The LIGO Executive Committee
Agenda for Monday February 14, 2000 will be:
(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
Open meeting 10:30 - 11:30
Special Items:
Mike Landry joined us this week from TRIUMF to
begin his postdoctoral
appointment. We have received responses
to our ad for entry-level operators
in the TriCity Herald. (If you know of hot young Physics or EE
baccalaureates, send them to us.
Bake Oven:
----------
(K. Ryan)
LHO vacuum bake oven load #75, consisting of elliptical baffle glass,
faraday isolator mount, forks, washers and bolts was released late
last
week.
Load #76, consisting of the final three LHO BSC bellows and hundreds
of
Arm Cavity Baffle fasteners, is vacuum baking.
Dennis Coyne notified us this week that some portion of LLO's scheduled
vacuum bake oven loads will be re-directed to LHO.
PreStabilized Laser:
--------------------
(M. Guenther & R. Savage)
We connected two temperature monitors this week. Both are recorded
in
EPICS channels at 1 Hz. H2:PSL-FSS_RMTEMP monitors the
air temperature
in the 2k PSL enclosure. H2:PSL-FSS_RCTEMP monitors the temperature
of
the vacuum chamber for the PSL reference cavity. Both sensors
utilize
AD590 chips and, after preamplifiers and database conversions, give
approximately one volt per deg K.
We discovered that some wires has been soldered incorrectly on the
intensity stabilization servo (ISS) card causing two of the fast data
channels to be interchanged. This was corrected this morning
by J.
Myers by soldering the wires correctly.
The gain on the Generic DAQ interface card for the H2:PSL-ISS_ISERR_F
channel was increased by a factor of 10 to make better use of the ADC
range. PSL data channel descriptions and calibration information
are
available at www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~rick/PSL/Channels.
Seismic Systems:
----------------------
(C. Gray & H. Radkins)
HAM1: The chamber was closed up last week as planned--SEI installation
complete.
BSC3: This past week had the dome off, all isolation stages installed,
balance weights & Kapton cabling installed, and the dome replaced--SEI
installation complete except for the electronics and pneumatics of
the
Coarse Actuation System (CAS).
BSC2: While access was available through BSC3, the balance weights
were
installed and the lower portion of the Kapton Cabling installation
was
completed--SEI installation complete except for the leak checks of
the
Expansion Bellows and the CAS electronics and pneumatics.
HAM3: The door has been removed and Isolation stage installation
is
beginning today.
Computing:
----------
(C. Patton)
Helped two new Post-docs get set-up with computers and user accounts.
Put in Purchase Requests for two new Sun workstations; one for one
of
the Post-docs, the other for the site license server. Obtained
computer
serial numbers for all 30 PCs on site, and some home PCs, then submitted
them to Caltech ITS to be included in the Norton Antivirus site license.
Upgraded the two site laptops to Windows 98, removed unauthorized
software which had been installed by users, upgraded the authorized
application software to current releases, fixed the network
configuration and printer setup so that they would work again.
Purchased an external floppy drive and CD-ROM drive for use with the
laptops and as spares.
Purchased additional MS Office software for two new guest PCs.
Called
for a quote on Exceed 6.2, to upgrade our 20 user site license and
increase the number of licenses to 35.
Spoke with Dr. Lee Philipp at WSU Tri-City about hiring a student to
help with the PC System Administration. He recommended two students
who
I will be interviewing next week.
Continued network security maintenance, did the usual backups, helped
users with several printer and PC problems, and kept the GC accounting
paper work up to date.
Controls:
---------
(D. Barker)
Installed CDS VCR in control room. Installed netscape on control room
pc
(Tom Nash installed video grabber in this PC). Linked controls logger
(EPICS command channels archiver) to CDS web page.
Started redesign of DCU code. This in response to RFM problems resulting
in network collisions.
DAQ system had several problems this week, some resulting in crashes.
Restarted the systems as soon as we could, and we are investigating
the
crashes. EDCU is having intermittent socket problems.
Upgraded CDS Red Book on restarting the complete DAQ and ASC systems.
Upgraded CDS DAQ and Rack drawings, submitted new versions to DCC.
Physics Environmental Monitoring:
---------------------------------
(M. Lubinski)
A system to find out the status of data channels and entry of calibration
data has been set up on the CDS web page under a section called "Data
Acquisition System" in a segment called "Installation Files".
When you
open this you will see a file "LHO Calib.PDF" the channels are in rack
order with the status of the channels shown. There is a folder
labeled "calibration" and in this will be the text files of calibration
data for these channels. There are several PDF files which are the
Vender
calibration data for all of the PEM instruments (seismometers,
tiltmeters,
microphones).
Installed accelerometers at both mid stations. Received 2 calibration
units
for the accelerometers, one will be sent to LLO. We are investigating
some
problems with the microphone hook up and the power supplies for them.
Beam tube bakeout: Bake of y1 is on going at 168C. We have had minor problems with cool spots on the gate valves. The mid point valve is the worst offender because the blankets were designed for 44" valves and we had to make them fit the 48" mid point valve. We are working through this. (Allen Sibley)
Input-Output Optics: We realigned the PSL beam which was misaligned when the PZT driven mount at the top of the periscope moved by power shut down last week. The realignment was done by adjusting the periscope mirrors keeping the folding mirrors on HAMs intact. The beam now goes through the centering fixtures of MC1, MC3 and MC2, comes back to MC1, and goes through MC3's centering fixture towards MC2 again. (The centering fixture has the entrance and exit holes and attached to each suspended mirror to fix the angle of incidence.) At this point we started to aligned the steering mirror. The beam now hits the centering fixture of MMT1. The beam reflected by MMT1 hits an edge of MMT2 optic.
