The above mentioned amplifier has been used to amplify the input to the frequency counter. The frequency counter is now getting an input that it can read.

I have done an edit to the ALS medm screen and the PSL and AUX Y laser beat frequency is now readable.

I'm super excited about this new frequency readback, but I'm not sure that it's reliable yet.  Without touching any settings, the readback is currently saying 78.6MHz, and is changing slightly (as is the FSS Slow Temp), so something is working.  However, the beatnote as measured on the spectrum analyzer is 158.2MHz.  So, either the calibration or the tracking or something isn't quite finished being tuned yet.

It's going to be super awesome when we have this though!!

As Jenne pointed out, this is still not fully tuned. 

For example, I found today that the frequency counter requires more power at the input >= -20dBm to measure frequency inputs < 40 MHz. Since the RFPD gives ~ -40dBm at its output, the ~20dB gain amplifier will not be enough to measure low frequencies in case the beat power at the PD drops (which is very much possible when the alignment drifts or things move around on the PSL table).  So I am shopping for an RF amplifier with higher gain to replace the current one. In the meantime, I will test the PID loop for set point frequency > 40MHz.

I have also observed the frequency difference between the measured frequencies on FC and the spectrum analyzer. I am not sure where this comes from as yet. 

At this point, the FC readout is only reliable enough to find a beatnote that is lost on the spectrum analyzer.

I was around the PSL table and the X end table today.

X end table:

I was at the X end table making some distance measurements for the telescope to the fiber coupler. I have NOT moved anything as yet.

PSL table:

I wanted to get some data to look at the beat note frequency discrepancy between the green and IR. 

I tried making measurements using the spectrum analyzer at the PSL table but the MC was getting unlocked quite often with PSL enclosure open and HEPA on high. 

So I switched off the power supplies to the RFPDs (3 of them) on the PSL table and disconnected the Xmon input to the adder (at the IOO rack) which brings the green beat note signals to the conrol room. I connected the fiber RFPD output to the adder and took a bunch of measurements of the green and IR beat notes from the spectrum analyzer in the control room. I have NOT undone this setup assuming there are no locking plans for tonight and I will come back tomorrow. 

If anyone is planning to do some locking in the meantime, you can undo the connections keeping in mind to turn off the power to the RFPDs before you do so.

P.S. I walked in this morning to PSL FSS slow actuator at 0.89 and brought it down to zero before making measurements.
I also touched the steering mirrors that are part of the Y green beat note alignment while looking at the amplitude of the RF signal on the spectrum analyzer.

RF connections to the beat note adder on the IOO rack have been undone and it should be good to proceed with any locking attempts.

It is certain that we have space issues at the X end that has been preventing us from sticking in a lens to couple light into the fiber. 

The only way out is to install a platform on the table where we can mount the lens. I have attached the a photo of how things look like at the X end (attachment 1) and also a drawing of the platform that which can hold the lens (attachment 2). Additional support to the raised platform will be added depending on how much space we can clear up on the table by moving the clamping forks of the doubler.
Steve and I have been able to gather parts that can be put together into something similar to what is shown in the drawing. 

Proposed modifications to the X end table:

1. The side panels of the table enclosure will come out while putting in the new platform.

2. The clamping forks for the doubling crystal will be moved.

Let me know of any concerns about the proposed solution. 

Below is the set of plots comparing measurements for the green and IR beat notes frequencies. The measurements were made on the spectrum analyzer at the same time. So I have not taken measurement error into account. 
From the plots, the discrepancy is not very large.

Attachment 1:
Shows the two sets of measurements scaterred along y=x.

Attachment 2:
Since plot 1 shows the points tightly scattered to y=x, I plotted the difference between the two measurements against their mean to blow out the deviations.

I will do the same comparison using the frequency counter readout once we have RF amplifiers installed.

Since there will be some work that supposedly will involve moving stuff on the table and racks; here is the updated to-do list for FOL.

Today I was around the IOO rack.

I shutdown the power to the beat PDs on the PSL table and disconnected the D sub 3w3 connector that was powering the RF amplifier panel on the IOO rack.

I moved the RF amplifier from the panel to a box that can go on the rack. The box will also hold the RF amplifiers that will be used for FOL. I have not completed putting in all the amplifiers. But the RF amplifier for ALS is in place and the box has been installed on the IOO rack for locking tonight. The power supply to the green beat PDs has been switched ON.

