PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)

> From: lindquist_p@ligo.caltech.edu

• We have most of the inputs needed for a respectable FY2009 Operations Annual Report. Still waiting for some material, but have coordinated with the authors. Should have a first draft available by next week.

> From: Dave Beckett beckett@ligo.caltech.edu

• Phil and I are neck-deep in creating a first draft of the 2009 Annual Report.
• Have begun the monthly "highlights" report cycle. First announcement sent. The due date for submissions is Friday, August 7th.

CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)

• There are no open change requests for LIGO Operations.

HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)

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

• No report.

Quality/Safety (Nolting)

LIGO Lab Safety:

• Peter King and Bill Tyler have completed the Laser Recertification training outline to be presented at the next Safety Steering Committee Meeting.  A copy is being sent out to the committee members for review and discussion.  Training materials that are specific to the program are still being developed.
• Peter King gathered together some material to be considered for basic laser safety training.  This is part of the laser safety re-certification effort.  The detail about the exact material for the advanced laser safety training is still pending, but he has sketched out a plan.
• Bill Tyler and Brian Tyler are preparing a new draft of the LIGO Operation Safety and Environmental Protection Manual M980242. Bill hopes to have it ready for review next week before the Steering Committee meeting.

David Nolting:

• Presented a “General Awareness Hazard Communication” training for all members of the LHO facility this past week.  The meeting went very well and created a lot of positive feedback and discussion.  This is only one in a few “all hands” type safety training that will be conducted over the next several months for LLO, LHO and CIT Lab.
• Larry Martinez of CIT Safety is assisting the LIGO Safety Officer in creating a “General Safety Awareness” presentation.  An outline will be presented at the next Safety Steering Committee meeting on 8/6/2009.

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

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

• We have had similar performance this week as last, 42% science mode, 59% uptime. Mean ranges were a little lower however (at times a Mpc off last week's range), and many locks had secular downward trends. The duty cycle was impacted by a PSL oscillation/FSS opamp failure that cost about 24h. First, the NPRO noise-eater servo (used to supress relaxation oscillations) was found to be oscillating at 1MHz, causing large and highly variable FSS noise. Toggling the Innolight power supply to the servo on and off resolved this issue. Next it was found that the opamp associated with the FSS local oscillator had decayed over a factor of 2 in peak-to-peak output over 4 years, down from 5V to 2V. The amp was swapped out, the FSS noise became much better, and low-noise locking resumed.

Squeezer Update (D. Sigg, S. Dwyer)

• Still working on getting the noise model into simulink.
• Ordered two Faraday isolators, a Pockels cell, a photodetector, some mounts and the PZT for the SHG. In the process of updating the drawings for the Pockels cell height adapter and making a new one for the Faraday isolator.
• Updated the schematics and PCB for the RF summing box which is required to add RF sidebands to the phase correcting Pockels cell in the laser locking feedback path.

Outreach (D. Ingram)

• LHO's soon-to-be-grad-student Ewan Douglas served as a counselor and LIGO educator at the 20th annual Advanced Astronomy Camp for high school students at Kitt Peak. The camp is sponsored by the U of A Alumni Association and directed by Don McCarthy of the Steward Observatory. From Ewan -- "I was able to introduce campers to the entirely different form of astrophysical observatory, while incorporating much of the same fundamental physics that lies behind the instruments they used on telescopes . . ."

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

Enhanced LIGO Commissioning and S6 Running (Valera Frolov)

• The data taking duty factor is 68% for the week ending now. The range was varying from 10-13 Mpc during the daytime to 13-16 Mpc during the night time.
• The auxiliary channel MICH/PRC noise investigation continued. The improved SNR was demonstrated when using additional photodetectors. The correction to the filtering of the feedforward MICH correction was measured and fitted but attempt to use failed as it introduced additional noise in DARM which the opposite of what it is intended for.
• The tip-tilt blade spring testing is mostly completed. The design is being finalized. The tip-tilt at both sites will be retrofitted with blade springs during the August-September commissioning break. The quotes were received from the local shop. We expect the parts to be made in two weeks.

LLO CDS (Keith Thorne)

Hardware:

• Carl Adams is now testing the coil driver chassis to be used in the test stand being prepared for the training in September. It took some work between him and Jay Heefner to sort out the procedure and streamline it.  Estimated time to complete testing the 4 chassis and the satellite boxes is 10-12 days.
• Chris Guido is working with Phil Willems to install the new temperature sensors on the chambers for TCS studies.  These should work with the cables and interfaces for the existing temperature sensors, which will speed installation.
• Jeremy Birch has gone through the accelerometers reported as 'dead' from DetChar. Preliminary tests show that all the sensors are working, so problems is likely cables or electronics in the CDS high bay.

Software:

• The full complement of 4 NDS servers are now online.  The procedure for compiling and installing NDS server software was put in the CDS wiki.
• Conlog settings were updated so that ISI watchdog trips will once again knock us out of science mode.  This was tested during installation and has been confirmed during interferometer operations this week.
• With Peter Shawhan' s help, we corrected the daily and weekly segment summaries used by the scimons, and have regenerated all such since the start of S6.
• Scripts from LHO were adapted to provide SenseMon range information as EPICS channels for display in the control room overview screen.  We will next add Virgo status as well.
• Problems with the LDAP server were partially addressed by correcting the hosts information file.  We still need to set up failover to the slave LDAP server and address performance issues.
• We have ordered nVidia graphics adapters that should work better with CentOS to let us create new triple-display workstations for projecting additional Figures-of-Merit.
• We are now configuring the new admin server to host MATLAB licenses, etc.  We created ilog accounts as needed and added OMC channels to the frames.

LLO Outreach

(William Katzman)

• Continued scheduling field trips and tours.
• Hosted project MISE cohort 1 (professional development).
• Planned project MISE cohort 2 (professional development).
• Hosted St. Amant  Academy Summer Youth program (for prior youth offenders/at risk kids).
• Hosted a public tour.
• Met with Asst. Dir for Science LaSIP/LA GEAR UP.

(Amber Stuver)

• Traveled to and attended the AAPT Summer Meeting in Ann Arbor, MI.  Attended the AAPT Exec. Board/APS FEd Executive Committee joint meeting and the meeting of the AAPT Committee on Graduate Education in Physics.  I also attended a workshop on performing physics education research with simulations.
• While at the AAPT meeting, I ran into the organizers of the APS LaserFest Program (which will be conducted in 2010).  They expressed interest working with LIGO including a possible workshop on the site(s).  I passed this information along to the rest of the SEC staff and the opportunity is promising.  The LaserFest organizers also offered us educational materials regardless of any further cooperation.

LIGO computing and network security (Roddy)

Reported under General Computing, see below

General computing and LDAS admin (Giardina)

Reported under General Computing, see below

Reported under LDAS System Administration, see below

Data analysis & computing (Yakushin)

Storage/Condor/LDAS admin:

Reported under LDAS System Administration, see below

Data analysis:

Reported under Data Analysis activities, see below

Mechanical and Optical Systems (Coyne)

See also Advanced LIGO

Dennis Coyne, Calum Torrie

Modal Test System Training:

• We had a two day training session on the B&K PulseTM system for vibration measurement and modal analysis in the new LIGO "modal test lab"  (Rm 303 Downs). Representatives from LIGO MIT, LHO and LLO were present to learn the capabilities of the system. It is hope that similar systems will be procured for the other sites soon. The CIT system will be used principally for damping strut/mechanism designs for the suspension structures and AOS structure design/development and verification.