We assembled the Faraday isolator on its base in the optics lab using
a 700 mW NPRO YAG laser. The polarizers and the half wave plates have been
adjusted. The single pass isolation ratio is better than 38 dB. We helped
the large optics group damp the ETM at the y end station. We also
helped them measure frequency spectrum when they hung another large
optic. (Sany Yoshida)
General Computers:We have received a duplex unit to allow our
printer to print double-sided pages.
Bake Oven: We have finished baking an ETM mirror with magnets.
We are cleaning and preparing to bake a load of 2" COS mirrors.
(Tom Evans)
PSL: The new pre Mode Cleaner arrived from Caltech. It will be installed with another high voltage power supply during the week of Feb. 21-25 when both Peter King and Rich Abbot will be here. (Joe Kovalik)
CDS: I successfully got DCU cards working at west end station;
complete test of system awaits finding GPS antenna and completion of anti-alias
box. Anti-alias box stuffed with 850Hz filters for x,y,z of Seismometer
and a couple for use with Wilcoxan accelerometer. Obtained power cord from
Rusyl and power cord pinout from Paul Russel. We are awaiting power supplies
for the anti-alias boxes. Rolf to send two more anti-alias boxes with Lemo's
on front with 6-8 more filter modules.
PEM:Matt Smith, Peter S., Rich Reason and I decided on the placement
of the seismometer and the tiltmeter at the south end station. I asked
Ed Daw to redo his drawing of the Guralp /anti-aliasing filter wiring to
use 2 pair TWSP wire and Lemos and I recieved the revised drawing from
him today.
Weather Stations: Obtained parts for mounting two new weather
towers...pad pouring to begin on Wedn. Feb. 9. Repair and cleaning of rain
gauge
completed. Test of Web page update modification on going...
Course for summer Administative work continues into possiblity
of me teaching a summer course in general relativity at LLO.
End to End modeling of LSC Work continues to add more detail
to block diagrams--investigation into addition of whitening and de-whitening.
Siesmic Analysis with GRASP Horentsia and I put more of the LSU bewoulf
computers on line at LSU and mounted GRASP on them.
Angular Momentum My paper demonstrating the generality of the
new definition of angular mometum in general relativity, (the first definition
that allows for the exchange of angular momentum in general relativity)
submitted to PRD.
(Anthony Rizzi)
CDS:
1.) Installed (4) - RG-58 from the Mass Storage Room to the roof (PEM
antenna and spares)
2.) Completed hook-up and testing PEM particle counters in the vacuum
and optics lab.
3.) Completed termination of PEM accelerometer cables.
4.) Ordered (3) - UPS's for RGA computers.
5.) Installed ETMX suspension controls at the west end station.
6.) Installed PEM microphone cables in the LVEA.
(Rus Wooley)
Dust monitor installation in lab area is complete.
Few testings and modifications of its EPICS programs are done. People
who are interested in dust data can check them out from CDS MEDM screen.
Did some general electronics part inventory check for EE lab.
Ordered parts and patch cables in great demand for EE lab.
(Juilien Svoboda)
Seismic actuators:
BSC#5 West end station:
Rotated all 4 Air Bearing bases for Z-Pivot installation, installed
all Z-Pivot hardware and torqued per spec.
BSC#4 South end station:
Installed View Port per D. Coyne's drawings, torqued same to spec.
Staged all equipment from S. end station to W. end station for Optics
installation and alignment.
Fabricating "Stay Clear Zone" enclosures.
Assisting PEM personnel in the installation of RGAs on BSC#4.
(Rich Riesen)
----------------------------------------------
Interferometer Sensing and Control -- Peter Fritschel for M Zucker
(WBS 1.2.1.1.6, 1.2.1.1.7)
----------------------------------------------
2km Arm cavity testing (Rai W, Daniel S, Haisheng
R, Ed D, David O,
Robert S, Fred R, Josh M, Nergis M)
We had some successful arm cavity locking this
week. We introduced
a notch filter in the servo to attenuate a 5.75
kHz resonance in
ITMx, thanks to a very speedy assembly and testing
by Dale O.
This gave us stable locking for several hours
with very periodic
~3 minute lock streteches. The control signal
drifted by ~3 um in
those three minutes and lock was reacquired almost
instantaneously.
Since we were operating at low gain we were not
able to realize the
full range of the controller (> 40 um). During
a single lock stretch
where we ran with increased DC gain we were able
to lock for longer
(~5 minutes). The origin of the drift is not
yet known. We have added
temperature sensors in the psl and mode cleaner
channels to the DAQ
system to log laser frequency drifts. Earth tides
is another candidate.
A second lock attempt two days later was also
successful in that we
were able to lock for ~few minute stretches.
This time we were unable
to increase the DC gain to lock for longer and
had an increased level
of line noise in the arm cavity signals. We are
now hunting this down.
We have also observed loss of coherence between
the arm cavity error
and control signals at low frequencies when we
run at higher gain.
The error signal also develops a large DC offset
in the presence of
the feed back signal. These are also under investigation.
Many victims of the transmission monitor will
be pleased to know
that the X transmission has been tamed and we
know have a transmitted
light signal in the control room.
ISC Design
----------
Peter F. has been working with Matt Evans (visiting
from Caltech) on
lock acquisition modeling using e2e; Matt is
taking this on as a
thesis project.
