Weekly Report for Week Ending February 9, 1999



 Project Control Meeting Agenda   Highlights   Hanford Observatory     Livingston Observatory     Detector    Project Office    System Engineering    Administrative    Past Weekly Reports

The Project Control Meeting Agenda for Monday  February 15, 1999 will be:

CANCELLED DUE TO CALTECH INSTITUTE HOLIDAY

AND MARDI GRAS IN LOUISIANA!


Special Announcements:


Weekly Report Highlights
 
At long last, MMT3 is hung at LHO!

The dome is off LHO' s BSC8 in preparation for the first seismic installation in a BSC

Magnets still falling off
 


LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations


General Items:
--------------
(Fred Raab)
 

MMT3 is hung and aligned with valiant assistance from a large and dedicated
crew of people! (See D. Cook's report below.) Betsy Weaver is
assuming duties as the Core Optics Support (COS) liaison at LHO and starts
reporting on COS activity at Hanford this week.
 

For trivia fans, last year 200 tons of tumbleweed were baled at LIGO
Hanford Observatory.
 

Facilities:
-----------
O. Matherny
 

Water System modification: Apollo is 82% complete with the water
modification project. The 8000 gallon tank was transported back to the
factory for re work. It is scheduled to be back on site on 2-16-99.
 

New staging Building: George Grant Construction Company is installing the
conduit bank from the transformer to the building. In addition they started
on the outside concrete work.
 

Compressors: We are in process of trying to get our money back from
Kaser, since they guaranteed that we will never get any oil in our air
lines. Kaser is asking many non relevant questions. It seems they would
like to wiggle out of their guarantee.
 
 

Bake Oven:
----------
(K. Ryan)
 

LHO Vacuum Bake Oven A loads #14 (rebake of one 10" and two 3" optics) and
load #15 (three HAM bellows + misc silver plated fasteners) were released
this week. There was no evidence of the "mysterious" discoloration of
silver plated parts in either of these two loads (see last week's report).
It is therefore safe to assume that the source of the discoloration was
likely not the copper gaskets as previously surmised but rather one of the
parts comprising load #13.
 

Bartie has taken ownership of the Vacuum Bake Oven room and has already
made some real world improvements. This week he purchased and installed
glassware drying racks around the sink area, added a "user friendly" hand
held water sprayer (big improvement over preexisting faucet) and installed
an additional electrical panel which will house three additional variacs.
He has begun to demonstrate his ability to oversee most of the routine
operations and, in doing so, has freed me up to revisit some of the data
integrity issues I've been needing to address.
 

Throughout loads #1 thru #14 I was never able to maximize the RGA
sensitivity to approach the advertised value (partial pressures of
5E-13 torr). I would get either one of two errors when trying to maximize
the electron multiplier gain (1E6). Discussions with the manufacture
(Stanford Research Systems) revealed a possible glitch in the code of the
PC software. To get around this, they had me defeat the PC software via
command line interface. Using this approach, I was finally able to get the
RGA gain up to ~800,000 (up from ~245,000). This improved the signal to
noise ratio by a factor of about 500 and, starting with load #15, we can
now quantify partial pressures which had previously been buried in the
noise. As such, I will now be routinely subtracting out the background
signal from the post-bake scans (previously the background signals were
buried in the noise).
 
 

Seismic Isolation Installation:
-------------------------------
(C. Gray, H. Radkins)
 

HAM work
 
This week was moderately quiet for HAM work. Leveling/elevation setting
for HAM9 Optics completed. There is still a minor fix which needs to be
done on the electrical cabling for HAM9, but this just depends on some
parts being cleaned.
 

We received the Optics Table for HAM10 and a crate of recleaned Leg
Elements.
 

Corey assisted/observed MMT3 installation/alignment.
 

BSC work
 

Dome for BSC8 was removed. It was a fairly tricky manuever mainly because
of clearance issues, a touchy crane and a tight fitting clean room roof; we
were able to remove the Dome with the Clean Room legs at their "longest
setting". Working platforms which attach to the dome flange were fit
checked (two platforms needed to be modified), and four bellows work
platforms were installed.
 

Shipment of DownTube, Support Tubes, Leg Elements, and other components
were received. There are a few items we are still waiting for to begin
installation work, namely a custom made spreader bar (available next
Tuesday), and a new clean room sock/roof (available next week as well).
 

IAS
 

The MMT3 optic was placed on HAM7 2-10 and aligned.  This may be revisited
after full electronics control is enabled.
 
 

Optics & Lasers:
----------------
(D. Cook)
 

Thanks to everyone who helped with all the separate operations needed to
install the MMT3 optic into HAM 7. We also have a few new people that
gained experience with one phase or another in handling and processing the large
optics. The learning curve of the first attempt helped us to successfully
install and align MMT3 to it's global coordinates in HAM7. The actuators
were tested and dampening was achieved. We will be checking table
elevations and adjusting heights as there is a possibility of slight
changes when the counterweights and optics are exchanged. We will be
prepping the Recycling Mirror and hopefully installing and aligning it into
HAM 9 by Tuesday. We will use the same process that was followed for MMT3.
The Input Test Mass will be the next Core Optic to come alive at Hanford.
The IOO optics will start to be placed into HAMs 7 & 8 on Friday. This
includes several Small Optic Suspensions and steering mirrors as well as
the Faraday isolator. The IOO baffle will hopefully be set in place today
or tomorrow. We are documenting changes and variances from the original plans.
 

