Weekly Report for Week Ending February 16, 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 22, 1999 will be:

CANCELLED


Special Announcements:


Weekly Report Highlights
 
 Installation of IO halted at LHO due to fiber contamination in HAM chambers
 
LHO X1 bake about done

LLO installation in LVEA is starting

Fluorine contamination on optics surfaces?


LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations



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

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. The tank arrived on 2-17-99 and is installed in
position.

New staging Building: Fifty percent of the outside concrete work is
complete. All the steel shop drawings are approved. The steel building is
scheduled to be here in four weeks.

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. No progress this week.
 

Bake Oven:
----------
(K. Ryan)

LHO Vacuum Bake Oven A load #16 consisting of three BSC bellows, four BSC
bellows removal yoke bars and eight custom stainless steel shims, has
completed its vacuum bake but won't be unloaded until tomorrow. Load #17
consisting of three BSC bellows will begin baking tomorrow and should be
completed by Monday.

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

Quiet week on the HAM front. There is a small fixture for cabling in HAM 9
which has been cleaned, but this won't be installed until some of the Optic
Alignment work is completed.

Assisted Betsy Weaver with installation of the IO Baffle.

Helped in preparation of future BSC installation work.

Will be traveling down to LLO to offer SEI assistance down there.

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

I belive the song goes "two steps forward, one step back". Due to an
unexpected contamination problem discovered in Ham 7, we have had to
postpone installing IOO optics. We have had several people involved in
trying to analyze the source and type. There are two different categories
of contaminants. One being a very well defined cylindrical, glass-like
substance that only varies in length with the diameter being very constant.
The length varies from a few microns to a couple of mm in length. It
appears mostly on the optics table top surface and on the support table,
but in lesser quantities on the support table. A trace amount was found on
the optics tables in Ham 8 and a slightly higher quantity trace in Ham 9 so
far. No traces were found outside of the chambers. The second contamination
is more like everyday dust you would expect to find, however the amount is
quite significant. The MMT3 optic will need to be cleaned as well as the
optics table and seismic components. We hope to do this by vacuum and ultra
high purity N2 flowing through a ionizing air gun. We are hoping this
contamination was due to some one time event and not the steady state of
the environment. I will be monitoring the chambers with witness plates and
particle counters to keep an eye on things. This has been the longest
stretch that we have allowed the chambers to stay open with only the
cleanroom covers in place. We currently have 4 chambers open which is the
largest number to be exposed at any one time. Samples of the "glass rod"
material will be sent out for evaluation. We have microscopically compared,
photographed and documented a lot of suspect materials which may have been
the culprit, but have not been able to identify the source.
 
The IOO baffle is satisfactorily installed and given enough time to clean
things up in all three Hams, we will finish staging components and will
install and align the Recycling Mirror into Ham 9 and align it on Friday.
We have two more SOS optics to install in HAM 7 as well. The balance of the
4 IOO/SOS optics hopefully will go into the vacuum bake oven on Saturday.
The Input Test Mass is being cleaned today and will have the magnets glued
by tomorrow and as soon as the Folding mirror arrives we will process it
for installation with the ITM. It may be necessary to wrap the optics with
vacuum bake foil after installing them to prevent contamination when the
chambers are left open for long periods of time.
 

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

We now have the Kaleidagraph software for plotting and curve fitting, it
is installed on Haisheng's PC for now as he and the University of
Florida visitors need to use it.  Later it can be moved to a guest
computer to be available to everyone.

The orders for the Control Systems toolbox for Matlab and the latest
version of Sun's Workshop compilers will be placed next week.  The
Mathworks Education Sales rep. is away until Mon. and the Sun Workshop
University Edition is going on sale next week at half-off.

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

Worked with Jay Heefner and all to install more of the SUS controllers this
week. Tested the communication from the VME chasis to the SUS controller.
Work started Monday and will continue as equipment arrives.
 

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

The bake of X1 is in the final stages here at Hanford.  We were able to
maintain the higher temp of 168 C with very little problem.  One of the
power supplies did give us some erratic behavior but this hasn't had
any impact on the bakeout.  We have shut down and regenerated all of
the Cryopumps on X1 and have started heating back up to the new lower
target temperature of 150 C.  We will maintain this over the weekend
and then will commence cool down if analysis of the RGA data shows
outgassing at 150 C to be as expected.
 


LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations



 
 
Preparation for detector installation (Rich Riesen)

11 HAM Pillars have been set and aligned.

Grouting of Ham Pillars has begun.

All BSC Pillars have been set vertical and awaiting alignment next week.

LVEA cleaning has started.

Parts and tools needed for HAM/SEI installation of Support Tubes, Support
Tables and Bellows have been identified and are being pre-staged for future
use.

Control Room furniture should arrive and be set-up next week.

Material Handling equipment still needed are being fabricated and should be
delivered next week. (2 Spreader Bars w/resting fixture, over-tube lifting
baskets, Toyota forklift battery charger mobile cart.)