-------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------
- Two 80 MHz VCO units are currently undergoing testing. Measurements
of
their phase noise are currently being performed.
- A modified intensity stabilization servo has been kludged together
from
an intensity stabilization servo based on the old AC current adjust
actuator. Initial testing of the servo revealed something wrong with
the
circuit. Further testing has been placed on hold until after the
director's review.
- A high voltage PZT pre-modecleaner was shipped to LLO. Installation
of
the pre-modecleaner will take place the first week in March.
Input/Output Optics -- Dave Reitze, UF
-----------------------------------------
LHO 2K (Haisheng Rong)
IO WFS - The IO WFS alignment control has been fixed. We tracked down
a
misbehaving channel (WFS2/2). After we replaced the demod board and
realigned the beam, the alignment servo showed satisfactory performance.
IO DAQ Channels - More IO DAQ channels has been added to CDS DAQ system:
MC error signal; MC length control; PSL VCO broad band input; and 2
beam
position sensor channels.
MC output beam stability - We installed a quad PD on IOT7 table ~6m
away
from the MC waist to measure the MC output beam position stability.
On a
short time scale, the fluctuations at ~ 1-1.5 Hz (suspension and stack
resonance) have p-p amplitude of 4 microns vertical and 7 horizontal,
and the largest long term fluctuation observed is about 27 p-p microns
vertical and 14 horizontal over 12 h period.
Also, MC related resonance peaks appeared in X-arm error signal
spectrum. So far we can clearly identify the SOS bounce mode peaks
at
14.75 Hz and 15.6 Hz in the power spectrum of the arm cavity error
signal, and they are among the major rms contributors. Another peak
at
17.8 Hz seems to be from the MC, as it appears also in the spectrum
of
the position sensor signals mentioned above. Origin of this frequency
has not been identified.
LLO 4k (Sany Yoshida, Malik Rakhmanov, David Tanner)
The Faraday isolator components have been assembled on their breadboards
and aligned. This was done in the LLO optics lab. The remaining 5 DLC
mounts for fixed in-vacuum mirror mounts have been assembled (mirrors
installed and posts attached). The Faraday and DLC mounts will be
installed in the vacuum today.
We realigned the PSL beam which was misaligned when the PZT driven
mount at
the top of the periscope moved by power shut down last week. The
realignment was done by adjusting the periscope mirrors keeping the
folding
mirrors on HAMs intact.
Core Optics Procurement and Metrology -- GariLynn Billingsley
-------------------------------------------------------------
We're attempting a three flat test in the metrology lab. The chilled
water
pressure has been changing quite a lot lately. So we've been unable
to
stabilize the room. I'm meeting with Alan Rice and hopefully someone
from
Physical plant next week to discuss pressure regulation options.
Core Optics Support -- Michael Smith
------------------------------------
ETM TELESCOPE
Ken M. and Mike S. assembled and bench-aligned the ETMy telescope at
LLO,
and installed and aligned it in BSC 5 at the end station. The LLO ETMx
telescope parts will be sent from LLO to LHO for cleaning and baking.
The
LLO ETMx beam dump parts will be sent from CIT to LHO on 2/10, for
cleaning
and baking. Preparations are being made for installation of the LLO
ETMx
telescope the week of 2/28.
ETM MIRROR
Mike S. assisted the ISC group, by using the COS IR autocollimator
to align
the ETMy mirror in BSC5 at LLO.
PO MIRROR MOUNT
The reworked parts for the 4K PO mirror mounts for LHO and LLO have
been
received and will be sent to Allied for cleaning.
ARM CAVITY BAFFLE
Paul K. has completed detailing the glass drawings and is working on
the
assembly and installation drawings. The glass cutter will begin fabricating
the arm cavity glass on 2/11/00.
SPARE IR ALIGNMENT LASER
The spare alignment lasers were received, but the SMA fiber optic
termination is still incorrect, and the lasers will be sent back to
the
vendor for rework.
INSTALLATION PLAN, LHO
item completion install
4K IO Baffle, HAM2 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KITMx, BSC3 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KITMy, BSC1 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KRM, HAM3 done ?
PO mirror, 4KITMy, BSC2 done ?
PO mirror, 4KITMx, BSC2 done ?
PO mirror, 4KBS-1, BSC1 done ?
PO mirror, 4KBS-2, BSC1 done ?
PO telescope, 2KITMx done 4/00
PO telescope, 2KITMy done 4/00
PO telescope, 2KBS done 4/00
Beam dumps 2K done 4/00
Beam dump 4KETMy vac window done ?
Beam dump 4KETMx vac window done ?
Arm Cavity Baffle, X-vertex done 4/00
Arm Cavity Baffle, Y-vertex done 4/00
Arm Cavity Baffle, X-end done ?
Arm Cavity Baffle, Y-end done ?
INSTALLATION PLAN, LLO
item completion install
4K IO Baffle, HAM2 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KITMx, BSC3 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KITMy, BSC1 done ?
Elliptical baffle 4KRM, HAM3 done ?
PO mirror, 4KITMy, BSC2 done ?
PO mirror, 4KITMx, BSC2 done ?
PO mirror, 4KBS-1, BSC1 done ?
PO mirror, 4KBS-2, BSC1 done ?
PO telescope, 4KAPS done ?
PO telescope, 4KITMx done ?
PO telescope, 4KITMy done ?
PO telescope, 4KBS done ?
