(Jordan V., Gerardo M.)

Yesterday we tried to hand over the pumping of HAM1 to the ion pump only, it did not go good, the ion pump started having issues maintaining pressure for HAM1 volume, this ion pump showed a very unusual behavior, the pressure was going up and the output of the controller kept going down.  We tried a second controller with similar results.  The controllers just quit and turned the high voltage off themselves, self protection/preservation.  Today, we went up to the ion pump and ohmed out its feedthrough fischer connector, and to our surprised no short was found, we were convinced that the pump had shorted.  So, we took a controller chamber side and connected it with a "short" cable to the ion pump, and the pump turned on without issues.  These findings lead us to believe that the cable may be faulty/shorted/broken/no good.

The temporary setup will be used to maintain the ion pump under vacuum, and the setup will remain until another suitable cable (working one) can be acquired and installed.

Attached are a couple of photos of the temporary setup and trend of the controller/pressure at HAM1 behavior during the last couple of days.