Weekly Report for Week Ending November 3, 2005

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday November 7, 2005 will be:

(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

1.      Announcements

2.      Comments on Weekly Report

3.      LSC Issues (Saulson)

4.      LIGO Lab Operations

  • Administration (Lindquist)
  • Sites (Raab, Zucker, Shoemaker)
  • Commissioning (Fritschel), Detector (Coyne)
  • Campus Research Facilities
    • 40 Meter (Weinstein)
    • TN, ( Libbrecht)
    • LASTI  (Shoemaker)
  • Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

5.      R&D and Advanced LIGO (Shoemaker)

6.      CHANGE CONTROL BOARD/TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD SESSION AS NEEDED

  • No open change requests

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights

LSC Issues (Saulson)

No report

LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

STATUS OF LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

Non-LSC MOUs (Lloyd)

  • No report.

SITE TELECONFERENCE (Lindquist)

  • A site teleconference was held Thursday, November 3, 2005.  The following issues were discussed:
  • Financial Tracking Report – The FY 2005 reports have been published for the end of October.  We remain on course for expected carry forward of $6.9 million after adjustments to reflect LDAS acquisitions.
  • Transfer of AC Equipment – Moving companies have been contacted to move the AC equipment from Hanford to MIT.  Expect move to occur next week.  May want to disassemble unit because of height.  J. Worden reports that outside condenser has been moved into shipping and receiving in preparation for move.
  • Speed Limit during S5 – The speed limit will be reduced at Livingston for the S5 run.  The gate will be closed during S5.  Contractors will be admitted by appointment.
  • The list of assigned actions updated through November 3, 2005 will be found Here.
  • No meeting next week (November 10) due to NSF Review.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Chargois)

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

  • Provided assistance to the Detector Group (H. Armandula)  arranging the relocation of three (3) Optic Transit Cases and one (1) Optic Case insert, from the Synchrotron Hi-Bay to Bridge OTF lab.
  • Provided assistance to the Director's Office, with packing and shipping of one (1) Laptop computer and two LCD Projectors to MIT (M. Woods) in support of the upcoming LSC.  Account Number P204198.
  • Provided assistance to the Detector Group (H. Armandula) by preparing  US Customs Documentation (Commercial Invoice and FedEx  Shipment) for Synthetic Sensor to RAL, attn : Mr. Ian Wilmut.  Account Number P204317.
  • Note:  Researching the most economical way to transport the 5-ton Air Conditioner from LHO to MIT.

DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Turner, Mak)

>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • The contract for the new Document Management System was prepared almost three weeks ago, was sent to FileHold for signature, and was returned to us.  On Tuesday Ruth approved it, and a purchase order was generated.  Payment of the invoice from FileHold for the software was processed yesterday.  FileHold should receive this on Monday or Tuesday.  They will then ship the software for installation on the server.  Meanwhile the hardware has been ordered and will hopefully be here and configured by the end of November.
  • I am hoping to have a chance to look over the software manuals before leaving for Boston (or take them with me)..

>From: Cleveland Mak <mak_c@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Update on Scanning Project - Progress continues on Larry Jones' boxes of files.  To date, we have 7 of the 16 boxes scanned.
  • Activity:

Week Ending

11/03/2005

In

Out

Packages

28

8

Faxes

15

34

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Cronin, Brambila, Kaufman)

>From: "Cronin, Holly" <Holly.Cronin@caltech.edu>

>From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>

  • Completed the new subcontract for Limerick and have routed it for approvals.
  • Working on the change order to Triad.
  • Working on the rent check for the visitor. There have been complications.
  • Looking into taxability of the professional services for the custom computer changes order to Filehold.
  • Responding to invoice issues on tax being charged on orders for Livingston that are not taxable.
  • MIT is still in routing in Procurement.  Received the current A-133 and included it in the package.
  • Submitted my monthly statistical reports. Closed out the blanket purchase orders.

>From: Florence Kaufman <fkaufman>

  • Monthly report for FY2005 Operations, FY2006 Operations and the Outreach Award have been prepared and are posted on the network.
  • Submitted three Cost Transfers to correct the allocation of telephone conference charges to various task numbers.
  • Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport. (For passwords contact Florence)

SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Jasnow, Salone)

>From: Gina Salone <gsalone@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Nothing significant to report.

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

  • Resolution has been reached with Eskew-Dumez-Ripple, the architect for the LLO Science Education Center, concerning their fee for increased construction management costs.  The fee will be increased by the percentage difference of the original estimated cost of the building and the contracted cost.
  • The construction contractor for the LLO SEC, Cangelosi-Ward, has submitted construction schedule.  This schedule is being reviewed to determine the impact on S5.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Hiroto, Lloyd)

>Irene Baldon

  • Processed the paper work for sixteen (16) new/revised trips.  At this time there are three (3) trips completed or in the works but are awaiting the necessary paper work to enter the P-Card system.
  • Completed ten (10) Expense Reports and there zero (0) reports yet to be done.  I continue to contact travelers who have outstanding Expense Reports (more than one (1) month old) to ask for their cooperation in sending me their receipts so that these can be closed in a timely manner.  Presently there zero (0) reports more than thirty (30) days old.