Beam dump ETMx vac window done 2/28
Arm Cavity Baffle, X-vertex done ?
Arm Cavity Baffle, Y-vertex done ?
Arm Cavity Baffle, X-end done ?
Arm Cavity Baffle, Y-end done ?
ETMx Telescope done 2/28
--------------------------
Isolation Group -- M. Fine
--------------------------
Seismic Design (Mike Fine)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Counter Weights:
Allied has arranged a truck to pick up the counter weights tomorrow.
Weather permitting, the arrival of the shipment at Hanford is expected
to be next Tuesday.
2 Spare CAS:
Hand Precision expects to ship the actuator set to Hanford next Tuesday.
The arrival is possibly next Friday.
---------------------------------------------------------
Detector Systems Engineering -- D. Shoemaker/D Coyne
(WBS 1.2.1.1.9)
---------------------------------------------------------
Global Diagnostics System
(Daniel Sigg, John Zweizig)
This week I created an update to the last version of the DMT
software with a few bug fixes. I added a online documentation
on downloading the DMT software modified the code so that
it was more easily compilable on platforms (notably linux alphas)
other than my usual solaris development platform. I have also
been writing a frame directory utility that determines the
contents of all files in a directory containing a large number of
multi-frame files and can be used to summarize this information
for a user or to find a specific frame within the directory.
Started writing code for storing/restoring the plot settings of the
diagnostics test tool.
The diagnostics test tool software was downloaded to LLO.
Compilation of VxWorks/VME code was going smoothly and
the test point manager code could be installed. Compilation
for Solaris revealed several problems with corrupt and out-dated
system libraries. We think these problem can be fixed by
installing the most recent Solaris patches.
Physics Environmental Monitor (Matt Smith)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This week in Livingston I installed an RGA tree in the LVEA on the
Y
arm, near the 80K pump. I am also in the process now of installing
the
RGA tree in the Y end station. These sections need to be leak checked
and baked.
I also intstalled the PEM interface plates onto BSC 3 and 4.
Meet with Rich Riesen on locating the PEM stay clear zones for the
seismometers and tiltmeters. We had some discussions on setting up
the
seismometers and tiltmeters with Anthony rizzi and Peter Saulson.
Walked thru the LVEA with Russ Wooley marking the locations for the
microphone power supplies.
-----------------------------------------
Control and Data System -- R. Bork
(WBS 1.2.2)
-------------------------------------------
IO Controls (Jay)
====================================
- Design and layout completed for the four channel 14.75Hz, Q=100 notch
module
required for LHO. Boards should be fab'd by 2/21.
Suspension (Jay)
===================================
- Thesecond LOS controller that failed on LHO FMY has been repaired.
All of
the
output stages had failed. This chassis did not have any vaporized traces
like
the first chassis that failed. The cause of the failures is still under
investigation.
- Jay is putting together some modification kits to upgrade all LOS
controllers.
These upgrades will require that the chassis be removed from the system.
The
upgrade should take less than 1 hour per chassis.
- Strawman and conceptual designs for the all digital suspension system
are
being developed. Rolf and Jay will be testing in order to answer some
of the
outstanding questions such as can the ICS110B ADCs be used? Should
we use
Pentek
DACs?....
- Jay has designed a few circuits to test the feasibily of building
a
universal
dewhitening filter that would be required for a "full up" digital suspension,
LSC and ASC system. So far there appear to be no show stoppers.
- Coherent detection satellite amps are being fab'd and should be ready
for
bench test by 2/14. They will then be installed at LHO and tested in
the
system.
LSC CDS (Dale):
=============================
Have been working on the LSC Common Mode Servo design. To solve some
noise issues I designed a 16 Step Variable Gain Amplifier with a range
of 0 to 45 dB in 3 dB steps. It has 3nV/rtHz input referred noise and
a
voltage swing of +/- 13.5 volts. It is gain controlled by a linear
differential voltage to eliminate the possibility of ground loops from
digital ground connections. And it costs a few dollars per channel
in
small quantities. This may prove to be very useful in other control
circuits. There is still much work to be done on the CM Servo design.
Helped Mohana with noise modeling of the LSC Whitening /AA filter
circuit. This circuit will be split into two boards because of board
and
front panel space.
GPS Timing System (Dale):
=============================
The 7 Clock Driver boards are just waiting for me to get to them for
the
final testing and then we will ship them to the sites. We are in the
process of getting the Y2K upgrade EPROMS from JXI2 and installed them
at the sites.
Data Acq.
=========
- (H. Ding) A Java interface has been written for the control of the
tape
robot
system; now working on interface to user applications to write data
to /
retrieve data from tape automatically.
- (R.Bork) Working on designs for upgrades to present system, including
single
configuration tables used by all applications and increasing EPICS
channel
data
acquisition beyond the present 1Hz rate.
Suspensions (Rolf)
==================
- Began working on software designs for digital suspension controller.
Had
hoped to run some benchmarks to refine an initial timing diagram, but
the last
batch of Pentium III processors we received did not come with the vxWorks
microkernel, as ordered. These have been shipped back and will take
a week or
two to return.
PSL (Rich)
***********
1. Preparing for the Directors Review next Tuesday
2. Lowered the noise of the PSL VCO to about 6 mHz/rtHz flat from 100
Hz
to 10 kHz
3. Testing of two more VCO's is just about complete and will allow
a quick
change out of the VCO's at LHO and LLO
4. Participated in the development of the LIGO2 laser spec.
LSC/ASC Frequency Distribution (Rich)
***********
1. Finished all final reviews of the first part of the system (AM
stabilizer) and sent boards out to the board house.
