8:30–9:00 Going into the LVEA to work on dust monitor – Patrick
9:01      PSL Check List done (noticed the ISS Diffracted Power was                     
          Close to 24% - It should be 5-15%)
9:00–10:30 Water Ground staff on site for water sampling – Hanford
9:27–10:03 Back in the LVEA to swap dust monitor power supply–Patrick                      
9:36-      Starting Initial Alignment of Ham 4 optical table- Hugh
9:41       PSL Check List done (noticed the ISS Diffracted Power was                       
           close to 24% - It should be 5-15%)
9:49–12:06  Working on ACB in LVEA West Bay – Mitchell/Scott
13:05-13:59 Back to work on ACB in LVEA West Bay – Mitchell/Scott
13:10-15:14 Periscope assembly on H2 PSL – Joe
13:46-14:48 Installing Tablecloth bracket on SR2 (LVEA) – Jeff B.
13:50-15:14 Joining Joe for periscope assembly on H2 PSL – Craig/Sam
15:00       Safety Meeting 

This afternoon I went to ISCT1 to begin setting up for the beam size measurements that we hope to use to diagnose the PRC mode matching situation (see LIGO-T1400013).

I took the beam analyzer cart from the optics lab out to ISCT1 and left it set up there. I measured beam powers in two locations just after the REFL periscope: one in reflection of the pick off window directly after the lower periscope mirror, and one after. Since we aim to measure two beams in the REFL path with powers differing by a factor ~4000 it's useful to have low and high attenuation locations. The window is not AR coated so there are two beams visible in reflection. I measured the power of one to be 890uW, and the other to be 800uW, with the low-power head on the VEGA power meter. The beam in transmission of the window was measured to be 123mW. I left the table with the window reflected beam dumped, and the photon inc. beam analyzer behind the dump.The window transmitted beam is still dumped on the shutter.

I took a new safe snapshot of ETMX after correcting the gain of 10 spotted yesterday in the L1 sensalign matrix, and engaging the "norm" R0 damping filters.

We are trying to record the frequency of the ifr, but there is a 4Hz offset between the EPICS readback and the value reported by dataviewer and/or saved by the DAQ.

(Alexa Daniel)

We went to EX to try to make a more precise measurement of the cavity length. For this measurement we use the fact that in reflection of a locked cavity a phase-modulated RF sideband will not convert into AM, if it is exactly on a free-spectral-range even in the presence of length locking offset. The setup is as follows:

• We split the RF signal coming from the PDH locking diode into the second demodulator channel. (The first channel is used for the PDH locking as usual.)
• We used the ifr to generate a second RF modulation. Its output was split between an LO and a modulator path.
• The LO path was connected to a spare line on the RF patch panel and was hooked up to the LO input of the second demodulator channel on the other side.
• The modulator path was combined with the main modulator signal using a splitter in reverse.
• The SR785 was set up to excite the error point of the PDH servo using the first excitation input of the CM servo board. The B channel was hooked up to the I-phase monitor of the second demodulator channel, whereas the A channel was the readback of the excitation.
• The ifr was set to 13 dBm at a frequency near 666 times the free-spectral-range.
• The ifr frequency was then scanned around this FSR to find the minimum in the response using a 1-2 kHz dither through the SR785.
• After, the measurement we connected the ifr to a spare frequency input of the comparator to measure the exact frequency.

At first glance the accuracy of this method seems to be about 5 Hz, maybe even 2 Hz. We will repeat the measurement in the afternoon to see how repeatable it is.

This is the Comtrol Ethernet to serial converter in the H1 PSL electronics racks being used for testing the Lighthouse dust monitors in the enclosure. The connection between the power supply and the box was flaky and had failed. I swapped power supply S/N 00089 for S/N 01411. It appears that it is just a bad sizing tolerance mismatch between the two.

From the alarm log, the power appears to have failed at 10:19 on January 24, 2014. The last data point before today was recorded around 15:56 on January 24, 2014.

One of the air conditioning units in the MSR failed last night prior to 3:48 AM (at which point it had reached 88 deg F).  The error code reported on the thermostat control panel was 'E6'.  I have engaged the standby unit, and opened the door and started a fan to return the room to it's desired temperature.