>Julie Hiroto jhiroto@ligo.caltech.edu

  • No report.

>Dorothy Lloyd

  • Processed the usual invoices for payment and followed up on problems. Reviewed and recorded invoice payments for the month of October.
  • Worked with Ruth in closing out blanket orders by adjusting receipts as needed.
  • Jim continued with data entry in the LIGO database and helping out in the DCC.

PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist)

We have received the first half of our funding for FY 2006.  We have provided the Office of Sponsored Research with a “resume” indicating the proposed distribution of funds to LIGO accounts.

DCC Steering Committee (Lindquist)

See above (Linda Turner) for information regarding contract.

CHANGE CONTROL/CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

  • No open change requests.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

  • No special activities to report.

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

>From: Bill Tyler tyler@ligo.caltech.edu

  • No report.

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) and Interferometer Operations (Raab)

Summary of Commissioning Activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by M. Landry)

S5 began at 8am Pacific on Friday 4th.  Leading into the run, neither IFO was in a fully optimized state.  H2 was locking with binary inspiral ranges in excess of 4Mpc but suffering from glitches, while H1 spent most of the week unlocked.  Work is underway to improve the 4k locking and stability, including mitigating glitches on the RF distribution system and a swapping of the SPOB photodiode (both links to elogs available below).

Commissioning highlights are bulleted below:

  • dust levels have been found to be high when we employ a hamster house on 2k and 4k antisymmetric ports, but turn off the purge air fan.  Dust levels were also observed to ratchet up during lock loss.  The theory that contamination, possibly oil, on razor-blade beam dumps is burn-off during lock loss appears to hold together.
  • new timing ramps and IRIG B signals were tested and working
  • an annoying test of a DMT monitor: recently, a plane has been buzzing EY, and observed with PlaneMon
  • provisional S5 DC calibrations in simple MICH and single-arm configurations were performed on both interferometers.  More calibration measurements including frequency sweeps are planned neared the beginning of the run
  • a (remote) vault seismometer has been added to the frames; we may finally understand our problem with wind and locking, i.e. does the wind shake the buildings and disallow locking, or does it shake the earth which shakes the slab?

4K IFO

  • a PEPI-like feedback servo was designed for the 4k using STS-2 seismometers mounted on crossbeams, feeding back to the fine actuators.  The loop clearly suppresses the error point, but we've not yet investigated the effects on the spectrum of the fully-powered up IFO
  • SPOB glitching was ultimately found to be due to the RF distribution
  • ASPD3 was found to be saturating and limiting the 4k binary inspiral range.  The photodiode shows larger noise than the other three on the AS port.  Later, the photodiode's performance inexplicably improved for a time.
  • 1/2" mirrors swapped out for  REO versions, and the SPOB diode was found to be non-uniform, leading to its replacement

2K IFO

  • clipping was reduced on the WFS3 REFL path
  • optical levers were trended, and some found to be tanking so that they were replaced
  • the new fiber-based timing system was installed and tested on the 2k.  The system is based on a clock in the mass storage room, with fiber distribution system to the LVEA and mid stations.  Comparisons with a portable rubidium clock were made and the system checked out well. More  on comparitors here.

DAQ

  • the new excitation AWG configuration is summarized
  • test point problems and framebuilder instability caused some delays this week in commissioning and calibration

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations (Zucker)

L1 Interferometer (Frolov)

After another week of round o'clock commissioning, interferometer inspiral range improved to 10.5 Mpc. Long lock stretches lasting up to several hours were achieved during night time. The commissioning efforts were mainly directed on tuning the digital and analog suspension filters as well as on improving the sensing chain electronics noise and filtering.

There was a minor setback on Monday when large excess noise appeared in the interferometer spectrum from an suspected intermittent cable connection in one of the wave front sensors. As often happens with intermittent problems, the excess noise disappeared in the process of examining and wiggling the cables.

The laser power into the interferometer remains at the below-nominal level of 5 W despite several attempts to increase the output of the laser and the transmission through the PSL optical table.

Resonant gain filters were installed and tested on all BSC HEPI chambers. The effect was a reduction of the noise by as much as a factor of seven in the 1 to 3 Hz band in many of the interferometer signals, including DARM, ASI, REFLI.

CDS (Bogue)

  • Tweaked my jumpstart configuration and began jumpstarting the control room machines.
  • Still working on the RMA of the atomic clock.
  • Dropped new code from D. Sigg for awg.
  • Installed the dvd robot on lloscript.  The drivers are working but I need new license keys before I can begin programming it.
  • Created a short list of files for nightly permanent archive (based on Dave's list from Hanford) and began doing a nightly permanent archive.
  • General commissioning support.

Computing and Network Security (Roddy)

  • The new mail server seems to be working well.  There are the usual user migration issues, but those seem to be mostly taken care of now.
  • This week has mostly been spent wrapping up the last bits of the server swap.
  • The new tape backup hardware is in and I started unpacking it and getting it ready to install.
  • Installed a new foundry switch in the rack to replace our Dell switch in the CUR.  Needs to be configured and put in use.

CDS Code Support (Khan)

no report

Education and Outreach (Thacker)

no report

Site Safety and Security (Riesen)

no report

General Computing (Giardina)

  • helped Rich Riesen with email migration issues
  • been tied up with LDAS,  this is all the GC I have to report this week.