Riccardo DeSalvo

Tiltmeter and Hysteresis Research (Andrey Rodionov):

• Luigi Marchese arrived from University of Napoli (the last of the SURFers). Will work on glassy metal blades.
• In lab 56 the tiltmeter behavior has been further studied with the LabView program. Amanda and Morgan were analyzing the response of the system to a kick-like excitation for the various ballast masses added to the arms of the tiltmeter (39 grams, 27 grams and 23 grams placed 2.5 cm below the center of mass) and studying the dependence of the frequency of oscillation on the kEMAS parameter and Q-factor versus frequency f. As it was expected, all the three dependencies of frequency versus kEMAS follow three square-root curves, but we did not get the overlapping of the curves for the dependencies of Q-factor versus frequency f.  We see instead the three different (not-overlapping) parabolas (2-nd power growth law). This confirms that the feedback is too slow (so far we were able to achieve the rates of the order of 10Hz only) and introduces phase-shifts into the system. This leads to attenuation in the system for EMAS<0,  decreasing the values of Q-factor. We believe that we need a much faster feedback to avoid the above-mentioned phase-shifts.  Sampling rates of the order of 1kHz, that is about 100 times faster than we have now, will require a special NI-CompactRIO type of hardware.
• Gong Pu and Andrey were learning more details about Labview and applying this new knowledge to the overall improvement of our Labview program (putting parts of the program into subVIs, adding the possibility to generate a step-like excitation to the system, making loops in the Labview program).
• Abhik has finished checking the smoothness of the various trends of our system that were recorded in the long 3-day weekend of July 4th. He has processed all the data, and he did not observe new discontinuities similar to those that he had discovered earlier in the first quarter of the data.  Report being reviewed.
• In Lab 04 (Gong Pu and Andrey) after we got the mechanical structure assembled a week ago, we stopped because of some missing parts.

Homestake Mine Status (Jan Harms):

• 300ft: We will bring the Güralp there on Friday.
• 800ft: All good except for an additional DC power supply, which will be brought to the station on Friday.
• 2000ft: Two stations complete. Third station is waiting for seismometer. Internet connection for third station is established through the Roggenthen fiber box.
• 4100ft: The two Airlock stations still need DC power supplies which we bring on Friday. Main station is done. One airlock station is without seismometer.
• The two additional T240s from Nikhef will be shipped on Friday, too late for installation this time even if the stations are in waiting.
• Luca could not solve the problem with the Salerno prototypes.
• Also programming busily. Reordering old data files ( Mark) programming a time-line plot of seismometer data (Thomas ), correlation code, etc.

Outreach (Riccardo DeSalvo):

• Four outreach lectures at Princeton for the best high school students of Abruzzi and of South Dakota.

Controls and Data Systems (Bork)

See Advanced LIGO

40-Meter Interferometer (Adhikari)

• Wiener filtering: moved accelerometers around to explore changes in wiener filter efficacy with the MC.
• Relayout of ETMY oplev path to reduce acoustic sensitivity.
• More work on tuning up a tri-mod EOM circuit

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)

• Since our last report, LMA has finished our new doped/optimized mirrors and shipped them. Akira has submitted his paper to the editorial board for review and has received comments. He is also working on the TNI with the undoped/optimized mirrors, with the goal of taking one last noise curve with them in place before swapping them out for the doped/optimized ones.
• Greg and Rob Cole are finishing up the move. Eric met with Haick, Caz, and Peter King to cover safety issues in the new lab.
• Innocenzo Pinto suggested a new idea for lower-loss coatings using sub-wavelength, laminar structures for the individual layers. The goal is to replace the Tantala layers, where most of the noise currently originates. He and his group, along with Riccardo, are exploring the feasibility of this.

LASTI (Mittleman)

QUAD

• We vented Lasti this week to find the wiring problem in the ringer heater. It looks like it was a bad crimp in one of the cable connections. There are some pictures on the Lasti ilog 7/29/09. We have resealed the BSC and are now pumping down.

Monolithic

• Preparing for next weeks test hang.

CIT Science Group (Weinstein)

__________

Drew Keppel:

• Updating the massive graviton limit calculation to use Ajith's new IMR spinning waveforms.
• Adding FAR extrapolation to lalapps_newcorse.
• Creating IIR filters to simulate LIGO noise in the LLOID pipeline.

__________

Antony Searle:

• Finished generalizing skymap library to arbitrary detector combinations.
• With SURF Munier Salem, updated CBC followup to use updated library.

__________

Cristina Valeria Torres:

• Continuing to improve the follow up pipeline to consolidate more follow up information onto the checklists and lower burden on the follow up investigator to search of information.
• I have completed following up a handful of E14 iHope & cWB candidates.
• I have integrated Ian's followup checklist on the loudest triple in E14 with my comments on the same event.  The checklist resulting from our combined work can be found https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~ctorres/E14/
  LoudestEventE14/H1L1V1-makeChecklist_H1L1V1_929050850000000181_H1L1V1-unspecified-gpstime.html.
• I have also helped out with SEC tours in the past week such as the St. Amant Youth Academy Program group.
• I have also worked with my student on the AUTOTRACK case study, we are encouraged by the results we have achieved so far.  A raw classification of triggers can be found (With correlated DQ information) https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~razibobaid/FULL_REPORT/ (Runs on significant parameters using in classification) https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~razibobaid/Report_Stat/.
• Tracking TCS alias lines in raw frame data seems like an infeasible task and we should consider alternatives in order to track the thermal lensing(temps) of the ITMs.  I have yet to completely rule out using the alias lines to track the ITM lensing.
• Discussed my role with others CBC developers in making modifications to the CBC thinca code to allow all CBC followup efforts to integrate into the CBC pipeline seamlessly.
• I am working on the glitch shift reports for the last week of S6 at LHO.  My current report draft which will be presented this coming Tuesday is available here https://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/twiki/bin/view/DetChar/GlitchWeekH1-20090721.

__________

Diego Fazi:

• Kept working on the project report page for Spinning Binary searches.
• Kept working on the post-processing pipeline to include LIGO_LW xml output in the plotting scripts.
• Started working on integrating the new chisq code for PTF in LALsuite

__________

Kipp Cannon:

• Visiting UW-Milwaukee, working on event notification infrastructure.
• Visiting UW-Milwuakee, working on CBC event ranking statistics.
• Finishing two months of the S5 high mass search.
• Preparing presentation on LLOID for the Milwaukee gravity group.

__________

Stephen Privitera:

• I have written a wiki page that describes the calibration project we have been working on: https://www.lsc- group.phys.uwm.edu/ligovirgo/cbcnote/InspiralPipelineDevelopment/090715184015InspiralPipelineDevelopment
  Effect_of_Calibration_Errors_on_Sky_Localization.

__________

Ajith Parameswaran:

• Coding and testing the aligned spin IMR waveforms in LAL.
• Working on the LSC referee's comments on the IMR spin-waveforms paper.
• Working with Aaron and Rana on the veto project.

__________

Gregory Mendell:

• I have been working on generating S6 fscans. Example can be found by navigating the pages here: https://ldas-jobs.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/~pulsar/fscan/testS6/fscanNavigation.html https://ldas-jobs.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~pulsar/fscan/
  testS6/fscanNavigation.html. However, at this time, more work is needed to automate the generation of the "daily" S6 fscans.