Optics & Vacuum Labs: (Jonathan Kern): "DI R Us" (Culligan) is still
floundering with the lab water system. Yet another pump was installed
yesterday, to no avail. 12 meg-ohm is the best we can count on at present.
All of the bits-n-pieces of lab hardware were cataloged and property tagged
on Mardi-Gras. The Laser Safety Enclosure is in progress; expect to OK the
Shop Drawings early next week. A crew of temps will get onto the final lab
cleanup as soon as Kelly Services can locate 2 people in Louisiana willing
to work. Ordering today the misc. "stuff" we'll need available for bake oven
support. Spent 2 days with Mike Smith dealing with COS issues, and
particular the Conflat Viewports.

Vacuum Equipment (Allen Sibley):

Bellows for the BSC's are being prepared for vacuum bake processing. The
bake oven is operating well and we expect to have the first batch complete
next week.
 

Beam tube bakeout preparation (Cecil Frankin, Kerry Stiff):

. 1. We completed the installation of the 800' of temporary lighting within
the BTE for the pre-bid job walk held on 2-10-99.

2. The pre-bid job walk was held on 2-10-99 four (4)  potential contractor
attended the job walk.  LIGO was represented by Ed Jasnow contract issue
and Bill Althouse on technical issue.

3. Two (2) truck load of heating blanket,control carts and support
equipment was shipped to LIGO Hanford one load on 2-8-99 and the second on
2-11-99. The Staging Building now has the open space to accommodate the
insulation contractor need for on-site storage of approx.4000 sq.ft.

Electrical Engineering (Juilien Svoboda,):

EE Lab: More tools, parts and storage unit have been ordered.

VME test stand: Few Software packages were added successfully.
A network connection between CDS server and the EE lab is established.
This will help for building any CDS control rack setup in the lab.
Due to lacking of reference books at our site for our control system,
I have ordered some of them. Need some time to learn the software
part of CDS control system.

Anthony Rizzi:

Tom Evans has completed the Solaris 5.6 installation on the Sun (Bart) for
the servo-loop/CDS experimental test stand.  The end-to-end model software
now also works on Bart in addition to abundance; however, there is still a
problem with using it on a PC with Exceed; as per Hiro's request, a phone
call has been placed to Ed Maros.
The CDS suspension test stand rack has been uncrated and moved to the
electronics lab; also, the side panel, VME crate and power cords have all
been installed by A. Rizzi, R. Wooley and T.  Evans.
Dick Greenwood of LaTech has received a Ref Tek analyser and two recorders.
The first part of this week he set up at the west end station to begin some
initial experiments designed to check out the equipment (with it hooked
Guralp siesmometers) and get experience with working with the hardware. He
apparently ran into a known glitch of the data recorder going into sleep
mode; he plans to debug this problem at LaTech.

Facilities (Gerry Stapfer): The mechanical contractor continuous to work on
the punch list items. As part of this work, we found that our HVAC glycol
system apparently was never turned on and that several items on the "as
built" drawings need to be corrected.

Work has started up again on the access road. As of this morning, several
heavy equipment have arrived and have started to move dirt!
 


WBS 1.2, 1.3    Detector Group


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

40 Interferometer

Since the big blemish on the SE mirror was not removed
by the CO2 snow cleaning, the beamsplitter pointing was
scanned to find a decent spot on the SE. The full ifo
was once again locked by using the usual deliberate
misalignment.

Network crashes and ambiguous BURT logs led us to revisit
matrix gain settings on the RM and BS controllers. Repeated
crashes have caused frequent loss of control of the mirrors.

Final experiments are underway to verify quantitatively
the remaining few parameters of the ifo, many involving
just parts of the ifo, e.g one arm cavity at a time, or
power-recycled Michelson.

----------------------------------------------
Interferometer Sensing and Control -- M Zucker
(WBS 1.2.1.1.6, 1.2.1.1.7)
----------------------------------------------
ISC Fab/delivery status;

Components for assembly of a temporary cleanroom for ISC table
assembly in the Hanford LVEA are on order, scheduled
for integration the 1st week of March.

Components for ISCT7 are converging at MIT for preassembly
and test.  Integration at LHO with table scheduled for
2nd and 3rd week of March.

Initial Alignment and ISC Table Design (K.Mason, M.MacInnis)
-------------------------------------------------------------
New alignment vectors and theodolite positions were calculated for all
2k core optics.  This was done to simplify alignment by taking advantage
of the extended range of the autocollimator/theodolite. Most alignments
are done now through doors.

An order was placed for the remaining ISC optical tables. They will be
delivered directly to the sites per the following schedule:
(3) delivered to Hanford  3/8/99
(2) delivered to Livingston  5/7/99
(4) delivered to Hanford  9/10/99
The two currently at MIT will be shipped to Livingston as needed.

ISC supervisory control & diagnostic software (Ed Daw; P. Fritschel is on
travel)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
This week I altered my ISC code to reflect the new
data acquisition reflective memory layout from Rolf,
and an updated channel name list for the ASC system.
My equipment should now be at Caltech and I am
following it today for the ASC front end / supervisory
control / DAQ system integration test.

