Michael, Krishna

This morning, we repositioned the EX_BRS-1 damper turn-table and restarted EX_BRS-1 software. The system worked normally and started to damp the balance but was unable to damp it all the way to small amplitudes (< ~50 counts/nrad). The reason seemed to be that the turn-table vibrations were driving up the beam-balance (see here). Looks like the foam sheets under the turn-table aren't effective at vibration damping any more. Later, Hugh handed us some soft polymer damping pads which we'll try out tomorrow. In the meantime, I've disabled the damper but the tilt data is available.

At EY, Carlos helped us to get the autocollimator software (in C#) working on the BRS-2 Beckhoff computer. We then proceeded with the vacuum can assembly and then aligned the autocollimator and adjusted the beam-balance position to get clear images on the CCD. By the end of the day, the angle data of the beam-balance was visible on the Beckhoff computer.

Plan for tomorrow:

1. Try out other vibration damping pads under the BRS-1 turn-table. Also try out some BRS-1 code changes to improve the software live-time, which crashes once in ~two weeks.

2. Continue BRS-2 vacuum can assembly. If possible, start pumping the vacuum can.

3. Hook up the SEI-Interfacing beckhoff modules.