Core Optics Support:
--------------------
(B. Weaver)
 

A month into my new job here at LIGO, and I suppose it's time I become a
member of the weekly reporters. In the last few weeks, I have been
familiarizing myself with the core optics and the many procedures that come
with them. The team of people that work with these optics have been kind
enough to let me observe and participate in the handling, cleaning,
suspending, balancing, and transport of a large optic.  It's been a great
experience so far!
 

I received the parts and pieces of the COS IO Baffle about three weeks ago
and spent some time cleaning them and getting them ready for Kyle's bake.
They completed their bake last week and were moved out into the softwall
enclosure surrounding HAMs 8 and 9. While continuing my involvement in
lending a hand to the COC group, I have cleared a work space for the
assembly of the baffle and am prepared to do the assembly today (2/11) with
the help of Corey. The baffle will hopefully be installed later today or
tomorrow. The baffle installation must be completed before other
installations to Ham 8 can proceed.
 

Computing Systems:
------------------
(C. Patton)
 

We now have AutoCAD 14 working on both Guest computers in the OSB common
area.  I replaced the broken ZIP drive on the Guest 1 computer and
bought another ZIP drive which will be installed in the Guest 3 computer
in the Computer User's room.
 

The backup tapes for both General Computing and CDS are now being stored
in a fireproof file cabinet in the Comms/Server room.  I have started
learning how to install and setup the Livingston Communication router
and modems for our modem pool.  I have started learning how to programm
the Cisco router to provide security for our T1 line connections.
 

One P5-90 PC is ready to go into the LVEA for general computing users.
The other one has a bad hard drive, which may not be replaceable, I'm
looking into it.  Larry Wallace is planning to send more P5-90 PCs up
here to be put in the Mid and End stations for general computing users.
 
 

Electronics/Electrical Systems:
-------------------------------
(R. McCarthy)
 

The cable tray for the Seismic Isolation controls have been installed
around all the BSC's.  This is to allow for the multiplexing of
controllers.  There will now be two racks for the controllers and routing
the cables became an issue.  We are now prepared to install the cables.
 

The Shutoff button for the PSL has been extended to the control room.  This
will allow the laser to be turned off in the event of an emergency without
going into the LVEA. This also provided me an opportunity to bring the
laser up from scratch for the first time.  Thank you Peter King.
 

Thanks to Jay Heefner for his assistance in getting the MMT3 suspension
controller operating.  CDS can now control MMT3 from EPICS.
 
 

Beam-Tube Bake Out:
-------------------
(M. Lubinski, M. Guenther, and W. Althouse)
 

The bake out of X1 is going very well, and  we are currently raising tube
wall temperature to 168 C.  We shut down the bake Tuesday (2/9/99) to
regenerate the Cryopumps at all the ports along the tube and temperature
dropped from 159.81 to 79.43 .  We regenerated the cryopumps at ports X1-1
and 9 with out shutting down power and with these regenerations we will be
able to complete the bake.
 

The weather at Hanford have been very breezy (sustained winds of 50 to 60
MPH) with gusts up to 70 MPH as recorded from the bakeout weather station.
The tumble weed population along the X1 arm has increased by 100 bales.
 

A pre bid conference was held at the Livingston site for the insulation of
the beam tube for all contractors who may submit a bid.
 


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations



 
 
Optics & Vacuum Labs: (Jonathan Kern): The Culligan RO/DI system is producing 12/15 meg-ohm water. Better but still not up to the 18 meg-ohm value in Hanford. Given Doug's experience, this appears to be caused by residual contamination and looks like it is cleaning itself as the system operates. The 24x30' Laser Safety Enclosure for the LVEA was ordered Tuesday. The 5x16' PSL table has been moved from the staging building to the LVEA; we're waiting on some spreader bars Rich has on order to hoist it into position. Yesterday we received from Paul Kabot drawings necessary for the initial placement of the PSL table. I have also located an opthalmologist willing to perform the baseline eye exams, and we'll begin scheduling LLO staff in the near future. Air-Tech reports that the balance of the lab hardware, as well as the LVEA worktables will be here EOM. Randy finally installed the tile where the threshold plates had been removed, and we'll have a crew of temps performing the final cleaning of the walls and cabinets ASAP.

Vacuum Equipment (Allen Sibley): We have received the parts to install the RGA for VE baseline measurements
and are in the process of assembling them.  Approximately one half of the bake blankets used by PSI, pumps, leak
detector and miscellaneous parts have been shipped from LLO to LHO. They should arrive 2/15 in Hanford.
We are preparing the vacuum prep oven for its first load of bellows to support detector installation.

Beam tube bakeout preparation (Cecil Frankin, Kerry Stiff): We completed 800 ft of temporary lighting within the BTE for the pre-bid job walk held 2/10. Four potential insulation contractors attended the job walk. Ed Jasnow and Bill Althouse were also present for the job walk.