AdL SUS/SE Mechanical Engineering (Spjeld)

Quad SUS Installation Fixtures

  • assembly drawings nearly complete (80%), will send to Calum over the weekend
  • attempted to upload files to PDMWorks, but was unable to submit SW models and assemblies, will send a CD-ROM to Calum instead
  • following up on linear drives correspondance to provide Calum with supplier information

LDAS/Condor and data analysis (Yakushin):

*It's a girl!!*

LDAS Admin (Giardina)

  • this spans more than just the past week, but I didn't report it until completed:

replaced disks in nodes 7, 8, 18, 20, 23, 26, 28, 38, 60, 63, 64, 78, 84, 101, 107, 111, 113, 121, 125, 128, 134, 137, 139, 154, 161, 166, 182, 183.  This was mostly finished prior to FC4 upgrade.

  • nodes 61,81,122,138,184,205,210 were not upgraded due to problems with disk, cdrom, or power supply

replaced power supply in node122, and then used cloned disks in all to complete upgrade.

  • Shipped tapes LL0426,LL0520,LL0639,LL0509,LL0521,LL0535,LL0633 and LL0637 to Dan Kozak at CIT
  • node48 was DOA upon visual inspection.  replaced power supply and all is well.

I used the last remaining spare power supply in node48, need to order a couple extra to keep on hand.

***  ALL nodes 1-210 at LLO are FC4 and, at the time of this email, are up and running.  Node2 is currently used as ldas-gridmon and is not part of Condor (per note from Igor)

  • revamped a couple scripts that will run starting at 00:00 on Sat, Sun, and Mon to check the nodes for badblocks and email status to myself and Igor.  It will check 70 nodes per run.
  • we have a metric boatload of Maxtor disks that are still under warranty and I will RMA them today or tomorrow.

Initial LIGO Detector Science & Engineering (Coyne)

No report.

40-Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

Osamu gave a LIGO/Caltech seminar on the Optical spring and optical resonance in the 40m Detuned RSE interferometer, on November 1. G050568: ppt, pdf.

IFO commissioning:

  • Osamu measured the optical gain of the X arm. The xarm cavity pole appears to be at 2.8 kHz, not the spec of 1.6 kHz. Osamu believes this is due to analog whitening and/or anti-aliasing filters, not the actual optical response. Using this assumption, he extracts the effective response of the analog filters and applies this to get the optical response of the full optical configuration. This agrees very well with the theoretical expectation, lending credence to the assumption.
  • Rob has outlined a variety of alternative procedures for bringing the interferometer from no-control to full-control in a "deterministic" procedure (ie, no waiting for the mirrors to swing into resonance and the servos to "catch"); AKA "no-bang" locking. He tried one of the simplest methods, with some success.
  • Two paths have been forged to acquire lock and control the interferometer, one by Osamu and the other by Rob, Rana, and Matt. All interested parties will work together to forge one "official" length sensing and control front end code, and one set of lock acquisition and control scripts. We also all agreed to make good use of the ilog and the new 40m Wiki.
  • Dan measured the oplev noise spectra with the loops on and off, in an attempt to identify excess noise as the stack frequencies due to oplev folding mirrors on the stack optical tables. There does seem to be a noticable effect, but it is not large; so, for now, we do not plan any major effort to get the folding mirrors off of the stack optical tables.
  • Dan, Monica and Osamu are going through the calibration of the noise spectrum. Osamu notes that the optical response function at the 40m is considerably more complicated than at the sites due to the RSE and optical spring resonances, so the calibration must be done with more care. We will need to carefully measure the analog electronics in front of the A/D and after the D/A.

IFO modeling:

  • Monica has implemented Hiro's new dual-recycling summation cavity in her e2e model, and is busy debugging it. She will focus her work on the main goal of learning how to extrpolate from 40m to AdLIGO.
  • Hiro has used his new dual-recycling summation cavity to make a prediction for the location of the optical spring at the 40m, with two different power levels. It seems to agree well (semi-quantitatively) with our measured spectrum.

DC detection development:

  • Steve ordered and received two HR supermirrors from Newport for the output mode cleaner. He and Liyuan measured the mirror transmittance at 0degrees: one was T=0.08%, other was 0.2%. Steve sent te worse one back, with a promise that they'll replace it with a better one.
  • Mike Smith made some corrections to the OMC and OMMT drawing packages that were released to the DCC. Many of the parts for the OMMT have been received. Mike is scribing numbers on the parts and is in the process of pre-assembly.

Electronics, controls

  • Dan is going through the scripts used to diagonalize the mode cleaner suspensions, tweaking them to get excitations right.
  • Our RAID disk array for storing frames went belly up on Friday. On Monday, Alex uploaded new firmware to the RaidWeb RAID array and it works now. No frames were logged from Oct 28 15:59 -to- Oct 31 11:59, 814575568 -to- 814823984, and minute trend frames for a small number of channels were lost.
  • Our RAID disk array for storing frames is dying. We are looking into getting a replacement, and also getting a fiber link to the disk/tape archive system at CACR. In the meantime, we need to back up all of our trend frames, BURT snapshots, conlog database, etc, before we lose them.
  • Larry Wallace is getting us a new Sun Blade 1500 to use as a badly-needed fully-functioning operator console.
  • Ben and Rana are discussing the DC photodiode in-vac electronics. A prototype is being prepared. They are looking for suitable vacuum-compatible resistors. He's also working on the mechanical mounts.
  • Ben is also working on getting new RF PDs for us, and also new fast mechanical shutters.
  • A new common mode servo board (Sigg design) is, supposedly, "in the mail" from LHO. We look forward to it!