2. Receiving parts for the above system.
WBS 1.4.1.2 Project Controls
The following change requests have
been submitted:
| CR-990028 | WBS 1.1.3 | Beam Tube Enclosure Closeout | F. Asiri |
| CR-990029 | WBS 1.1.4 | Fencing Road at Livingston (Info Only) | G. Stapfer |
Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection
From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>
Assisted the Project Control Office (P. Lindquist) with packing, shipping, and Customs Certification for posters to Australian National University (Dr. D. McClelland). Account Number P47783.
Assisted the Detector Group (P. Kabot) with packing and shipping of Arm Cavity Baffle Outer Frame Hardware to the LLO (J. Kern), delivery confirmation received. Account Number P96037.
Assisted the Detector Group (S. Whitcomb) with packaging and shipping of 12 cartons of books to the LHO (F. Raab). Account Number P158180.
Assisted the System Administrator (L. Wallace) with packing and shipping of a Gateway Computer SN# 3091930 to LLO (T.Evans), delivery confirmation received. Account Number P 97273.
Assisted the Caltech Safety Office with the Inventory of all Laser 3B and above. Also a courtesy inspection was performed. Several on the spot corrections were made.
Liasion Vist to China Lake USN Weapons Station and Edwards AFB in search of surplus government equipment for the project.
Rick Savage requested that I become the Point Of Contact for a possible damage claim for a Laser and Chiller that was damaged by DSI during shipment. All necessary Claim forms will be filed along with photographs to DSI (I. Baker)
| Packages | Faxes | |
| In | 25 | 38 |
| Out | 13 | 53 |
Special Projects: Processed relatively high volume of electronic documents that were submitted. Continued working on labeling Parson's Electronic As-built Drawings.
From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>
Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA.
From: Ruth Brambila
I've started the spreadsheet into Excel to keep track of the LIGO contracts. I really don't like to start a shadow system, but it may be helpful to keep track of the standard po's and the subcontract number initially. The list helps Esther when she sees old "PC.." numbers on invoices and needs to find the Oracle corresponding number. Initially, it'll be on a shared drive where Esther can see it also. Right now it is in it's rough draft stage. Later if we find that we don't need it, it can be discarded.
On Tuesday, I talked to Dorothy about receiving everything on po's. Previously, only goods were being received in Oracle. We now understand that everything (dollars on amount-based po's and subcontracts) also need to be received. Dorothy will being receiving everything beginning Monday, February 14th. The receiving function is necessary to effect transfers of funds on poetas and to process change orders to subcontracts.
Today, I sent out a response to a collection agency regarding Barry Barish's phone line which Caltech tried on numerous occasions to cancel, but GTE would not cancel the service.
I am going back to LIGO orders placed since Oracle came live and writing up "price analyses" (justifications). The majority of the justification forms submitted with the req's only address source selection, but do not address price reasonableness. There are 54 orders that do not address "price reasonableness". I've taken care of 16 so far. I have 38 justifications to do.
I received four (4) spreadsheets from Cindy Akutagawa to cancel encumbrances on various subcontracts and one-time po's. Some encumbrances have been released on the one-time po's, however, I am waiting to hear back from Jose how I should handle reductions of subcontracts. There are various issues involved here. My making the change would revise the p.o., so it probably needs to be a change order. If it is not a change order, then it would throw off the balances off and change order sequence when an actual change order is submitted by Irena, etc. Also, as it is a reduction, the contractor needs to be made aware of the reduction.
We have two po's (Burns PX295760 and High Performance 1005937) which have active encumbrances on cancelled lines, which are in a permanent state. Kathy Meade is working with Oracle to see how these funds can be released as there are other cases of this. This was created by cancelling a line that had not been received, but had been paid. We've since realized that everything needs to be received, and nothing can be cancelled until the billed amounts have been received.
From: Kris Duncan <kris@ligo.caltech.edu>
The architect/engineer for the Staging Building in Livingston, John Desmond Associates, has submitted his conceptual drawings for the building on schedule. These drawings were discussed in a review held on Thursday, February 10, and further direction will be given to the contractor.
A request for candidates to perform scheduling on Primavera for LIGO II was sent to the four labor-hour contractors currently providing staff to LIGO. These four are Triad, NYMA, Butler, and Support Services. This position is scheduled for six months to one year.
* Matt visits MIT this week to talk with Peter Fritschel to learn
about
the current LSC/ASC design. Before and during this trip, Hiro generated
using twiddle various transfer functions and powers build-up under
various resonant conditions. This is used by Matt and Peter to discuss
about the lock acquisition strategy. Next Tuesday, there will be a
meeting at CIT to discuss about the Lock Acquisition work based on
this trip.
* Biplab kept working to improve the optics implementation, especially
the time dependence of the fields in the summation cavity is implemented
and validated.
* Hiro modified the simulation engine framework to speed up the code
and
to make the output always friendly to matlab. adlib can now generate
binary format output. The fully STL compliant implementation speeds
up
the simulation, and the simulation code is now being fixed for it.
The strategy is considered and discussed to save an intermediate
state and to load it later.
GUI
* Alfi4 release is imminent. Ed and Bruce worked hard to fix bugs and
to
improve the code to make it possible to build a working version of
new alfi. The
new version will have features to support more complex configurations.
Code release and maintenance
* e2e binary codes will be available in two places. One is a final
release version,
which uses staw facility. This is stable and reliable. Another is a
test
version,
which can be updated daily. This version will have new features, bug
fixes, speed
improvements etc.