Electrical Engineering (Juilien Svoboda, Russ Wooley):
Fiber Optic Cable Installation: The contractor has finished the beam tube section. They are having difficulty getting a bigger  trenching machine to re-dig the trenches. (The old trenches they dug earlier have been destroyed by the rain). The final test date will be postponed to next week. The ATM ethernet switches have been installed at both end stations. Once they are ready to feed the cables through, we will be ready to test and set up the network system at both end stations.
EE Lab: I have ordered a big wall storage unit and some more tools. This should help our lab storage problem in the future.
LVEA network: I have rewired and checked the software connection between the CDS server and each VME controller boards. They work well.
VME Test stand Setup: Some software packages are installed in the SUN to help the test setup. Due to disk space problems, we have to install in a different area versus the default. So far we are having trouble making a good link to this software.
Control Room Cabling: Two 6" cable trays are now installed from the Mass Storage Room through the Control Room and into the Computer Room. They are lacking the splice kits which are on order. MCA is still a week away from being ready to test the fiber and copper cables. Russ will perform a walkdown of the x and y arms tomorrow.
LVEA CDS Installation: The 10 CDS racks that are required for the x arm have been set and will be bolted down to the floor by the end of this week.

Anthony Rizzi: A. Rizzi, Tom Evans and Mike Werda have successfully installed Linux on a 16 Gigabyte hard drive on one of the PC's. The second disk now needs to be setup to allow Windows 98 to be run as an alternate operating system. The PEM cart computer is now fully on the Network; it can be seen by the Network as well as see the Network. The PEM cart cable has been ordered by Bonnie.The end-to-end model is now completely on the Sun. It has been successfully tested from the Sun, but is not available over the network yet. There is a known bug associated with running over the network with Exceed for the PC. Tom Evans is in process of setting up one of our new Sun's as a Sun file server, so that the end-to-end model can be operated remotely from a Sun until the Exceed bug is solved. Tom Evans has installed Solaris 5.6 onto the test-bed Sun in the room across from the control room.

Facilities (Gerry Stapfer): The Environmental Protection Agency of Louisiana inspected our domestic water system. Their reading of the rules and regulation is that if 25 or more persons are on the premises, the drinking water system becomes a quasi public system and is subject to inspection. He found a few minor items in addition to the chlorinating system which has not yet been connected by
Bernhard. He will write up an inspection report documenting his findings, but told me not to worry about anything, that we are in "fine shape".The sewage treatment plant has been modified to provide a better quality discharge water. This involved the readjustment of floats which operate the lift station, decreasing the batch size which gets treated. About one half of the Vacuum system bake out blankets and sundry pumps and equipment have been shipped to Hanford. This alleviated some of our overcrowding of the staging and storage building.

Other: Photographers from  the National Geographic were at LLO Feb.7-9 to take pictures for a theme issue about exploring the very large and very small which will come out this October. We took advantage of their being here as an opportunity to invite the local high school year book club out to LIGO for a lecture by the lead photographer, Joe McNally. Joe did a wonderful job showing slides of his work and telling about his experiences in photojournalism.
Mark Coles visited La Tech Univ in Ruston, LA on Feb. 10 and gave the Physics Colloquium there. La Tech has received the RefTek data acquisition system from Hanford and will come to LLO on 2/15 to begin making trial measurements.
 


WBS 1.2, 1.3    Detector Group


40 m Interferometer (Nergis Mavalvala)
---------------------------------------
 

Shark was "mended" and we were able to pump down over the
weekend. Thanks to Anthony R, Phil W and Alan W for help with
the vent and pumpdown. And to Rick S and Larry W for successful
surgical maneuvers on the 40m vacuum controls computer.
 

The mirror cleaning appears NOT to have removed the terrible
blemish on the South End mirror and scanning the beam over the
surface of that mirror we are able to find the bad spot again.
Away from the bad spot, visibility of about 14% is measured.
Similar ~13% visibility is measured for the east arm.
 

The windmills work well and are already proving useful.The
windmills are picomotor-driven beam stops, apertures or optical
loss elements which can be rotated in and out of the beam path
(like the arms of a windmill). They were made by Jamie Rollins,
our UMich visitor.
 

Despite our earlier concerns, the in-vacuum Pockels cell (PC) is
healthy and previously measured throughput was recovered with
input alignment. We are now realigning rest of the ifo since PC
alignment changes the input beam direction.
 

----------------------------------------------
Interferometer Sensing and Control -- M Zucker
(WBS 1.2.1.1.6, 1.2.1.1.7)
----------------------------------------------

Interferometer sense/control (Zucker)
-------------------------------------
 

Site delivery/installation status:
----------------------------------
IOT7 QA and in situ alignment     3/8 (start)
ISC cleanroom installation @ LHO    2/22 through 3/5
ISC table assembly parts/tools/fixtures 3/5
ISCT7 assembly @ LHO         3/8 through 3/26
2k ITM, ETM optical lever supports  3/8
ISCT9, 10          4/1-5/30 (approx.)
 

Initial Alignment and  ISC Tables (K. Mason, M. McInnes)
--------------------------------------------------------
The ISCT-7 assembly drawing was completed and placed on the Caltech ftp
site at /pub/kmason/D980493-A-S1.pdf and D980493-A-S2.pdf for review.
 

A drawing of the optical lever grout plate locations for Louisiana was
created and sent to prevent interference with BSC grouting.
 

A new procedure was developed to align MMT3 to eliminate translations
which were believed to be the cause of error during the alignment trial
of MMT3 in Hanford.
 
 

ISC Implementation (P. Fritschel)
---------------------------------
o Continued working on the control screens and associated code for
the ASC system.
 

o Finalized the layout of ISCT7 (reflection port sensing table) with
Ken. We set up another laminar flow bench to begin assembling optical
components for this table, using parts previously received for the
IOT tables.
 
 

ISC Implementation (N. Mavalvala)
------------------------------------
Drafted a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for operation of the
100 mW ISC alignment laser (Crystal Laser) in the LVEA.
 

ISC Supervisory Control Software (Ed Daw)
------------------------------------------
This week I got the isc supervisory hardware
working at MIT again - my ddcu code from Hanford
now contains hooks that allow you to compile it
to run without a working data acquisition system
attached. Also, I re-configured the MIT VME
crates so all the target processors are on
a private subnet. I have started incorporating the
newly updated header files for the DAQ and ISC front
end reflective memory layouts into the isc supervisory
code.
 
 
 

-------------------------------------------
Lasers and Optics -- J. Camp
(1.2.1.1.2, 1.2.1.1.3, 1.2.1.1.4,1.2.1.1.5)
--------------------------------------------
 

Prestabilized Laser -- Peter King
--------------------------------------------
 

- The intensity stabilization AOM has been sent back to the manufacturer,
along with the analog driver and rf amplifier, for checking.
 

- A new PZT is under test for new versions of the PMC.  The PZT is
capable of moving approximately 5 microns for 150 V.  The test is to see if
the PZT stack bends under load when driven.  An initial test indicated that
there was some bending.  However another test, performed well after the
drying period of the epoxy used to adhere a mirror to the PZT, did not
indicate any signs of bending.  The new PZT has a few other desirable
characteristics, such as a low capacitance and high resonance frequency.
 

- Orders for the remaining electronic items needed for the PSL servo cards
have been placed.
 

- A drawing of the IOO/PSL optical table position for the 4k IFO has been
checked.  The coordinates given in the drawing were found to be consistent
with each other.
 
 
 
 

Input/Output Optics -- Dave Reitze, UF
-----------------------------------------
 

Task                  Current Completion Date
__________________________________________________
PSL IOO installation
    - optics on table               complete
    - periscope on table            complete
    - beam alignment                complete
    - beam characterization         in progress (2/15)
 

Vacuum Prep
    - suspensions                   complete
    - nonsuspended optics           complete
    - suspended small optics        inprogress (2/15)
    - suspended MMT3                complete
 

In Vacuum Optics Installation           in progress (MMT3, several SOS)
 

In Vacuum Alignment        2/20
 

Mode Cleaner Characterization     4/15
------------------------------------------------
 

Installation -
 

More Radii of curvature measurements -  Stan, Malik, Qi-Ze, and Hugh
measured the RC of several of the 3" optics via geometrical focusing.  The
separation distance was measured using a Theodolite, white light
illuminator, a target and a microscope. Multiple readings from different
people were used to obtain an average RC and error estimation.  Sources of
error include: distances to each end from the instrument (0.002m
each),locations of the prism (0.002m each), focus point reading on the
rail on which the target and the image plane are moving together.
 

Results:
 

MMT3
To check if the ROC of MMT3 was uniform across the entire clear aperture,
the spare MMT3 was measured again with with a 3" aperture.
    a) For whole aperture, R=25.019+/-0.005m. (Previous measurement
       gave 25.030+/-0.015).
        b) For 3" aperture, R=25.004+/-0.006m.
This has negligible effect on mode-matching and can be compensated by a
1.5 cm repositioning of MMT2.
 

MMT12k02-1
a)Whole aperture, R=11.334+/-0.006m,
b)1" aperture, R=11.330+/-0.016m.
MCCM2k01-1.
Whole aperture only, but the coating is apertured, R=21.406+/-0.019m.
 

Optics Preparation -
 

The magnets continue to cause problems after baking: MCCM2k02-1 and
MCFM01-1 were baked with MMT3 and came out of oven late Sunday. First run
of cleaning did not produce a wetted HR surface so we decided to repeat
the process. One magnet fell off in final rinsing, and one fell off
after the rinse. Helena is heading up a tiger team to address
this problem. To increase the throughput, we are running spares of all
optics through the entire preparation procedure with the hope that one of
the optics will survive....
 

Diagnostics Installation -
 

Sany set the optical spectrum analyzer at the designed location on the PSS
table.  We installed a new version of the Shack-Hartmann wavefront
sensor's software, and reconfigured accordingly.
 
