IOTA - Instrument Startup

Last update: December 2005

1. Telescope(s)
   • Late afternoon:
     • open flap a little (small white pump lever down and open flap valve = middle one)
     • open louvers
     • turn off heaters (power off)
     • connect control cable to Piezo receiver/amplifier box
     • switch on Piezo receiver/amplifier box and set to null
   • Before observations:
     • switch from null to active
     • open roof
     • remove cover from stove pipe, secondary mirror and siderostat
2. Pumps/Evacuation of DL tank (see detailed instruction sheet on wall close to gate valve near south end of tank and in pump shelter)
   • Inside:
     • Close gate valve (if not closed already) -> lever to upright position
     • Close solenoid foreline backfill valve (above butterfly valve)
   • Pump building (outside):
     • Close HOKE valve on Roots Blower input (black hand-wheel)
     • Start main pump (wall switch)
   • Inside:
     • Slowly open gate valve and move valve to upper stable position
     • Wait for pressure to drop below 200 torr
     • Open butterfly valve all the way (down)
     • Pump building: (optional- only if you want 10x lower pressure)
       • Wait for pressure to reach 50 torr
       • Turn on Roots blower (green button)-> pressure should go down to 2 - 5 torr
   • Electronics
     • Plug in -- VME Chassis Power, Short Delay Power and Telescope Power
     • Make sure plugstrips are on (Anorad, CBcom, fans, picnic interface, Piezo transmitter & telescopes)
     • • Power up VME CPU lights should go bright green for ~20 seconds then fade.
       • Plug in -- PICNIC Power, IONIC Alignment Power (power strip on shelf above dewar); check :
         • Switch on PICNIC electronics (Silver box on shelf above dewar)
         • Switch on PICNIC interface (Blue box above VME chassis)
         • ION pump in on (3 or 4 red bars on top) - Pump should always be on when PICNIC is cold.
         • ......Flashing lights indicate vacuum not as good as it should be or the dewar is warming.
         • ..... If frost/dew forms on dewar contact Marc or Peter.
     • Others
       • Fill PICNIC dewar in the morning and late afternoon. Use appropriate funnels.
       • Do not spill a lot of LN2 on top or exterior - can cause vacuum failure.
       • Switch on Power master (top shelf of control console). Check the switches to:
         • Switch on water cooler for thermoelectric stage of startracker CCDs
         • Switch on monitors of CCD TV cameras
         • Turn on oscilloscopes displaying Anorad Error, Anorad Current, and Scan Voltage
     • Delay lines
       • Short Delay Lines / ANORAD
         • Turn on Anorad Laser - allow ~5 minutes to warm up.
         • Turn on air supply to air bearings (toggle lever on green tank into upright position)
         • --> Pressures (Oct. 2003) -- 2 top 51, 2 side 55, 1 top 66, 2 side 65
         • Turn on Anorad servo controller (front switch)
         • Reset laser error (must be done after servo controller fully powered up)
         • In ICS (see below) enable and then turn on SD1 and SD2 - red lights should go off after second "on" command
       • Long Delay lines
         • Log into Long Delay computer as "observer" with command 'longdel' on IOTA16 (see computer startup notes)
         • Type 'server' to begin server program (initializes positions to zero)
         • Typing 'server -v' will give more verbose labels for the data but take more lines and thus leave less history available to see in window
         • NOTE Move only one long delay line at a time!
       • Use computer startup notes to start OT/ICS and
         • Home telescopes.
         • Home the short delay line.
         • Home the long delay line.
     • Startracker
       • Cables connected to the Piezo control transmitter box on top of electronics rack
       • Signal and Piezo cables connected to the receiver/amplifier boxes in the telescope shelters.
       • Switch on Piezo transmitter box.
       • Switch on power strip near Startracker power supply above Startracker camera.
       • In ICS, click update on the star tracker window;
         for rapid remote display, e.g., in the lab while adjusting mirrors, use Mac laptop and execute the following in a XTerm window:
           ssh iota@iota16, start "Startracker_ICS4"
       • You might want to check nominal count rates (quick-look table).
     
     
     • New Alignment method . . . Table of coordinates for alignment . . . image of alignment screen
     • to review old Alignment
     
     
     • Time to observe See computer startup notes and detailed descriptions of the Instrument Control Software (OT/ICS) and Data Acquisition (3T-DAQ).
       Suggested log sheets are available as PS, xfig, HTML, and doc files.
     • Problems / FAQ / Misc
       • SD2 limit ---- Anorad controller off
       • SD out of range
         • Star not set target position - NAN visible
         • -> - - - - - fix by putting in a star.
         • Daq restarted and tracker correction large
         • -> - - - - - fix in delay paddle control window by clearing tracking offsets.
       • Flux levels of PICNIC (Sam Ragland, Dec. 2003)
       • PICNIC camera fails to run
         • observe options 1,3,4,5 fail PMC not found, large spikes in data
         • -> - - - - - Turn on AC, room is too hot (> 72F)
       • Yaw does not work
         • D cell Batteries dead
         • 9 V batteries in room or near Transmitter LED dead
         • Cart at joint and desired yaw is out of range (test by moving in other direction)
         • NOTE - Batteries die faster if Yaw+ not done last or if LD2 selected
       • Flashing error message in MC -- Notebook is resting on keyboard return key
       • daq program not working -- Make sure only one copy is running
       • Camera acquisition in ICS reports DMA allocation problem
         • System rebooted and allocation not run
         • run /etc/init.d/alfast