I took the out of loop noise measurements for ALS X and Y and the attachment is the screenshot of it (X and Y have rms of ~300Hz and ~400Hz).

I had to touch the Y end steering mirrors for green to get maximum GTRY before making thes measurments.

I pulled out the RF amplifier box from the IOO rack again and added the new RF amplifiers for FOL. 

I replaced one of the decoupling capacitors of the ALS beat note RF amplifier ; the poloproylene capacitor with a ceramic capacitor (0.1uF) .

After putting back the box, I confirmed that we had a beat note. I did not get a chance to measure the ALS noise after putting back the box because the IFO was already occupied.

I will post a detailed elog of the components in the RF amplifier box once I am done with it (hopefully tomorrow)!

The components of the RF amplifier box are in place. The RF amplifier box has been mounted on the IOO rack and the front panel connections have been labeled. Attached is the photo of how things look in the inside for future reference.

Sometime in the next few days the box will be pulled out to replace the panel mount SMA barrels in the front with insulated ones.

The X end fiber setup will be put together tomorrow morning. Let me know if there are any concerns.

[EricG, Manasa]

We were at the X end today trying to couple AUX X light into the fiber. 

The proposed plan still did not give a good beampath. The last steering mirror before the fiber coupler was sticking out of the table enclosure. I tried a few other options and the maximum coupling that I could get was ~10%

I am working on plan C now; which would be to use fixed mount mirrors and steer the beam to the space created by Koji near the IR trans path and use a set of lenses instead of a single lens. I will elog more details after some modematching calculations.

We moved one of the clamps for the doubling crystal to make space. Also, the NPRO current was reduced during this work.

I reset things to how they were before I touched the table. I ensured that the green power was still the same (~3mW) after the doubler and that it could lock to the arm in TEM00.

I pulled out the Fiber Optic Module for FOL from the rack inside the PSL table enclosure and modified it. The beat PDs were moved into the box to avoid breaking the fiber pigtail input to the PD.

The box has 3 input FC/APC connectors (PSL and AUX lasers) and 2 output FC/APC connectors (10% of the beatnote for the AUX lasers).

Attachment shows what is inside the box. The box will again go back on the rack inside the PSL enclosure.

Plan C finally worked. We have 1.454mW of AUX X light at the PSL table (2mW incident on the fiber coupler). 

Attached is the layout of the telescope.

What I did:

I stuck in Lens 1 (f=200mm) and measured the beam width after the focus of the lens at several points. I fit the data and calculated the beam waist and its position after this lens. 

I used the calculated waist and matched it with an appropriate lens and target (fiber coupler) distance. I calculated the maximum coupling efficiency to be 77% for Lens 2 with f=50mm and the fiber coupler placed at 20cm from the waist of Lens1. I was able to obtain 72% coupling after putting the telescope together.

I locked the arms, ran ASS and brought back GTRX to its usual optimum value of ~0.5 counts after closing. We also have the X arm beatnote on the spectrum analyzer.

Notes:

There are still a couple of things to fix. The rejected beam from the beam sampler has to be dumped using a razor blade.

I have moved the optical fiber module for FOL to the PSL table. It is setup on the optical table right now for testing.

Once tests are done, the box will move to the rack inside the PSL enclosure. 

While doing any beat note alignment, please watch out for the loose fibers at the north side of the PSL enclosure until they are sheilded securely (probably tomorrow morning).

[Steve, Manasa]

The fibers around the PSL table were shielded to avoid any tampering.

[EricG, Manasa]

We woke up the PDFR measurement setup that has been sleeping since summer. We ran a check for the laser module and the multiplexer module. We tried setting things up for measuring frequency response of AS55.
We could not repeat Nichin's measurements because the gpib scripts are outdated and need to be revised. 

PDFR diode laser was shutdown after this job.

As Koji found one of the spare channels of the ALS/FOL RF amplifier box nonfunctional yesterday, I pulled it out to fix it. I found that one of the sma cables did not conduct.

It was replaced with a new cable from Koji. Also, I rearranged the ports to be consistent across the box, and re-labeled with the gains I observed. 

It has been reinstalled, and the Y frequency counter that is using one of the channels shows a steady beat freq.

I cannot test the amplitude of the green X beat at this time, as Koji is on the PSL table with the PSL shutter closed, and is using the control room spectrum analyzer. However, the dataviewer trace for the fine_phase_out_Hz looks like free swinging cavity motion, so its probably ok.