 

Core Optics Procurement and Metrology -- GariLynn Billingsley
-------------------------------------------------------------
 

Measurement of FM01 at 0 and 45 degrees has shown agreement along a
vertical data line to within the measurement noise of +/-2nm peak to
valley.  We have measurements at 0 and 90 degrees rotation in the 45
degree configuration.  We are completing the measurement of FM01 at 0,
45, 90 and 180 degrees rotation in the normal incidence configuration.
The optic will be handed off to Steve Bell for cleaning and is expected
to ship by 17 February.
 

Core Optics Coatings -- Helena Armandula
--------------------------------------------------

Helena is on travel at REO monitoring the coating of 4 beamsplitters and
2 4KITM's.
 

Core Optics Support -- Michael Smith
------------------------------------
 

Mike is on travel to LLO.
 

--------------------------
Isolation Group -- M. Fine
--------------------------
 
 

Seismic Design (Mike Fine)
--------------------------------------
1. Coarse Actuator Components:
Hand Precision has completed all of the Air Bearing Mounting Plates for the
floating stage and have begun the Air Bearing Mounting Plates for the
driven stages.  This includes all of the mounting plates for both
facilities.  Hand Precision has also begun manufacturing the flexural pivot
assemblies for all of the actuated BSC's.  However, the flexural pivot
assemblies will not be ready for the 2nd and 3rd BSC assemblies.  They will
be ready for all subsequent assemblies.
 

2. Rack Assembly
Rack wiring has been completed.  Hytec installed the multiplexer trays and
computer into the rack.  Hytec has connected AC power to the rack and
verified correct operation of the AC power switching relays. Hytec is
currently testing the rack electronics and debugging as necessary.
 

3. Near-Term SEI Hardware Delivery Schedule:
Coiled springs (ER and EL, 30 ea; NR and RL, 80 ea)        2/17/99*
BSC leg screws and washers (Hanford)                       2/17/99*
2nd set of BSC in-vacuo hardware (Handord)                 2/26/99*
3rd set of BSC in-vacuo hardware (Hanford)                 2/26/99*
BSC SEI rack (Hanford)                                     2/26/99*
1 set HAM in-vacuo hardware (Livingston)                   3/5/99
7 BSC bellows (Livingston)                                 2/26/99*
8 HAM bellows (MIT)                                        3/5/99*
 

*new date
 

Suspension -- (Janeen Hazel/Mark Barton/Mike Fine)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. SUS Hardware Delivery:
SUS Structure Delivery Dates: [numbers in parentheses are quantities.]
LOS1(for ETM, ITM, MMT): 2/10(2), 2/12(2), 3/1(2), 3/8(2), 3/17(1)
LOS2(for BS): 2/15(2), 2/28(1)
LOS3(for FM): 2/12(1), 2/22(1), 2/28(1)
 
 

---------------------------------------------------------
Detector Systems Engineering -- D. Shoemaker/D Coyne
(WBS 1.2.1.1.9)
---------------------------------------------------------
 

Global Diagnostics System
(Daniel Sigg, John Zweizig)
 

John Zweizig
 

I discussed of the representation of times in the LIGO analysis software with
Walid and Dave. I then wrote a preliminary implementation of a C++ time class
and put it out for comments. This will hopefully be improved and agreed upon,
after which a C implementation can be derived from it.
 

I discussed the interfaces between the data monitoring and CDS (Network
Data Service and Alarm Management) with Rolf et al.
 

I started to rewrite a (hopefully final) version of the data distribution
code for the data monitor tool. This differs from the prototype system in
that the frame access will use the new FrameCPP library rather than Fcl,
and the data pusher will receive data from the Network Data Server in frame
format rather than having to translate from the CDS proprietary format.
The change in frame libraries is because FrameCPP allows an easier and more
standard interface to the shared memory buffers and because the upgrading
and maintenance of FrameCPP will be driven by LDAS. At present I have
implemented the shared memory interface classes and I am testing them with
the new FrameCPP code in the Data Pusher application. Once the data
distribution is working in this mode, I will implement the frame interface
to the NDS.
 

Daniel Sigg
 

Continued to work on documenting the arbitrary waveform generator, the test
point interface and the diagnostics interface.
 

Talked wit Rolf B. about the implementation of a GUI for the arbitrary waveform
generator.
 

Updated the DAQ channel list.
 
 
 

Physics Environment Monitoring (M. Smith, D. Shoemaker, A. Marin)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

    1.No change on the delivery schedule which is posted at :
       http://web.mit.edu/marin/www/PEM_Delivery.html
 

    2. In the middle of March, if the delivery schedule is respected,
we plan to start the instalation of the seismometers at both sites. In
paralel, the tiltmeters will be instaled in the PEM stay clear zones.
    3. Also in the middle of March, the accelerometer interface plates
will be installed, starting with the 2km IFO tanks.
    4. At LHO two RGA are now installed on HAM 11 and BSC 8. Most of the
hardware for two more RGA has been prepared or ordered.
    5. The RGA hardware for LLO HAM5 installation has been shipped.
Also an dedicated RGA PC for LLO has been ordered, expected deliver March 1.
    6. Toghether with Daniel Sigg, Rich McCarthy, Rick Savage, Rolf we
are working on the PEM final channel count and cable installation plan at
LHO.
 