ISC controls (N. Mavalvala)
----------------------------
Working on second draft of the long-overdue controls paper.

-------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------

- Isomet Corp. the manufacturer of the AOM used in the PSL intensity
stabilization servo found that there was a problem with supplied driver
electronics.  The driver electronics, which consists of an analog driver
and an rf amplifier, was found to deliver too much rf power to the AOM.
As a result, the PZT on the AOM was damaged.

        The unit is currently being repaired and will be shipped back
during the first week in March.

- A quotation for the supply and delivery of the PSL reference cavities
arrived from REO.  An order for other reference cavities and spare mirrors
will be placed once quantities and costs are finalized.

- The last pieces for the PSL reference cavity vibration isolation stacks
have arrived.  Everything, except the vacuum viewports, needed to assemble
the LLO PSL reference cavity is in house.  The materials will be scheduled
for cleaning and baking as soon as possible.

        The turbo pump stand is currently being cleaned and baked.  The
pump suffered from contamination during the installation of the LHO 2k IFO
PSL.

- A bug with the pre-modecleaner automatic lock acquisition software has
been pointed out.  The direction in which the pre-modecleaner PZT voltage
is scanned is not optimal for re-acquiring lock.

        The new pre-modecleaner lock acquisition software will incorporate
a "mode jump" which will either increment or decrement the PZT voltage by
an amount corresponding to a free spectral range.  This software fix is
expected to be for the 2k IFO PSL only, as the current PMC has a problem
with the PZT.

- Preparations are currently under way for a final design review of the PSL
tentatively scheduled for mid-March.

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         complete

Vacuum Prep
        - suspensions                   complete
        - nonsuspended optics           complete
        - suspended small optics        in progress (2/22)
        - suspended MMT3                complete

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

In Vacuum Alignment                     2/28

Mode Cleaner Characterization           4/15

------------------------------------------------
 

2K Installation -

Personnel: Qi-Ze Shu has accepted a position at an industrial laboratory
in CA; he will be leaving us next Friday.

David Tanner's visit to LHO/CIT was cancelled due to a bad case of the
flu.

(1) PSL table
The optical spectrum analyzer has been placed at the designed location
(near the periscope) and been aligned. We checked the performance of the
29.486 MHz EOM by the optical spectrum analyzer. We also adjusted the
impedance matching of this EOM  so that the modulation is maximum at the
designed frequency.

(2) IOO suspended small optics preparation

Steering mirror #1, MMT1, and one 2" optic with a fixed mount have been
installed to HAM7. 1 T-mount has been installed to HAM7. One MC flat
mirror and steering mirror #2 are ready for installation.

In order to increase the probability that the magnets on the optics
survive their post-bake cleaning, we are processing two of the optics for
everyone that will be installed in the chamber.  At this point, the MCCM
and one MCFM are left to be balanced, baked, and installed. For a complete
update, see http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~rong/SOS_Status990217.txt

(3) Other in-vacuum optics preparation
The Faraday rotator has been placed on the mount and ready to be
installed. Two cubic polarizers and two half-wave plates have been
attached to rotary mounts. 1/8" shims (to be used between rotary mount and
pedestal) are not correct in size and therefore have not been put.
1/8"shims of the right size (the same model as originally planned and
ordered New Focus) are now being vacuum baked at Hanford and should have
been ready by Wednesday, 2/17.

4K Interferometer -

Small optics suspensions and non-suspended mirror mounts are currently in
production.
 
 

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

With the impending movement of a machine shop under our feet we've been
given the nod to measure the vibration and acoustic characteristics of the
cosmic ray lab, we hope to complete this within the next two days.  In
order to be in line with project goals for measurement of the optics for
the LA 4K IFO we need to be in a new location by May.  This is perhaps a
bit optimistic!  We still have 5 optics to deliver for the WA 2K.

Uncertainty in the astigmatism term for the reference flat C is a large
contributor to the errors associated with comparing the data taken on FM01
at 45 degrees and normal incidence.  We have devised a way for solving for
the astigmatism, coma and trifoil terms for C specifically.  We are
comparing the results for three different cases and hope to prove this
method, as it will allow us to compensate somewhat for the thermal changes
in the room.  Unfortunately, we still have to rely on three flat data for
the rotationally symmetric terms such has power and spherical aberration.
Three flat measurements take longer.

FM01 was handed off for cleaning and shipment to Hanford.  We are planning
to ship a Beamsplitter the first week of March.  We will be doing the 45
degree and normal incidence comparisons for this part as well.
 
 

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

Helena is at REO where 2 4KITM's are being coated this week. Helena
reports that the coating of the 4 beamsplitters has gone smoothly.
 
 

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

BEAM-DUMPS
Craig C. is in the process of completing shop drawings for the cavity beam
dump assemblies.

PO TELESCOPE
The mounting structure for the primary mirror was not released to the shop,
pending the redesign of a simplified mounting structure.

ETM TELESCOPE
Ken M. has reviewed the shop drawings and CC Development is in the process
of making several corrections.

