The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday, September 14, 2009 will be:
(Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)
1. Announcements
2. LSC - Reitze
3. Focus Topic
A. Planning for the NSF Review
B. Metrics
4. Change Control Actions
5. Advanced LIGO
- Overall - Shoemaker Project Management - Wilkinson
6. Enhanced LIGO - Adhikari / Zucker
7. Sites
- Hanford – Raab
- Livingston – Giaime
- MIT - Shoemaker / Fritschel
8. Caltech
- Administration – Lindquist
- Engineering
- Optical and Mechanical – Coyne
- Control and Data Systems - Bork
- Lab Computing - Anderson
- Instrument Science - Gustafson
- Data Analysis
- 40M - Weinstein
Calendar of future Executive Commitee Meetings
LSC Issues (Reitze)
- Nothing significant to report this week.
LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)
Property Management (Luna)
>From: Rod Luna <rluna@ligo.caltech.edu>
- Working with Property Services on year-end reporting of Capital Assets under new OPS.
- Working with Property Services on close-out report for the old OPS.
DOCUMENT CONTROL CENTER (Mak)
>From Cleveland Mak <mak@ligo.caltech.edu>
- Nothing significant to report.
FINANCIAL SYSTEMS (Lindquist, Oracion)
>From: Karl Oracion <koracion@ligo.caltech.edu>
SUBCONTRACTS MANAGEMENT (Arvizu, Champagnie, Jasnow, Marroquin, Salone)
>From: Rudy Arvizu <arvizu_r@ligo.caltech.edu>
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Jacqueline Champagnie
- Researching Skybase Communications PO for Bonnie Wooley.
- New PO for cyber consultant - pending.
- New PO for lasr safety consultant - pending.
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Steve Marroquin smarroqu@caltech.edu
- Executed purchase order contract to Penguin Computing for five Tempest 3100 Workstations (Tech Rep: David Barker).
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
>From: Ed Jasnow <jasnow@ligo.caltech.edu>
- Reviewed proposed contract for management training,
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
> From Ruth Winstead <winstead_r@ligo.caltech.edu>
- See Advanced LIGO Report Below.
PROPOSALS and REPORTS (Lindquist, Beckett)
> From: Dave Beckett <beckett@ligo.caltech.edu>
- All contributions for the monthly "highlights" report were received this week, and I am producing a first draft. This will be ready for directorate review on the 10th. The deadline for submission to the NSF is September 15th.
- Gathered the last of material needed for three LIGO blog posts. I will have these published in short order.
- Spent some time editing materials for internal administrative requirements now due.
>From: Phil Lindquist <lindquist_p@ligo.caltech.edu>
- FY 2010 LIGO Operations Acquisition Plan Update has been prepared and is being sent to OSR for signature and forwarding to Ann Miller.
CHANGE REQUESTS (Lindquist)
- Change Request CR-090002 was previously discussed, and the initial $50K of funding was approved, with subsequent funding contingent upon review. That review has been held, and we wish to proceed with the additional funding requested. We did not schedule a separate meeting of the LIGO Change Control Board. The revision of the change request has been distributed electronically for signature.
HUMAN RESOURCES (Akutagawa)
>From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>
Quality/Safety (Nolting)
Report for week ending 9/10/09
LIGO Lab Safety:
- Bill Tyler delivered the final draft of the LIGO Operations Safety & Environmental Manual revision.
- Peter King continues to revise the AdL PSL document.
- Peter King and David Nolting are working together to try and solve the safety issue of using First Contact to clean optics parts at the LIGO CIT Lab.
David Nolting:
- The research and development for the LIGO General Awareness Safety Training program is complete and is currently being reviewed by LLO and LHO Operations Managers.
- Once the review is complete, the LIGO Safety Officer will conduct training for both observatories.
- Developing new Job Hazard Analysis for a couple LIGO Lab processes.
- Conducted a successful LHO Annual Safety Audit last week. Special thanks to the LHO team who hosted the audit. In process of completing final report for LHO management.
- Assisting operations managers at both LLO and LHO with the facility safety committee model and activities.
Report for week ending 9/03/09
LIGO Lab Safety:
- Bill Tyler delivered the final draft of the LIGO Operations Safety & Environmental Manual revision.
- Peter King continues to revise the AdL PSL document.
- Peter King and David Nolting are working together to try and solve the safety issue of using First Contact to clean optics parts at the LIGO CIT Lab.
David Nolting:
- Continue research and development for LIGO safety training program.
- Developing new Job Hazard Analysis for a couple LIGO Lab processes.
- Conducted the LHO Annual Safety Audit this week.
LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) and Interferometer Operations (Raab)
Summary of activities at LIGO Hanford Observatory (compiled by M. Landry)
After new OMC photodiodes were installed and characterized ( e.g. the dark noise of new pds no worse than before), they and the glass bench were returned to the OMC SUS in HAM6. Once tip-tilt optics were installed to transport the beam to the OMC, mode matching measurements were found to have a lower bound of 90%. We then closed out HAM6 work, ensuring grounded shields that we had chased on a previous vent were floating. Doors were reinstalled, HAM6 was pumped down, gate valves were opened and the IFO was locked on RF, transition to DC still to come.
Tip tilt mirrors were retrofitted with blade springs and bounce, pitch and yaw mode frequencies and Qs were measured. Additionally, TT0 was outfitted with smaller magnets.
TCS work continued: tables were aligned, beams were projected to nearby walls for alignment checks, and (full-IFO) Michelson tests will ensue next.
The interferometer was locked on RF during much of the work behind the septum plate, allowing for miscellaneous commissiong measurements such as the actuation strength ratio of ETMX and ETMY via the CARM path, where the CARM output matrix is tuned to null the combination of EX and EY modulations as seen in DARM_ERR. In other parallel work, two non-integer lines seen (54.496 and 108.992Hz) in both H1 and L1 by pulsar analyses were tracked to VME cpus, and, a new, precision measurement of a PMC cavity pole was obtained on a spare in the optics lab.
Squeezer update (D. Sigg, S. Dwyer):
- Still working on getting a quote for optics. We put the AEI SHG on the table this week, and are trying to get it aligned.
- Gathered all the information needed to make additional table-top FSS circuits. Incorporated a few changes to fit it into the new stand-alone enclosure as well as added an additive offset input which will be required for the squeezer.
Outreach (D. Ingram):
- Having completed their second summer of full-time service at LHO, local technical/outreach interns Armando Merlin and Andres Ramirez have returned to school and related activities. Merlin will continue to work part-time at the site through the school year as he pursues mechanical engineering at WSU Tri-Cities.
LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and Interferometer Operations (Giaime)
General Operations (Rusyl Wooley):
- The main focus this week was to vent the corner station and fix ITMY. While
at atmosphere, we also replaced the broken 10" valve on the Left Beam
Manifold. We began pumping down the corner station this evening. Other
site work noted in the aLIGO weekly.
Enhanced LIGO commissioning (Valera Frolov):
- The OMC and the TT mirrors have been returned to the HAM6 chamber.
The beam path was realigned and the OMC was re-locked in air using a single
bounce beam. The photocurrent on the OMC photodetectors is consistent with
high quantum efficiency (>95%) and mode matching of ~90% with 1-2% uncertainties. The cavity visibility is also consistent with 90% mode matching.
- The HAM6 beam scan was taken. The data are being analyzed in attempt to
come up with a different mode matching telescope solution to improve the
coupling of the interferometer beam into the OMC.