Lab Infrastructure

  • The STACIS seismic pre-isolators are not useful. Several months ago, Steve shorted out the ones supporting the ITMX and ETMX chambers. He has now done the same for ITMY and ETMY chambers.
  • Rob set up a new online 40m Wiki to post things like To-do lists, procedures, etc. This is NOT a replacement for the ilog!!
  • Rob assembled many months of vacuum RGA spectra into a "movie". Steve gives it two thumbs up.
  • A new (spare) Osaka maglev turbo pump has been received. Our main maglev turbo pump is more than 10 years old, and is showing signs of impending death.
  • Steve has a setup for measuring ringdown frequencies, using a phonograph needle.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

No report.

LASTI (Ottaway)

No report.

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)

Weekly E2E Physics Meeting

Sany Yoshida talked about simulation of Mode Cleaner and its misalignments. Hiro described how e2e has been used to simulate Optical Spring effect in Advanced LIGO interferometer.

e2e-3.0.4

(Hiro) A few more bug fixed version of e2e were released, now e2e-3.0.4.   The e2e Primitive manual is updated to include new primitives and change of features (still underway).  Optical Spring of 40m was simulated to show that the basic ingredients are in the e2e framework.

Simulation of 40m Advanced Interferometer

(Monica) Two e2e packages for the 40m are now available, the usual one (including the modal model) and a new one in which the dual summation cavity (only plane wave approximation) has been implemented. Basically, for future simulation purposes (optical springs effect and locking strategies) the more recent package will be used: the simulation time increased by a factor 10.

FFT studies

(Biplab) Had discussion with Bob Spero on diffraction loss calculation.

He used his code to validate my results for the proposed AdvLIGO  arm cavity. Similarly, I used my Matlab code to validate his results for a cavity with mirrors of 2667m radius-of-curvature and g-factor=0.5 (for the proposed cavity, these numbers are 2076m and 0.92). This new cavity may not be of consideration for AdvLIGO because of its still  small beam-size at mirrors (~4cm), but this is an interesting case for  calculation of diffraction loss -- in this case the truncated Gaussian approximation for loss calculation overestimates the actual loss calculated in a numerically rigorous way, while in the proposed cavity or LIGO-I cavity the reverse is true.

Alfi

(Bruce) Reworking the error reporting methodology to give more control to the user and prevent multiple error dialogs from swamping the user if there is a bad load (Problem Report 476 (related))

(Melody) Worked on a new feature to swap different nodes without removing  the connections (PR 280).  Working on PR 296 - easier access to settings.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)

Mandic:

I made a calculation estimating the stochastic background of GW that would be generated by the population of LMXBs in the Universe. The generation mechanism is density non-uniformity of a spining neutron star (caused by accretion from the white dwarf), so the signal is expected to appear in the LIGO band. The calculation is not complete yet, but the first results indicate that the signal is very small, likely undetectable even by AdvLIGO.

I also worked on preparing the hardware injection code and waveforms for S5.

Mendell:

I will start generating SFT for S5 soon after the run starts. This will be done by submitting condor DAGs by hand until I get this working with onasys. There is also a memory issue to sort out in the MakeSFT code, though this is not a show stopper. I am also continuing with StackSlide code reviews and preparations to produce results on the S4 data for the November LSC meeting. At the last review we went over new validations of the StackSlide Monte Carlo Simulations; a report is posted on the protected pulsar investigations page: http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/cgi-bin/enote.pl?nb=puls4stackslide&action=view&page=10

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

LDAS

LDAS release 1.8.0 was deployed to CIT, LLO and LHO this week to support the hardware upgrades to Solaris 10 and Fedora Core4 and to support the start of the S5 science run. This release now has support for X.509 certificates for authentication in both the managerAPI and the controlMonitorAPI's server. Currently only the LDAS controlMonitorAPI client has been developed to take advantage of this new grid technology, but with the availability of the Tcl- Globus package others such as GUILD and LIGOTools should soon be able to use this method of authentication with LDAS.

There was an issue with 9 system test unexpectedly failing to recast *.tmp frame files into *.gwf frame files that was traced to a missing rename() function call in TCL code over the weekend.  This was fixed and made part of the 1.8.0 release. There still remains 6 other regression tests failing with a similar problem that has been around since the migration to Solaris 10 which will need further analysis to resolve.

On Wednesday of this week an issue with LDAS Tcl code applying the January 2006 leapsecond now to the labeling of GPS times in LDAS log files was discovered. A fix for this has been found and we will be patching the LDAS system today. This does not effect any frame output products.