__________

Amber L. Stuver:

• Traveled to and attended the AAPT Summer Meeting in Ann Arbor, MI.  Attended the AAPT Exec. Board/APS FEd Executive Committee joint meeting and the meeting of the AAPT Committee on Graduate Education in Physics.  I also attended a workshop on performing physics education research with simulations.
• Organized the MatApps team to conduct a special focus session during the last DASWG call.  During the DASWG call, I outlined our plans for converting the repository from CVS to SVN, the new 3 tier level of code classification, discussed philosophy on the organization of the new repository and invited feedback from the attendees.  A follow-up call (not during the DASWG call) on the new structure of the SVN MatApps repository will likely take place within the next few weeks.

__________

Igor Yakushin:

• Continued improving cWB S6 online web page: https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/S6_ONLINE_1.
• Investigated excess of triggers near (R.A.,DEC)=(340,-45): https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/S6_ONLINE_1/
  summaries/the_whole_run/investigations/340_45_event_access.
• Per reviewers request computed final livetimes for different networks used by cWB in the second year of S5 analysis: https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~igor/S5_second_year/REVIEW/segments.html.

__________

Joseph Betzwieser:

• Worked with the SURF student on improving wide parameter searches by including pulsar timing noise/glitches, as well as worked on the all known pulsar wide parameter search using Pinkesh's Resampling code.

__________

Kari Hodge:

• In the final stages of getting the intitial version mvsc_player into git and creating an explanatory webpage so that everyone can easily run it on their own months.
• Simultaneously, finishing the method of extracting trigger information from SQL tables rather than the cache file.
• Preparing to use data other interferometer channels as parameters my multivariate analysis.

Laboratory Computing (Anderson)

LDAS Software Systems (Maros)

• Efforts this week have focused on getting the diskcacheAPI to write the cache dump files without pausing threads scanning for new files. Several of the read locks have been modified to use the timeout value to decrease the likelihood of a deadlock.
• Also, actions have taken to address several unit test failures.

LDAS System Administration (Anderson)

MIT

(Fred Donovan)

• More Bates work -- configuring nodes

Hanford

(Greg Mendell)

• Worked on tracking down files that failed to transfer. We are now up-to-date on transferring raw data to CIT, and almost up-to-date on transferring trend and RDS data to CIT and between the sites. I am still working on this, but we should be up-to-data on all of these data types soon.
• Working with Dan Kozak and Dan Moraru, I am exporting and importing tapes to keep archiving of data running at LHO.
• Starting at GPS 932780864 these channels have been added to the LHO Level 1 RDS frames (frame-type H1_RDS_R_L1):
  • H1:OMC-QPD1_P_OUT_DAQ
  • H1:OMC-QPD1_SUM_IN1_DAQ
  • H1:OMC-QPD1_Y_OUT_DAQ
  • H1:OMC-QPD2_P_OUT_DAQ\
  • H1:OMC-QPD2_SUM_IN1_DAQ
  • H1:OMC-QPD2_Y_OUT_DAQ
• Starting at GPS 932781696 these channels have been added to the LLO Level 1 RDS frames (frame-type L1_RDS_R_L1):
  • L1:OMC-QPD1_P_OUT_DAQ
  • L1:OMC-QPD1_Y_OUT_DAQ
  • L1:OMC-QPD2_P_OUT_DAQ
  • L1:OMC-QPD2_Y_OUT_DAQ
  • L1:OMC-QPD1_SUM_OUT_DAQ
  • L1:OMC-QPD2_SUM_OUT_DAQ

(Dan Moraru)

• Finished setting up thumper3.
• Replaced batteries in one of the APC 2200 SmartUPS units.
• Swapped out bad DIMMs in an x2200.
• Learned procedure for importing/exporting tapes and swapped 40 tapes out of the L700 tape robot.
• Set up LDAP server to ease and centralize some cluster management tasks

Livingston

(Igor Yakushin)

• Put rsync online h(t) and DQ replication scripts under SMF at LLO so that they restart automatically in case of various failures.
• Working to replicate SMF setup at other sites.
• Corrected a problem with V1 h(t) replication from LHO caused by accidentally running the old version of rsync script.
• Bought FC card for qfs-nfs2.
• Installed Solaris 10 U7, QFS, patched them and made initial configuration of qfs-nfs2.

Caltech

(Josh Abadie)

• Finished installing 10 gig network hardware in cluster network.
• Continued improving new monitoring system.
• Prepared cisco 6509 for shipping to Hanford.
• Monitored cluster and addressed user issues.

(Phil Ehrens)

• Supported the MOU Review process.
• Various certificate support tasks.

(Dan Kozak)

• Figured out that LDR was failing due to expired certs at both LHO/LLO & fixed it.
• Shipped more tapes to LHO.
• Identified more tapes for shelf storage at LHO.
• Restarted the CIT diskcacheAPI which was running but not doing anything.
• Restarted the LLO diskcacheAPI which was running but not doing anything, even tho' there were 4 copies of it.
• Worked debugging cluster problem that seems to be about too many users asking for /archive/frames/S6 data (but on disk, not staging from tape) simultaneously.
• Worked on clusterstage.pl to handle new frame_type so that S6 data could be put in the cluster. Somewhat successful...
• Working with Sun on SAM-QFS+NFS kernel panic (ongoing).

General Computing (Wallace)

MIT

(Fred)

• Set up new dual boot machine for John (visitor).
• Renewed matlab licenses.
• Swapped out file server (tubera) -- replaced sun box with linux bo.
• Some more config for Brennan's new linux box.

Livingston

(Dwayne)

• Tracking down info on delayed Dell order, had to resubmit yet again.
• Upgraded JIRA on TEST and PROD.
• Submitted TAR for LHO visit 8/30-9/4.
• Updated Comsol license server to 3.5a.
• Replaced tapes in the GC tape library.
• Applied patches to a couple more servers.
• Reimaging a workstation for SURF usage.
• Attended a few meetings.
• Worked a couple small procurement items.
• Numerous usual/unusual user support requests.
• Cleared spam trap daily

(Shannon)

GC / Networking:

• Paid ARIN maintenance fee.
• Added Dwayne to billing contacts.
• Dealing with my workstation... Since the RAID crash, it has been locking up several times a day, getting to the point where it is interfering with work. Discussed several options with Dwayne.
• Reinstalling VMs after RAID crash.

Security / Auth project:

• Traveled to Pasadena last week for code review. Two days of sorting through the code, etc.
• Detected an infected host at LHO, notified Jonathan.
• Significant time going through IDS logs and looking at network activity as usual.
• Updating docs for ligo.org mail handling. Work lost twice due to workstation crashing.

Hanford

(Jonathan)

• Scanned a teacher/intern computer for infection. It appears a rebuild is necessary.
• Backup and rebuild of teacher/intern computer.
• Expanding cfengine setup to configure the test webmail system and the production webserver.
• Patching/Testing squirrelmail & dovecot to allow kerberized webmail, following sugestions by Abe.
• Installed SW on the engineering station that was shipped from CIT.
• Cleanup of data from an infected machine.
• Upgraded bind to 9.6.1-P1 to prevent DOS attacks.
• Purchased laptops for new operators.
• Replaced several laptop batteries that no longer hold a reliable charge.
• Routine spam trap clearing and dhcp checking.