* A bug reporting interface using gnats is implemented in the e2e home
page.
* I spoke with John McCoy of PNNL regarding long term
strategic plans for
high BW OC3/OC12 connections at Hanford. LIGO will be included in planning
discussions
they will have in the future with local service providers. At present
the market in the Tri-Cities is
not favorable to consumers. The commercial OC3 rate costs $480k/yr,
whichis what PNNL will be paying.
There is hope (only hope) that as additional providers decide to move
into the market in Eastern Washington (due
to the ballooning population), prices may plummet in several years...
* I met with Stan and Rolf and our group to discuss
the timing and planning for release of
the next frame format software. Consensus is to do it as soon as code
is validated and available.
* Kent and I are collaborating with S. Scott/D.McClelland
at ANU to help them develop a 3-yr grant proposal to ARC.
[Kent Blackburn]
* (JKB) The new LDAS system administrator started this week (Omar Rashad).
His
efforts have already impacted
in a positive manner, the
efforts of the software
development team towards LDAS
goals, especially with regard
to tasks Ed is associated
with, since Ed is now somewhat
more available to work LDAS
projects.
* (JKB) Progress continues to be made on the socket class library. Ed
reported this week that
he has identified the necessary changes in
the code to get the local
loop-back socket communications working
on the Sun boxes. Should
be a simple step forward to make this
work for Linux boxes also.
However, there is still no progress
on the linux <-> solaris
socket communications issue.
* (JKB) The MPICH version 1.2.0 MPI library proved to be problematic
this
week. The bulk of the trouble
we have been having is related to
the libraries bizarre mixing
of C++ exception handling between
C and C++ code blocks. MPICH
claims that GNU's compiler is not
fully supportive of exceptions,
but they reference a version of
the compiler 2 or 3 years
old. It looks to me like the MPI code is
playing tricks with C pointers
which breaks C++ exceptions and
that the compiler is not
the problem. We will have to write a
minimal amount of extra
error and exception handling to deal with
the deficiencies of the
current release. As an aside, much work
went into the requirements
for the wrapperAPI this week (which
will be using the MPICH
1.2.0 MPI library.
* (JKB) A search was made this week to identify pentium quad processor
hardware to support the
multi-threaded dataConditioningAPI. We
have identified 3 vendors
with price structures roughly have of
the cost Sun is offering
for a similar 4CPU 450 servers. There
is however quit a range
in 4-way pentium hardware these days. I
will start the process for
acquiring one unit this week.
* (JKB) Paperwork for the Australian ARC proposal support was submitted
to the ANU group this week.
At this time it looks like all the
needed materials are now
delivered for the review process down
under.
* (JKB) Continued weekly meetings with ANU, PSU, and UTB on the development
of the dataConditionAPI
functionality.
* (JKB) Held a meeting with BK, AL, EM and myself to discuss and detail
the first phase of a redesign
of the LDAS webpages. The changes
will involve combining LDAS
related materials located in two
distinct areas on two distinct
file servers into a common area
and providing more user
friendly interfaces for getting at the
information that "matters".
* (JKB) The problem tracking system continues to be utilized by LDAS
a
roughly the same level as
last week. The clear advantage that
the system is showing know
is its ability to prevent issues that
came up several weeks ago
in the last LDAS release build from
falling through the cracks
and not getting attention. This will
have the effect of resolving
many problems that traditionally only
get looked at during a build
cycle in between the builds, which
in turn should simplify
the chaos during LDAS builds.
[Masha Barnes]
* (MB) LightweightAPI bug fixes:
- added support for 'char' elements
of ilwd Table column without
space delimiters.
* (MB) MPI:
- found the bug in MPICH configuration
which was preventing from
enabling exception
throwing in MPI code.
- Traced the exception throwing
bug to be a function pointer problem
instead of gcc exception
throwing problem as it was claimed by
implementors of MPICH
C++ bindings.
[ Phil Ehrens ]
*(PSE) Worked with Alex to extend the functions of the frame API
to include extraction of arbitrary
frame elements and
package them in ilwd containers.
*(PSE) Wrote new user command getFrameElement to make use of new
frame API functions to support
extraction of arbitrary
frame data elements.
*(PSE) Modified the "hotgrep" utility to handle "deleted" files.
If you delete a file that is being
polled by hotgrep,
and then recreate it, hotgrep
will handle it transparently.
*(PSE) Supported Mary Lei and Peter Shawhan's work on the
metadata API user commands.
[Alex Ivanov]
* (AI) FrameCPP "make dist" tested and bug report given to Ed
* (AI) fixed a problem with updating Vector class' data in FrameCPP::DaqFrame
* (AI) byte swapping implemented for DaqReader, DaqFrame classes in FrameCPP
* (AI) FrameCPP Vector class data byte swapping problem fixed
* (AI) make FrameAPI changes requested by Phil
[Barbara Kratochwill]
* (BK) Attended meeting to plan changes to LDAS web site.
[Mary Lei]
* (ML) Reloaded cit_1 database with new tables that have comment
instead of remark. Tested
putMetaData user command for ilwd format.
Reported a problem with
ligolw conversion of xml to ilwd.
Reported some macro problems.
* (ML) Closed problem reports related to metadata macros.
cvs changes and test file
changes.
* (ML) Updated db2 document page with cit insertion rates and
new multi-table ilwd.