Weekend runs of createRDS frame generation at LLO and LHO are showing only a 1.5 times realtime RDS frame generation margin.  This is due to the increase in size for the S5 frames, the addition of a Level 4 RDS and increased load on the dataserver by non-LDAS applications demanding file services. A close watch will be needed once data analysis starts using these servers to assure that the RDS frames are generated in a timely manor. (This has been reported at both the DASWG and S5 Run Planning Meetings).

TCLGLOBUS

The version 0.3.0 of TclGlobus was released this week to the larger LSC community (it had already been released internally for LDAS).  The community release also utilizes the LDG 3.5 client software for its source of Globus and is distributed as LSCSoft compatible RPMs for FC3 and FC4 (it is distributed under LDCG for LDAS use).

Documentation on the TclGlobus website was also updated to support the use of these RPMs by the LSC community with simple test programs for use in validating installation onto of LDG 3.5.

OSG/GriPhyN/iVDGL

The binary inspiral search code has now been successfully run on four different OSG Production sites. Two of these are within the LIGO VO (UWM and PSU). The other two are both part of CMS (Caltech and Nebraska). We have also attempted to run at San Diego but there are issues with using the job-fork-manager and disk space that are preventing the successful running of the code there.

The binary inspiral search code has also been unsuccessfully tested on an OSG 0.3.0 software stack system at Florida State University.  More information is needed to resolve the issues running there.

The bulk of the effort on OSG this week has been toward participating in the Super Computing 2005 demostration. All OSG VOs with OSG based applications have been asked to get as many jobs running on the system as possible and to assure that the monitoring tools are reporting the staging and running of these jobs. A number of accounting issues were discovered as part of this preparation. UWM and PSU had userID issues with the configuration of unix user which prevented LIGO jobs from being counted there. There remains an issue at UWM reporting to the MonALISA monitoring system even after the userID problem was fixed.  This is still being tracked down but mostlikely an issue with the configuration of ganglia there.

The LIGO CIT Integration Testbed remains at OSG software stack level 0.2.1. The effort in support of the SC05 demonstration has left no time available to upgrade until after the meeting next week. However, the system's OS was updated through yum update to have the latest patches.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)

LDAS System Administration

Caltech

(Dan Kozak)

  • Worked with Steffen to get CIT's LDR to recognize his certs.
  • Combined grid-mapfiles for LSCdataFind and LSCsegFind everywhere.
  • Isolated tape drive problem at CIT (57 was failing, but not being marked down).
  • Finished repacking M7 tapes at LHO.
  • Validated M7/M8 L1/L3 data and found a couple of files that hadn't been published.
  • Did lots of work on the "eject tapes at the sites" script.
  • Actually did eject tapes at LLO and had Dwayne ship them.  Imported and verified at CIT.  Still working on "import and verify" script.
  • Got /archive/home at LHO/LLO going to tape (it hadn't been since the Sol10 upgrade).

(Phil Ehrens)

  • Began writing document outlining location of all grid related software and configuration files, including user specific  information for use of the environment, including debugging hints.
  • Debugged problem in generic API of LDAS which caused gps timestamp values in logs to be off by one second. Further rework of the gpstime.tcl module beyond the already implemented short-term fix is required.

(Erik Espinoza)

  • Configured IPMI, tested SOL & power control.
  • Got FC4 to work on Supermicro Mobos.
  • Troubleshooted issue with mail on ldas-grid.ligo-la.caltech.edu.
  • Contacted Appro on lagging demo unit.
  • Built kickstart usb stick.
  • Built dos usb stick w/ bios utils.

(Stuart Anderson)

  • Testing and bencharmking the first set of evaluation cluster nodes for the new CIT cluster.
  • Working with vendors on technical and pricing information for the new CIT cluster procurement.
  • Mirroring various software updates associated with S5.
  • Researching next generation Sun servers and storage.
  • Installed new 7500VA UPS for CIT cluster switch.

MIT

(Keith Bayer)

  • Replaced two 200GB maxtor drives which were failing and sent both back to Maxtor for warranty replacements.
  • Upgrading cluster this week: new switch, Solaris 9->10, Intel Boxes to FC4, Cluster to FC4

Livingston

(Dwayne Giardina)

  • Replaced disks in nodes 7, 8, 18, 20, 23, 26, 28, 38, 60, 63, 64, 78, 84, 101, 107, 111, 113, 121, 125, 128, 134, 137  , 139, 154, 161, 166, 182, 183. This was mostly finished prior to FC4 upgrade.
  • nodes 61,81,122,138,184,205,210 were not upgraded due to problems with disk, cdrom, or power supply. Replaced power supply in node122, and then used cloned disks in all to complete upgrade.
  • Shipped tapes LL0426,LL0520,LL0639,LL0509,LL0521,LL0535,LL0633 and LL0637 to Dan Kozak at CIT.
  • node48 was DOA upon visual inspection.  replaced power supply and all is well.  I used the last remaining spare power supply in node48, need to  order a couple extra to keep on hand.
  • ALL nodes 1-210 at LLO are FC4 and, at the time of this email, are up and running.  node2 is currently used as ldas-gridmon and is not part of Condor  (per note from Igor)
  • Revamped a couple scripts that will run starting at 00:00 on Sat, Sun, and Mon to check the nodes for badblocks and email status to myself and Igor.  It will check 70 nodes per run.
  • We have a lot of Maxtor disks that are still under  warranty and I  will RMA them today or tomorrow.

