Activity Log: All Times in UTC (PT)

15:35 (07:35) Take over from TJ
15:56 (07:56) 5.8 mag EQ in Chile – R-Wave (1.13 micro m/s) expected ~08:00
17:03 (09:03) Put IFO into DOWN state. Wind and Seismic activity are back up
17:44 (09:44) Marissa – Called to check on state of IFO – Will call her if I get the IFO locked. 
20:20 (12:20) Going into LVEA to pull data from 3IFO desiccant cabinet – Approved by Mike L.
20:40 (12:40) Out of the LVEA
00:00 (16:00) Turn over to Travis


End of Shift Summary:

Title: 11/01/2015, Day Shift 16:00 – 00:00 (08:00 – 16:00) All times in UTC (PT)

Support: Mike L.,   

Incoming Operator: Travis

Shift Summary: Tried relocking while winds were calmer during early morning. Some but not enough success before wind velocity came back up. Not making it past LOCKING_ALS now, so have put the IFO into a DOWN state. Will monitor wind and seismic; when conditions improve will reattempt to lock.

Wind and seismic activity are still high, although there is a forecast improvement for tomorrow morning. Forecast has winds at a moderate to fresh breeze (17 - 22 mph) until 08:00 (00:00). After midnight, winds are forecast to drop to a gentle to moderate breeze (10 – 15 mph) and be down to a light breeze by dawn. The maximum wind speed trends over the past 8 hours shows a downward trend. 

Unfortunately seismic is still a mixed bag. The EQ plot (0.03 – 0.1 Hz) is on a downward trend for the past two hours. It is now generally close to or below the 0.1 um/s line. Microseism is not so good. The trend for the past 18 hours is up. Perhaps with some flattening over the past 2 hours. It is now running between 1 and 0.5 um/s. 

If the forecast holds and seismic activity settles down later this evening or early tomorrow should hold a decent chance of relocking the IFO. 

   Wind and seismic still ugly for locking. Winds at moderate breeze (13-18mph) to near gale (28-33mph) with gusts well over 40mph. No significant change in seismic levels. IFO is in DOWN state until conditions improve.     

   With winds a bit calmer early this morning, and after TJs initial alignment, tried to relock the IFO. Unfortunately wind is coming back up before we were able to lock. The locking made it to once to REDUCE_CARM_OFFSET and CARM_ON_TR before DRMI unlocks and it goes down. The CARM_ON_TR lock broke a few seconds after the CS took a sustained gust of 30 plus.  

   The winds are back up, fluctuating from mid-teens to lower 30s. Have recorded a gust at End-X of 40 plus. Seismic is not much better. The EQ band is elevated, especially the end stations. The microseism band is recording CS-Z values of over 1.0 um/s and is averaging around the 0.5 um/s line. 

   As environmental conditions deteriorate locking is getting worse. At this point barely able to make it past LOCKING_ALS. Will give it a few more tries and if not better success will put the IFO into DOWN until conditions improve.         

Title:  11/01/2015, Day Shift 16:00 – 00:00 (08:00 – 16:00) All times in UTC (PT)
	
State of H1: 14:35 (07:35) Trying to relock. 

Outgoing Operator: TJ

Quick Summary:  Winds are lower (gentle to fresh breeze) but should be building during the early morning. Seismic activity is still high. Due to lower winds will attempt to relock IFO.  	

15:35 (07:35) Take over from TJ

• Title: 10/23 OWL Shift: 7:00-15:00UTC (00:00-8:00PDT), all times posted in UTC
  

• State of H1: Down. Winds have calmed and I just finished initial alignment.
  

• Shift Summary: High winds the whole shift till about an hour ago. I have been slowly getting through initial Alignment since then. I had lots of trouble with Input_Align where I had to move SR2, SR3, and BS to eventually get it to work.

• Incoming Operator: Jeff B

•  
•  

Wind died down to around 20 or less. I got past locking ALS and it seemed that everything was badly misaligned. I'm starting and initial alignment before the wind picks up again.

Gusts are up to 55mph, the Corner Station seems to be getting hit the hardest. I am giving up on locking for a bit and saving the instruments some wear and tear. The forcast says that the wind is suppose to keep picking up for the rest of the day. 

Quick summary of my efforts so far

Locking ALS has been very difficult, particularly with the Xarm. I think that I was just lucky the few times I managed to move on. I was successful in locking PRMI one time, but before I was done maximizing everything it dropped the lock.

Safety note

For anyone heading on site today, be careful with the doors in these high winds. I practically got squished when I went to poke my head out to look at some coyotes.

ALS Y was reporting the wrong polarization, and X was around 29% so I went in to adjust them. Odd thing, when I get to the rack, Y was down to 9%... So I just adjusted X down to 14%.

Winds were down when I left my house, but soon as I get here they seem to be up again to the high 20's, low 30's. Microseism has grown to 0.7um/s. Such is life. I will try to lock since I'm here now.

ITMY ST1 ACT and ST2 Coil Driver Chassis BIO were tripped when I arrived.

• Title: 11/1 OWL Shift: 7:00-15:00UTC (00:00-8:00PDT), all times posted in UTC
  

• State of H1: Down due to high winds and microseism
  

• Outgoing Operator: Travis
  

• Quick Summary: As it says in Travis's log, I will monitor things from home periodically and come in if/when it looks more reasonable.