The RF analyzer was returned to the control room. There are two beat notes from X/Y confirmed.

I locked the arms and aligned them with ASS.

When the end greens are locked at TEM00, X/Y beat amplitudes were ~33dBm and ~17dBm. respectively.
I don't judge if they are OK or not, as I don't recall the nominal values.

The elog crashed while I was creating an entry to the Cryo log. I restarted it with the start-elog.csh script.

[Steve, Manasa]

We ran power cables and sma cables for the FOL fiber module from the PSL table to the IOO rack.

I shutdown the +/-15V and the +/-24V sorensons on the IOO rack to connect the FOL RF PDs to the rack power supply.

They were turned back ON after the work. PMC and MC were relocked.

I pulled out the RF amplifier box from the IOO rack and swapped the amplifiers for FOL beat frequency amplification. The earlier gain of 62dB (ZFL500LN + ZFL500LN) was reduced to 40dB gain (ZFL500LN+ZFL2AD).

I also swapped one of the broken sma cables that was connecting the two amplifiers with a good one. Front ports of the module were relabeled and the box was put back on the rack.

During the course of this work, I had to turn OFF the green BBPDs on the PSL table to protect them and they have been powered up after putting the module back.

Working around the PSL table

I have put the FOL fiber box on the PSL table. The fibers carrying AUX and PSL light are connected and the RFPDs have been powered up. I can see the beat frequency on the frequency counters; but for some reason Domenica (that brings the frequency counter values on the medm screens) is not visible on the network even after hard reboot of the raspberry pi. I am neither able to ping nor ssh into the machine. I have to pull the module out and add a monitor cable to troubleshoot (my bad I should have left the monitor cable with the raspberry pi in the first place). Anyways, I have handed over the IFO to Q and will play with things again sometime later.

The fiber box on the PSL table is only left there temporariliy till I have things working. It will be stowed on the rack properly later.

In case someone wants the fiber box out of the PSL table, please make sure to power down the RFPDs using the black rocker switches on the side of the box and then disconnect the cables and fibers.

[EricQ, Manasa]

Domenica:
Since Domenica was not picking up an IP address and hence not responding to pings or ssh even after power cycling, I pulled it out from the IOO rack and connected it to a monitor. After a bunch of hit and trials, we figured out that the problem was related to the power adapter of the Rpi discussed here : http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=39055

The power adapter has been swapped and this issue has been resolved. Domenica has been remounted on the IOO rack but left with the top lid off for the timebeing.

RF amplifier box:
The frequency counter was setup to read the beat frequency after amplification of the RFPD signals. The output as seen on the frequency counter screen as well as the epics values was intermittent. Also, locking the arms and changing the end laser frequencies did not change the frequency counter outputs. It looks like the RF amplifier is oscillating (Oscillating frequencies were ~107 MHz and 218 MHz) and the input circuit needs to be modified and the connections need better insulation.

As of now, I have connected the RFPD outputs to the frequency counter sans any amplification and we are able to get a readout of the beat frequency at > 40MHz (Frequency counter requires much higher amplitude signals for frequencies lower than that).

The fit FWHM is 10.444kHz +-55Hz. 

If we take the FSR from ELOG 9804, this implies an Xarm fineese of 380 +- 2. 

Assuming an ITMX transmission of 1.4%, this means an Xarm loss of 240 +- 90ppm. 

This is substatially lower than the ~500ppm I had measured via the unlocked/locked ASDC power method, but still pretty high. 

Since we were able to get continuous frequency counter values into the digital system, I decided to give it a quick spin with a calibrated single arm ALS scan. This should be repeated when amplifiers are in place, because the Y IR beatnote is wandering around in a way I don't trust and I'm not sure if the frequency counters have good absolute calibration...

Neverthess, I did a 5 minute scan through the Xarm, and fit it nicely to a lorentzian peak. 

Figuring out the problem with frequency counter readouts:

The frequency counter has 4 ranges of operation: 
Range 1 : 1 - 40MHz
Range 2: 40 - 190MHz
Range 3: 190 - 1400MHz  
Range 4: 1400 - 6000MHz

I set up the beat frequency readout in various configurations to troubleshoot and have recorded my observation (attachments). The amplifiers in all cases is just a single ZFL-500LN.

