July 2001
J. D. Monnier

This is the summary of the accomplishment and problems encountered
during 2001June/July IOTA Engineering Run that involved JDM.

Summary of Loose Ends
---------------------
	
A. RC filters on direction bit lines for SDs.  Current fix is
   TEMPORARY.

B. There is no long delay control by OT. Must get this working.

C. GPS_clock OT needs fixed. Looks to me like simple error in setting
   up the xml shmem file.  

D. Send back new matrix AO board and get it with all 8 voltage
   outputs.

E. Work on baffle for camera to improve background rejection.

SHORT DELAY LINES
-----------------

1. Both short delay lines now work reasonably well.  The important
   problems:
 	
	a) SD2 did not float well with the normal magnetic
	   pulldown-force [in fact a few of the pads got fairly
	   scratched during tests].  We took off half (2) the side
	   magnets and installed them on the top in place of the large
	   pull-down magnets.  Now it floats with much less pressure
	   (~45 psi instead of 80 psi).  [WT/JDM/ML]
	
	b) Two of Three harvard velocity boards had the potentiometers
	   misadjusted, but now these work with both delay lines.
	   [JDM/RMG]
	
	c) The pulse voltages were coupling into the 'direction bit'
	   line which caused the carts to direction to rapidly change
	   sign during slewing with BOTH carts moving
	   simultaneously. A TEMPORARY fix was made by soldering an RC
	   circuit onto the connector (33 ohms, .39pF across pin
	   4-5ground) between the (Galil) interface box and the
	   central station box (before the differential line driver
	   feeds the anorad cage).  [JDM/WT]


2. ML added separate pressure gauges for both top and side air pads in
   SD2. [ML]

3. SD2 cabling was improved so that it didn't collide SD 1 [WT]

4. Short delay line limit in Air: -198.57 cm.  In Vacuum, the extreme
   limit is more like -198.52 cm.  [JDM/WT]

5. WT did the most careful study of the best pressure for each delay
   line to operate without oscillation in vacuum.  SD1 is quite robust
   ~70psi, while SD2 seems to be more finicky -- last time I checked
   ~26psi.

STAR TRACKING
--------------

1. The star trackers can now successfully communicate with the
   telescope tracking.  The ST offsets are now successfully
   interpreted by the telescope software to allow the piezo star
   trackers to operate in their nominal range.  [JDM/PS]
 
2. Successfully star-tracked using all three telescopes.  The wiring
   on the Tel C tip-tilt piezo was different -- the x/y axes were
   swtiched and the x axis had a sign reversed. [JDM]

TELESCOPES
-----------

1. RMG/JDM debugged and fixed a number of limit switch problems.  Tel
   A had flaky connections on the connector card near the opts. Tel C
   had a bad solder joint connecting one IC pin the ground plane in
   the limit switch box.  Tel A had a bad Opto. [JDM/RMG]

2. Discovered problem with Tel B where the home flag did not stay 'on'
   for extreme Roll location (~+30 deg). This was fixed by ML. [JDM]

3. All 3 telescopes were re-aligned and re-focused using the mini-
   interferometer [WT/JPB].  Auto-collimation tilts used: Tel a:
   44.8967 degs, Tel B: 46.254167 degs, Tel C: 45.490 degs

NEW OPTICS
----------

1. PH/JPB aligned the integrated optic table.  Nu-tek parabolas seem
   to work nicely with Grenoble mounts. [PH/JPB]

2. Using V-groove, detected 50000 cts on Mu Cep (H -1mag) using PICNIC
   in QUADRANT mode.

3. High background on camera pixels even with 1-1 optics. [JPB/JDM]


VME hardware
------------

1. Installed new VME board [see other memo on web], VMIVME Model 3124.
   Wrote software to use it -- daq/adconverter.cpp/.h [JDM/JPB]

2. Check out adcrecord function for saving data with the adc board
   [JDM]

3. Tested the calibration of the ADC board and found it <1 bit
   accurate in single-ended mode, but somewhat more noisy (1-2 bits,
   ~5-10 mV) in the currently configured differential mode. [JDM/JPB]

4. The second matrix AO board was configured with 4 current loops
   instead of 8 voltage outputs.  We decided to wait til we get the
   'right' board to install in vme rack.

the OT
------

1. New options: enter long delay line position, spiral searching.

2. The gps_clock display doesn't work. Proably simple error in setting
   up the shmem structure to match the vxworks.

Vxworks code
-------------

1. CB Com module control of Tel C acquisition camera and mirrors
   (flip_c) [JPB/JDM]

2. Installed cpu2 and re-distributed the computer load [EP]

3. Discovered and fixed Bug in sidereal tracking of SD 2 [JDM]

4. Confirmed that the SD predictions agree with Quadra calculations
   for both sidereal tracking rates (both SD1/SD2) and absolute
   location of fringes (SD1 only). [JDM/JPB]

5. Here are the numbers for the beam combiner offsets to find fringes
   with the OT in the neutral lab frame:

[a=north, b=south, c=center]
(AB = A path - B path in cm)

                AB              AC              BC
A Fixed         -187.808 (*)    -328.625
B Fixed         +87.7824 (*)                    -278.613

[JDM/JPB/WT]

6. Lots of work on DAQ Scheduler.  New code is leaner, meaner, and
   more powerful by now allowing arbitrary ADC channel to be recorded
   each scan and saved in the file *adc. [JDM]

7. New documention of the vxworks and OT; see seperate web page. [JDM]

IDL Code
--------

1. Nice interface program alinging integrated optic component on
   Quadrant -- ~iota/Idlstuff/EP_Scan/customDAQ.script.
   [JDM/RMG/EP/PH/JPB]