PO MIRROR
Ken M. is finalizing the mounting base of the PO mirror assembly to be
compatabile with the LOS placement on the SEI platforms.

BEAM STEERING MIRROR and PERISCOPE
All parts have been received for the steering mirror and periscope assemblies.

VACUUM WINDOW
Jonathan is finalizing the design for the window, using standard reducing
con-flats with an o-ring seal for the vacuum window.  Bids are being
received for the 3.0 inch diameter x 0.500 in thick fused silica window.
The window for the APS output beam will be superpolished fused silica with
REO high efficiency ion beam AR coatings. The remainder of the COS windows
will be standard laser-quality polish fused silica with dielectric AR
coatings. All windows will have a transmitted wavefront deformation of <
1/10 wave over a 20mm aperture

NEW CONICAL BAFFLE at MID STATION
Design is pending.

TRIPLE FLEXURE BRACKET for BEAM DUMP
Detail design is pending.

ELLIPTICAL BAFFLE/BEAM DUMP
All metal parts and cut glass will be received this week. The glass will be
sent out to a vendor for AR coating next week.

IO BAFFLE, 2K
Thanks to Larry J., Betsy W., and LHO company for successfully installing
the IO baffle.

ITM/ETM ARM CAVITY BAFFLE
Angel and Mike S. have  developed a universal design for the arm cavity
glass baffle support assembly. Angel is finalizing the 3D drawings, in
preparation for Paul K. completing the detail shop drawings.

LLO LIAISON
Mike S. spent 2/12/99 and 2/17/99 at LLO discussing the COS future
installation schedule with Dennis, C., Jonathan K., and Mark C.
 

INSTALLATION PLAN
item                               completion          install

Mode cleaner baffle                12/30/98                 ?
IO baffle                          1/11/99             2/17/99
Elliptical baffle                  2/23/99             2/25/99
 

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

Seismic Design (Mike Fine)
--------------------------------------
1)  SEI Rack Assembly:
Most of the electrical wiring has been installed with the exception of
the pneumatic electrical connections.  Hytec has been performing
first order checks of the system to verify that all of the electrical
connections are correct.  These are being done without motors. To
date, the electronics panel and MUX appear to be performing as
expected.  Hytec will be installing the pneumatics early next week
along with the NextStep drives.  The motor, pneumatic switch, encoder
and limit switch cables will be made over the weekend.  At this point
they will be able to connect the rack with the prototype BSC and
begin more rigorous testing of the system.  Now the expected ship
date for the rack is the end of Feb.

2. Near-Term SEI Hardware Delivery Schedule:
BSC leg screws and washers (Hanford)                              3/2/99*
2nd set of BSC in-vacuo hardware (Handord)                      3/4/99*
3rd set of BSC in-vacuo hardware (Hanford)                       3/4/99*
BSC SEI rack (Hanford)
3/6/99*
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 started to define the data types to be used by the procedural function
library with Bruce.

I continued rewriting the data distribution subsystem of the data monitor
tool. I finished the interfaces between the shared memory buffers and the
new FrameCPP library. The interface classes are now working stably,
although parts of FrameCPP continue to evolve. I have also finished converting
the background monitoring framework to use FrameCPP and tested everything
with my (modified) bit-tester application.

Next, I interfaced FrameCPP to root and tested online data access with root.
FrameCPP is not trivially compatible with root (the root dictionary generator
chokes on the FrameCPP header files) so I introduced an interface class that
allows easy access to the frame data from root. With this expedient, I was
able to manipulate and Draw Online data with root. In the future I will
look into direct use of FrameCPP in root or extension of the interface class
to provide all necessary functionality.

I am now working on modifying the data distributer to get data from the NDS in
frame format. This should result in a much more efficient transfer of data
from the NDS to the shared memory. At present, copying data in the CDS
proprietary format and converting to frame format with FrameCPP requires
about 25% (down from 40%) of my Sun Workstation (167 MHz Ultra-1).

Daniel Sigg

Continued to work on documention.
1. Started on the GDS FDR document.
2. Updated the test point interface defintion in reflective memory.
3. Finished the command line interface for arbitrary waveform generator
and test point interface.
4. Started working on the data representation for diagnostics tests:
   A. definition of test parameters and variables,
   B. representation of time series, power spectra, transfer functions,
       and list of coefficients, and
   C. settings for plots to display test results.

Physics Environmental Monitor(Matt Smith, David Shoemaker & Alex Marin)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 

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

        2. RGA components were shipped to Livingston. Matt and Allen S. aranged
the installation plan.
        3. Alex will be in Livingston 18-25 of Feb. and David in Hanford 19-24
of Feb. They will be involved in the installation of PEM parts as well as
other
parts as needed.
        4. PEM channels were discussed and agreed with Daniel S. for the
Hanford
site.
 