* (ML) Improved metadataAPI handling of exceptions and return
of exceptions to manager
since the user seems not to be
getting the exceptions and
the next step gets executed
in getMetaData.
[ Edward Maros ]
* (EFM) Create CVS accounts for several users
* (EFM) Continued work on Linux to Sun communication
* (EFM) Started looking at loopback issue for Solaris
[Peter Shawhan]
* (PSS) Finished working on a program to log Epics
control settings at the
sites, and a web interface
to retrieve information
in a few useful ways.
(Actually, this is not currently
connected with LDAS,
but eventually this information
will be stored in
the LDAS database.)
* (PSS) Updated the graphical user interface to the LIGO
database ('guild') to access
the database through
the LDAS APIs.
[Wallace for LDAS]
Received and getting a number of quotes for budget purposes on the beouwolf
system.
Stuart Anderson:
Started a technical discussion
with Sun on the possible use of
their resell of the VERITAS Storage Migrator as a candidate for the
LIGO on-site mass storage system.
Working with the Software
Coordination Committee to put
together a top-down software development schedule for integrating LSC
software into LDAS, including externally visible milestones in the
form
of pre-planned mock data challenges.
Figured out how to get Linux
running on the new Dell laptops,
which requires the latest beta version from RedHat, i.e., RH6.2Beta.
[Omar Rahsad-LDAS SysAdmin]
Applied Redhat 6.1 upgrade and updates to computer from WA. The
system has
passed initial burn-in phase and pending some further testing should
be ready to
be shipped back.
Setup new user workstation m71. Some configuration issues arose
which are then
in turn issues with the cfengine automation system.
Performed monthly backup. We are about to break the limit of four
tapes.
Alternate methods of backup need to be considered as there is question
as to
whether backups are being captured properly (see below quote from ufsdump
manpage) and practically. (Depending on our growth rate, a full
backup might
eventually not be possible to perform in the course of a normal business
day).
"When running ufsdump , the file
system must be inactive; otherwise, the
output of ufsdump
may be inconsistent and
restoring files correctly may be
impossible."
Resolved problem of access to the CD burner on kitalpha by making the
necessary
devices. Tested successful by burning iso of Redhat 6.2beta release
needed for
configuration of Stuart's new laptop.
Use device /dev/cdr or /dev/cdrw.
Partial setup of new user workstations m81 and m82. Final assimilation
is
delayed pending resolution of cfengine issues.
Resolved two issues of how mail was being sent from spica. Mail
will now appear
to come from @ligo.caltech.edu and mail will now be delivered to remote
addresses. This has however revealed a third issue, which is
being looked into
as gnats still won't send mail to remote addresses.
This almost completes everything that was on my immediate to-do list.
Walid Majid:
Held another telecon with the LSC team interested in doing a coincidence
analysis of the 40m and TAMA data. Discussed the elements of a pipeline
to
carry out a match filter analysis and figures of merits to quantify
how
good a job we have done in terms of cleaning up the data set.
Continuing to look at the stationarity issue for the GW channel in the
40m
data set, using time-frequency techniques. I am basically taking
short
stretches of lock data, and calculating a power spectral density for
even
shorter segments. I then look at how the normalized mean and variance
for
each frequency bin evolves as we move along the time axis.
MIT:
Working on installing new disk drives.
Livingston:
We have received a duplex unit to allow our printer to print
double-sided pages.
Hanford:
Helped two new Post-docs get set-up with computers and user accounts.
Put in Purchase Requests for two new Sun workstations; one for one
of
the Post-docs, the other for the site license server. Obtained
computer
serial numbers for all 30 PCs on site, and some home PCs, then submitted
them to Caltech ITS to be included in the Norton Antivirus site license.
Upgraded the two site laptops to Windows 98, removed unauthorized
software which had been installed by users, upgraded the authorized
application software to current releases, fixed the network
configuration and printer setup so that they would work again.
Purchased an external floppy drive and CD-ROM drive for use with the
laptops and as spares.
Purchased additional MS Office software for two new guest PCs.
Called
for a quote on Exceed 6.2, to upgrade our 20 user site license and
increase the number of licenses to 35.
Spoke with Dr. Lee Philipp at WSU Tri-City about hiring a student to
help with the PC System Administration. He recommended two students
who
I will be interviewing next week.
Continued network security maintenance, did the usual backups, helped
users with several printer and PC problems, and kept the GC accounting
paper work up to date.
CIT:
Sam updated the ip list and helped Florence on some e-mail issues.
Barbara installed the latest version of TimeTarget, the NT scheduler,
on
antares server. The latest version allows you to schedule several
processes in sequence and name files that must exist before a process
begins (among other new features). TimeTarget is used overnight
to backup
the DCC database, update the database links to electronic files, and
run
reports.
Began work on DCC changes to check-out a document revision number.
Added a field to the LSC Roster tables, forms, and reports for
professional designation.
Sent a copy of costbook database to Bill Althouse along with some
documentation. Answered some emails about how it works.
The DCC Search tool and the Get-a-Document-Number tool now point
directly to the DCC database. Any changes to the database are
reflected
immediately. Links to electronic documents appear the next working
day.
Picked up the editted Nov 11 tapes from Alta Video. We reviewed
a few
cuts at the studio and they looked good. The re-editted Colwell
presentation has been encoded at 80 and 34 kbps. Reviewed various
versions
of high-speed variable bit-rate encoding of the Nov 12 segments.
The
Digital Media Center is using our videos to hone their variable bit
encoding techniques. We decided on some settings that look
best.