There seems to be a problem with the RF amplifier and the frequency counter when they are set together. I am not able to figure it out and stuck right here

Attachment 1: schematic for readout and corresponding observations

Attachment 2: Oscilloscope screen snapshot for schematic 3

Attachment 3: Spectrum analyzer screen snapshot for schematic 3

More info: RFPD used is Thorlabs FPD310 and frequency counter is Mini Circuits UFC-6000. The RF amplifier has decoupling capacitors soldered across the power supply.

[Koji, Manasa]

This problem was solved by changing the Frequency Counter range settings.

Frequency counter automatic range setting has been modified and now the range can be manually set depending on the input frequency. New codes have been written to do this. The scripts will be polished and wrapped up shortly.

Green glass for aLIGO OMC shield is temporarly stored in the inside of the Y-arm.

I was around the 1Y1 rack today. Trials were done to get the PDFR of AS55.

There is a frequency counter code written by the summer student.
The code needed some cleaning up.
It's still there in /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/FOL as armFC.c

This code did not provide unified way to send commands to the FCs.
Therefore I made a code to change the frequency range of the FCs
by removing unused variables and instructions, adding more comments,
adding reasonable help messages and trouble shooting feedbacks.

Obviously these codes only run on domenica (raphsberry Pi host)

/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/FOL/change_frange

change_frange : change the freq range of the frequency counter UFC-6000

Usage: ./change_frange DEVICE VALUE
    DEVICE: '/dev/hidraw0' for Xarm, '/dev/hidraw1' for Yarm
    VALUE:
0 - automatic
1 -    1MHz to   40MHz
2 -   40MHz to  190MHz
3 -  190MHz to 1400MHz
4 - 1400MHz to 6000MHz

BTW, during this trouble shoot, we looked at the IR beatnote spectrum between the Xend and the PSL.
It showed a set of sidebands at ~200kHz, which is the modulation frequency.
There was another eminent component present at ~30kHz.
I'm afraid that there is some feature like large servo bump, a mechanical resonance, or something else, at 30kHz.

We should check it. Probably it is my job.

I found that the scripts in FOL and PDFR directories were not in the svn. These were added to the svn.

- I found that the cable for the AS55 LO signal had the shielding 90% broken. It was fixed.

- The Mon5 monitor in the control room was not functional for months. I found a small CRT down the east arm.
It is now set as MON5 showing the picture from cameras. Steve, do we need any safety measure for this CRT?

I was poking around with the PDFR hardware today.

I moved the Agilent which had its screen projected on the monitor. I have put it back...but please verify the settings before using it for tonight.

Since the Frequency counters have not been a reliable error signal for FOL PID loop, we will put together an analog delay line frequency dicriminator as an alternative method to obtain the beat frequency.

The configuration will be similar to what was done in elog 4254 in the first place.

For a delay line frequency dicriminator, the output at the mixer is proportional to  where 

L - cable length asymmetry, f_b - beat frequency and v - velocity of light in the cable.

The linear output signal canbe obtained for  

For our purpose in FOL, if we would like to measure beat frequency over a bandwidth of 200MHz, this would correspond to a cable length difference of 0.5 m (assuming the speed of light in the coaxial cable is ~ 2x10⁸m/s.

[Koji, Manasa]

Since the bandwidth of the fiber PD is ~ 1GHz, we could design the frequency discriminator to have a wider bandwidth (~ 500MHz). The output from the frequency discriminator could then be used to define the range setting of the frequency counter for readout or may be even error signal to the PID loop.

A test run for the analog DFD with cable length difference of 27cm gave a linear output signal with zero-crossing at ~206MHz.

Detailed schematic of the setup and plot (voltage vs frequency) will be updated shortly.

Few 1/4 -20 socket cap head screw with washers were tested for optimum torque.

QJR 117E Snap On  torque wrench was used. I found that 40 lb in was enough.

Looked up recommended values on the web later:

Our Thorlab SS 1/4-20 screw kits are SS 18-8 as DRY 70 inch / lbs max, lubricated  60 inch / lbs max

These numbers will varie with washers, material it's going into and so on!

BLACK-OXIDE Alloy Steel Socket Head Cap Screws can go much higher value

Thread Size	1/4"-20
Length	1/4"
Thread Length	Full
Additional Specifications	Black-Oxide Alloy Steel
RoHS	Compliant

The standard among high-strength fasteners, these screws are stronger than Grade 8 steel screws. They have a minimum tensile strength of 170,000 psi. and a minimum Rockwell hardness of C37. Length is measured from under the head.