Caltech

(Veronica)

• DCC admin support.
• PAC meeting support.
• Ongoing work on the old DCC migration.
• Researching options for a digital asset management software.
• Set up a test gallery for LIGO online photo archive.
• More work on a PAC wiki.
• Troubleshooting of a WAMP server install.
• Updates of LIGO/LSC websites /apps.
• CaJAGWR: Taped the last seminar and processed the video for streaming; helped with a/v troubleshooting; website updates.

(Mike)

• Loaded Linux box for a visitor.
• Help worked on users laptop fixing a sleep problem with his MacBook Pro.
• Trouble shot an issue on a users laptop. Also loaded updated his software to the current versions, and loaded the no-script add-on for Firefox.
• Loaded 2 more workstations for users. This included data transfer loading additional programs and swapping out there old workstations.
• Worked on reloading another laptop with an application issue that corrupted the OS. This required a rebuild.
• Took care of a some virus issues on a users laptop.
• Worked with students in labs taking care of some issues.
• Backed up a users email and cleared it off the server. Fix some performance issues as well while I was working on this laptop.
• Other misc. onsite/phone user support, and sysadmin tasks.

(Larry)

• Procured a number of new licenses for various engineering related functions. The network licenses have been installed and the seat licenses have been distributed. Updated a few maintenance contracts and working on the updates of a few more. Purchased a number of new workstations for the conference hardware. Purchased misc. items for different end-users.
• Cleared off a few more old accounts.
• Worked on the configurations on a number of new computer builds. Mostly to accommodate end-user and specialty needs. Repaired a couple of units that had corrupted print drivers.
• Installed OS on a new server box. Working on updates to a scratch data server. It should be ready next week.
• Helped troubleshoot different items in the labs.
• Regular user assistance. Meeting attendance has increased; working as part of the group generating requirements for the P-card system and meeting with techs. to go over some of the new applications being used on the project.
• Some minor web support.
• More work in the server room. Installed another computer and cleaned out some of the old equipment no longer needed.
• Logistical work on a couple of meetings and conference setups.

Distributed (Grid) Computing R&D (Blackburn)

Grid Application Development

Einstein@Home on the OSG:

• Development continues on the next version of E@OSG which will support job submission via Condor-G. A manually configured job submission via Condor-G was successfully demonstrated this week.
• Working with Oliver Bock of AEI to generate credit statistics in XML.
• Recent Average Credits for the past week were 232,163 credits, up from last week's 170,393 credits; Weekly rank based on Recent Average Credits remains the same; Accumulative rank for total credits for all time is now 21st, up by three from last week.

Binary Inspiral Application on Grids:

• Encountered a problem with frame file transfers into the Hadoop file system on the Caltech OSG Integration Testbed. Working with Site Admin to reproduce and fix the problem.
• Successfully tested a new release of Pegasus that can use the new OSG MyOSG site information interface in the place of VORS. Had to work closely with USC-ISI developers to resolve several bugs in earlier attempts to provide a version that supported this interface.

Open Science Grid Integration Validation Testbed

• Continued to participating in the pre OSG 1.2 software stack testing on the OSG Integration Testbed Grid. The OSG release 1.2 software stack was released this week to the OSG communities.
• Upgraded the version of Hadoop on the cluster.

Grid Management

• Attended the OSG annual staff retreat in Madison Wisconsin. This is a rather "all inclusive" bullet that resulted in significant work planning opportunities for LIGO as part of the overall annual planning.
• Work with OSG Executive Director and Council co-chairs to draft an agenda for the August OSG Council face-to-face meeting in Chicago.
• Worked closely with the "Collective VO" OSG Council representative to identify, contact and invite a second representative for the collective VOs.
• Met with John Towns of Teragrid and the OSG PIs to discuss collaborative opportunities, goals and plans.
• Contacted Syracuse to discuss internet connectivity in the Northeastern US that they leverage.

Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)

Advanced LIGO Management

From Carol Wilkinson

Project Controls

There were no change requests processed this week.

Staffing

• Interviewing of candidates continue for 2 real time programmers for the sites, 1 ME at CIT, and 1 assembly tech at LHO. 1 draftsperson for Systems Engineering and 1 Electech for Seismic Isolation have been hired at CIT.
• The project has agreed to hire another drafter at MIT to help with the drawings for Seismic Isolation procurements. Search is under way.
• LIGO management has agreed to hire a temporary designer/drafter for SUS and AOS development and design efforts. A contract designer has been brought on board for the SUS work at LLO and interviews are taking place for the position for AOS.
• The Controls and Diagnostics group is evaluating possible need for additional designers at CIT and for EE’s dedicated to Advanced LIGO at the two observatory sites.

Procurements

For Ed Jasnow

• Oversaw and participated in efforts to execute the core optics coating contracts with CSIRO and LMA prior to the NSF Cooperative Agreement milestone with the NSF. 
• Advanced LIGO - Participated in preparation of answers to questions on the proposed core optics coating contracts from Ann Miller of the NSF.
• Participated in a meeting on fabrication accounts with Tracey Fraser, Dick Seligman, and Urmila Hajaj.  The issue being discussed was accounting for that Advanced LIGO property that was not part of the actual system.  Further meetings and presentations were scheduled on this subject.

For Jacqueline Champagnie and Gina Salone

• Storage Containers

  SI-144

  In progress

• Flexures

  SI-141

  In progress

• Pods

  SI-148a

  Sent to NSF for approval

• Machine Parts

  SI-148b

  Sent to NSF for approval

• Fastners

  SI-148c

  Sent to NSF for approval

• Flexure Rods

  SI-148d

  Sent to NSF for approval

• Spring Support Posts

  SI-148e

  Sent to NSF for approval

• Metrology

  CO-102

  RFQ being sent to vendor

• Microscope

  CO-123

  Contract sent to Nikon for signature

• UK Optics

  Contract sent to Heraeus for signature

• Creation of “Events” Templates for procurements in progress.
• Change order for Support Services PO for Ruth Winstead.

For Steve Marroquin

• Submitted RFQ to three prospective suppliers for SM-151 “Large Optic Carriers” The bids are due on August 7, 2009. (Tech Rep: Calum Torrie-, Procurement ID CO-122).
• Working on draft RFQ solicitation for SM-153 “OMC SUS Structure Fabrication” (Tech Rep: Doug Cook/Betsy Bland, Procurement ID SU-313a). Calum Torrie is currently doing a technical review.
• Working on draft RFQ solicitation for SM-154 “OMC Suspension Machined Parts” (Tech Rep: Betsy Bland, Procurement ID SU-313b).
• Executed purchase order contract to Cangelosi Ward General Contractors to furnish and install all new casework and tops for the LLO Facility Center (Tech Rep: Alan Sibley).
• Executed purchase order contract to Standridge Granite Corporation for granite surface plates to be shipped to LHO and LLO. (Tech Rep: Hugh Radkins)

For Rudy Arvizu

• NSF approved  CSIRO and LMA procurements for AdL Coating Core Optics CO-118 on 7/28/09.  The Caltech Associate V.P. for Finance and Treasurer, signed the Contracts on 7/29/09. The  plan  is  to  issue  both  Contracts  on  7/30/09.