- The TCS work included power calibration, chiller servo tuning, and ISS electronics investigation.
- The OMC front end code was changed to address the timing problem. The new
code was tested by measuring the DAC output noise dependence on the drive
amplitude. The new code does not introduce the excess noise when the large
drive is applied. The full interferometer test to be done when the locking is restored.
LLO CDS (Keith Thorne):
Hardware
- Carl installed the new rack for the CDS test stand in the Computer User's Room. He is now awaiting the remainder of the parts from Rolf to build it up. Carl continued with vacuum feedthrough work, as well as some assistance with the TCS work.
- Jeremy Birch is reworking the PEM electronics chassis in the vault.
Software
- Keith and Valera checked the anomalous TipTilt DAC noise (when dither loops are engaged) that Rana had found after the previous OMC code install. We tested before and after Rolf installed new code that removed a timing delay and waited a couple cycles before writing. We confirmed that the anomalous TipTilt DAC noise went away after the change. We have to wait for interferometer operations to be restored to make sure this fixes the problem.
- After being tested on TCS X, Keith re-started the TCS Y chiller servo with the new script from Hanford.
- Keith implemented a work-around on the HEPI rampdown scripts to avoid an error with ezcastep on negative step values (only seen with existing Linux version). He still needs to get the ezca updates that Rana prepared at the 40meter that fix this problem.
- Sys-admin work included setting up two active screens on a workstation in the LVEA (for the commissioners) as well as installing the latest patches on the Linux workstations. Keith also figured out how to add right-click menu items on the operator's screen on Linux (to match the Solaris functionality).
- A new fileserver is now acting as the backup file server, making regular synchronizations with the old, existing server. The new tape backup system was received, but has yet to be installed and commissioned. Still working on the smoothest way to migrate to the new systems.
Livingston Outreach:
(William Katzman)
- New Cohort 3 docent group members met for training.
- Docent Scheduling began.
- Continued scheduling groups.
- Hosted one public school field trip (group of 10 high school physics seniors).
- Ordered parts for new light frequency exhibit.
- Planned upcoming Science Saturday schedule.
(Amber Stuver)
- Gave control room tours to ~15 students (week ending 3 September).
- Gave control room tours to ~10 students (week ending 10 September).
- Prepared materials relating to an NFS grant proposal I am working on with Lisa Szechter.
- Received the first proof of the poster I have been working to create with the APS on gravitational waves and LIGO. I have circulated this to the EPO group and hung a copy on site (at LLO) for comment. I welcome comments from anyone! To view the poster (PDF), please go to: https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~stuver/APS/ .
Mechanical and Optical Systems (Coyne)
Tiltmeter and SOC (Self Organized Criticality) dissipation R&D (Riccardo DeSalvo).
Luigi:
- I found the working point for the glassy Blades. I started to calibrate the LVDT and the Actuator for the new system.
Vladimir:
- Analyzing tiltmeter noise to possibly confirm 1/f noise, working on controls/data acquisition development.
Amanda:
- First draft of final report on tiltmeter performance measurements (including Abhik and Morgan's work).
Riccardo:
- Following good results ordering improved hinges for tiltmeter.
Luca:
- Finished measurements and prepared a report on the water level tilt and warp meters for possible use at the sites.
Arianna:
- CQG proceedings paper accepted by editor, made new draft of larger paper on SOC.
Controls and Data Systems (Bork)
40-Meter Interferometer (Adhikari)
Report for the 2 weeks ending 9-03-09:
- In recent weeks we had great visits from Jan Harms (U Minnesota) and Yoichi Aso (U Tokyo). Jan showed us how to set up a quick seismic station to do seismic huddle tests for our Adaptive filtering seismic sensors. We now have 2 Guralp CMG40-T, 7 Wilcoxon 731A low frequency accelerometers, and one Nanometrics Ranger SS-1. The huddle tests allow us to measure the sensing noise limits of the sensors.
- We also have a prototype 3-frequency EOM which was put together by SURF student Stephanie Erickson. It uses a commercial New Focus KTP phase modulator and an external RLC network. The complete package makes 3 resonances which have a 50 Ohm impedance on resonance. Tests with an OSA verified the phase modulation response of the EOM.
- We had a failure of the APC 2200W UPS that powers the 40m vacuum rack. It failed suddenly after 15 years. We purchased the modern version of the same model from APC and have everything running again. No vacuum hardware was damaged by the UPS failure and our interlocks worked as expected.
- Peter King came over and upgraded our PSL Reference cavity temperature box to the LHO version (documented by H Radkins). This is to enable measurements of the AC temperature fluctuations of the vacuum can so as to estimate the frequency fluctuations in the 0.1-10 Hz band for AdvLIGO lock acquisition estimates. During this process Rana became tired of the ancient MINCO PID controller that is used in our PSLs and we have replaced it with a BNC cable and a Perl script.
Thermal Noise Interferometer (Black)
No report received for the current week.
LASTI (Mittleman)
Monolithic:
- Doug(LLO),Mark(LHO),Janeen(LLO) and Giles (Glasgow) have been here this week working on the fiber pulling and testing setup. There are a number of entries on the Lasti ilog (http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog, on the AdvancedLigoOptics Group Log <http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog/pub/ilog.cgi?group=AdvLigoOptics> page. A number of minor modifications to the setup have been made to make the MIT and Glasgow systems as similar as possible.
- They are hoping to strength test some of the old fibers (from previous trips that have been in storage) to see if there any ageing affects and then pull some new one under slightly varying conditions.
- Brett has completed a series of tests on the heat loading due to the ring heater. There are a couple of ilog entries on the Lasti ilog (http://www.ligo.mit.edu/ilog Lasti Group Log, 8/29/09 and 9/01/09).
- The results seem to be about a 0.8 degree C heat rise at the bottom of the pendulum support structure for every ten watts into the heater. We didn’t see an effects on the ISI behavior.
CIT Science Group (Weinstein)
Antony Searle:
- Omega pipeline debugged, pointing performance now good.
- New PRC results obtained for Omega pipeline.
- Debugging Omega pipeline detection statistic.
Stephen Privitera:
- This week I have been reading code to better acquaint myself with the inspiral pipeline and its implementation in lalsuite. I have also been focusing on sky localization code and theory.
Vladimir Dergachev:
- Finished implementation of matched filter mode for PowerFlux v2 code.
- Implemented multithreading in PowerFlux v2.
- Exploratory analysis of full S5 coincidences.
- Worked with Joe on coherent followup.
Drew Keppel:
- Writing a version of plotslides to go in lalapps_cbc_plotsummary.
- Writing code to calculate the lvstat from sqlite databases.
- Investigating the deficiency of H1L1 triggers in the S5 LV search before and after clustering.
P. Ajith:
- Worked on comparing the new IMR phenom waveforms with EOBNR.
- Worked on finalising the paper draft of IMR phenom waveforms.
- Worked on incorporating the bilinear coupling in the instrumental veto code.
Amber L. Stuver:
- Completed installation and debugging of the BurstMDC package, generated burst MDCs for S6a (set name BRST_S6a) and published them. The documentation for these MDCs is at: https://ldas-jobs.ligo.caltech.edu/~stuver/burst/MDC/S6/.
- Since there have been no reported problems with the S6a burst MDCs, I am currently producing the MDCs for the remainder of the projected S6 run (until 982972815 GPS, 1 Mar 2011 00:00:00 UTC) with the set name BRST_S6b. Once these are completed, they will be documented on the page listed above.