 

Optical Contamination (Daqun Li)
--------------------------------
 

After weeks of preparations, CO2 cleaning qualification has been
started with one of our contamination cavities in vaccum. The
pre-qualified cavity mirrors were given CO2 blast over the entire
surfaces (both HR and AR) for more than ten times, then the mirrors
were put back into the cavity undertaking vacuum pumping. The initial
ringdown and mode spacing measurements from these mirrors, cleaned
with CO2 snow, did not reveal any additional losses beyond the
measurement repeatability (10 ppm in total loss and 1 ppm in absorption
loss) due to cavity disassembly and reassembly. I am planning to
continue to monitor the data for at least one week to see whether or
not the losses will stay stably.
 

Still taking ringdown and mode spacing data from cavity two with air
baked steel with no contamination observed. The air baked steel can
be concluded acceptable in LIGO and this cavity will soon be used to
requalify the second set of viton.
 

-----------------------------------------
Control and Data System -- R. Bork
(WBS 1.2.2)
-------------------------------------------
 

Control Area/Networking - Hanford
=============================
- Pulled fiber for ATM into control room for connection to remaining operator
stations.
-  Large screen projector arrived; temporarily running on desk top until
installer mounts on ceiling in about two weeks.
 

Data Acquisition - Hanford
=====================
- Latest software installed and tested; all code now being put under
configuration control as release 1.0.
- Will start taking data continuously on EPICS channels and 2k signals in 2X3
(Suspensions) and 2X5 (presently just seismometer & tiltmeter)  sometime
today or tomorrow.
- Waiting for definitive list of signals to be acquired by data collection
unit in 2X5 to complete drawing and signal connections.
 

Diagnostics
==========
- Met with D. Sigg on requirements for Arbitrary Waveform Generator GUI to be
developed by CDS group.


WBS 1.4    Project Office



 

 1.4.1.2 Project Controls (Lindquist)


Reports, Proposals, Work Plans (Lindquist)

The few comments received regarding the Annual Report have been incorporated, and I am waiting for Gary's go-ahead to forward it to the NSF.  A draft Work
Plan for the remaining $200,000 of Construction funds has also been prepared for Gary's review.  We are preparing a request for a no-cost extension to the FY 1997 Advanced R&D Grant which expired October 31.


Change Control (Lindquist)

The following change request has been submitted:
 

CR-990001 WBS 1.3 Return Unused Budget for Construction Related R&D to Contingency P. Lindquist

A meeting of the LIGO Change Control Board was held as a part of the normally scheduled Project Controls Meeting on Monday, February 8, 1998.  Meeting minutes have been distributed.  The following Change Requests were approved:

 
CR-990002 WBS 1.1.1 Purchase Residual PSI Materials and Equipment J. Worden
CR-990003 WBS 1.2.1 Interferometer Systems and Integration Engineering - Cable Tray Contracts D. Coyne
 


LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Jasnow)

The last Site Telecon was held Thursday, January 14, 1999. The open action list is as follows:
 
Action No. Description Responsibility Assigned Date Due Date
17 Louisiana Road Access M. Coles/G. Stapfer October 8, 1998 January 28, 1999
19 Consider Lawsuit Against Panel Manufacturer at Livingston R. Pool/E. Jasnow October 15, 1998 January 28, 1999
21 Letterhead and Business Cards for Sites F. Raab/M. Coles November 5, 1998 February 18, 1999
25 Check on Overhead for B&O Taxes E. Jasnow January 14, 1999 CLOSED
26 Provide Detail on Amount Contained in Equipment Line in FY 1999 Budget F. Raab/M. Coles January 14, 1999 CLOSED
27 Acquire Design for Site Signs P. Lindquist/E. Jasnow January 28, 1999 April 15, 1999
28 Requirements for Site Dedication Support M. Coles/F. Raab January 28, 1999 November 4, 1999

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>

No report.


DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner)

From: the DCC <dcc@ligo.caltech.edu>

STATISTICS

ACTIVITIES
COST SCHEDULE CONTROL SYSTEMS (Duncan, Rianda, Leonhardt, Akutagawa, Kaufman)

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@acrux.ligo.caltech.edu>

The CIT monthly status reports have arrived and I am working on my regular monthly reports along with my usual troubleshooting.

From: "Britt Leonhardt (T)" <brittl@FINANCE.caltech.edu>

No report.
 
From: Kris Duncan <kris@ligo.caltech.edu> From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>

No report.


SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@acrux.ligo.caltech.edu>


TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT (Althouse)

From: wea@acrux (William Althouse)

No report. See Bake out.


1.4.2.1 Quality Assurance (Tyler)

From: "William H. Tyler" <tyler_w@ligo.caltech.edu>

Nothing significant to report this reporting period.
 


WBS 1.4.3    Systems Engineering / Data Analysis and Computing


LIVINGSTON OPTOMECHANICAL LAYOUTS
    Optomechanical Integrated Layout is being put together.Tentative
completion is estimated to be 2/16/99.