Property Management

For Rod Luna

• Continue working in creating a report with all Capital Equipment acquisitions under ADL. Additional information is needed, such as PO and Invoice numbers.
• Assisted C. Torrie with ordering two wooden crates to ship for two Structures to be shipped to Stanford University.
• Continued working in gathering financial information for the initial LIGO elements upon decommissioning for Advanced LIGO requested by the NSF Property Administrator.
• Working with Adilia Koch in classifying the Suspension parts that are being shipped by the UK Collaborators.
• Ed and I had a meeting with Adilia Koch and Ann Busone regarding the possibility of getting an exception for duties for the ADL equipment / items contributed by foreign collaborators.

NSF Acquisition Approvals

• Ann Miller of NSF approved the award packages for the Core Optics Coatings (Procurement ID CO-118) to LMA and CSIRO. The contracts will be issued by July 31.
• A request for approval package will be submitted on July 31 to NSF for approval of award for the 4 awards for SI-148, the HAM SEI small mechanical parts.
• Another request for approval to award package is being prepared for sole source, catalogue ADC/DAC procurements. These units were originally envisioned as separate purchases with separate designs under the $250K threshold for approval, but have now been standardized to a single design across the project. An estimate has been made of the total number of units needed, which will be purchased in several lots as needed. The total cost is now above the $250K threshold. A single request for approval will be made which will cover the current award and all future procurements of these units.

Progress Updates

• The quarterly project status report for April - June was submitted at the end of the week.
• Progress updates for July were due by Wednesday, July 29.

Meetings & Reviews

• The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, August 11 at 8:30 AM PT. Subsystem leaders or their delegates need to attend.

Advanced LIGO Systems

Dennis Coyne <coyne@ligo.caltech.edu>, Peter Fritschel <pf@ligo.mit.edu>, Calum Torrie<ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>, Matt Evans <mevans@ligo.mit.edu>, Ed Chavez <chavez_j@ligo.caltech.edu>,  Bob Taylor <taylor_r@ligo.caltech.edu>,  Mike Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>, Mike Zucker <mike@ligo.mit.edu>, Hiroaki Yamamoto <hiro@ligo.caltech.edu> see the Adv. LIGO Systems wiki

• Interviews for an additional Systems Engineer continue.
• An offer is being prepared for an additional Systems Senior Designer.

AdL Project-Funded Activities

Design/Readiness Reviews: For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page.

• Pending review reports:
  • Optical Lever Design Requirements Review & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR) is pending (Mike L. chair).
  • Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for  Interferometer Sensing and Control (ISC) is pending (Daniel S. chair).
  • AOS Stray Light Control (SLC) PDR is pending (Peter F. chair).
  • SEI BSC-ISI PDR is pending (David S. chair).
• Review of the UK provided ETM/ITM quadruple pendulum suspension electronics continues (Jay H., Vern).
• The AOS Thermal Comnpensation System (TCS) PDR is underway (Eric G. chair).

Procurement Techncial Reviews: See the procurement wiki.

• Nothing significant to report.

Technical Review Board (TRB): See the TRB log.

• Nothing significant to report

UHV & Vacuum Review Board (VRB): See the VRB log.

• Quad Suspension Stainless Steel Part Discoloration: (Dennis) A number of the stainless steel parts received from the UK for the quad suspension have a marked discoloration (mostly an amber hue). The discoloration is often uniform, but not always. Not all parts have the discoloration. All of the stainless steel parts were heat treated for stress relief (at about 400C) in a non-oxidizing environment (dry N2). It is possible that the discoloration is due to oxidation if some of the parts were removed from the oven prior to cooling to low temperature. It is also possible that the discoloration is due to surface contamination due to inadequate cleaning prior to the heat treat bake. It has been decided that all stainless steel parts from the UK will be pickled and passivated (acid etched) prior to performing the UHV cleaning and baking.
• SEI Actuators: (Bob) I have finished pre-cleaning the Magnet blanks for MCE.
• COC Containers: (Bob) I have cleaned and baked the Optic carriers for Calum.
• OMC Structural Weldment: (Bob) The OMC structure is ready to go to the electro polisher.
• Epoxy Samples: (Bob)  The Master Bond epoxies have finally arrived and I will prepare samples for baking and Material Qualification testing.
• Suspension Structural Weldment Mock-Ups: (Bob) Two mock-ups to be used for modal testing were cleaned for use.
• Carbon Loaded PEEK Testing: (Bob) I will start the PEEK 140C bake test today. This test is to determine if 140C is a safe temperature to bake PEEK parts.
• FTIR Testing: (Bob) I have been talking with Rand et. al. about the location of FTIR activities, in particular the location of the distilation system.
• Optical Contamination Cavity Testing (Bob T., Liyuan):
  • Cavity 1: 7 production BOSEMs, soon to be removed & replaced with Masterbond low outgassing epoxy (EP30AN-1). Master Bond epoxy still has not arrived, but was supposed to have been shipped.
  • Cavity 2:  First Contact(TM) samples (cavity mirrors also cleaned with FC).
  • Cavity 3: being set up and should be available next week; Krytox samples will be placed into this chamber. Delayed due to lack of laser system electrical cables.
  • Queue:
    • Krytox low vapor pressure lubricant (we have samples).
    • Other low outgassing epoxies, if/as needed after testing EP30AN-1 (Masterbond EP30-2, EP37-3FLFAO, EP65HT-1).
    • Copper & polyimide clad fiber optic, IVG Fiber CU1300. Brian Lantz wants to test this material for use with an optics table, optical lever system. Could be used for ALS etc. Likely "inherently" vacuum compatible, but worth checking since it has a polymer. 
    • Torr-Seal (Varian adhesive -- proposed replacement for Vacseal).
    • Barrierta-IS (a German Company low vapor pressure lubricant alternative to krytox, that New Focus thought may be cleaner) (we have samples).
    • Retest ADE position sensor materials (2 Tra-Con epoxies) due to the anomalous test results (no samples in hand).
    • Nedox solid lubricant (for potential BSC-ISI tooling use (class b) but perhaps useful in vacuum as well) (had small sample -- likely inadequate in size).
    • Tungsten carbide/carbon (WC/C) sample (for potential BSC-ISI tooling use (class b) but perhaps useful in vacuum as well) (had small sample -- likely inadequate in size probably inherently vacuum compatible).
    • Cesic sample (composite ceramic of SiC, Si and C) possibly inherently vacuum compatible application is not clear (high stiffness to weight structure) (sample size adequate?).

Configuration Control & Documentation:

• Approved the following (Dennis):
  • E0900048-v5     Welding Specification for Weldments used within the Advanced LIGO Vacuum System
  • E0900197-x0     Document Change Notice (DCN) - Tip-Tilt Blade Springs and Platform
  • E0900192-v1     DCN - AdLIGO AOS OpLev Parts
  • E0900189-x0     DCN - HLTS Test Mass Assembly Parts (and HLTS Intermediate Mass Main Section)
  • E0900202-v1     actuator terminal block connector
  • E0900187-v3     SOW Fabrication of Flexures for GS-13 pods, AdLIGO SEI ISI
  • E0900198-x0     DCN - HLTS Upper Mass Parts
  • C0900262-v7     RFQ for the Adv LIGO Large Optic containers

Design/Planning:

• Optical Layout (Calum, Ed, Dennis): We are continuing work on the systems level optical layout. This is now being prepared on the DCC. The top level assembly (draft) is D0901491. At the chamber level we will soon have drawings similar to the following for each chamber: - Assembly, Top Level, AdvLIGO, BSC7-H2 Chamber AdvLIGO Systems, HAM9-H2 Top Level Chamber Assembly.
• COC Container Assembly (Ed, Bob) Ed and Bob helped Margot with the assembly of a COC Container in the 40m annex clean room.
• Acceptability of Residual Magnetization and Magnetic Permeability of Suspension Parts: (Dennis, Norna, Vern, John) Concern was recently raised that residual magnetization, and magnetic permeability, of machined stainless steel parts for the quad suspension, might cause test mass motion at a level higher than allowed, due to coupling of ambient magnetic field and field gradient fluctuations. John and Vern made some magnetic flux density measurements with a Gauss meter near the surface of some of the quad suspension parts. Dennis and Norna used these measurements in an analysis (T0900367) that indicates that the coupled noise level is sufficiently small.

