Kyle R., Chandra R. 

Previous attempts to test for a high voltage cable connector short circuit were to no avail as the ion pump controller wouldn't energize the cable without the cable connector being mated to the pump connector (SHV Safety Interlock).  Today we defeated this safety interlock by disconnecting the HV connector from the pump and installing a mating-sex connector in place of the pump connector.  By doing this, the mating-sex connector depresses a spring contact within the HV cable connector and "fools" the controller into thinking that the cable is connected to a grounded ion pump.  Anywhoooo....this approach worked and the non-terminated HV cable would now energize.  The result was confirmation that the short circuit is, in fact, internal to the pump-end HV cable connector as the controller's output was power limited, 700V @ 0.5 amps, while not connected to the ion pump.  

As such, we'll ask the EE/CDS folks to redo this pump end HV connector as they have a much better track record of doing this successfully than we do!