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

  • Level 1, 3, and 4 RDS generation has been running 24/7 at LHO and LLO since last Friday, Oct, 28, using the S5 channel lists (up to a few minor changes to be made a LLO). All data is being reduced successfully.  S5 RDS generation is ready to go!

(Ben Johnson)

  • Published S3 L3 RDS data and URLs for the data under /archive.
  • Started D2D script to archive data at LHO starting at 07:30 PST, November 3 2005.
  • Setting up realtime, L0, L1, L3, L4_H1, L4_H2 publishing scripts for S5@LHO. Segment insertion is being tested by AstroWatch scripts, and presenly looks good.
  • Slowly bringing back a few of the original nodes (1-138) which did not take the FC4 install/reconfiguration well. Nodes 160-169 also have setup problems and were turned off after many user jobs were failing on them.

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Keith)

Nothing to report.

Livingston:

(Dwayne)

  • helped Rich Riesen with email migration issues
  • been tied up with LDAS,  this is all the GC I have to report this week.

(Shannon)

  • The new mail server seems to be working well.  There are the usual user migration issues, but those seem to be mostly taken care of now.  This week has mostly been spent wrapping up the last bits of the server swap.
  • The new tape backup hardware is in and I started unpacking it and getting it ready to install.
  • Installed a new foundry switch in the rack to replace our Dell switch in the CUR.  Needs to be configured and put in use.

Hanford:

(Christine)

  • Reinstalling Solaris 10 on an AMD computer hoping that if I set it up from scratch as a NIS+ client then it will be able to authenticate with the server.
  • Started a cron job to clear the /tmp directory on the mail server every night.  This directory gets full and causes "out of space" errors when users try to get their email off the server.  This is a temporary fix until I get the new mail server built.
  • I am still waiting for LMSI to inspect the fiber for the backup network between LHO and PNNL.  There are two places along the fiber run which PNNL reports have a lot of reflections.  Everything else along the circuit has been tested and passed.  We are still unable to get a link on the circuit between LHO and PNNL.
  • Working on some mail aliases for LDAS.
  • Created a new user account.  Reset the password for another user.

CIT:

(Veronica)

  • LIGO:  Updates of the website for the NSF review.  Installed a webpage of the documents for review.  Webcast and taped the talk by Osamu Miyakawa.  I ran a test broadcast the day before and on the day of the talk to let the sites to try it out and test the readability /audio.  Compressed the video footage for on-demand streaming.  Updated the roster database and various mailing lists.  LIGO website updates.  Installed the Fall newsletter.  Updated the MIT seminars webpage.  Assisted Helena with an AudioCom issue.  Assisted Julie with Photoshop and Roxio Easy CD Creator.  Other misc. user support.
  • LSC:  Updates of the November meeting website.  Worked with Marie Woods and the MIT ecommerce to resolve an issue with the online credit card transactions being declined seemingly in error.  I checked the form that collects the values on our side to see if there's a mismatch in passing them over to the MIT secure server but it wasn't the case.  I then ran a test transaction and it went through.  So it seems to have been a one- time issue.  Updates of the database of the LSC publications and minor changes to the frontend.
  • CaJAGWR:  Website updates.

(Christian)

  • Osamu Miyakawa- Upgraded Osamu's workstation from Windows 2000 to Windows XP.
  • Patrick Sutton- Retrieved all of Patrick's data after his laptop's hard drive crashed. I configured the new hard drive with the standard Ligo image and transferred all data back.
  • Irene Baldon- Replaced toner cartridges on Irene's local printer.
  • Configured new system with the engineering Ligo image for Ken and transferred all his data.  I went through and updated the firmware of all Ligo network printers.  Mike and I went through the 2nd and 3rd floors of W/Bridge moving and replacing old monitors and PC's.

(Mike)

  • Bruce Sears: Loaded a LINUX for Bruce Sears, due to a hardware failure on his old workstation.
  • Monica Varvella: Had to move her Sun box up to the second floor, but when I brought up her computer back up I the hard disk failed. I end up having to put together another Sun workstation for her. She is back up and running.
  • Ken Mailand: Reloaded an updated computer for him. This took a lot of time due to Hardware issues and compatibility issues with Solid Works. He is now swapped out. Christian helped me with this load.
  • Dennis Coyne: Worked on his laptop trying to fix a hardware issue.  No luck!  Larry has ordered him a replacement laptop. I have backed up his laptop and getting it ready to ship back to IBM.
  • Worked with Larry W. installing rack mount servers in room 19 Bridge Annex.
  • Relocated many users to other locations with in the project. This turned out to be a big job that took up most of the week.
  • Surplus a lot of equipment that we can across while moving users to their new locations.
  • Spam Filters: Continuous work with Larry, searching for false positives.
  • Other onsite/phone misc. user support.