- Processed the UL rates for the high frequency burst search WRT radiated solar masses per year per Mpc3. These results have been combined with the low frequency rates I produced previously for the S5/VSR1 burst all-sky paper.
- Worked with the rest of the MatApps team on final organization of the MatApps repository from a CVS to SVN repository. Documentation is nearly complete (see https://ligo.gwastro.psu.edu/wiki/MatApps/index.php?title=CVS_to_SVN_Transition_Checklist) and package testing (in a test SVN) will begin next week and last for 2 weeks.
- My term on the APS Council as the FGSA representative has been extended to the end of the 2011 calendar year due to the ratification of the FGSA bylaws change to that order. This brings the FGSA bylaws into conformance with the APS Constitution and makes the FGSA Councilor eligible to be elected to the APS Executive Board, Committee on Committees and the Audit Committee. Documentation of this motion, as approved by the APS Council and the Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, can be found at: http://touro.ligo-la.caltech.edu/~stuver/FGSA/.
John Zweizig:
- Continued work on understanding why kleinewelle produces incorrect results when running online under solaris.
- Started kleineWelle reruns with s5-like configuration (low upper limits on frequency bands) on the observatory clusters.
- Continued preparing gds software release.
Gregory Mendell:
- Presented an update on Fscans to the CW group.
- Worked to help debug problems reported with internal LAL pulsar injection code running under CODA.
Kipp Cannon:
- Working with SURF Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar to help her finish up her project on a new time-domain \chi^{2} statistic for inspiral searches.
- Working with Chad Hanna and Drew Keppel to prepare material on the S5 high-mass search and a stream-based inspiral analysis technique for the LVC meeting.
- Worked on final proof of S4 cosmic string paper with Xavi Siemens.
Anand Sengupta:
- Tuning trigScan parameter for S6 and comparing it with S5 runs.
- Writing the Amaldi conference proceedings paper.
- Continue to develop the network Fischer matrix code.
Peter Kalmus:
- Continue tuning SGR 0501+4516 A5 search via closed box runs.
- Continue research into potential X-ray burst search (with Leo Singer).
- Continue SGR GW simulations (with Christian Ott).
- Continue S5y2/VSR1 SGR search (with Leo Singer).
- Preparations for LVC meeting.
Igor Yakushin:
- Working on offline analysis of S6a data.
Joseph Betzwieser:
- I've been working with Vladimir on following up outliers from the S5 powerflux search.
- I've also been working with Ina trying to track down a shift in the initial phase of injected signals when examined by lalapps_ComputeFStatistic_resamp.
Cristina Valeria Torres:
- Meet with Rupal about developing python code that maps the detected ITM drum head frequency to a temperature.
- Finished generation of input trigger database for LLO (first 4wks of S6), this information is being fed into Autotrack.
- Testing CBC follow up pipeline 'band-aid', which will allow us to run the follow up pipeline on weekly CBC triggers for S6a.
Chad Hanna:
- This week I have been preparing a new tag for the high mass search including cat 2 box openings and preparing IMR material for the LSC meeting...
Laboratory Computing (Anderson)
LDAS Software Systems (Maros):
- The diskcacheAPI has been modified in several ways this past week. First was the rework for conflict detection. It now is at least as fast as the previous version. Running over the weekend, a couple of issues were identified. The first was that the code was not properly handling node reduction when new data filled a gap between nodes. This resulted in many more nodes in the search tree which lead to excessive memory usage and significantly slowed queries. The second issue that was identified was all nodes having the directory modified time of zero (0) which represents a need to rescan the directory. This also lead to significant slowness after the initial cache was built since all directories were having a deep scan done despite the fact that nothing truly changed in the directory.
- The remaining issue that exists is the periodic core dumping of the diskcacheAPI. The current theory is that it is thread related. A solution is actively being sought.
LDAS System Administration (Anderson):
Caltech
(Dan Kozak):
- Helped with SAM-QFS part of LHO upgrades.
- Upgraded home1 6140 at CIT to 7.x firmware, created new large volumes, set up samhome1:/home1.
- Got migration of S5 L1s going, modulo a few problems with framecpp_dump_objects, which I've handed off to Ed.
- Sent Ping the SSD firmware upgrade procedure.
- Sent Fred the gridftpserver under SMF instructions.
- Verified data already in /archive/frames/S6/Burst-MDC and made sure it was making it to tape.
- Helped Igor get CAM working and replacing a drive in his 6140.Called in tape drive problem to Sun.
(Phil Ehrens):
- Wrote shadow-directory extension for glimpse. Added support for M$ "Open Document" formats docs, xlsx, and pptx to the indexing helpers. Using the shadow extension speeds up searching of the dcc quite a bit. I wrote the shadow-glimpse as a stand-alone cron-driven script suite so that it could be incorporated into other applications. I am currently making use of it in the safety incident reporting system, and it will also be used by the TAR.
- Began coding the LIGO Safety Web Suite.
- Ongoing support of the MOU review process.
- Various user support tasks.
(Josh Abadie):
- Monitored and managed the cluster.
- Attempted to solve user problems.
- Continued to improve the nagios monitoring system.
- Changed back the nfs server for /archive/frames for most of the cluster.
- Debugged problems with ldr@cit.
- Worked on getting 5412zl software support.
MIT
(Fred Donovan):
-
Added more machines to condor pool; worked with Scott to set up ldr; increased ram on ldas-kickstart (puppet and opennms requirements).
Livingston
(Igor Yakushin):
- Tried to connect 10G card from qfs-nfs2 to the HP switch but for some reason it did not work yet.
- Installed sscs on qfs-nfs2; put qfs-nfs2 and 6140-1, 6140-2 separate switch to be able to use sscs to manage 6140 array;
- Replaced a failed disk in 6140 array.
(Doug Lormand):
- Finished rerouting the network cables and fiber to the new switch in the LDAS room. Most of this work was completed last week but I put a couple of finishing touches on the cable trays earlier this week.
Hanford
(Greg Mendell):
- Assisted Dan Moraru with tracking down files on tape with Level 1 RDS frames md5sums.
- Worked with LDAS on upgrades during this commissioning break, and I am continuing to work to get LDAS services back up at LHO and LLO.
- Participated in discussions on how to manage the installation of sqlite on the LDG clusters.
(Dan Moraru):
- Brought cluster back online after maintenance.
- Replaced two sets of UPS batteries.
- Retrieved S5/L1 meta files from tape and pinned them to disk.
- Cleared tape stuck in L700 robot hand.
- Swapped out tapes marked MEDIA ERROR from L700 library and added empty tapes.
- Fine-tuned configuration of core switch and kickstart script.
General Computing (Wallace)
MIT
(Fred):
- Got network specs for LSC/VIRGO dec. meeting worked out with Larry and sent to hotel.
- Set up another solidworks user.
- Solidworks software quotes.
- More purchasing.
- Backup file systems on tintagel needed pruning.
- Updating linux kernels.
Livingston
(Dwayne):
- Helped Tom Gentry with Evo.
- Failed rollout of JIRA 1.5.0 to TEST, followed by successful rollout of 1.5.1 to both
- TEST and PROD.
- Patched OS on both TEST and PROD JIRA servers.
- Assisted Rupal with formatting some external HDs.
- Phone assistance to a user with Firefox removal/reinstall and external HD formatting.
- Installed bluetooth chip in Igor's laptop.
- Rebooted Cleveland.
- Patched/reboot touro.
- Installed additional memory in hoss, patched and rebooted.