Paul, Stefan,

Trying to lock PRMI we found no POB18 signal. We tracked it down to a bad connector of the LO in the back of the quad demodulation chassis for POBAIR. The 90mhz cable was ripped you completely, the 18mhz didn't make contact. We temporarily pypassed the 18mhz cable so we could lock.

The PRMI locking was very easy once we had our triggers back. However we still had a lot of power fluctuations in the side and buildup - I would guess that this is also related to our lock losses. The next step is probably to get the ISI for BS and ITMY into shape.

We left the PRMI locking engaged - it might collect some usefull data overnight.

Daniel, Alexa, Sheila

This morning we measured transfer functions from the exitation on the CM board (slow fast paths) to its input, currently the phi/f output of the COMM PLL with the loop open.  The settings were:

COMM PLL:

• 31 dB gain
• Polarity off
• Comm filters 1+2 on
• Bost and generic filter off
• VCO Comp on
• the LP was on for one of the measurements (fast in the plot) but is removed from the data

CM (LSC-REFL) board no filters on, input disabled.  In digital system REFL SERVO slow has just a dewhitening filter and a gain of -1, then a gain of 1 until the output to MC2.  

MC (IMC-REFL) IN2 0dB gain + polarity, common comp+1 boost, filter on servo.  No filters engaged in digital system except for filters in MC2, these should be the normal filters used for MC locking. ( M3 had notch R3 (28 Hz notch) and V3 (31 Hz Notch) , Chebechev low pass at 300 Hz., also M2 had z 40Hz p150 and another chebechev filter)

After spending  minutes trying to set up the CARM handoff, I found that the cable from the COMM PLL to the Common Mode Sigg-Servo-Board was left disconnected. Then I spent another  minutes to figure out that this signal is actually broken: it is stuck at +10V. I left it disconnected from the Common Mode Sigg-Servo-Board, but connected to the scope as proof.

Should be fixed tomorrow.

Keita, Stefan

We set the gains for all top stage LOCK filter for pitch and yaw to the same number as the alignment sliders. I also updated the ASC relieve script to directly change the main alignment slider. The script is not completely smooth, as there is no easy way to to hold and release filter module outputs simultaneously. But it works.

[Sheila, Paul]

After the recent increase in power it was discovered that IO_AB_PD2 (the Thorlabs PDA55 PD in transmission of the PSL periscope lower mirror) was saturating. We went to the PSL to adjust the transimpedance gain to bring the signal in range again, and also to check the power incident on the PD and the periscope to get an updated calibration factor for power into the IMC.

We measured 276uW on IO_AB_PD2 with VEGA power meter (small head for low power, with the filter off). We measured 8.82W at the lower periscope mirror with the VEGA power meter (large head for high power, no filter). We waited maybe 5mins for the reading to stabilize. This gives us a pick off fraction form the main beam to IO_AB_PD2 of 3.13E-5.

With the PDA55 gain set to its lowest setting (quoted as 15kV/A in the spec sheet), we measured 1.38 V on the output. We can use this to calculate the responsivity of the detector as R [A/W] = 1.38 [V] / (1.5E4 [V/A] x 2.78E-4 [W]) = 0.33 [A/W]. Comparing with the frustratingly gridless plot in the datasheet here: http://www.thorlabs.us/thorcat/2000/PDA55-Manual.pdf this doesn't look far wide of the mark.

I've set the values in the H1:PSL-PERISCOPE_A_DC calibration path accordingly, after some minor adjustments were made to account for the 0.01V offset we observed on the PD.

The H1:PSL-PERISCOPE_A_DC_POWERMON channel shown on the IMC overview screen is now reading ~8800mW, as it should do based on the power meter measurement made before the periscope mirror.

The H1:IMC-PWR_IN_OUTPUT channel which is also shown on the IMC overview screen is, I believe, not currently acquired.

In preparation for acceptance review of the ETMX quadruple suspension, I took a set of ASD of the osems in the local and euler basis. ETMX is in chamber, under vacuum and the ISI was in its level 1 isolated state (ST1 = T100mHz blend on X and Y, T750mHz for the other DOF, ST2 = 750mHz blend). Measurement was taken successively with suspension damping on and off.

The main resonnances of main and reaction chains are well damped for all degrees of freedom.

The minor things to notice are :

Damping for the vertical DOF of the reaction chain is not having much effect on the first resonnance (@~ 0.56Hz) (see p9 of 2nd pdf).