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

A few months ago I mentioned in my weekly report that a set of cavity
mirrors were found contaminated right after viton pieces were unloaded
from the cavity. Recently, this mirror contamination was examined by
Rai Weiss who diagnosed the contaminated mirrors using secondary ion
mass-spectroscopy. They found higher Fluorine levels on the surface of the
contaminated mirror with respect to an uncontaminated reference mirror (at
least six times higher). This event has brought up two requirements which
are currently under implementation. One is to repeat the viton testing in
one of our contamination cavities under light exposure; the other is to map
out mirror surface absorption using the automated Loss Scanner. The technique
we are proposing to use for measuring surface absorption in air is called
surface thermal lensing. This technique employs a power pump laser source
to heat the local area of an optical surface while using a second probe laser
to detect the deformed surface due to local heating.

#DHS this is in discussion with Albert and Rai, and the issue will be
brought formally
to the Vacuum Review Board now that the data appear to be sufficient for
evaluation and
pursuit of options.

No observable change was found in either ringdown or mode spacing data from
the cavity mirrors which were cleaned with CO2 snow a week ago.
 

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

Near Term Installation
=======================
- Bork, Barker and Patton will be at Livington March 7-12 to continue CDS and
Data Acq. infrastructure hardware/software installation.

Global CDS
============
- Working on memory problem with our Motorola based VME processor boards. Our
boards have 8MByte of RAM, but vxWorks appears to be hard coded to only
recognize 4MByte. This has been causing problems in vacuum system and other
controls which use this processor in that it limits the number of EPICS GUI
displays which can connect at any given time (does not affect actual control
functions, just refuses outside connections). Wind River has sent us a fix to
try, but we need to upgrade from vxWorks 5.2 to 5.3 in the long term (need to
send them more money).

Data Acquisition
=================
- Sun450 server due to arrive at Livingston March 2.
- Received time conversion code from Tilov; code being installed in DAQ
dataviewer as first test.

LSC
=====
- Still working on getting the digital servo code to run within the required
62usec. Initial code running on 175MHz MIPS was running at 93usec. Using a VME
DSP board with 4 C40 processors looks like it will meet the required times,
however it is much more complex, lower level code to coordinate the parallel
processing and various buses employed within the DSP units. Just as a quick
test, we borrowed a 200MHz MIPS from Sigg, but that only reduced the time down
to 87usec. However, as we analyzed the timing of various code operations, it
pointed us to areas that we were able to change/optimize to significantly
reduce
the time in the following areas:
        - Filter/matrix calculations down from 52usec to 39usec
        - Avoiding context switching saved 12usec
With these time savings, we are now right at the edge of the time
requirements.
We have one more area where we will try to save additional time. There are
about
20 or so writes to reflected memory, for data acq and GDS test points, which
take as much as 800nsec each. Looking at the VME drivers in vxWorks, we find
that all data writes are synchronous ie even though the VIC64 chip on the
processor board handles these writes independently, the MIPS processor waits
until the VIC64 completes its bus operation. We are going to modify this
driver
such that it works asynchronously, thereby allowing the processor to continue
without the wait. This should save us the additional time needed to meet the
timing requirements.

Suspension
========================================
- All software, operator screens, VME hardware and cross connect wiring
for rack 2X14 (2K LVEA COS suspensions) have been installed, tested and
ready for operation. Rack 2X14 including the suspension controllers should
be fully operational by 2/19.
- It has been found that the temporary terminator baords that we have been
using for the satellite amplifiers are not reliable. We will wait until
the final boards arrive next week before we install any more.
- DAQ interface boards for LOS controllers are due next week. Whwn they
arrive controllers installed in 2X14 will be retrofitted with these
boards.
- 25 Kapton cables have been shipped from MDC and should arrive at Caltech
by 2/22.

Input Optics
======================================
- Wiring in rack 2X6 is nearly complete and initial checkout of the
controls software and wiring should begin by 2/18.
- Final cabling to the MC length control modules is on hold until the 300
foot lengths of the 64 conductor ribbon cables are received. They are due
by 3/1.
- All database records, state notation code and 90% of the operator
screens for the MC controls are installed at Hanford and ready for test.

MC IOO CDS:
============
The Length Servo Amplifier is being stuffed and tested this week. We will
have two MC Demod boards and two Servo Amplifier boards rady for the next
trip to Hanford. Rack 2X8 wiring is almost complete. Discovered a
potenial problem with the EUROCARD crates that we are using. The press
fit studs in the backplane come with two nuts and two washers per stud.
This is to capture the wire lug for connecting voltages in the rear of
the crate. The problem is that if the two nuts are locked together it is
quite easy to twist the press fit stud loose. Once this happens that
section of the crate is inoperative. My recommendation is to remove the
second nut. It only took four connections to find this out (the hard
way). In the future we will make the backplane differently.

Timing System:
===============
The final version of the GPS Clock Driver is in PC layout now. We will
need to make one more of the old version to install in Louisiana next
month.
 


WBS 1.4    Project Office



 

 1.4.1.2 Project Controls (Lindquist)


Reports, Proposals, Work Plans (Lindquist)

The Annual Report (for year ended November 1998) has been submitted to the NSF. The Work Plan for the remaining $200,000 of Construction funds has been approved within the Project and is wending its way through the Caltech approval cycle.  A request for a no-cost extension to the FY 1997 Advanced R&D Grant (which expired October 31) has been sent to the NSF.