- Installed replacement rack fan in GC rack 4.
- Renewed Altium designer licenses.
- Ordered replacement batteries for GC UPS units.
- Ordered replacement toner cartridges for printers.
- Picked up new MacBook Pro laptops for two users.
- Remount of /apps on basin, desoto and decatur.
- Installed new disk array in GC rack 1. It immediately complained about the Battery Backup Module failing, so looking into that.
- Attended a few meetings.
- Worked a couple small procurement items.
- Numerous usual/unusual user support requests.
- Cleared spam trap daily.
Hanford:
(Jonathan):
- Met with Shannon and got the translucent LDAP proxy working for LIGO.ORG.
- Setting up a test LIGO.ORG test box. This will be an ongoing activity.
- Added a new user to the Ad-Ligo systems, GC, and helped with LIGO.ORG for a new temp Lissa Girgis.
- Reimaged a loaner computer.
- Setup some old laptops for outreach.
- Cleanup and rearranging of the server room to prepare for re-racking during the scheduled blackout next week.
- Checking and patching linux boxes.
- Fixed an issue with the automounter on the webserver. This led to a cleaner ldap configuration as well.
- User support, Kyle Ryan, Dwight Carter, Mary Kurtz, Alan Wilkins.
- Stood down redoubt.ligo-wa which was a temporary machine used for omega scans by the sci-mons.
- Assembled another rack for installation during the power outage.
- Regular spam trap and dhcp server work.
CIT:
(Mike):
- Worked on pdmworks setting up new user accounts, and modifying
permissions on a few old accounts.
- Started updating a few workstations to SoldWorks SP4.1.
- Worked with Christian on trouble shooting Ansys 12 to work with SW2009.
This seemed to be a corrupted user profile, and license server needed to
be upgraded.
- Catch up work on ADVLIGO backups, and administration on primavera, and
prispm software.
- Worked on some issues with the pdmworks backup server.
- Purchase a few items for GC.
- Other misc. user support and sysadmin tasks.
(Veronica):
- Ongoing work on the PAC wiki. Submitted the draft for review (AL Note: looks excellent!).
- Ongoing work on the old DCC migration.
- LSC WebComm: Addressed an issue of standard compliance. Consistent compliance is a concern as the proficiency in standards varies among the contributing authors. Provided tools for accessibility evaluation of web content.
- Trying out the new camcorder.
- LIGO/LSC web updates.
(Christian):
- Riccardo Desalvo- Installed and configured new system with Windows XP
for Riccardo's lab.
- Calum Torrie- Installed new 47-inch LSC screen in Calum's new lab.
- Christina Pinkney- Installed and configured HP scan software for Christina.
- Continued testing snow leopard and Windows 7 this week.
- Toner cartridge replacements- 3flr W/B.
- Other misc.: Continued onsite software/phone support.
(Larry):
- Dealing with multiple procurement items. Ordered and received a number of edge switches to be used in the computer room. Ordered more Solidworks licenses for Advanced LIGO. Purchased a couple of large screen units to be used in small conference rooms in place of a projector. So far they are working out well. Reworking a number of licenses to where they will expire on the same date. Tracking down a number of workstations that should have arrived earlier
in the week. Working on configurations for new computers to upgrade the DCC system. Assisted a number of others with different purchases.
- Assisted in different labs. Mostly troubleshooting of s/w installations. One machineneeded a new s/w package to resolve a video capture resolution problem.
- More logistics work on different meetings and conferences coming up.
- Took care of a number of printer problems. The most difficult required a new installation of the driver and setup on the end-users computer.
- Setup new accounts for new users arriving.
- Multiple alias modifications for different people.
- Assisted people dealing with document searches both electronic and hard-copy.
- Resolved a couple of license setup issues. Still debugging a new license installation that will not start automatically after a reboot of the server.
- Doing some investigation on the costs of getting old drawings scanned into a electronic format.
- Worked on the repair of the mixer and a couple of computers.
- Regular user assistance and meeting attendance.
Distributed (Grid) Computing R&D (Blackburn)
Grid Application Development
Einstein@Home on the OSG:
- Continue to ramp up the Einstein@Home jobs on the OSG using the new Condor-G submission code.
Binary Inspiral Application on Grids:
- Generated and ran an binary inspiral workflow that utilizes SRM with the new pegasus and new ihope using one day's worth of data stored on the Caltech OSG Integration Testbed. The run was successful once a few minor edits were made to correct issues being worked out in both ihope and pegasus.
- Submitted a similar workflow to the above using one month's worth of LIGO data. Discovered an issue with how the DAGs are being managed that caused the head node on the cluster to be overloaded.
- Reported the above problem to the pegasus developers. This will require a rewrite of a section of pegasus to solve. A possible work-around was proposed but the Condor Team at UWMadision has been contacted to confirm the behavior of condor.
- Transferred a third month of data into the RLS server and SRM storage on the on the OSG ITB cluster to prepare for the generation of a workflow that will use close to 10 terabytes of data.
Open Science Grid Integration & Validation Testbed:
No Report (Robert is in Germany this week).
Grid Management:
- Ran the monthly OSG Council Telecon. Minutes are posted on the council's website.
- Participated in two joint TeraGrid/OSG telecons to discuss refinement for a collaborative proposal this week.
- Discussed possibility of participating as a co-PI on this collaborative proposal between OSG and TeraGrid with Paul Avery. Contacted the Caltech SRO to get clarification on the provost's commitment policy.
- Drafted an invitation to UNL to apply for a representative seat on the OSG Council.
- Contacted Vicky White and Ruth Pordes to inform them that the OSG Council has selected a date for the next OSG All-Hands Meeting and down-selected FNAL as the venue to confirm their availability during the selected week. Preliminary reply from FNAL is that they don't have a conflict and should be available.
- Was asked by the NSF last Friday to prepare a revised budget for the EVO-LIGO award. Budget was prepared but was not needed.
- Received official notification from the NSF of the award for the EVO-LIGO award. Began taking inputs from the co-PIs on development of job description for effort to be hired.
- Supported PKI certificate requests and LIGO Data Grid account requests as they came in.
- Organized and ran the weekly SCAT subcommittee meeting and reported key elements to the LSC Computer Committee.
Advanced LIGO and Supporting R&D (Shoemaker)
Advanced LIGO Management
Report covers time period from August 31 through September 11
from Carol Wilkinson
Project Controls
- Change Request ACR-090016 was approved for Suspensions to fix some incorrect account budget allocations, to revise assembly schedules to accommodate the delayed UK delivery, and to modify the rubric for procurements to reflect the staged process that is actually being used.
- Change Request ACR-090017 was approved for Seismic Isolation to adjust schedule and budget distributions to more accurately depict the sequencing required. New schedule activities will be added to the WBSs for HAM instrument and mechanical procurement which will enable parts not needed for HAM ISI assembly to be purchased later in time. Durations for procurement activities were increased to match the staged procurement process.
Staffing
- A project change request has been drafted to augment staff to the project to produce technical procurement documents and to support electronics procurements, fabrication, and testing. The new staff will support active tasks as well as future tasks, using lessons learned from early procurements and from a reevaluation of the work load for electronics. The additional staff will be funded by unused contingency.
- A similar change request for additional development staff funded by operations including ME, mechanical designer/drafter, and EE staff for AOS, SUS, SEI, ISC, DAQ, and PSL. A change request will be circulated for review by the operations Change Control Board for support of identified positions for ~6 FTE-yrs. These positions typically require ops support for ~6-9 months of remaining development and design tasks. The majority of these new hires will transition to project tasks and funding after designs are complete, and are then included in the Advanced LIGO change request mentioned above. Interviewing of candidates continue for 2 real time programmers for the sites, 1 ME at CIT, and 1 assembly tech at LHO. These are open positions that pre-date the in-process change request to add new staff.
- Several job ads and statements of work for the staff augmentation change request have been posted and resumes are being reviewed.
- Staff augmentation new hires include 1 mechanical designer at MIT, a part time Admin. Assistant at MIT, and a electrical engineer at CIT.
Procurements
- For Ed Jasnow
- Submitted package for contract for ADC/DAC boards to Ann Miller for approval after Dick Seligman submitted the package through FastLane to Tom Carruthers.
- Reviewed new invoice payment policy for Advanced LIGO.
- Discussed allowability of facility improvement costs for new metrology lab as direct charge to Advanced LIGO.
- Participated in final discussions with Columbia University to wrap up their contract.
- Responded to additional questions from Ann Miller of the NSF regarding the DAC/ADC procurement.
- Signed the competitive procurement justification for the BSC Trillium Seismometers.
- Ordered contract for flexures to be issued for the quantities advertised. Additional quantities will be handled by change order.
- Assigned subcontract administrators for all upcoming procurements.
- For Steve Marroquin
- Executed purchase order contract to Valley Precision Metal Products for RFQ No. SM-153 (SU-313a)“OMC SUS Structure Fabrication.”
- Executed purchase order contract to Triad Project Management Services for Emery Brown who will provide electrical engineering support for Advanced LIGO CDS Group.
- Reviewed and approved FFP Contract75ADV-1087477 to Limerick Machine Company for the Fabrication of Spring Support Posts.
- Executed purchase order contract to Stanford Research Systems for Dynamic Signal Analyzer with option 078OM1 - 8M Sample Memory Kit (Advanced LIGO POETA). (Tech Rep. Rusyl Wooley)
- Administrating the incoming bid proposals and preparing tentative selection letter and non-selection letters to for RFQ No. SM-154 (SU-313b) “OMC Suspension Machined Parts.” A vendor has been chosen by the Bid Evaluation Team but it is contingent upon NSF approval.
- Executed purchase order contract to Service Steel Aerospace for C-250 Maraging Steel Sheets (Tech Rep: Bonnie Wooley)
- Reviewed and approved FFP contract to Nikon Instruments for Automated Defect Optical Counting Microscope. (Tech Rep: Rand Dannenberg)
- Participated in telecon with LIGO personnel discussing the rationale for issuing SI-150b Advance Ham Chamber Bellows as a sole source procurement.
- For Rudy Arvizu
- CSIRO Contract 75ADV-1087576 AdL Costing End Reaction Masses, funded by University of Glasgow (UGLASG 1057205) – 9/9/09 CSIRO signed. 9/10/09 Caltech will sign to execute this Contract.
- Stanford University for Brian Lantz, AdL Seismic Isolation Team Scientist – 8/1/09 Stanford provided a statement of work. 9/8/09 AdL provided Stanford with a draft of the proposed Cost Reimbursement with an Educational Institute Subaward. Stanford has not provided their budget (requested 8/5/09).
- Nanometrics Inc, Seismological Instruments, AdL HAM SI-107A – 9/9/09 assigned this procurement.
- ARES Corp. Contract 75ADV-1087576 AdL project management support under the direction of Carol Wilkinson – the requisition authorizing the FY2010 (10/1/09 – 9/30/10) funding projected at $477,827 is pending (requested 9/2/09).
- Process Improvement – 9/9/09 recommended an abbreviated Terms and Specifications document using the LIGO Public DCC links to replace the statement of work in the current AdL RFQ template. Purchasing Services is also conducting a beta test to determine if the Terms and Specifications document can be attached to a TechMart requisition/purchase order for transmission to suppliers with the links intact, which will eliminate the need write most categories of AdL contracts. One easy to use document for engineering requirements from solicitation to supplier award using links to the LIGO Public DCC will streamline the procurement process.
- For Jacqueline Champagnie and Gina Salone
- SI-141 Contract awarded; Sent for signature
- SI-143 Installation Test Stand-Pending
- SI-144 Storage Containers; RFQ Draft submitted to Ken Mason
- SI-145 Counter Balance; RFP Draft submitted to Ken Mason
- SI-148a Pods; Awarded.
- SI-148b Machine Parts; Received NSF Approval; Contract submitted to Purchasing for Approval.
- SI-148c Fastners; Held for Req.
- SI-148d Flexure Rods; Awarded.
- SI-148e Spring Support Post; Awarded.
- CO-102 Optics Metrology; RFQ due September 11, 2009.
- SI-107b Transferred to Rudy Arivizu for processing
- SI-149 On hold per Alan Wilkins
- Set up contract for Elect Engineer for the CDS group.
Invoice Administration/Admin Support
- For Ruth Winstead
- Manage over 49 invoices through Webnow thru email and phone, processed over 14.
- Delivered invoices to Procurement Services (Guillermo).
- Resolved questions on items on invoice w/Eric @ Limerick.
- WebNow/ImageNow Upgrade 9/3-9/4
- Resolved issue with overage on Limerick invoice with Hugh Radkins, submitted C/O for $1320.08 -informed Ken Mason.
- Received email from Phil Willems; ok to pay Directed Light invoice.
- Contact end users regarding receipt of items and payment of invoices.
- Continued posting of packing slips and invoices to DCC
Property Management
- Rod Luna
- Continued working with Property Services on year end reporting of Capital Assets under ADL..
- Assisted B. Bland with clearing a shipment for the QUAD Suspension parts from the UK.
- Assisted G. Billingsley with packing and shipping a plate to Coastline Optics in Camarillo, CA.
- Assisted A. Brummit from RAL by classifying a winding head to be properly imported.
NSF Acquisition Approvals
- Ann Miller approved the award for SI-148b, the HAM SEI small mechanical parts. The award going through the CIT approval process.
- A copy of the Commercial Terms and Conditions was sent to Ann Miller per her request for the catalogue ADC/DAC procurement approval package. These units were originally envisioned as separate purchases with separate designs under the NSF 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 NSF threshold. A single request for approval covering the current award for HEPI and HAM and all future procurements of these units will be submitted this week.
- A third request for approval, for long term labor contracts for technical specialists, is in preparation for submission to NSF next week. This request will now incorporate several new hires in the staff augmentation change request.
Progress Updates
- The draft of the AdL Monthly Project Status Report for August is in review. It will be sent to NSF on Monday, September 14.
- The next progress update is due on September 28, 2009.
Meetings & Reviews
- The next Monthly Progress Reporting Meeting will be on Thursday, October 8, 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
- Drafted ACR for additional staff; Carol and Dwight are fleshing it out further.
- Submitted job descriptions to HR for review, posting and advertizing.
- Reviwing systems engineering candidates; interviews soon.
- Preparing SYS FDR documentation.
- Drafted memo on AOS re-organization to improve focus and efficiency for the group.
Design/Readiness Reviews:
For a list of reviews, see the main AdL wiki page
Reviews currently underway:
- Optical Lever Design Requirements Review & Conceptual Design Review (DRR/CDR): initial questions/comments has been issued by committee. (Mike L. chair).
- AOS Thermal Comnpensation System (TCS) PDR: Meeting with team next week.
- Draft report expected 9/18 (Eric G. chair).
- Review of the UK provided ETM/ITM quadruple pendulum suspension electronics continues (Jay H., Vern).
Impending reviews:
- Systems Final Design Review (FDR): documents ready on or about 9/21.
- IO Final Design Review (FDR): documents ready on or about 9/17.
- SUS HAM Small Triple Suspension (HSTS) FDR: documents ready on or about 9/30.
Procurement Techncial Reviews (see the procurement wiki):
- Participated in OMC SUS machined parts bid evaluation.
- Advised SEI & project management on HAM bellows procurement specifications and strategy.
- Provided lessons learned on recent mechanical fabrication/machining procurements to procurement group.
Technical Review Board (TRB) (see the TRB log):
- Nothing significant to report
UHV & Vacuum Review Board (VRB) (see the VRB log):
- UHV compatible materials list (E960050): working on an update to be filed in the DCC 9/11.
UHV Prep Lab (Bob):
- Delivered the RM HTLS Structure to Mike Gerfen today. He is ready to press the nuts in.
- Completed the bake out of the Actuator Housings and shipped them to MCE for assembly.
- Ordered the new high vapor pressure still head for the FTIR distilling unit from ACE GLASS.
- Requested a quote from Caltex Plastics for barrier Bags.
- Ordered aluminum foil for the lab.
- Rana has requested that I look into Ordering a small parts ben cabinet for the 40m and I have found several but still looking.
- I have overhauled one of the Varian vacuum pumps on oven 16B in the bake lab and it is back in operation.
Optical Contamination Cavity Testing (Bob T., Liyuan): continues
Configuration Control & Documentation:
- Nothing significant to report
Design/Planning:
Optic Containers - New design
Ken, Kurt and I should have the the first set of drawings out for quote later today. These drawings are the first of two sets that will allow us to manufacture & assemble x2 CP optic containers to the new design.
Systems Layout:
Calum Torrie:
- Ed and I met with Luke to go over additions for HAM 2. Luke is still working on HAM8.
- Ed and I also added the updated ETM Transmission telescope to the various BSC chambers. We will now work with SUS to decide what is a practical minimum distance between the two upper suspensions. Ed and I now also have a set of systems drawings ready for approval that includes the bill of materials and further dimensional information. We are also updating the BOM data, mass properties information and looking at adding the laser at the detector level.
- I got back from Calum the 2D system drawings for HAM9-H2 and BSC7-H2 chambers with his comments/suggestions to be implemented across all chambers drawings. Next step is to update all drawings from all chambers and update the files in the DCC.
Dennis Coyne:
- Resolved issue with Zemax not exporting rays. Have a work around.
- Reported problem to Zemax and they will fix in next release.
- Created two configurations in the Zemax layout (H1 only so far); One for Zemax and one for export to SolidWorks.
- Working on better ray representaiton for SolidWorks export.
- Mike Smith revised H1 layout
Ed Chavez:
- I got from Dennis the converted Zemax coordinates into rays in a 3D CAD model in Solidworks. I added it to the LHO Corner Station and I was able to create a representation of a Laser Beam, this gives us a good representation of a laser beam path. However there are two issues to be resolved: one is in the converted files there too many rays (up to 7 sketches) representing a Beam, it’s hard to determine which is the one representing the actual coordinates. Another issue is what we will do if the coordinate representing a point changes its value. I keep working in finding a better solution to these issues.
- I got from Mike S. and Ken M. a better representation of the ETM Telescope, which I used to replace the envelope (placeholder) I had. I updated BSC9 & 10 from H1 and BSC5 & 6 from H2 with this new model.
- I updated HAM2-H1 components (MC1, MC3, PRM, PR3, etc) positions, with the new Coordinates I got from Luke. I also added the rest of items (DLC envelope) that will be positioned on the HAM2 table. I still need the orientation of these DLC mount items.
Damping Struts:
- Kurt and I have taken initial results on his damping strut concept. I will write up a short summary for this for next week.
Modal Lab
- The B&K guys met with us to discuss possible add-ons to our lab and to go over our recent training sessions and plans for the upcoming sessions.
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)
- Summary of the astigmatism study was presented at COC meeting. astigmatism by stable cavity - for COC mtg.
- The code is being updated to include proper treatment of wedge angle and to implement the astigmatism in a more consistent way.
- The simulation code has been installed on TAMA machine for the design of LCGT.
- Massimo of APC, working with Matteo for advVirgo design is going to install SIS on their machine, and I am helping the installation.
- After Budapest meeting, Hiro will visit APC for several days to help Virgo simulate their stable cavity.
Time Domain simulation (Hiro, Seiji, Daisuke, Erina/NAOJ)
- LCGT members are interested in using e2e for the lock acquisition design of LCGT.
- They will purchase dedicated machines for e2e simulation for practical production use.
- Hiro is helping to install, to give how to lectures and to implement setups for them so that they can concentrate on physics, instead of programming details.
Safety
From: David Nolting dnolting@ligo-la.caltech.edu
- Ongoing interaction with AdL personnel to assist in directing safe work processes for both LLO and LHO.
- Provided support to Clean & Bake team while at LHO last week. A tour of AdL work areas reveled good organization and planning in progress to develop SOP’s and Hazard Analysis for equipment operations.
- Assisted BCS-ISI design team members with deciding on Blade Spring safety devices design and placement.
Quality Assurance
From: Mick Flanigan flanigan_m@ligo-wa.caltech.edu
ICS:
- Released version 1.5.1 to the test and production servers this week, after some annoying bug fixes. System is working nicely now, loads of new features out for the LIGO community to start using.
- Modification Records: Allows users to record modifications to existing parts in the database.
- Inspection Records: Allows users to create and record an inspection against a part or parts
- Defect Record: Will record a defect and institute tracking triggers on any part in the system
- Test record: Provides the ability to create a test record, link to test plan and test result documents in the DCC, and assign to parts in the inventory system
- New rough user interface for parts view: First draft of the functionality of parts view. Much work is still needed here, but give a first taste of what is coming in the next couple weeks.
- Bug fixes: Over 80 bugs were addressed in this release.
- Quick Links: Easy navigation tool for access to the import sheets, other links.
- Tom Gentry and his Logistics team will be working on the first use and testing of these new functions, make sure all works well and report any bugs, improvements, and new feature requests over the next few weeks. Coming next, and last for phase 2 development, is the assembly record, which will allow us to group parts into assemblies, and link assemblies to other assemblies as building blocks for LIGO structures. Will allow us to trace any part to its assembly group, by serial number. We will also be rolling out better screen views and navigation tools, and will be addressing identified bugs from earlier releases. This will conclude phase 2 and will put us into long term (4+ months) use and feature request harvesting.
QA:
- Attended review of Welding Spec with one of our vendors for the OMC structure. Focus of the meeting was to ensure the spec is the first point of reference for any questions on welding, and to field questions regarding the spec from the suppliers. We also expressed LIGO need to visit the vendor during test welds and first article, to review radiograph and visual inspection results, act as a gate event to progressing with further work.
- Will be visiting the Large Blades machine shop this coming week to work on a plan to measure the radius of curvature of each blade, to ensure it meets specs.
- Have requested that the HELPI actuators at LHO be moved in 2 weeks to the staging bldg for measurements, at the granite slab. Am waiting for the Gauge pins to arrive from supplier.
Upcoming:
- Next week: Pasadena, QA visits and ICS training for Clean and Bake team.
- Sept 18th-23rd: Sydney, Aus. for vendor inspection.
Facilities Modifications and Preparations
From: John Worden <worden_j@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>
- LHO: The large air bake oven arrived last week and sits at the warehouse here
- LLO: The enclosure for the DI water skid arrived this week and was assembled. The actual skid will arrive tomorrow. We got a quote to install the vent for the large parts washer. We also installed the electrical connection to the parts washer and will install the plumbing next week.
Seismic Isolation
From: Ken Mason kmason@ligo.mit.edu
aLIGO Project Activities
SEI Electronics Design and Fabrication
- Sam's LLO HEPI VME-to-pcie conversion chassis are coming along well.
- The boards and parts come in on Monday, and he'll stuff them and test them then.
- A second set of 10 Pier Interface Chassis have been completed and tested.
- I talked to Miguel Jr. at DeLeon Enterprises, and he said that the 8-Ch Valve Drivers are coming along well. He does not see any show-stoppers for the Sept. 24th delivery.
- The GS-13 in-pod socket board has been re-designed by Emery to include Voltage protection, and a pressure sensor. It is at the board house now, and the parts are on order.
- Mohana is testing her newest Coil Driver.
- I have started working on the Seismometer Interface re-design. I'm still have ing difficulties getting onto the seismic SVN so I can check out Brian Lantz's Matlab files, but when I do, I can make sure that the gain and whitening is appropriate for the task.
- I sent four GS-13 cables to Brian O'reilly to perform huddle testing on the incoming seismometers./~ Ben///
HEPI Procurement and Assembly
HEPI--Jim Warner, Eric Allwine, Hugh Radkins
- Pump Station complete--Pressure testing being schemed. Waiting for estimates from Mezzanine plumbing contractors.
- Approaching 50% of Hydraulic Housings built.
- Kaman Sensor testing entering production../~ Hugh R./
HAM ISI Procurements
- 7000 lbs of maraging steel arrived at Next Intent this week. The delivery of the first set of maraging steel blades is planned for 12/24/2009.
- The first four of the large plates is complete awaiting approval to ship and four more will be completed by the end of the month.
BSC ISI Design and Test
- Michael Hillard started at MIT this week. He is a designer/draftsman who will be helping with the BSC documentation.
Suspensions
From Janeen Romie and Norna Robertson
(romie_j@ligo-la.caltech.edu, nroberts@ligo.caltech.edu)
Operations Work:
- HLTS - ongoing procurement of prototype parts and drawings for fixtures.
- HSTS - Continued work on re-design of parts. Upper Mass is now complete and mass matches MATLAB model. Wire assemblies are nearing completion with angled clamps. EQ stop brackets have been redesigned and are being added to the top level model. Received IMC prototype at LLO. This prototype will be used as a reference to compare the updated design.
Project-funded Activities:
- OMC - Held a selection committee meeting on Friday to chose vendor for machined parts. This selection will require re-approval by NSF. Engineers held a kick-off meeting with the weldment vendor.
- Quad assembly work has now started. Gearing up for quad alignment training session held at LLO by RAL, starting at the end of the month. Working to make sure all quad drawings are available and up to date, against the bill of materials provided by RAL, in conjunction with RAL.
- Also, working with the UK on procurement of fasteners and wire, which the UK is ordering for delivery to the sites.
- Several LIGO staff and Glasgow staff are at LASTI, working on the fiber pulling machine, making sure it is running in the same configuration as the Glasgow set up.
- Monthly variance report completed.
Prestabilized Laser
From: Peter King <pking@ligo.caltech.edu>
Operations:
- Nothing significant to report.
Project
- I have been searching for a cleanroom engineer who would be able
to answer some design aspects of the Laser Area Enclosure. I have a short
list of five companies within the Southern California region who may be
suitable. In addition, Rod Luna pointed me towards a contact on campus who
has experience with cleanroom design and construction who I will meet up
with on Monday.
- Drawings for the low-noise photodiode from the AEI are slowing being
converted from Autodesk Inventor to AutoCAD.
Input Optics
From: David Tanner <tanner@phys.ufl.edu>
Advanced LIGO design:
- We worked on the input optics requirement document for the final design
review (Guido).
- The engineering specifications for adaptive optical element has been documented. The optical layout from PMC to IFO (IOO section) is complete (Muzammil).
- We are working on IO zemax ghost beam analysis (Rodica).
Advanced LIGO acquisition:
- We have shipped nine PMMT blanks for polishing. (Rodica).
eLIGO comissioning
- We helped with the reinstallation of the OMC and TTs in HAM6 (Kate and David).
- We did a beam scan of the AS beam on the HAM6 table. Those data are being used to model the OMC mode matching and to find an optimal solution of telescope parameters. (http://lhocds.ligo-wa.caltech.edu:8000/mLIGO/MoreResults) (Kate).
Core Optics
From: GariLynn Billingsley <Billingsley_G@ligo.caltech.edu>
Liyuan Zhang
- The upgrade of the Scanner DAQ system is done, the new system works
so far so good. The Jaz spectrophotometer of Ocean Optics has been
integrated into the system and a scan of 160 mm in diameter on
ETM04 HR side is underway.
- With Rand and Margot, continue to test drag wipe cleanings with the
AR coated ESW03 window on the CASI scatterometer
Rand Dannenberg
- More First Contact vs. Drag Wiping in CASI and FC is winning.
- Test of Riccardo's First Contact mold.
- New World Case PO submitted. 2 cases coming to test.
GariLynn Billingsley
- We have received the last two compensation plates from Heraeus.
- We have received a quote for an additional ITM blank to replace ITM02.
- The contract for coating the End Reaction Masses has been signed by CSIRO and is in final signature at Caltech.
- Tinsley will do a source inspection on the Fold mirrors before they release them to us for annealing.
- Shipping cases for the Fold mirrors have arrived and will be transferred to Coastline.
- Coastline process review took place Tuesday, September 8. There are six recommendations that have come from that review. These are in the process of being formalized. We have sent a vacuum chuck to Coastline to assist in lifting the substrates off of the pitch lap.
- Renovation of 014 Downs has been approved. This is to house the full aperture surface figure metrology.
Auxiliary Optics
From: Michael Smith <smith@ligo.caltech.edu>
Work under Project Budget
OPTICAL LAYOUT
- Luke expects to complete the H2 layout by next week.
- Mike is updating the L1 layout.
Work under Operations Budget
OUTPUT FARADAY ISOLATOR
- Niem is building a support table to be suspended from the ceiling in the LIGO vibration test facility for testing the Faraday Isolator suspension. Ken ordered a trolley system to be mounted to the ceiling beam for hanging the support table. Calum is working with the CIT building people to mount the trolley system to the ceiling beam. Virginio is preparing to make transfer function measurements using the new LIGO vibration test equipment. We recently attended a training session given at CIT by the vendors of the equipment.
- Ken is working with Niem on an additional optical bench fabrication for the 303 lab floor.
OPTICAL LEVER
- Andrea showed that the precision with using the CCD camera can be improved by averaging over several frames. The width of the fitted beam can be determined with a precision of 3x10^-4/frame, which can be improved to 10^-5 with 100 s integrated exposures. This may be useful for monitoring thermal lensing of the test masses.
- The results with the CCD camera were obtained with a small collimator that does not introduce significant Airy rings in the projected beam pattern. Good news is that either with better light injection using the small telescope, or through the CCD image fitting technique instead of the quad diode (which is more sensitive to the Airy rings), or a combination of the two, we seem to have reduced the sensor position sensitivity to the fiber shaking.
