

Attachment 1: FittedPMCPeak.jpg

115

Mon Nov 19 14:32:10 2007

steve

grad student safety training

SAFETY

John Miller and Alberto Stochino has received the 40m safety bible.
They still have to read the laser operation manual and sign off on it.

114

Mon Nov 19 14:19:25 2007

The construction personal successfully jackhemmered a fence around the "Drever's parking slot"
There is no parking space available close by

Attachment 1: jackhammer.jpg

Attachment 2: jackhammer2.jpg

113

Fri Nov 16 18:46:49 2007

steve

PSL

MOPA was turned off & on

The "Mohana" boys scouts and their parents visited the 40m lab today.
The laser was turned off for their safety.
It is back on !

112

Fri Nov 16 14:31:43 2007

Phil Ehrens stopped by and took op140's disks.

Attachment 1: DSC_0173.JPG

111

Fri Nov 16 14:11:26 2007

Alan called to say that Phil Ehrens will be coming by to take op140 off our hands.

110

Fri Nov 16 11:27:18 2007

I added a tidbit of code to "LIGOio.pm" that fixes a problem with ezcastep on Linux. Scripts such as "trianglewave" will now work on Linux.

# On Linux, "ezcastep" will interpret negative steps as command line arguments,
# because the GNU library interprets anything starting with a dash as a flag.
# There are two ways around this.  One is to set the environment variable
# POSIXLY_CORRECT and the other is to inject "--" as a command line argument
# before any dashed arguments you don't want interpreted as a flag.  The former
# is easiest to use here:

if (`uname` =~ m/Linux/) {
    # Add an environment variable for child processes
    $ENV{'POSIXLY_CORRECT'} = 1;
}

109

Thu Nov 15 18:37:06 2007

possible replacement for linux1's disk

It looks like the existing disk in linux1 is a Seagate ST380013A (this can be found either via the smartctl utility or by looking at the file /proc/ide/hda/model). It appears that you can still buy this disk from amazon, though I think just about any ATA disk would work. I'll ask Steve to buy one for us.

108

Thu Nov 15 18:36:48 2007

Summary

PSL table work

I've rotated the lambda/2 plate to 340deg (from 6 deg) and blocked one arm of the Mach-Zender. Undo both if you need to.

107

Thu Nov 15 18:23:55 2007

HowTo

Swap CAPS and CTRL on a Windows 2000/XP machine

I've swapped ctrl and caps on the four control room Windows machines. Right ctrl is unchanged.

Start menu->Run "regedit"

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

Click on the KeyboardLayout entry.

Edit->New Binary Value name it Scancode Map.

Then select the new Scancode Map entry.

Edit menu->Modify Binary Data.

In the dialog box enter the following data:

0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0008: 03 00 00 00 3A 00 1D 00
0010: 1D 00 3A 00 00 00 00 00

Exit the Registry Editor. You need to log off and then on in XP (and restart in Windows 2000) for the changes to be made.

106

Thu Nov 15 18:06:06 2007

alex: linux1 root file system hard disk's dying

I just noticed that Alex made an entry in the old ilog yesterday, saying: "Looks like linux1 root filesystem hard drive is about to die. The system log is full of drive seek errors. We should get a replacement IDE drive as soon as possible or else the unthinkable could happen. 40 Gb IDE hard drive will be sufficient."

105

Thu Nov 15 17:09:37 2007

pkp

Vertical Transfer functions with no cables attached.

OMC

[Norna Pinkesh]

The cables connecting all the electronics ( DCPDs, QPDs etc) have been removed to test for the vertical transfer function. Now the cables are sitting on the OMC bench and it was realigned.

Attachment 1: VerticaltransferfuncnocablesattachedNov152007.pdf

104

Thu Nov 15 04:18:11 2007

PMC cavity pole measurements

Summary

PSL

In connection with our work on the ISS I attempted to measure the PMC cavity pole.

I swept the PMC PZT and looked at the transmission through the cavity on the ISS Monitor diode (which is now back on the table, feel free to remove it again tomorrow).

To avoid thermal effects I reduced the laser power using the half wave plate at the laser ouput (rotated from 6 deg to 340deg).

I swept the PZT using the triangle wave command "trianglewave C1: PSL-PMC_RAMP -3.5 3.3 20 200". I noticed that the functional form of the resonances deteriorated over the duration of the excitation. Each sweep was able to capture just over one FSR. The resonances were a little close to the 'points' of the triangle wave for my liking although I don't think PZT hysteresis was a big factor.

Looking at the data the peaks are not of uniform width across a sweep or between consecutive sweeps. Hence any results from this mesurement are not particularly useful. I can't be sure if this was due to misalignments, thermal effects, higher order mode content or some other affect.

Rob suggests sweeping the laser frequency using the NPRO PZT instead.

Attachment 1: Peaks.jpg

103

Wed Nov 14 17:50:00 2007

Here's the current wiring between the ISS and its PDs:

pin	cable	PD	ISS
1	blue	+5	+5
2	red	+15	+15
3	white	-15	-15
4	brown	OUT	IN PD +
5,6,7,8	no connection	no connection	GND
9	black	GND	IN PD -

The schematics for the ISS and the PDs are linked from our wiki.

We'll connect the ISS GND to the PD GND.

102

Wed Nov 14 16:54:54 2007

pkp