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


LIGO Weekly Site Telecon (Jasnow)

An abreviated Site Telecon was held Thursday, February 18, 1999. The focus of this meeting was the LIGO Operations Summary Data Report for the end of January prepared by Florence Kaufman. It appears that there may be a number of discrepancies between the data reported by Finance and the current actual LIGO status. It was decided to focus on three areas: P. Lindquist will review the salary allocations and recommend amounts to acrue pending processing of all the paperwork; E. Jasnow will address the allocation of the P-Card costs; and F. Kaufman will address acruals of travel expenses. 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
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
29 Review Salary Allocations and Recommend Acruals P. LIndquist February 18, 1999 February 25, 1999
30 Address P-Card Allocations E. Jasnow February 18, 1999 February 25, 1999
31 Address Acruals of Travel Costs F. Kaufman February 18, 1999 February 25, 1999

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

Assisted the Project Office with the packaging and shipping of a Disk Drive to ITA (TOSHIBA PRODUCT ) 2505 S. Roosevelt St. Tempe AZ. via Fed-X receipt confirmed.

Assisted the Project Office with the packaging and shipping of Accelerometer Mdl # 8306 Serial Numbers 886909 and 886910 also a Power Supply  Unit Mdl #  2813, Serial Number 1551753, to BRUELL-KJAER  (Attn: Laura Radford) for testing and evaluation receipt confirmed. Account number utilized 5047H.

Assisted the Optic Group with the shipping of one (1) Optic Lens to the LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) attn : D. Cook, receipt Confirmed. Account number utilized 5E514.

Submitted a request to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (I&NS) via National Science Foundation for surplus Binoculars for Hanford and Livingston Observatories.  Provided the I&NS with a prepaid Fed-X account number.

Completed the transaction with China Lake, Defense Reutilization Marketing Office for acquiring four vehicles for the LIGO Livingston Observatory, delivery to the (3) vehicles was made on Feb 18, 1999 the remaining one (1) vehicle will be made on Feb 22, 99 acct number utilized 5D532.

Assisted the Vacuum Equipment Engineer with coordinating transportation for Blankets from Livingston to Hanford location. Account number utilized 5A531.


DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner)

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

STATISTICS

RELATED ACTIVITIES


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

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

I am working on the monthly status reports. I have closed ALL LIGO Work Orders and have requested 5th level accounts to replace them.
During the month of January, MIT invoices for the months of July and August (1998) were paid by CIT. The usual troubleshooting and error checking/correcting continues.

From: Sarita <moore_s@ligo.caltech.edu>

As Britt mentioned in her last status report, there is currently a backlog of paperwork / invoices to be processed.  Most of my time each day since I've come on board has been spent researching inquiries on past due items. I am working towards getting caught up, but the backlog and account changes are creating delays in the normal payment processing.

From: Kris Duncan <kris@ligo.caltech.edu>

From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman@ligo.caltech.edu>
SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Petrac, Jasnow)

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

Nothing significant to report this week, but there was a barrage of subcontract management issues involved with tracking and payment of invoices. Spent approximately two days on MOUs.

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>

Replacement Fluorel o-ring seal orders for mid-station valves have been placed at two vendors. One vendor will cut and splice o-rings with Eagle Elastomer extruded cord while the other vendor, Parker-Hannifin, will do their cord extrusion, cutting and splicing in-house. Delivery of the new o-rings is not scheduled before mid March, but vendors will be contacted to explore ways for reducing the delivery lead time.

Meanwhile R. Weiss has completed sticking tests of non pre-baked Fluorel samples. He is now is pre-baking samples before conducting the next series of sticking tests.
 


WBS 1.4.3    Systems Engineering / Data Analysis and Computing



 
 

Systems Engineering

LIVINGSTON OPTOMECHANICAL LAYOUTS
    Optomechanical Integrated Layout is being released today.

HANFORD OPTOMECHANICAL LAYOUTS
    Optomechanical Integrated Layout is being updated for re-release
Monday.

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
still
scheduled to be completed and released by 2/22/99.

ITM/ETM ARM CAVITY BAFFLE
    Detailing with materials lists should still start by 2/24/99.

Vacuum Review Board
We are planning to meet Friday 19 Feb to discuss flourel (Viton) outgassing
[see Lasers & Optics discussion].

Modeling

Ed worked to release a new verison of Alfi 3.2.0, which have several new
features, in addition to bug fixes. The new features includes the support
of marco, and an optional to support people who have problems not seeing
icons properly drawn (Rizzi of Livingston and Sergei of Florida reported
the issue). Ed also included bug fixes into the codes he is working for
version 4 of alfi.

Biplab worked on validating and cleaning the triangular cavity. Biplab and
Hiro met with Peter King to discuss about the data of the pre mode
cleaner. Peter will provides the data by the end of this week, and it will
be compared with the model prediction. This will include the transmitted
signal of S and P polarized lights and the intensity noise filtering.