The upper left osem of L2 level has its noise floor above the usual sensor noise we see on other osems (see p34 of 3rd pdf).

Otherwise everything else looks good.

The results attached are :

1) Comparison damping off/on for the top mass sensors of the main chain

2) Same for the reaction chain

3) Comparison between different quads (H1 ETMX H1 ETMY L1 ITMY L1 ITMX) of all osem sensors in local and euler basis.

A safe snapshot will need to be taken when possible since I found the normV/R/P filters disengaged, and a gain of 10 in the L2L L1 sensalign matrix. I also corrected the channel list of the plotquadspectra.m since it was requesting two times the L1_WIT_L channels. The modified script was commited to the svn

I had another occurence where a cleared integrator history in the tidal relieve servo to ETMX HPI  tripped everything at the end station.

To try to avoid that in the future I added p0.1:z10 filers on the HPI ISCINF input filters, and an p10:z0.1 anti filter BEFORE the switched integrator. This way any turn on or off should be soft.

We'll see whether it works.

[A. Pele, S. Biscans, J. Warner, H. Radkins, F. Clara, R. McCarthy, K. Kawabe, J. Kissel]

We've been chasing the source of an exactly-0.5 [Hz] oscillation (and subsequent higher-order harmonics) in the H1 ISI ITMX, that was first identified in LHO aLOG 9494. After testing the ISI in many different configurations (See LHO aLOGs 9546, 9951, 9585, and 9605), and ruling out capacitive position sensors -- already been shown to have *other* oscillations and frequency combs because an unrelated problem with beating oscillator sync frequencies, see LLO aLOG 10629 -- we narrowed down the source of the problem to the Y3 channel of the Corner 3 T240 on Stage 1. With a single channel to attack, we launched Filiberto on the problem. He identified and fixed the problem (as indicated in 9607). I attach some visual aides to describe the problem; see H1ISIITMX_CableProblem.pdf, and further details below. I also attach a comparison of the performance using the same metrics as in the original discovery, with the ISI in the same control system configuration, but now with all combs absent. We get an RMS of 70 [nrad] in Pitch, which appears to be "pretty good" for the green team. Nice work, gents!

The path forward (for this chamber): This ISI still does not have sensor correction running, LLO's really-low-frequency blend filters, nor has it had any attention paid to optimizing the rotational DOFs to minimize sensor-noise, tilt-horizontal-coupling. All of these things can improve the stage 1 performance between ~0.1 [Hz] and 1 [Hz]. Further, we can probably add more gain to the QUAD damping loop filters at 0.56 [Hz] (the remaining peak corresponding the first "pitch" mode). There is some resonant gain already present, but I can check if we can add more -- the filters were designed for a Monolithic QUAD, where ITMX is a Wire-Hang QUAD and they have different first pitch mode frequencies. Further, we have done any coil balancing or frequency-dependent alignment decoupling which may also help.

Note that we still have to solve the CPS Oscillator Beat Frequency Combs resulting from other chambers, but that's another problem for another day (Rich Mittleman lands tomorrow, and that's one of his primary tasks).

Details:
-------- 
The Problem (w/ visual aides):
- PG1: A screenshot of the BSC-ISI Wiring Diagram (D0901301-v10, pg 10), showing the big-picture of the T240 signal chain, from the actual sensor inside the pod, inside the ISI, inside the BSC chamber to the cable going from the T240 Interface Chassis to the Anti-Aliasing chassis. The problem was inside the cable-side of the connection at the T240 Interface chassis, on the rack side of the long cable run from the chamber flange to the rack, which I've circled in red.
- PG2: A zoomed in screenshot of the chassis. The busted pin, Pin 2, which carries the positive leg of either the Y / V DOF had been broken inside the backshell of the cable. I've again circled the problem in red. Fil originally identified the flaw by testing the continuity of the cable and found the dead short on that pin. Fil conjectures that the pin failed because, again inside the backshell, the male pin had been over-crimped and/or not seated well, such that repeated normal use of the connector and bending of the cable caused the connection to snap.
- PG3: An example of a male DB25 connector, looking at the side which would be enclosed inside the backshell, and an associated pin. The pin is crimped to the signal cable, and press-fit in the connector hole.
- PG4: An example of a male DB25 connector, looking at the external connection side. I've only pushed the pin half-way in, but one can see how the pin might be mistaken for functional, but still not be fully seated.