Interfaces: See the RODA status page and the Interface Control page.

• Nothing significant to report.

Modeling and Simulation

From: Hiroaki Yamamoto hiro@ligo.caltech.edu

Static IFO Simulation (Hiro, Logan, Sany)

• Logan has finished implementing the C++ code for SIS to simulate the reflection with finite incident angle.
• Hiro, Logan and Sany are working independently to accelerate the simulation of the focusing mirrors in the Michelson cavity.
• Matteo of Virgo has shown interest in using SIS for advVirgo Michelson design. The code and a simple example were offered as is. The setup file needs to be modified to include the Logan's work in the Michelson cavity. (~ a few hours ) They are considering to place the focusing mirrors between ITM and BS. To simulate this, part of the SIS code needs to be modified ( ~ a few days .
• Mode matching study between the Michelson cavity and the arm at low power operation ( < 40W input ) is underway to finalize the analysis.
• I asked Bay Beausoreil of HP to confirm or deny the loss calculation when ITM and ERM have imbalanced absorption. It will be available by the end of this week.

Time Domain Simulation (Hiro, Seiji)

• Seiji has an idea of new strategy of cavity locking. Hiro has prepared the e2e simulation setup and Hiro and Seiji started to test the idea using e2e.

Safety

From: David Nolting   dnolting@ligo-la.caltech.edu

• While at LHO this week, the AdL Safety Engineer surveyed the newly renovated buildings (Staging and Clean & Bake Facility) to ascertain what safety equipment needs to be installed to support activities.  A list is being compiled of the necessary items, and will be sent to LHO management for procurement and installation.
• Working with LHO management to establish equipment training options for AdL personnel. 
• Reminder - As stated in last week’s report, the AdL Safety Engineer will be travelling to MIT this upcoming week to support LASTI Hang activities.

Quality Assurance

From: Mick Flanigan flanigan_m@ligo-wa.caltech.edu

Inventory Control System:

• A large amount of progress was made this week with regards to JIRA. We have completed a new build and loaded to the production system. Ran into a couple of hiccups along the way, had a typo in a small string of information that was causing a major error, has been rooted out and fixed.
• This week spent a significant amount of time reviewing the requirements for the electronics team, and after several sessions we finally have a very nice workable system that makes all parties pretty happy. We will begin to implement these features into JIRA this coming week. These will include Tests, Defects, Modifications and Inspections.
• We have loaded thousands of parts (great job by the logistics team!) and the system is working pretty well, although we are finding bugs every so often. This is all part of the development process, please keep reporting those bugs and we will track them down.  

HEPI:

• We have decided that the actuators already assembled will be shipped to the sites to be measured in the same fashion as the tests performed a couple weeks ago, checking the root spans and some other critical measurements to ensure these are not out of spec by more than we have decided to accept. Then these units will be put through additional functional tests at the site. FEA by the team has not found any conclusive evidence that the variations we find in the radius, the root and peak spans will have a detrimental effect on the performance of the system.
• Re-rolling of the out of spec bellows will begin shortly, and we will be looking closely at the results of the first few to ensure they continue to meet metallurgical specs.

Optics:

• Reviewed the recent IO glass breakage and determined it was not related to any performance issues or mishandling. The vendor has been exceptional about notifying LIGO staff, procuring replacements, and identifying root cause and remedying it. We have full confidence this was an outlier.

Small Blades Prototypes:

• Unfortunately we have had a problem getting proper blades from the rolling house our current supplier is subcontracting to. We will have the remainder of the work completed on the prototypes, but the blades will be out of spec significantly due to rolling creases, improper radius of curvatures. Discussions are ongoing to find a solution for the mass production of these small blades. Rolling seems to be a difficult issue with the small size and fragile nature of these blades.

Upcoming Travel:

• LLO: Will be meeting with Ken Mason to test the HEPI actuators Aug. 18th and 19th.
• Florida: Will be visiting the potential supplier of peek material for OSEM heads Aug. 20th.
• Hanford Site: JIRA wrap up planned for first week of Sept.

Facilities Modifications and Preparations

From: John Worden <worden_j@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

• LHO: Staging building mezzanine lab progress  Staging Building Lab.
• LLO (Rus): We moved the new large bake oven into the VPW building and installed the casters.  Gary is building additional support brackets for the legs in order to make it a bit more rigid.  We are ordering parts for the RGA pumping system and the chamber pumping system for the new bake oven.  We have started processing small parts through the small ultrasonic cleaner and into the vacuum bake oven.  We have received the clean room garb required to begin the assembly of the SUS quads as well as the storage racks and benches.  I'm working on purchasing small gowning rooms for all three main aLIGO assembly areas.

Seismic Isolation

From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu

SEI Electronics Design and Fabrication:

• Sam has finished assembling 12 STS-2 Distribution Chassis and we are currently testing them. I have finished re-designing the Pump servo schematic. I'm now laying out the PCB.
• Quotes are coming back on the 8-Ch. Valve Driver chassis build. So far they look pretty good.
• The Trillium 240 to STS-2 Interface Chassis has been sent out for PCB fab. It should be back next week for stuffing. ~Ben A.

Hepi Procurement and Assembly (Jim Warner, Eric Allwine, Hugh Radkins Pump Stations):

• No change, all assembled except the RC resistor stack and the Control Panel mounting.

Actuators:

• Restarting production after Bellows Resolution. Inspections by Mick Flannigan showed that it was only 1 or 2 of the bellows convolutions that were out of spec. An analysis by Celine proved to us that this resulted in a negligible volume change and stiffness change.
• Housing Assemblies at LHO started in earnest this week. Kaman Sensor testing being worked up. ~Hugh R.

HAM ISI Procurement and Design:

• We have been updating the assembly procedure and assembly drawings for Advanced LIGO.
• The contracts for the miscellaneous machined parts are nearly complete and should be going to the NSF for approval within the next couple of days.

R & D Activities

BSC ISI Design and Test:

• The PDR committee has recommended that the SEI group proceed with final design. This completes the BSC ISI PDR. Pods: Basic design complete, details on attachment and location to stages continues with Andy, Fabrice and Stephany. ~Sam

Stage 2 Redesign:

• Mostly finished with preliminary assembly model for new Stage 2. Still need to finalize details for mounting sensors and actuators. Also planning to run comparative FEA studies, to quantify effects of design changes. ~Andy

Design:

• We have started working on the blades shield and cable routing which were the last two subprojects not started yet.