Inch screws have a Class 3A thread fit. They meet ASTM A574.

Black Oxide—Screws have been heat-treated for hardness, which results in a dark surface color.

 

The information in this 3-D model is provided for reference only. Details

 

 

 

We still do not know that what torque values we get best performance : minimum jiggel and drift etc.

After looking at these numbers I raise my recommendation to 50 inch / lbs on a std aplication.

Rana is next to calibrate his feelings and declare the right number.

Than Koji....and so on

Once we a number, than I buy more torque wrenches to fit it.

For 1/4-20 bolts made of 18-8 Stainless Steel, the recommended torque varies from 65-100 inch-pounds, depending upon the application, the lubrication, how loose the bolt is, if there's a washer, etc.

For our case, where we are going into a tapped, ferromagnetic stainless table, its less clear, but it will certainly by in the 60-80 range. This is close to the 5-6 foot-lbs that I recommended on Wednesday.

I've ordered 3 torque wrenches with 1/4" drive so that we can have one at each end and one in the toolbox near MC2. We'll indicate the recommended torque on there so that we can tighten everything appropriately.

I have set up new summary pages for the 40m: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~misi/summary/
This website shows plots (time series, spectra, spectrograms, Rayleigh statistics) of relevant channels and is updated with new data every 30 min.

The content and structure of the pages is determined by configuration files stored in nodus:/users/public_html/gwsumm-ini/ . The code looks at all files in that directory matching c1*.ini. You can look at the c1hoft.ini file to see how this works. Besides, a quick guide to the format can be found here http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~misi/iniguide.pdf

Please look at the pages and edit the config files to make them useful to you. The files are under version control, so don’t worry about breaking anything.

Do let me know if you have any questions (or leave a comment in the pages).

Attached is the schematic of the analog DFD and the plot showing the zero-crossing for a delay line length of 27cm. The bandwidth for the linear output signal obtained roughly matches what is expected from the length difference (370MHz) .

We could use a smaller cable to further increase our bandwidth. I propose we use this analog DFD to determine the range at which the frequency counter needs to be set and then use the frequency counter readout as the error signal for FOL.

Koji suggested that I make a cosine fit for the curve instead of a linear fit.

I fit the data to  
where L - cable length asymmetry (27 cm) , f_b - beat frequency and v - velocity of light in the cable (2*10⁸ m/s)

The plot with the cosine fit is attached. 

Fit coefficients (with 95% confidence bounds):
       A =      0.4177  (0.3763, 0.4591)
       B =       2.941  (2.89, 2.992)

I have created a wiki page with introductory info about the summary page configuration: https://wiki-40m.ligo.caltech.edu/Daily summary help

We can also use that to collect tips for editing the configuration files, etc.

Arm powers had drifted to ~ 0.5 in transmission.

X and Y arms were locked and ASS'd to bring the arm transmission powers to ~1.

* Relocked IMC. I guess it was stuck somewhere in the autlocker loop. I disabled autolocker and locked it manually. Autolocker has been reenabled and seems to be running just fine.

* The X arm has been having trouble staying locked. There seemed to be some amount of gain peaking. I reduced the gain from 0.007 to 0.006.

*  I disabled the triggered BounceRG filter : FM8 in the Xarm filter module.  We already have a triggered Bounce filter: FM6 that takes care of the noise at bounce/roll frequencies. FM8 was just adding too much gain at 16.5Hz. Once this filter was disabled the X arm lock has been much more stable. 
Also, the Y arm doesn't use FM8 for locking either.

1) Checked the N2 pressures: the unregulated cylinder pressures are both around 1500 PSI. How long until they get to 1000?

2) The IMC has been flaky for a day or so; don't know why. I moved the gains in the autolocker so now the input gain slider to the MC board is 10 dB higher and the output slider is 10 dB lower. This is updated in the mcdown and mcup scripts and both committed to SVN. The trend shows that the MC was wandering away after ~15 minutes of lock, so I suspected the WFS offsets. I ran the offsets script (after flipping the z servo signs and adding 'C1:' prefix). So far powers are good and stable.

3) pianosa was unresponsive and I couldn't ssh to it. I powered it off and then it came back.

4) Noticed that DAQD is restarting once per hour on the hour. Why?

5) Many (but not all) EPICS readbacks are whiting out every several minutes. I remote booted c1susaux since it was one of the victims, but it didn't change any behavior.