INPUT OPTICS (IO) BAFFLE
    The majority of the details and assembly are completed. Minor
dimensioning of a  couple of parts and completion of assembly bills of material is
scheduled to be completed and released by 2/22/99.

ITM/ETM ARM CAVITY BAFFLE
    Design is nearly complete for this baffle which will used in the X &
Y arms, both n the vertex & the end stations. Detailing with materials lists &
release documents  should start by 2/24/99.

RELIABILITY
Visited with CDS ISC/LSC people to determine design status.
Installation/Integration of other observatory subsystems continues to take
a priority.  The CDS Groups priority at this time is the installation of
the Input Optics support systems.  They estimate that it will be another
4-6 weeks before they start seriously attacking the ISC/LSC design.


Modeling

Adlib

Biplab made triangular cavities, both by primitive mirrors and by
adiabatic approximation. They agreeded each other. Soon, the model will be
compared with the pre-mode cleaner measurements.

Hiro made Frequency Shifter and other modules were developed for the
modeling of PSL.

More generic detector shape is now supported.

Alfi

Add_Macro is supported now. When Adlib is updated to support this verb,
macro symbol can be used, in stead of typing numerical numbers directly
repeatedly.

The use of transparent Bitmap made it happen, under certain conditions,
that the icon is not properly drawn. Anthony Rizzi reported this problem,
and Ed has decided to fix it.

Several bugs were fixed.

Optics modeling

Hiro discussed with Jordan and Mike abbout the phase map measurements.

e2e software installation

The e2e programs on the Livingston site has been updated to the latest.
Hanford and Florida will be updated soon.
 

Data Analysis

     * (JKB) met with Phil to discuss command flow control
       for the assistant managers in the ManagerAPI. This
       resulted in a proposal for a little proto-demo to
       illustrate the managerAPI's role with the LDAS API's.
 
     * (JKB) interviewed several software engineering candidates
       for LDAS. Several good possibilities if we can reel them in.
 
     * (JKB) finished the first rough draft of the dataConditioningAPI
       baseline requirements document. Should be in the DCC this week.
 
     * (JKB) met with Xiao to design LDAS Event Tables. This is very
       preliminary work which will require a broader set of inputs.
 
     * (JKB) met with the Database design team within LDAS to discuss
       status of the metadataAPI implementation and table designs. A
       WEBbase interface to the DB2 tables on Bill is being developed
       by (BK).
 
     * (JKB) met with AL and TP to discuss CACR related issues. For
       example, IBM has mentioned to KB an interest in a future SUR
       proposal.
 
     * (JKB) attended an LSC-ASIS meeting to discuss standing on actions
       within the group and the writing of the White Paper for the LSC.

     * (PSE) migrated the service validation routines (these
       are the functions which determine whether requested
       services are valid within the context of a given API.
       Services include access to API's, machine sockets,
       specialised interpreters, etc.) into a single call.
       This functional group is a part of all of the API's
       communication code.  This migration was made to
       minimise code duplication and to standardise the
       format of the return values for all procedures requiring
       validation of service calls.
 
     * (PSE) began coding a functional "demo" per Kent's
       request.  This demo will make use of all the functionality
       of the generic and manager API's to process simple data
       requests with logging and monitoring of processes and
       communications enabled.
 
     * (DF) Completed beta version of the FrameCPP library.
 
     * (DF) Ported ObjectSpace to run on Solaris with the egcs compiler.
 
     * (DF) Implemented method to getAttributes/Data in the Frame API.
 
     * (DF) Converted internal LDAS light-weight data format to use
       namespaces.
 
     * (DF) I am in the process of adding the LdasContainer object to
       the genericAPI, this object is used by the Frame API as well
       (to return data sets).

(BK)
- Had a brief meeting with Rolf Bork about databases for their channel
configurations and for slow channel data.
- Began work on a WebBase interface for the LDAS DB2 database.  Met with Roy
Williams who set up a working environment on Bill computer at CACR.

* XHU worked on GDS trigger database
        The tables in the GDS tables include:
                datasource
                fpgeneric
                fpftt
                filter
                transformeddata
                ppgeneric
                program
                triggers
        One problem with the GDS tables is that each filter
        and each program has its own parameter list. As a result,
        the filter parameters and program parameters cannot be
        put into a single table. After extensive discussion with
        JohnZ, Kent and Ed, we decided to classify filters and
        programs so that each filter and program will have its own
        parameter table. I also studied the possible database access
        scenarios and how they can be handled by SQL. More filter
        parameter tables and program parameter tables will be
        constructed soon when JohnZ finish the filter and program
        classification.
* XHU worked on LDAS log database
        LDAS log tables are constructed with the help of Phil Ehrens.
 
Anderson:

Configured new server for Beowulf cluster, and replaced faulty disk drive
in the cluster. Started work on configuring a newer version of Linux to
better support the multiple processor (SMP) systems we have.

Lazzarini:

Worked on reviewing programmer resumes for hiring 2 programmers.

Met with Wallace on planning meetings with PNNL on vBNS for LHO and with LSU for
vBNS for LLO.