Control:

• We have begun taking low frequency data for stage 1 tilt decoupling. ~Fabrice

Suspensions

From Janeen Romie and Norna Robertson  
(romie_j@ligo-la.caltech.edu, nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu)

Advanced LIGO Suspensions

Operations Work

• Finished drawings for prototype HLTS SUS. Designing and creating drawings for all fixtures. Procuring prototype parts.
• Finished drawings for blade characterization stand machined parts. Waiting for quotes. Ordered the balance of the purchased parts for the stand. Almost finished programming.
• Work is ongoing on updating the design of some parts in the HSTS suspension.
• We have agreed on how to proceed with the maraging steel blade vendor and sent them a contractual letter. We've agreed to accept out-of-spec parts, and have asked them to proceed with the next processes (nickel plating and age hardening.) We are awaiting three quotes for additional prototyping work.

Project-Funded Activities

• Completed the monthly schedule update.
• After discussions on the discolored quad parts, we have agreed to go forward with separating all of the stainless parts at both sites and sending them off (no shipping, only transporting) for pickling/passivating. In parallel, work is ongoing to establish if further heat treatment of the parts is necessary to reduce magnetization.
• We have received the 10 first article flexi-circuits for the AOSEMs.
• Revised OMC blade parameters for production OMC SUSs have been calculated and provided to our drafters for incorporation into the designs/drawings.
• Work is ongoing on various cabling issues for all suspensions, including discussions about:
  • Where PEEK shielding is required.
  • Stiffness of cabling.
  • Routing of cabling.
  • Positions of connectors.
  • Types and positions of cable clamps/strain relief.

Prestabilized Laser

From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>

Operations

• For reasons unknown at the moment, the channel access update task on the VME processor gets suspended just after the processor boots. Not sure why exactly but Dave Barker has replicated the problem at LHO. The problem hunting continues.

Project

• Some good news to report about the 200-W laser. The damaged laser crystals have been replaced, the laser re-aligned and mode matched into the diagnostic breadboard. The output power is now 200 W. The higher order mode content of the output was measured to be less than 8%. The relative power noise was also measured. The output of the high power pre-modecleaner was also characterised with the diagnostic breadboard.
• Congratulations to the team at the AEI and LZH for pulling this together.

Input Optics

From: David Tanner <tanner@phys.ufl.edu>

Advanced LIGO Desgn

• We have done some calculations about beamsplitter coating loss. Preliminary results are at: http://ilog.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:7285/advligo/Recycling_Cavity_Geometry? action=AttachFile&do=get&target=BSloss.pdf (Muzammil)
• Version 7 of the Advanced LIGO optical parameters document is now available at: https://dcc.ligo.org/DocDB/0000/T0900043/007/LIGO-T0900043-07.pdf The revision includes mainly suggestions from Peter F: A few more parameters (like MC parameters) are included and some typos are fixed. Readers are requested to let us know of any errors or suggestions. (Muzammil)
• Work continues on the H2 layout. (Luke)
• We are also working on the design of the holder for ceramic-heater Adaptive Optical Element Design. (Luke)

Advanced LIGO Acquisition

• We are ffinalizing the coating specifications and bid package for the fist batch of substrates. We are working on the coatings specifications for the second batch. (Rodica)
• We received two quotes for polishing the second batch of optics. We are now reviewing the bids and the pre-award certifications submitted by the vendors to make an award. (Rodica)
• The shop has completed the optic shipping/storage container prototype and it has been assembled and tested with a dummy mirror part. (Luke)

S6

• UF took scimon shifts. (Kate)

E-LIGO

• We are analyzing MC thermal lensing data. (Kate)

Core Optics

From: GariLynn Billingsley <Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu>

(Liyuan Zhang)

• Continued to work on the RTS new DAQ system. The upgrade has been done, a short term test shows that the program works fine. Underway is building a Labview driver for the Jaz spectrophotometer of Ocean Optics.

(Rand Dannenberg)

• For the latest cleaning engineering failures and triumphs, see p. 40-48 in T0900351-v5 at the link below. https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=3853.
• Jacqueline has not yet issued the contract to Nikon to buy the microscope. She says she will do it this thursday (verbatim week #2).
• Joe Haggerty (Aerospace machine shop) completed the iLIGO Teflon dust cover with good results. He is now tasked with making a ring form of it for FC removal per the "sundial" approach in T0900351-v5. He is also tasked with making the vacuum dust cover of Al. This will not happen for 3+ weeks. Ric in the physics machine shop is modifying the vacuum ring for FC removal, ordering a Teflon insert and widening it. It will be finished next week sometime at the earliest.
• I would like to hook up the air-knife shooting ultra-high purity N2 through it (so its not accelerating particles in the air at the surface of the optic), but it must be mounted and plumbed. I can't put it on the the machine shop guys yet as I am inundating them.
• The carpentry shop is making tables now for the 015A cleaning lab - there are presently limited surfaces to put things on in the lab. Next week sometime.
• Bob Taylor will order and install a fume hood in 015A for the FTIR and chemical processing associated with it. I will help him get together a procedure and analysis method for surface contamination quantification.
• We will reproduce in its entirity Cheryl Vorvick's careful drag-wiping procedure (see T0900351-v5 last two pages).
• This is to address Eric G's observations on Liyuans scatter (10 deg transmitted on the CASI) data last week of our uncareful DW procedures vs. FC.

(Margot Phelps)

• Current specification links are available for all large core optics on the Advanced LIGO design wiki, page COC_Detailed_Design. Assisted in the Clean, Bake and Assembly of Fold mirror containers. Acquired updated quotes for COC heavy duty storage system. Completed Techmart training.

(GariLynn Billingsley)

• Coating contracts are one pen-stroke away from being complete. Thanks very much to those pulling the most weight; Rudy Arvizu and Candace Younger. Many others helped. Thanks also for the patience of those whose procurements have been on hold.

Auxiliary Optics

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

Work Under Operations Budget

OPTICAL LEVER:

• The prototype oplev pylon has arrived at Caltech and resonant frequency measurements of the bare structure will start soon. The oplev design team has received comments from the CDR committee, they all seem minor, and the team is composing its reply.
• The first test of the oplev telescope has revealed disappointingly large Airy rings around the projected spot, but this is based on only one day's testing so should be a cause of worry yet.

OPTICAL LAYOUT:

• Luke Williams has started the H2 input optical layout and expects to have a first draft of it in a few weeks.

Control and Data Systems

From: Vern Sandberg <sandberg@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>

Operations: R&D, ELIGO DAQ, and Electronics

LHO - Electrical Engineering - R. McCarthy

• DAQ Test Stand Installation - We ran power cables to Rolf's Test stand and set the tuning range of the OCX [crystal controlled oscillator] in the Test Stand's timing system's Master Clock. Its servo did not have enough range for the control voltage to bring the oscillator into range, so a manually adjustment of the internal control to bring it into range was required. OCX is now locking. Continued work on Fire Alarm for Warehouse and repairs to staging building.
• Looking into power modifications for the warehouse. We may need a new panel.
• Ran cabling for new temperature sensors for TCS and installed the "3123-card" into computer h1iool0 for the read-back signals.
• Worked with Patrick on installing Linux based rotation stage controls for the refl port. Identified signals for his calibration and cabled up the unit. Seems to be working.
• Worked with Danny in recovering from some reboots they had undertaken. The problem was h1lscl0 would not come back. Its CPU would start but then run away (instead of running 49us it was up at 300us). Powered off the crate pulled the card let it sit 15min, then re-installed and the system returned to normal operation.