6) The ETMX and ITMX have very different bounce mode response: should add to our Vent Todo List. Double checked that the bounce/roll bandstop is on and at the right frequency for the bounce mode. Increased the stopband from 40 to 50 dB to see if that helps.

7) op340 is still running ! The only reason to keep it alive is its crontab:

op340m:SUS>crontab -l

07 * * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/autoburt/burt.cron >> /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/burt/burtcron.log
#46 * * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/scripto_cron /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/PSL/FSS/FSSSlowServo > /cvs/cds/caltech/logs/scripts/FSSslow.cronlog 2>&1
#14,44 * * * * /cvs/cds/caltech/conlog/bin/check_conlogger_and_restart_if_dead
15,45 * * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/SUS/rampdown.pl > /dev/null 2>&1
#10 * * * *  /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/scripto_cron /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/MC/autolockMCmain40m >/cvs/cds/caltech/logs/scripts/mclock.cronlog 2>&1
#27 * * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/scripto_cron /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/PSL/FSS/RCthermalPID.pl >/cvs/cds/caltech/logs/scripts/RCthermalPID.cronlog 2>&1

00 0 * * * /var/scripts/ntp.sh > /dev/null 2>&1
#00 4 * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/RGA/RGAlogger.cron >> /cvs/cds/caltech/users/rward/RGA/RGAcron.out 2>&1
#00 6 * * * /cvs/cds/scripts/backupScripts.pl
00 7 * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/AutoUpdate/update_conlog.cron
00 8 * * * /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/crontab/backupCrontab

added a new script (scripts/SUS/rampdown.py) which decrements every 30 minutes if needed. Added this to the megatron crontab and commented out the op340m crontab line. IF this works for awhile we can retire our last Solaris machine.

8) To see if we could get rid of the wandering PCDRIVE noise, I looked into the NPRO temperatures: was - T_crystal = 30.89 C, T_diode1 = 21 C, T_diode2 = 22 C. I moved up the crystal temp to 33.0 C, to see if it could make the noise more stable. Then I used the trimpots on the front of the controller to maximimize the laseroutput at these temperatures; it was basically maximized already. Lets see if there's any qualitative difference after a week. I'm attaching the pinout for the DSUB25 diagnostics connector on the back of the box. Aidan is going to help us record this stuff with AcroMag tech so that we can see if there's any correlation with PCDRIVE. The shifts in FSS_SLOW coincident with PCDRIVE noise corresponds to ~100 MHz, so it seems like it could be NPRO related.

For some reason, my email address is the one that megatron complains to when cron commands fail; since 11:15PM last night, I've been getting emails that the rampdown.py line is failing, with the super-helpful message: expr: syntax error

Yes - my rampdown.py script correctly ramps down the watchdog thresholds. This replaces the old rampdown.pl Perl script that Rob and Dave Barker wrote.

Unfortunately, cron doesn't correctly inherit the bashrc environment variables so its having trouble running.

On a positive note, I've resurrected the MEDM Screenshot taking cron job, so now this webpage is alive (mostly) and you can check screens from remote:

https://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:30889/medm/screenshot.html

Measuring the voltage noise and frequency response of the Analog Delay-line Frequency Discriminator (DFD)

The schematic and an actual photo of the setup is shown below. The setup was checked to be physically sturdy with no loose connections or moving parts.

The voltage noise at the output of the DFD was measured using an SR785 signal analyzer while simultaneously monitoring the signal on an oscilloscope.

The noise at the output of the DFD was measured for no RF input and at several RF input frequencies including the zero crossing frequency and the optimum operating frequency of the DFD (20MHz).

The plot below show the voltage noise for different RF inputs to the DFD. It can be seen that the noise level is slightly lower at the zero crossing frequency where the amplitude noise is eliminated by the DFD.

I also did measurements to obtain the frequency response of the setup as the cable length difference has changed from the prior setup. The cable length difference is 21cm and the obtained linear signal at the output of the DFD extends over ~ 380MHz which is good enough for our purposes in FOL. A cosine fit to the data was done as before. //edit- Manasa: The gain of SR560 was set to 20 to obtain the data shown below//

Fit Coefficients (with 95% confidence bounds):
       a =     -0.8763  (-1.076, -0.6763)
       b =       3.771  (3.441, 4.102)

Data and matlab scripts are zipped and attached.