Hiro worked to improve the detector with shotnoise. He also discussed with
Rick Save about the future work of PSL modeling. Rick sent the servo
design of PSL. With the frrquency shifter and pre mode cleaner modules
ready, the rest is the construction of PSL using alfi putting hardware
data.

Hiro worked with Mr.Tomaru, a TAMA student visting to learn FFT. Bill
helped him to clarify various points.

Hiro installed e2e packages onto Hanford, Livingston and Florida.

Data Analysis

  Kent Blackburn:

*  Worked on updated hardware architecture figures in VISIO for the
   LDAS PDR. This is both the site and the CIT figures.

*  Submited the DataConditioningAPI requirements document to the DCC.

*  Met with XHU to draft a set of event tables for LDAS.

*  Worked with DF & PE to resolve a problem with TCL/TK and C++
   exception handling on Solaris. The problem only existed on the
   Suns (not LINUX) and as I had predicted, it was caused by the
   compile used. The problem was fixed using GCC 2.7.2 instead of the
   egcs 1.1.1 compiler.

*  Worked on various sections for the PDR.

*  Arranged a meeting for next Wednesday @ 2PM with the president of
   Alta Technologies, the manufacturer of the Beowulf system that we
   have been struggling with over hardware failures lately.

Dave Farnham:

*  Worked with Ed & Phil trying to determine why TCL 8 disables
   exception catching on Solaris.
*  Continued working with John on making improvements to the FrameCpp
   library.
*  Modified the library which serves as the internal LDAS data format to
   use namespaces.
*  Added an LdasContainer element to the internal LDAS data format.
*  Frame API now supports:
      Reading/writing frames from/to disk.
      Querying all attributes.
      Querying all attributes.
      Setting mutable attributes (such as comments).
      Returning data (Vect's) in internal LDAS format (LdasElement).
      Adding data (Vect's) to a frame in internal LDAS format
        (LdasElement).
      Sending/Receiving data through sockets.
*  I am continuing to import code into the CVS repository on Spica.

Phil Ehrens:

*  PSE Found a fix for a bug which caused Tcl to
   abort when a .so file loaded as an extension
   used c++ exception handling.
 
*  PSE Continued working on the manager interface and demo.

Xiao Hu:

* XHU worked on LDAS event database tables.
        Worked with Kent on the LDAS event tables.
        These tables include:
                binaryinspiral
                directedperiodic
                ringdown
                burstevent
                sourceindependent
        kent suggested to have a meeting soon to
        further discuss these tables.

* XHU worked on GDS trigger database queries
        Because of the special design of the GDS trigger
        database tables, queries to these tables are also
        different from those queries to frame tables.
        I am exploring the possibility of defining a set of
        logic views to facilitate the database queries.
 

B. Kratochiwill:
Began working on the web searching tool for the LDAS DB2 tables but
couldn't maintain a connection to bill.cacr.caltech.edu(dB2 server at CACR).
Roy sent me some other software that I will try out asap.

Anderson:
Work continues to establish a stable Beowulf cluster for developing
and prototyping LDAS software. Numerous hardware problems have been
encountered. Currently the server and 5 out of the 8 nodes are running stably.

Roy Williams:
1. Writing specification for LIGO lightweight (XSIL) data/metadata
files. Should be complete end of next week.

2. Investigating ways to integrate Java software into existing Tcl/C++
fabric.

W. Majid:
I am trying to implement a parallel (MPI based) 1D FFT transform using the
tools provided by FFTW.  FFTW's parallel MPI-based implementation is
limited to multi-dimensional transforms.

B. Sears:
* LDAS Primary Data Types preliminary specifications.  Kent Blackburn and I are
        working on a document which describes and defines the primary LDAS data
        types at the highest level.  These are the objects which will be passed
        between APIs, written to file as XML (XSIL), and created from the raw
        instrument data.
* LDAS preliminary protocol specification for communications between end-users and
        the manager API, and between the manager API and the APIs needed for the
        data retrieval and processing requested by the end-user.  I.e., how do we
        talk to the manager API, and how does it then communicate these instructions
        to the other LDAS APIs to complete the requested task?
* LIGO Electronic Log Upgrade:
        The electronic log used by the Bakeout, CDS, and Detector installation
        groups at the Hanford site was upgraded to read and write pure XML log
        files to fix a problem with the search feature in a clean and maintainable
        manner.

General Computing

MIT:
Nothing to report

Livingston:
Upgraded gnuplot to version 3.7.

Set up one Ultra as a user and application file server, and also
as a NIS+ server. We have set up a second Ultra as a client, and are in
the process of adding additional clients.

Will be meeting with LSU and others concerning the fiber installation for the
vBNS connection from the Observatory. The meeting is scheduled for Monday Feb.
22, 1999 at LSU.

Hanford:
The UPS for LDAS arrived and is being stored.  Also, received three more
Sun Ultra 10's.  Possibly a duplicate order.  Larry Wallace is looking
into it.

