September 5, 2008: Run some tracking tests. See tracking analysis. The peak to peak error is about 1 arc-second peak to peak sawtooth with a 0.095 second period. The origin of this error is unknown.
September 4, 2008: Update drawings for paddle.
September 3, 2008: Discover there are four unused inputs to the motor controller. Connect these to a paddle. Can read them.
Fiddle with the rates and accelerations a bit. In particular the limit strike values. Notice that dec moves do not start correctly after power up of PMAC.
September 2, 2008: Tune the HA and Dec servos. Tony and Paul balanced the telescope and adjusted and Bob adjusted the preloads so they are much smoother. The Dec made a horrible noise, but was due to a loose belt. The HA motion is much smoother, in fact at times, silky. However, the tracking is still jerky and is not ready for prime-time.
Tony connected the cable to the pier limit. We discussed the rather limited overstrike to the switch. Also the fact that it has to be manually reset after a strike.
Open the telescope in the evening, stars (and jupiter) pointed nicely in the center of the finder telescope. Left it tracking for twenty minutes and very small (if any motion detected). However, the jerkiness unfortunately is detectable.
The Dome home missed! I wonder if the switch is marginal.
September 1, 2008: Measure the torque contant of the motor. It seems to be as specified with around 1.7 in-lb/Amp. The amplifier however, didn't seem to be putting out the full current. Adjust the pots to get maximum out. Then fiddle with the constants of the PMAC, there seems to a typo in the older instruction manual and I think the revised manual may have a new one.
Measure the torque of the ha worm. There appears to be a very high ~90 in-lb breakaway torque and a much less (factor of 4?) running torque. Bob called and told that the telescope is quite out of balance, hopefully, correcting that will reduce the sticktion.
Try moving the telescope with the increased current, and it moves it! Tune the servo a bit so it is tolerable, but still a bit bursty. The telescope takes quite a bit of power to drive it and the motor is quite warm.
Work on the hour angle home. The optical sensor seems reliable enough to uniquely identify the index pulse.
Work on the tracking. The tracking seems to be ocurring at the incorrect rate; it looks like I may have changed the timing in the PMAC.
It is clear so I open after supper. With the TV camera and the camera lens (circa 1.2 degree field), Vega pops in on the first try. Move around the sky a bit finding stars easily in the field of view. Jupiter too.
Measure the speedup factor to be 2.17 which must be related to the interrupt frequency.
August 31, 2008: Wire the focus motor. Get it to move. Install the replacement dial indicator. Define positive motion away from the secondary. Use mils as the focal unit since I can read it on the dial indicator. The zero point is arbitrary at the moment.
The problem with the hour angle seems to be that it has trouble moving short distances or slowly. The gears seem to get "very sticky". Try tuning the servo parameters, but cannot establish any rational pattern.
August 30, 2008: Arrive at MDM. The conduit looks nice. Remove Dec limits as they will snag. Move telescope north to work on the focus.
August 18, 2008: Order parts for velocity input for HA servo. Move telescope for Bob.
August 17, 2008: Do some work on the graphical user interface.
August 9, 2008: Draw focus motor mount.
August 7, 2008: Move telescope for Bob and Tony. They inspected the focus assembly.
August 6, 2008: Order parts for TCS box, pilot light, Digital I/O for guider other spares. Order coupler for focus, spare belts and experimental 1/2 wide belt. Order tap and some tools. Repair bugs in web pages and add some photos.
August 4, 2008: Back in California. Write a memo on the install progress.
August 2, 2008: Last day on mountain. Install connectors on the Tel Temp and Tilt sensor so the West Box can be removed if need be. Install the tilt sensor; this is a limit switch to prevent dumping the primary mirror. It is not a sensitive device like the one already installed with the readouts in the computer room.
Crudely layout the cables to the focus. Put intermediary connectors so the focus can be serviced separately. Cut the shielding off the wires so they can be place (in the future) flat on the spider with aluminum tape like the present version. I did not get to test the motor as there is now lightning all around and I have to shut down.