Working to complete PDR document for LDAS. I have asked D. Shoemaker to chair PDR and he has accepted.

Bruce Allen joins us as a visitor for ~6 months starting this week.

Met with Weiss to discuss the agenda for an upcoming LDAS-LSC meeting at Caltech on 26 February.
 


General Computing


MIT:

Nothing to report
 

Livingston:

Setting up a meeting for Feb. 22 with LSU and Bell South concerning the fiber
installation at the Observatory.



Hanford:

Now has two working copies of AutoCAD 14 on the guest computers.
 

One of the P5-90 PCs is ready to go into the LVEA, just waiting for help
to get it moved over the beam tube.  The other P5-90 PC has a bad hard
drive.  Christene is looking into replacing the hard drive.

Christene replaced a broken ZIP drive in one of the guest computers.  Purchased
more network cables, spare keyboard, spare monitor and a spare ZIP
drive. Purchased and setup a fireproof file cabinet for storage of the
backup tapes.

Larry has been running some tests to get the e-mail server on-line. Checking
with Caltech to make sure the DNS tables are correct.

CIT:

Barbara finished Y2K edits for DCC database.  System will allow entry of
dates/yearsbetween 1979 and 2029.  Added functions for sorting document numbers
and yearfields correctly.  Changed reports to use new sorting functions.  All
DCCchanges (for Y2K and for repairing keyword and author tables) need to be
tested by Linda and then installed in production.

Worked on web page for as-built drawings.  Because there are so many drawings
(~700), the web pages will be generated by a Visual Basic procedure written
against the DCC database.  Changed the procedure to incorporate most recent
changes requested by Fred Asiri.

Installed quick changes to web site for upcoming LSC meeting.

Suresh  Working on new mail server with qmail. Now that mail can be sent and
received by both the Sun boxes and PCs. Still work to be done on aliases and
other items before putting it online.
Resolved couple of PC related problems. Moved some users to different home
directories in order to make room for the existing home directories.
Some paperwork on purchases.

Sean has been working on getting things setup for the LIGO unit replacement
which will not be too soon since there have been some major problems with the
existing unit.
Worked with Larry, Rick and Steve in getting the computer in the 40M back
on-line.

Samantha installed a couple more PC's. We have an epidemic of old PC's having
major hardware problems. There will be a number of units shifted around as we
trickle the units down. Larry and Suresh have been assisting in a number of the
of the moves and installs.

Working on a number of purchases and reorganizing the computer room to
accommodate the server replacements.


WBS 1.4.4.1    Administrative Group


Rita Torres

For I. Petrac did PC291438 with University of Pisa for R&D of low frequency seismic attenuation chains. Distributed MIT change order No. 1 on the new PX number. Did change order No. 29 to the previous MIT number -- a special circumstance. Did change order No. 4 to Innovative Data Processing.

Shuffled meetings on the calendar to accommodate two separate meetings (and telecons) for Detector and SEI Installation. The LLO installation will be discussed on Monday mornings, and LHO will be done per usual on Tuesday mornings. Updated LHO and LLO trips on the website. Lately this has required my contacting individuals to obtain details (I. Baldon has information for some).

For P. Lindquist, distributed minutes to CCB that took place on 2/8/99.

Helped I. Baldon copy travel documents.

For W. Tyler/M. Zydowicz did more updates to Safety Manual. The manual is now 43 pages, from the original 57 pages. Emailed additional pages for M. Zydowicz review. Arranged for eye exam and broader laser training for T. Prince.

 

Irene Baldon

Worked on preparing the paperwork for various new trips taken recently (18 Purchase Requisitions and 15 Advance Requests). There are 11 additional new trips pending completion of travel arrangements. Completed 24 Expense Reports. Some of these were still not taped or completed by the Traveler. Received in the late afternoon mail (yesterday Feb. 10th) 8 new Expense Reports and 5 this morning. These will be completed today, or tomorrow at the latest, and sent out for approval and then forwarded to Travel Audit. I am still experiencing a large influx of expense checks which requires recording, filing and distribution to the individual traveler.

I pulled 124 individual 1998 travel folders, sorted, cleaned out, and sent them to DCC for permanent storage and made up the 1999 folders for these same travelers. There are still 17 folders to be completed. These are folders containing Visitors, Job Applicants, Consultants, and various conferences.

Prepared Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of February 8th, 1999.

Performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of the LIGO Project here at Caltech, as well as for members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites.

 

Dorothy Lloyd

Continued to work on heavy load of paperwork with problems needing to be resolved, and processed many invoices and receivers for payment.

Processed the usual heavy load of purchase requisitions, POs, change orders, etc.

Managed to do a little data entry and work a little on reconciling the status reports.

Continued to monitor and support the temp.

 

Elizabeth K. Wood

Made space arrangements for visitors. Also contacted the phone office about getting Phil Lindquist's extension moved to his new office on the third floor of West Bridge and a second new extension for the outer office. I don’t know when the lines will be moved; things are in a state of chaos in the phone office.

I will be sending a memo over to the Caltech bookstore updating them with the new LIGO charge account numbers.

Dealt with the usual personnel and PAN form issues.
 


For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu