Reports until 21:35, Tuesday 07 July 2015
H1 ISC
jenne.driggers@LIGO.ORG - posted 21:35, Tuesday 07 July 2015 (19485)
SRY locking for initial alignment much more robust
[Stefan, Jenne]

We were informed that the SRY lock acquisition step of initial alignment was flaky, and could get into a state of ringing up the SR optics.  

The solution was two-fold:
(1) We increase the input power to 10W to improve the SNR on ASAIR_A_RF45_Q.  (After the ASC offload step, the power is returned to the original 2W).
(2) We utilize the front end fast triggering, for both the output and the FM4 integrator.  

For item (1), we did a little bit of finagling in the guardian script to ensure that the value of H1:PSL-POWER_SCALE_OFFSET matches H1:IMC-PWR_IN_OUTMON.  This is required so that we don't lose lock (due to de-triggering) when we are changing the power levels.  Since we're using H1:LSC-ASAIR_LF_NORM_OUT for triggering in item 2, if the value in H1:PSL-POWER_SCALE_OFFSET (which does the "norm" in H1:LSC-ASAIR_LF_NORM) does not match reality (as approximated by H1:IMC-PWR_IN_OUTMON), the loop will often de-trigger even if it shouldn't have, which is why we need those values to match.

For item (2), we changed the SET_SRY guardian to leave the SRCL input always on, and use H1:LSC-ASAIR_LF_NORM for triggering.  We found that values of 50 cts up, and 30 cnts down were good thresholds.  Since only the output of the LSC filters are triggered, this means that we cannot leave the FM4 integrator on unless the loop is engaged.   We use the filter module triggering (which was already triggering FM1, a +6dB gain) to also trigger the FM4 integrator.  Since the integrator's oomph is needed to acquire the lock, we use a "delay" in the filter module of 0 seconds (it used to be 0.2 seconds).