Suresh worked with Larry on migration to new sirius over the weekend.
All
Sun workstations are initialized as NIS+ clients. Transferred users
home
directories and some applications to new sirius. The process of tunning
up
sirius is continuing that might last few weeks.
Making full backups of filesystems in new sirius. But yet to work on
tape
robot for daily backups.
Setup couple of users accounts for new Handford post-docs.
Helping users to update their accounts/machines as a consequence of
the
migration.
Larry worked on the move to the new sirius server. This process will
take about
another week to get all of the kinks worked out. The initial move took
quite a
bit of time because of the need to setup new NIS+ tables and the data
transfers
took longer than they should have.
The upgrade included a number of application upgrades which have had
some minor
problems but generally went OK.
Working on getting new s/w for the backup juke box system to be installed
on the
sirius upgrade.
Worked a number of procurement and licensing issues.
Worked with Cindy to clear out a number of old financial issues.
Works in progress, along with the sirius upgrade is the installation
of a new
docuserv unit which should happen at the end of the month and a new
ftp server.
We have done some testing on a internal to ligo and external anonymous
ftp
server and found a configuration that should allow people to transfer
files
without too many problems.
Installed/setup a couple of pc's and laptops.
The work on video connections between computers has been put on hold.
We will
get back to that project after the server system upgrades have been
finished.
Used the projector system for a real conference meeting and it worked
out quite
well.
Dorothy Lloyd
After being away for 2 weeks, returned to a very heavy load of invoices to be processed. Needless to say, spent the majority of this week processing invoices. Processed receiving and requisitions both on- and off-line at a minimum.
Irene Baldon
This report covers only 4 days since I was out 1 day on sick leave. My time was taken with an unusually high number of problem issues thus reducing my stats.
Worked on preparing the paper work for 22 new trips taken recently or upcoming (22 Payment Requests and 18 Advance Requests). There are approximately an additional 10 new trips in various stages pending completion of travel arrangements before the paper work can be completed. Also worked on an extremely high number of problem issues which required a good portion of my time.
Completed 10 Expense Reports, some of which were extensive, involving 2-3 or more pages each. Some of these reports were still not taped or completed by the Traveler, and required additional time for completion. Worked additionally on a number of problem issues associated with these which required a good portion of my time. There are 28 Expense Reports still to be done. I'm holding 4 completed Expense Reports which require a check from the Traveler before sending to Travel Audit to clear. Rita/Liz have 6 Expense Reports to work on.
I have not seen any significant change in the time lag for receiving checks. They still continue to hold checks in Disbursement Audit for up to an additional week after the check has been issued. This additional lag adds significantly to the lag that already occurs in Travel Audit/Accounting. I have started receiving T numbers intermittently. We'll have to see how long this lasts this time.
Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.
Prepared the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for the Week of February 8, 2000.
Performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of the LIGO Project here at Caltech, as well as from members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites. I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.
Rita Torres
I lost my network connections Monday through Wednesday, and I could not print. At Thursday morning everything appears to be working. Many thanks to Suresh Singh who worked tirelessly to resolve these problems, and to Fred Asiri who printed for me the things I relayed via email.
For I. Petrac did edits to accounts sheet for change order No. 7 to MIT, obtained an Oracle requisition number. Per R. Brambila request, re-input information for Lightwave Electronics in order to obtain a new Oracle requisition number. Copied for internal distribution the package going for NSF approval of modification to the Galli & Morelli contract. Chased some LSC reports, submitted these for posting on the web.
For E. Jasnow, did letter to Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. to transmit the executed contract. Prepared then FedExed 4 letters Re: Scheduler Requirement. For P. Lindquist obtained copies of Annual Work Plan for Operations & Commissioning, FedExed to the NSF.
Spent a bit more time for input of subsystem drawings dates and titles. Project ongoing. Over several days, I took a stab at helping out with travel expense reports.
Set up on the 3rd floor name labels for Kenji Numata. Ongoing P-card purchases, reconciling, and chasing after details. Slightly more update to PO log for D. Lloyd. Doing as time permits.
Elizabeth K. Wood
Began putting together Guide to LIGO: An Employee’s Best Friend. It includes LIGO’s policies, among them the publication policy, safety procedures, computer information, and travel policies.
Worked on LIGO’s office space situation.
REMINDER: PLEASE let me know when you are expecting visitors/guests who will be here for an extended visit and will need office space. I just hate surprises.
After payroll had been delivered last week, one of our employees pointed out to me that he hadn't gotten a paycheck. Not only had he not received a paycheck receipt, but nothing had been deposited in his account. I called payroll to find out what had happened. It appears that not only had one LIGO employee been shortchanged; two had. Fortunately, the good people in payroll rectified the situation within a couple of hours and issued checks immediately.
ORACLE continues to amaze me with its deft manipulation of data. For several months now I have been trying to restore some lost vacation time to an employee after ORACLE subtracted vacation hours the employee never took. Those hours MAY be restored in the coming weeks; I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s only been two and a half months since we first discovered the problem. These things take time.
Along those same lines, I adjusted another employee’s vacation time several months ago; it has yet to show up as corrected on the employee’s vacation total.
My utter confidence in the DEBACLE system remains unshaken.
Nota Bene to Caltech employees: Your personal holiday converts to vacation time if you don’t use it during the year. This becomes important if you are nearing the vacation accrual limit of 320 hours. To avoid possible errors regarding the accrual of vacation time, please consider taking your personal holiday before the last two weeks of December.
For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu