(Travis, Dave, Gerardo)
Dave noted and reported a rise on vacuum pressure at X-End. Since, Travis and I were in the control room, we quickly determined that the controller for X2-8 ion pump was not working. I drove down and found the high voltage disabled/off at the controller, and on on the screen the following note:"An excessive arcing condition has been detected (Error10)". No guidance found on manual, snapped a photo to submit later to vendor. I restarted the system and the HV started, controller hummed and crackled and was only able to get up to 600 Volts, all while making noise, and one point some funny smell came out of the inside of the controller, HV was disabled, time to replace the unit.
(Travis, Gerardo, Richard)
Controller remains off, and high voltage cable is disconnected at both ends, ion pump and controller.
We found a controller for this particular application, and replaced the "old" controller but with similar results, minus the noise. The controller was only able able to get up to 500 volts and no more. We turned it off and disconnected the high voltage cable.
I later visited the cable and ion pump to measured them for shorts. I disconnected the cable from the ion pump, then probed the connector at the controller side, center pin to the shell read 0.808 kOhm, I also probed the center connector to other parts of the cable, but no continuity was read for all cases, including to the conduit. The ion pump itself was probed for shorts and none was found, at the ion pump connector the center pin was probed to the ion pump body and no continuity was measured. To compare cables, I measured a "new" cable that we have that is probably half the length of the one in use, no continuity was measured.
I'll wait for the EE guys to have a free moment for them to test the cable.