Placed several orders for more software.  Helped with the usual PC
problems.  Added several new user accounts.

Larry has been working on the e-mail issues. Contact with SUN has been made to
check out the problem. So far the setup should work so SUN is now going over the
files in detail to try and resolve the loop back problem. Once that issue is
cleared user testing will start.

CIT:

Larry and Albert will be at LSU on 22 Feb to meet with Bell South representatives and also
LSU's computer services people to discuss implementing a vBNS connection to LLO [LIGO contributed to the meritorious use section of the LSU proposal to NSF for vBNS and this is a "kick-off" meeting to get
for information exchange: what we need; what we need to do to prepare; what it will cost; ...].

For the Amaldi Conference, Barbara merged all the mailing lists into one Access
database so a master report can be printed.

Barbara reworked her programs for the as-built drawings web pages because not
all the drawings have the as-built keyword in the DCC.
Installed several quick web site changes. Got Exceed working on PC running NT.

Suresh installed web based print server software (HP web jetadmin) in the to be
acrux system. Its enhanced GUI features enable a administrator to easily
configure and install print queues, setup a access control list for restricting
access from authorized machines, creating group of networked devices. On the
other hand a users can always check the current status of devices. Right now one
can try looking at following URL:http://sadal.ligo.caltech.edu:8000/
Here number 8000 is port number serving the print services.
 
Set up three new user accounts. Modified some aliases.
Resolved couple of PCs and sun systems related problems.
Some paperwork purchases and ordered for replacement parts for some sun
units.

Tried installing the new ligo server but it failed the tests on connecting to
the domain. A number of other issues were resolved and it gave us the
opportunity to checkout some of the old network boxes. The old boxes are in need
of replacement. Continued testing on the server and ASX1000 switch will be going
on this and next week.
Working a number of procurement issues as well as getting another couple of


WBS 1.4.4.1    Administrative Group


 Rita Torres

For I. Petrac printed MOUs. Over several days, printed MOUs from the DCC to ensure that Irena and the DCC are in sync with respect to current documents. Did edits to PC291438 with University of Pisa. For E. Jasnow did letter Re: Beam Tube Insulation; distributed after faxing.

For J. Kern, provided pointers to safety documents. For W. Tyler did memo Re: Laser Safety at Hanford LVEA, and updated list of LIGO Recommended Vendors for Clean Room Supplies. Helped I. Baldon with a few travel documents.

 

Dorothy Lloyd

Processed the usual heavy load of purchase requisitions, POs, change orders, etc. Continued to work on heavy load of paperwork with problems needing to be resolved, and processed many invoices and receivers for payment. [See Cost Schedule Control Systems report submitted by Sarita Moore for further details.]

Also managed to get a little more work done on reconciling the status reports.

Continued to monitor and support the temp.

 

Elizabeth K. Wood

Provided keys and office space to three Caltech LIGO visitors: Alessandro Bertolini, Akiteru Takamori (working with Riccardo DeSalvo) and Takayuki Tomaru (working with Hiro Yamamoto).

Did a great deal of investigation into visitor status at Caltech. If a visitor stays longer than 30 days at Caltech, he/she must have some kind of official status provided with the help of Donna Tomlinson. Therefore, if you are inviting someone to Caltech who will be staying for longer than 30 days, please let Donna or Liz know, preferably eight weeks in advance.

Also did some investigation about the jury duty issue for residents of Los Angeles County, but it applies to anyone in LIGO who gets called for jury duty. Caltech now pays only for 5 days of jury duty. The Los Angeles County court system now requires people to serve only 5 to 6 days, not the 10 as before. Be sure to remind the court of Caltech’s 5 days if you are called to jury duty. Also, you may want to tell the court that you want to serve 5 consecutive days rather than having your duty spread over several more days. This is particularly important for those of you who have travel already set up.

Balanced Gary’s Caltech purchase card receipts.

Discussed with Barbara K. how to make the web roster more useful. We’re still working on it, but we’ve got some interesting ideas.

Supported Irene to get caught up on travel reimbursements.

 

Irene Baldon

Worked on preparing the paper work for various new trips taken recently (13 Purchase Requisitions and 10 Advance Requests). There are 19 additional new trips pending completion of travel arrangements. There has been a great deal of last minute reservations being requested for the LSC Meetings in
Gainesville, FL, which require more of my time since the hotels do not cooperated with Vee when using a special conference rate. Completed 15 Expense Reports. Some of these were still not taped or completed by the Traveler and required more time for completion. Received in the mail (yesterday Feb. 16th and 17th) 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 an influx of expense checks which requires recording, filing and distribution to the individual traveler, as does advance checks.
 

There are still 17 - 1998 folders to be cleared and sent to DCC for permanent storage. These are folders containing Visitors, Job Applicants, Consultants,
and various conferences. While pulling the 1998 individual files I found a number of trips not completed with the submission of an expense report. I
have been contacting these individuals as time permits. Please submit your receipts if you still have an outstanding trip.

 Prepared Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of February 16th, 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. Also worked on a number of problem issues which required a portion of my time.
 


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