Title: 10/31 Eve Shift 23:00-7:00 UTC (16:00-24:00 PST).  All times in UTC.

State of H1: Unlocked due to wind

Shift Summary: Wind calmed briefly, and after Hugh's TFs finished, I attempted locking.  Got as far as locking DRMI once before winds kicked back up to 40-60mph.  Called Mike to discuss whether TJ should bother to come in for his shift.  He advised to tell TJ to monitor the wind remotely and come in once they have began to calm.  Microseism is also ~0.6 um/s.

Incoming operator: TJ (monitoring environmental conditions from home)

Activity log:

2:49 In prep for locking attempt, adjusted Ref. signal to -1.94V to bring diffracted power to ~8.5%

3:01 HAM 1 HEPI restored after Hugh's TFs finished

3:12 began initial alignment

4:25 gave up on locking after struggling to get to DRMI and wind continue to increase

WInds has calmed down to reasonable levels.  However, microseism is high at ~0.7 um/s.  I'm trying to lock regardless.

Activity Log: All Times in UTC (PT)

15:00 (08:00) Take over from TJ
15:15 (08:15) Marissa – On site
15:39 (08:39) Reset ITM-Y ISI ST2 watchdog trip 
15:49 (08:49) Cleared HAM3 saturations
15:55 (08:55) PSL ISS diffracted power low (6.8% -1.90v) 
		         Adjusted to -1.96v for an 8.1% diffracted power 
16:05 (09:05) Reset ITM-Y ISI ST1 watchdog trip; Called Hugh R.
16:10 (09:10) Put IFO into DOWN state – Only to DRMI-1F a couple of times. Most breaks come during ALS or FIND_IR. Wind and Seismic still high. 
19:50 (12:50) Tried relocking as conditions appeared to have improved
20:10 (13:10) Put IFO back into DOWN state. Wind back up – Gusts to over 50 at End-X.
20:15 (13:15) Hugh – On site 
20:40 (13:40) Put HAM1 into READY state so Hugh could run TFs on HAM1
21:09 (14:09) Hugh – Going into CER to check cables on ITM-Y coil driver
21:19 (14:19) Hugh – Out of the CER – No apparent problem found
21:55 (14:55) Hugh – Leaving site
23:00 (16:00) Turn Over to Travis

 



End of Shift Summary:

Title: 10/31/2015, Day Shift 15:00 – 23:00 (08:00 – 16:00) All times in UTC (PT)

Support:  Hugh

Incoming Operator: Travis

Shift Summary: Had two ITM-Y ISI watchdog trips this morning. The first tripped Stage 1. The second tripped Stage 2. In both cases the “Coil Driver Chassis Bio” had tripped. Was able to reset both. Called Hugh to discuss; reference aLOG #22947 & #22977.

Tried relocking as the winds had dropped to below mid-teens. No luck. Wind picked back up, with constant 30s down X-Arm and several gusts of over 50 at End-X. Only made it past LOCKING_ALS one time. Put IFO back into DOWN state until conditions improve. 

Put HAM1 HEPI into Ready state while Hugh running TFs on HAM1.   
  
Wind remained high during end of shift, with several gusts over 50mph. Did not attempt to relock.  

Final 2 bands for the full suite, should be finished around 6pm.  Just put the Guardian back to Robust Isolated.

With Richard's sanction, I wiggled the binary cables from the ITMY coil driver but no glitches resulted...

These are all within a four hour period with the last one ~1855utc.

There are no others since I reported on them yesterday.  Actually, as I dig deeper and look at full data (as the minute trend bands looked too wide,) I see that there are 8 drops of the V3 status bit.  Most lasting several seconds.  I'm tempted to go wiggle a few cables since the IFO is not locking with the high winds.

Oh yes, Jeffery reminded me that even the rogue excitation alarm triggered on more than half of these.  That occurs when we still have DAC drives when the WD is tripped or something like that.  I'm not worried about that aspect of this but it just indicates the irritation of this problem.

   Wind appeared to be dropping (down into the mid-teens) and seismic activity was also coming down. At 19:50 (12:50) tried relocking. The wind came back up at almost the same time. Only made it to LOCK_ALS one time. At 20:10 (13:10) put the IFO back into a down state until conditions improve.  

   20:30 (13:30) recording constant winds into the 30s & 40s with gusts at End-X well over 50mph. (Just had all 5 weather stations reporting sustained over 30mph).    

   Environmental conditions remain difficult, but may be improving. Wind has dropped to be consistently below 20mph. Seismic activity is also dropping a bit, but is still high. 

   Having trouble with the ITM-Y "Coil Driver Chassis Bio" and ST1 and ST2 watchdog trips, (see #22947 姁). Spoke with Hugh earlier in the shift and have a call into him as these event are becoming more frequent.

   If conditions continue to improve and ITM-Y gets sorted out, will attempt to relock the IFO.         

    After 1.5 hours of attempting to relock and only making it to DRMI-1F twice before lock loss. Most lock breaks occurred during ALS or FIND_IR. Environmental conditions are not favorable for relocking. Will try to relock when conditions improve.