(Larry)

  • Continual work on procurement items. Ordered the s/w for the new DCC system and now waiting for the company to approve the chosen h/w for the same system.  Ordered items for the 40M and LDAS groups.  Ordered a new laptop for a user with a unit that was beginning to fail.  Resolved a SUN order that was placed for Livingston some months ago.  Working on a number of misc. items that need to be purchased.
  • Rebuilt a couple of computers and assisted Mike on a couple of rebuilds he was working on.  One computer needed a rebuild because the latest set of patches that were installed corrupted the OS on the machine.  This past week we had a number of machines go down with h/w problems.  There are still a couple of machines that need to be repaired or replaced.
  • Assisted Mike and Christian in moving a couple of computers and getting rid of some of the old equipment. Mike and Christian really got a workout from all of the equipment they moved.
  • Installed the second dual-core quad cpu sandbox unit into the rack.  The first unit is now on-line but will probably get a rebuild in a couple of weeks.
  • Assisted a number of users in trouble shooting different problems on their computers. Most were environment issues but a couple needed updated library files.
  • Still working the e-mail filtering issues. This will be a never ending task.

Mail statistics for Oct 27 - Nov 2, 2005

Mail Statistics

Oct 27 - Nov 2, 2005

Rejected Messages

13,511

Virus Messages

818

False Positives

 

Accepted Messages

16,300

Total Messages

29,811

 

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Systems, Management

From: Rolf Bork <rolf@ligo.caltech.edu>

  • Alex has succeeded in compiling and running the Framebuilder codeon one of the new dual AMD64 machines. We now need to purchase a few large SCSI drives for this computer (can hold up to six, 300GBytedrives) for use as the Framebuilder at LASTI.
  • I continued work on software for using the Myricom network cards, building sender and receiver modules. Alex has incorporated the receiver into the Framebuilder and I have integrated the sender code into the quad controller front end. We now have a front end sending its data to the Framebuilder over this new network. It appears to work well, but still requires a fair amount of work for error checking and exception handling. For the test, the front end was configured to run the present Ligo maximum of 1MByte/sec to the Framebuilder. Even with this load, the quad controls software cycle time is still down at 17usec. So, I believe we are ready at this point to commit to this network type for LASTI and should purchase the network switch and a couple more NICs for further testing.
  • On the disappointing side, we have not yet received the PCI express expansion chassis that we need for our I/O cards. It was scheduled to ship on Oct. 31, but the latest word from the manufacturer is a ship date of Nov. 18. At this point, it is not a problem, but a delay past the end of this month will delay the quad controls installation and test here at Caltech in early December.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason <kmason@ligo.mit.edu>

Advanced LIGO Seismic Structure

Assembly

Status

Top Assembly Components
20007970-A

Stage 0 Assembly
2000795-A

Stage 1 Assembly
20007825-A

Stage 2 Assembly
20007825-A 

Purchase order placed with Arland Tool for all large parts. All material has been recieved. Project currently in Engineering for CNC programming. Amendment made to purchase order to change mounting holes on optics table from 2 x 2 to 1 x 1 hole pattern.




Purchase order placed with Limerick Machine for the end milled plates and remaining Top Assy, Stage 0,1, and 2 Componants.
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->

Stage 0-1 Spring Assembly
20007878-A

Stage 1-2 Spring Assembly
20007890

Fabrication drawings are complete. Drawings must now be checked.

RFQ for blades and rod flexures complete. Quote due 11/22.

Maher Limited holding maraging steel for blades and flexures

GS-13 Pod Assembly
20007810-A

L-4C Pod Assembly
20007820-A

STS-2 Pod assembly
20007941-A

Geophones, seismometers and lockers are in house.

Purchase order placed with Norcal for vacuum housings.

RFQ complete for machined components. Quotes due 11/16

Design of harnesses completed. RFQ required for internal pod harnesses.

Stage 0-1 Kinematic Lock
20007941-1-A

Stage 1-2 Kinematic Lock
20007941-2-A


Tooling design complete.

Purchase order placed with Limerick Machine for kinematic Lock Assemblies.

Stage 0-1  Actuator Assy.'s
20007966-A
20007967-A

Stage 1-2
Actuator Assy.'s
20007968-A
20007969-A


Tooling design complete.

Purchase order placed with Limerick Machine for actuator mounts and tooling.

Stage 0-1 Standoff Pin

Stage 0-2 Alignment
Tower and Washer

Stage 2 Keel Plate Alignment Tower

Blade Pre-Load Tooling

Blade Calibration Fixture Modifications

LASTI Test Stand and Spreader Bar

Solidworks part files exist for the standoff pin and alignment towers. They will require a dimensioned drawing and checking prior to soliciting bids.

The blade pre-load tooling and calibration fixture tooling will require redesign following the redesign of the blade springs by ASI.








Purchase order for test stand issued to Southern Enterprises. Delivery to MIT by 11/16

"Joseph A. Giaime" <jgiaime@ligo.phys.lsu.edu>

Agenda for the weekly SEI telecom

Friday, Nov 4, 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, 11am Pacific time

Announcements

BSC SEI status, Ken/ Dennis

  • Ken coordinating with Riccardo talking about HAM SAS installation, tooling, etc.
  • Ken has received questions from vender, and has answered some of them
  • Barrel nuts: ASI specified an unavailable steel, which is hard to get.  ASI now recommends a magnetic stainless material for the barrel nuts that would meet the strength requirements.  We said that this is OK.
  • Maher still hasn't returned an updated quote with the new blade geometry.  Ken will call them early monday morning.