- The new CCD camera that was tested exhibited a diffraction pattern at the sensor plane apparently due to interference fringes created by the protective glass plate in front of the sensor array. We are talking to the vendor about ways to fix this problem.
- The next step will be to repeat the experiment with the 20x telescope along the corridor as well as injecting with 3, 50 and100m fiber lengths to test the reduction of the cladding modes. The CCD camera results will be compared in real time with the quad diode.
- Craig is drafting mockups of the optical lever pylons. These will be made from cardboard or other light material and taken to LHO to evaluate the size and space restraints at the site.
ETM Telescope
- Ken gave preliminary mass estimates to Calum for the suspended ETM Tel, who will give that information to Matt Evans to calculate the SUS response. It appears that the quad SUS upper stage frame will fit behind the ETM SUS; if so, we will use the quad SUS upper stage frame to support the ETM Tel/transmon system.
- Mike is continuing to analyze the design of an optical system for reducing the effect of the ETM Tel rotation on the position of the spots on the transmon QPDs.
TCS
- All the manufactured parts and hardware were received for the TCS laser housing.
- Phil and company eliminated the noise sources on the TCS systems at LLO: 1) stopped the backscatter from the rotating polarizer power controller by tipping the compensating wedges, 2) stopped the noise coupling to the DARM from the 6 in parabolic mirror by stiffening and damping the mirror mount, 3) increased the gain in the control circuit for the intensity stabilization, 4)reduced 60 Hz noise by eliminating a ground loop associated with the AOM, 4) increased the dynamic range of the laser power control to operate at lower powers by adding fixed polarizers to increase the polarization contrast ratio of the laser.
PHOTON CAL
- Ric Savage reports that the E-ligo photon calibrator is working well at LHO. Craig is developing designs for the Photon Cal pylons. Mike will revise the Zemax layout of the Photon Cal beams based on Ric's feedback.
CDS
From: Vern Sandberg <sandberg@ligo-wa.caltech.edu>
Operations: R&D, ELIGO DAQ, and Electronics
LHO - Electrical Engineering - R. McCarthy
- Cleaned, serviced, and calibrated the sensing and controls for the site sceptic system
LHO - Systems/Software - D. Barker
- Followed up on the autoburt change made just before the commissioning break. The bottom line is the glitch is still visible even when just backing up the non-linux IOCs, even though these only constitute 6% of the epics channels. Decision has been made to not autoburt while in science mode for the rest of S6. Investigations into source of autoburt glitch noise continues.
- Building the new CDS tape backup system. This will be a linux system since the backup software from the vendor has more features in their linux release. Some 32/64bit file system problems have appeared with centos, so I'm trying RHEL5 as an alternative.
- Installed the new broadcaster code to fix the short integer byte swapping bug.
- End of fiscal year procurements were completed.
- Work with Rolf on the system test stand.
LLO - Electrical Engineering - C. Adams
- I assisted Phil, Koji, and Chris in the 'tuning' of the TCS ISS electronics to bring them online and operational.
- We installed the new rack for the CDS test stand in the Computer User's Room. We are now awaiting the remainder of the parts from Rolf to complete it.
- Continued with vacuum feedthrough work, as well as some assistance with the TCS work.
- Jeremy Birch is reworking the PEM electronics chassis in the vault.
LLO - Systems/Software - K. Thorne
- Keith and Valera checked the anomalous TipTilt DAC noise (when dither loops are engaged) that Rana had found after the previous OMC code install. We tested before and after Rolf' installed new code that removed a timing delay and waited a couple cycles before writing. We confirmed that the anomalous TipTilt DAC noise went away after the change. We have to wait for interferometer operations to be restored to make sure this fixes the problem.
- Sys-admin work included setting up two active screens on a workstation in the LVEA (for the commissioners) as well as installing the latest patches on the Linux workstations. Keith also figured out how to add right-click menu items on the operator's screen on Linux (to match the Solaris functionality).
- A new fileserver is now acting as the backup file server, making regular synchronizations with the old, existing server. The new tape backup system was received, but has yet to be installed and commissioned. Still working on the smoothest way to migrate to the new systems.
Project: AdvLIGO Systems
SEI - B. Abbott
- Sam's LLO HEPI VME-to-pcie conversion chassis are coming along well. The pc boards and parts are expected to arrive on Monday. He'll stuff them and test them then.
- A second set of 10 Pier Interface Chassis have been completed and tested.
- I talked to Miguel Jr. at DeLeon Enterprises, and he said that the 8-Ch Valve Drivers are coming along well. He does not see any show-stoppers for the Sept. 24th delivery.
- The GS-13 in-pod socket board has been re-designed by Emery to include Voltage protection, and a pressure sensor. It is at the board house now, and the parts are on order.
- Mohana is testing her newest Coil Driver.
- I have started working on the Seismometer Interface re-design. I'm still haveing difficulties getting onto the seismic SVN so I can check out Brian Lantz's Matlab files, but when I do, I can make sure that the gain and whitening is appropriate for the task.
- I sent four GS-13 cables to Brian O'reilly to perform huddle testing on the incoming seismometers.
SUS - J. Heefner
- The BSC test stand at LLO is now fully operational and ready for the training session scheduled for the first week in October.
- The test report for the prototype Electro-static driver has been written and placed in the DCC. The document can be found at:
https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=4701.
- The review and recommendation for fabrication for the SUS PUM driver electronics was finished and placed on the dcc, and may be found at:
https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/private/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=4845.
DAQ - R. Bork
- Made code change at LLO, which appears to have fixed excess DAC noise problem observed after last update (see LLO elog and LLO report above)).
- Jay and I will be at LASTI next week to install some CDS updates. As part of this, the code generator is being modified to handle a rate of 4096 samples/sec, as requested for the LASTI ISI work. This code is now running on our LHO test system, but still need to work on the polyphase FIR filter code at this new rate.
- AdvLigo timing slave installed into one of the systems in the LHO test stand. For initial testing, we are running the OMC code, with the duotone signal connected to one of the ADC channels. Using Keita's Matlab duotone timing test code, set to run once per hour, we have been measuring and recording the input timing results. Since this test was started last Friday, the input timing measurement has remained constant @245nsec ± 5nsec (after subtracting out the ~21.5usec delay introduced by the downsampling filter used to get from 65536Hz to 32768Hz of the OMC code). The OMC code was also slightly modified to send the duotone out of a DAC channel and back into another ADC channel (to test system delay and DAC timing stability). The matlab code checks this signal as well, once an hour. The timing delay has remained a constant 61.9usec (period of two 32KHz samples) over the same 5 day period. Note that the 61.9usec number is after removing the ~64usec delay involved in downsampling of the two ADC channels involved and upsampling of the DAC channel.
- Working on documentation for a code review. Mikael is updating the RCG user's guide, in particular the descriptions of the various Matlab parts supported by CDS. This will include EPICS channels produced by each part and the realtime C code produced for each part. I am working on documenting the realtime core code.
- I/O chassis to timing slave interface bus is in final layout. First article boards will be ordered by early next week.
- The first prototype for the new ADC interface cards to be used in the AdL IO chassis has been sent out for fab. The IO chassis backplane should be ready for fab later this week.
- Hamilton Sheet Metal is working on the new back panel for the prototype AdL IO chassis.
ISC - R. Abbott
- I am preparing for an informal review (tomorrow's ISC meeting) of the proposed ETM transmission monitor. Simulation vs measured data, packaging and baseline specifications will be reviewed.