Current Configuration of the ISI in this measurement:
- ISI-ITMY and ISI-BS CPS OFF
- HPI-ITMX running Level 1 Isolation Filters, with a position sensor only blend filters on all DOFs.
- ISI-ITMX running Level 1 Isolation Filters, with "T100mHz_N0.44" blends on ST1 XY and "750mHz" on ST1 ZRXRYRX and all of ST2. Note with out the extra 0.5 [Hz] notch that was the temporary temporary solution from a few days ago.
- SUS-ITMX running Level 2.1 damping loops.

The History:
Jim recalled having problems with this exact channel just after the cartridge install in mid-November 2013: though they were able to find a configuration in which their spectra passed acceptance testing (see E1100848), they spent a few days trying to fix a low-gain issue with this same channel (exactly a factor of two). Though we could not find any associated aLOGs, or saved raw data, Jim did managed to find a few saved .pdfs of the problem, one of which I attach here (see ITMX_ASD_after_filter_reload_2013_11_15.pdf). At the time, Jim and Seb were focused on solving the fact that the channel had a factor-of-two lower gain that the other 8 T240 DOFs, and in the rush that was ITMX they didn't notice the minor bump at 0.5 [Hz]. Further, he and Sebastian spent several days on it, because the fact-of-two problem was intermittent, and found that jostling the cable at the flange (not at the rack) was the most effective way to mitigate it. It went further unnoticed until we began *using* the T240s in the ST1 isolation loops. In summary -- this cable problem has been present ever since its install, but due to the usual chaos of a chamber install, plus the holidays, plus the rotating door of seismic commissioners with higher priorities, it was missed. HOWEVER, I really don't put anyone nor any testing procedure at fault; this is a 1 and 1000, perfect storm of problems that we will continue to have for the next few years as we begin to push the aLIGO systems to their designed performance levels.

[Jeff, Paul]

I had a look through the calibrated length and frequency paths for the IMC (IMC-X and IMC-F respectively) to check that the calibration is still in order. A description of all the filters in the IMC-X and IMC-F paths can be found in Giacomo's entry 5945.

In fact, some things were amiss in the IMC_X path:

IMC-X_M1 path:

Filters that were engaged: to_m

Filters that are now engaged: dc_cal, wresg1, wresg2, to_m

MC2 M1 feedback is not currently engaged, so this may not matter right now. However, I've engaged the filters that calibrate the IMC-X_M1 signal to M3 motion. wresg1 and wresg2 model the suspension TF from M1 actuation to M3 actuation with the resg damping filters engaged (as they are currently). If and when M1 stage feedback is applied, the corresponding IMC-X channel should be calibrated now.

IMC-X_M2 path:

Filters that were engaged: dc_cal, white, sus_d1, sus_d2, to_m

Filters that are now engaged: dc_cal, wresg, to_m

The sus_d1 and sus_d2 filters are used to model the suspension TF without the resg filter in the M1 L damping path turned on. Because we are now using the resg damping I have switched the sus_d1 and sus_d2 filters off and engaged the wresg filter, which is used to model the suspension TF with the resg filter in the M1 L damping path. The white filter is a filter which was implemented in L1 in an attempt to avoid digitization noise above 50Hz (since the signal is so small there). I don't think we want to have this filter engaged, since it has to be accounted for later in data analysis, and I think we can ignore IMC_X so far above the L to F crossover. I've therefore disengaged this filter. This isn't the first time this one has come back to haunt us: see e.g 5311 or 5452.

IMC-X_M3 path:

Filters that were engaged: dc_cal, white, sus_d, to_m

Filters that are now engaged: dc_cal, wresg, to_m

Same story as for the M2 path.

I took a snapshot of all IMC-X filter banks.

IMC-F path:

Filters that were engaged: cts2V, InvGenFilt, VCO, FtoL

Filters that are now engaged: cts2V, InvGenFilt, VCO, FtoL

The only filter that changed since Giacomo's entry 5945 is the FtoL filter being engaged now instead of the tokHz filter. This means that the IMC_F signal is now calibrated in meters, presumably for ease of comparison with IMC_X. I checked the VCO gain filter: it is still the 536,604 Hz/V value, agreeing with Kiwamu's number from entry 5556 after accounting for the double pass of the AOM.