HEPI work (Rich M, Shyang W)

  • Unconditionally stable loop closed by Rich at LHO X end, from crossbeam STS-2 to fine actuators.  The results to the error point look OK.  See log entry on Monday's LHO log.  
  • H1 has not been running since this was done, so no interf tests are available.  There are also other loops actuating the fine actuators, and the interaction isn't yet measured.
  • Y end still not yet stable.
  • Shyang has been testing resonant gain suppression of the stack and pendulum features at LLO.  Please see the LLO elog for details

HAM control with VME (Pradeep)

  • no report

Stanford report

  • Stanford anticipates arrival of suspension frame next week for structure interaction studies.
  • William's thermal study: he is running wires and connecting instrumentation.
  • Aaron's adv seismometer study: material arriving, machining beginning.
  • Matt working on ETF platform controls.  Damping and angle loops closed.  XYZ sys-id data collection has resulted in very noisy transfer functions due to windowing issue.  Maybe the FIR filter wasn't settled long enough.  They are working on it.
  • Brian is using Finesse to revisit HAM isolation requirements.  Arm cavity mismatch determines the noise requirements on the signal recycling mirror, due to the DC readout.

Suspension

From: Janeen Romie romie_j@ligo.caltech.edu

Participated in the Ribbon/Fiber/Ear/Bonding PDR on Monday. Working with Norna and others on the answers for the mode cleaner questions asked by the Ribbon/Fiber/Ear/Bonding reviewers.

Working with Caroline on stiffening the faux optical plate of the gazebo in the Synchrotron.

Working with Dot on paying Galli & Morelli for the drum ended wires.

Had a telecon with Joe Hanson, Calum and Ken Mailand on the XY Translation stage and the air bearing. I will be FedExing an additional component to them tomorrow.

Working on the quad suspension eddy current damper alignment tool design.

From: Jay Heefner <jay@ligo.caltech.edu>

AdL Quad SUS and SEI Controls

  • All of the boards required for the Anti-Image and Anti-Alias have been sent to Screaming Circuits to be stuffed. They are due back at CIT on 11/7. The chassis have been received and front and rear panels are due next week also.
  • We are still on schedule for a test of the system at CIT the second week of December.
  • It is planned that the same AA and AI board design will be used for the AdL SEI controls at LASTI.
  • Jay and Alex will be at LASTI starting Nov 14 to make plans for the SUS and SEI installations.

From: Calum Torrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>

Covering 2 weeks:

Quad

Mark and I measured the pendulum resonances of the quad suspension, results to follow. We also damped the quad with the local control.

2nd Suspension

I meansured a couple of extra configurations of the structure for comparison. Mike Gerfen and I weighed the upper structure and the overal structure. Mark and I hope to start work on the modal survay next week (mode shapes).

Install Fixtures

Ken Mailand and I are continuing on the design of the fixtures. With Oddvar's help we have a set of drawings in the shop and hope to have the rest started in the

next week or so.

(more) Quad

Helena, Mark, Lee and I have started to dis-assemble the quad. Lee, Helena and I are preparing various packages for cleaning and baking.

Noise Prototype

I continue to support RAL with the work associated with the noise prototype.

Core Optics

No report this week.

Pre-Stabilized Laser

No report this week.

Auxiliary Optics

From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>

I have completed the revision of the development schedule and man power requirements for the SLC, PO MIRROR/TEL, INITIAL ALIGNMENT,  OPTLEV, OMMT, AND VIEWPORTS subsystems of the AOS.

Other Laboratory R&D

Juri Agresti <jagresti@ligo.caltech.edu>

Juri

With the help from Virginio and Phil I translated in Matlab my program for the calculation of eigenmodes of optical cavities with general shape mirrors. I’m testing the code for AdLIGO mirrors in order to check the results with the program for cylindrically symmetric mirrors. One limitation is given by the computer’s memory which constraints the mesh size for the problem. Moreover I’m writing my Ph.D. thesis.

Chiara

We made the hardening process for the maraging steel plates, heating the material in argon atmosphere for about 100h at a temperature of 435°C.  I measured the transfer function of the system, with four Inverted Pendula, in the range of frequencies from 0.5Hz to100Hz with a load of 624Kg.

Valerio

We have prepared for the Mathwoks support another example that gives physically inconsistent results. At the same time, with the help of V. Sannibale, we are evaluating other tools for simulating the HAM-SAS, such, for example, the MSE library developed by G. Cella.

Another alternative is to use the transfer function measurements on the SAS prototype, located in the synchrotron lab, that have been recently made by C. Vanni. Using Matlab System Identification toolbox, it will be possible to extract from these measurements a state-space model of the SAS prototype and then to simulate feedback control loops in many configurations on a system similar to the future HAM-SAS.

Yu-mei

The summary of last week’s work

    • Work with Chiara Vanni to heating the material
    • Read the book “Finite Element Analysis”
    • Read the paper “inverted pendulum studies for seismic attenuation”
    • Read the paper “performance improvement of the geometric anti spring (GAS) seismic filter for gravitational waves detectors”

For additional information about this report, contact Stan Whitcomb or Phil Lindquist