LHO - Systems/Software - D. Barker

• Worked on roboscimon and robofom automatic S6 ilog reporting tools.
• Configured the four nds machines to S6 configuration. Offsite access to the internal nds machines cannot select testpoints (and therefore cannot take h1 out of science mode).
• Working on getting the tape backup of hanford1 running with the latest backup software. The CDS hanford1 file system is getting big, about 12 million files on the last backup! We may need to reconfigure the backup strategy to grow with the system.
• Tested Patrick's weather station linux port in the control room for almost a week, this code is ready for production rollout.
• Patrick Thomas upgraded the h1 lsc reflpwr motor controller system from vxworks to linux. We installed the latest linux code changes on the psl and tcs motor controllers.

LLO - Electrical Engineering - Staff

• Carl Adams is now testing the coil driver chassis to be used in the test stand being prepared for the training in September. It took some work between him and Jay Heefner to sort out the procedure and streamline it. Estimated time to complete testing the 4 chassis and the satellite boxes is 10-12 days.
• Chris Guido is working with Phil Willems to install the new temperature sensors on the chambers for TCS studies. These should work with the cables and interfaces for the existing temperature sensors, which will speed installation.
• Jeremy Birch has gone through the accelerometers reported as 'dead' from DetChar. Preliminary tests show that all the sensors are working, so problems is likely cables or electronics in the CDS high bay.

LLO - Systems/Software - K. Thorne

• The full complement of 4 NDS servers are now online. The procedure for compiling and installing NDS server software was put in the CDS wiki.
• Conlog settings were updated so that ISI watchdog trips will once again knock us out of science mode. This was tested during installation and has been confirmed during interferometer operations this week.
• With Peter Shawhan's help, we corrected the daily and weekly segment summaries used by the scimons, and have regenerated all such since the start of S6.
• Scripts from LHO were adapted to provide SenseMon range information as EPICS channels for display in the control room overview screen. We will next add Virgo status as well.
• Problems with the LDAP server were partially addressed by correcting the hosts information file. We still need to set up failover to the slave LDAP server and address performance issues.
• We have ordered nVidia graphics adapters that should work better with CentOS to let us create new triple-display workstations for projecting additional Figures-of-Merit.
• We are now configuring the new admin server to host MATLAB licenses, etc. We created ilog accounts as needed and added OMC channels to the frames.

Project: AdvLIGO Systems

SEI - B. Abbott

• Sam has finished assembling 12 STS-2 Distribution Chassis and we are currently testing them. I have finished re-designing the Pump servo schematic. I'm now laying out the PCB.
• Quotes are coming back on the 8-Ch. Valve Driver chassis build. So far they look pretty good.
• The Trillium 240 to STS-2 Interface Chassis has been sent out for PCB fab. It should be back next week for stuffing.

SUS - J. Heefner

• The final design for the AdL Triple Acq Coil Driver was presented at the CDS meeting this week. The presentation is at: https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=4013
• The final design report is at: https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=3355
• The review for fabrication for the OSEM Satellite Box Electronics was completed this week. The final report is at: https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=4005.

DAQ - R. Bork

• With the addition of two AdvLigo style I/O chassis, a few Anti-alias/Anti-Image chassis and some I/O cards, the LHO DAQ test system is about 95% complete (hardware wise). Only a few smaller parts remain:
  • Interface to AdvLigo timing slave (temporary board is out for fab). The final timing distribution bus board for inside the I/O chassis is in design and layout.
  • A couple of IRIG-B timing receiver cards (on order) for data timestamping.
• Began testing software on the LHO system remotely. In this initial configuration, we are running:
  • Two I/O chassis to two realtime front end computers.
  • DAQ data from these computers to the DAQ data concentrator via ethernet (using Myrinet Express (MX) drivers.
  • Running the Framewriter and Network Data Server (NDS) code on the data concentrator. Eventually, the data concentrator will broadcast to separate Framewriter/NDS computers, once we configure that network.
  • The two realtime computers are running two applications each:
    • Output mode cleaner (OMC) code on one (om1 and om2 models) at 32KS/sec on one
    • AEI PSL software (diagnostic bread board and pre-mode cleaner) at 65KS/sec on the other.
• Initial tests were just to verify that the system could compile and run the software, including realtime performance, DAQ data movement and storage, diagnostic tools/ test points worked, etc. (Running latest CDS release 1.2).
• Started some DAQ loading tests by running each realtime application up to the presently set limit of 2MByte/sec, for a total of 8MByte/sec in our present configuration of four realtime apps. As part of this test, we also configured the front end code to send CPU cycle time, and related information, across fast (32K/65K) data channels to look at timing variations during one second periods (and archived for longer term trending). We quickly discovered a few issues:
  • DAQ software was reporting a number of data receipt CRC checksum errors on some front ends, even though the network driver send/receive tasks showed no errors. Found that DAQ software was grabbing data before all data had been received (too soon). This has been fixed and no errors seen in the last two days of running.
• The realtime software cycle time was jumping as much as 5-8 usec above average at a rate of 256 times/sec, which corresponds with the time that it sends DAQ data. The size of these glitches is dependent on the amount of data being sent. To avoid these glitches and keep the realtime at a constant level, the code was changed to move data on every cycle at a constant 2MByte/sec load. The number of bytes moved on each cycle = 2MByte/sec/sample rate of the realtime code. This adds about one usec to the average runtime of the code (32K system), but does not increase/decrease with the amount of DAQ / GDS data being requested.
• We put together a standard alarm handler to monitor the various realtime frontend diagnostics. We are now adding the 'GUIDANCE' fields to provide information to the user on causes/corrective action when a particular alarm/warning is triggered. This new alarm handler will be installed on LHO test system in the next few days.
• We are now building the HAM and BSC Internal Seismic Isolation (ISI) models to run on the test system, in addition the four applications now running. We pulled the HAM ISI model from LLO and the BSC ISI model from Lasti. For this, we have built a new generic overflow counter part, as the Lasti model has a number of these, each written as a separate C code module. We plan to replace those separate, unique modules with this built-in generic unit prior to testing. Initial testing will be done on the Caltech system (transfer functions, phase delays, etc) prior to shift to LHO test system.
• Starting the build of the I/O chassis for the LLO test system. We will start delivering this equipment the week of Aug. 10 (during my visit), with completion by week of Aug. 24 (Jay's planned visit). Only parts missing are the I/O chassis interface boards, which may or may not be ready by Aug. 10.
• Design of the new IO chassis interface backplane and boards has been started and should be done is a few weeks.
• Jay and Rolf plan to visit Lasti to install latest code and do some other updates the week of August 31. We are looking at the possibility of replacing some of the older electronics as well, at least for the BSC ISI system. As part of this upgrade, we may also need to add support for a 4096-cycle rate to our code (awaiting final decision).
• AEI pointed out that the latest code release no longer supported the older digital I/O cards, which are still used in the PSL system. This has been fixed/tested and code will be transmitted next Monday/Tuesday.

ISC - R. Abbott

• Received the prototype flexible circuit boards that are to be used on the Advanced LIGO OSEM heads. Pictures can be viewed here: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~costheld/photos/osem_pcb_7-28-09/
• We are receiving the two Advanced LIGO prototype boards for in-vacuum work this week (ETM Transmission Monitor, and Dual Frequency RF WFS Head). We will be stuffing and testing these designs ASAP
• Working with David Kinzel and Mick Flanigan on the JIRA system for documenting electronics
• Working on a down-select document to choose the Advanced LIGO I&Q demodulator design.

For additional information about this report, contact Albert Lazzarini