Got the old focus motor out! Part of the coupler is still there and should be removed, but there is a backup in case it cannot. Now I can draw up the mount for the new motor. Clean up tools but leave a lot of debris around (sorry), but I am beat. Not a bad day.
Thanks to all the help during the past three weeks.
August 1, 2008: Yikes. Measure the dome dimensions. Draw up dec limit dogs. Test the software's response to various limit conditions. Test the dome pointing software. After correcting the fact that the telescope is on the West and not the East side, it seems satisfactory, although not quite perfect. Tony mounts the West box. Install a floor limit override button in the North box; it is a nuisance, but better than nothing.
Put in temporary Dec limit dogs and adjust measure limits ha (-63 , 77) and dec (-30 , +92).
July 31, 2008: Adjust the HA limits. Put some paper on the gear to act at as test for the homing. Install Dec belt tensioner. Wire Dec Limits (not home yet).
Start to look at the focusser. Remove the old wires and parts. Check the limit switches, they look fine. The good news, swapping the motor should work. The bad news, it is pinned in and I can't remove the pins.
Strap on a TV camera on the north side of the telescope. Open the dome all the way. Start moving the telescope and starts to move then stops. Spend some time trying to find the cause but the bug is probably best smoked out in daylight.
July 30, 2008: Make dome home striker. Get the dome homing working. Test the balance of the telescope both by using amplifier current test point and the PMAC OUT command. I prefer the digital method. conduit junction that splices the floor and pier interlocks. Tony and Paul get the telescope balanced by adding mucho weights.
Install the "North Box" a small electrical under the pier. Wire the Bob's floor switch and then kludge the pier pull switch to be in the circuit. Get the Klaxon to beep. Have my wife run the dome from California.
July 29, 2008: Remove the PIERE limit from the controller and change PIERW to PIER. Wally put keyways into the pulleys; they mount nicely. Waste most of the day on the MIS removal and now unbalanced telescope which make testing and inspection of the focus impossible. Machine a belt tightener for the HA axis. Design azimuth home striker.
July 28, 2008: Finish wiring the slit opener in the manual configuration; no good idea yet on how to automate it. Show Bob the HA, Dec and Azimuth motions. Pretty good except the preload can kill the HA motion. Tony finishes the Declination limits. I discover that the digital I/O accepts only TTL input (rather than +24V/gnd logic) and is useless. Install a spare ADAM 4050 module. Write note discouraging flipping the telescope to the East as all the safey limits will have to be (at least temporarily) removed. Bring the dec and HA pulleys to Wally have a keyway installed. Recode rtel to recognize the new data input source. Install new adjustable sensitivity PNP style optical detector for home on the HA axis.
July 27, 2008: Get the Dome home switch to read properly. Redo the encoders changing the sign issue with software (PMAC configuration) rather than wiring. Set the gains of the HA and Dec axis much stiffer. Speed up the slews. Kludge the dome home microswitch and get the dome to home properly. Go to town to get some parts to mount the West Box. Order parts for focus cabling. Start wiring the dome slit controller.
July 26, 2008: Draw up the pulley send Mike Hawes a note about making a keyway. Draw up the revisions for the Dec motor plate. Make the missing Azimuth control cable. Install Azimuth home limit switch on the slip ring; this way it can be used to establish the connection. Redress the safety cable so that it goes to the EastBox. Install the ESTOP button on the side of the EastBox control box; it is a bit high, but very visible. Finish drawing up the slit opener.
Suceed in getting the computer control of the dome azimuth. It is a bit slow, but it functioning.
July 25, 2008: Wire the dome azimuth controller. Get local control of dome azimuth; nice and smooth. Get azimuth readout working. Tony works on mounting limit switch on Dec axis without removing any critical bolts. Get Dec encoder to readout in the correct direction. Bob and I get the dec motors to servo albeit not with the optimum servo constants.
July 24, 2008: Start wiring the dome azimuth motors. Install Dec encoder. Install Dec motor.
July 23, 2008: Trace dome slit opener. Tony machining the declination encoder and motor mount plates. Install new dome control box in place of the old contactor box.
July 22, 2008: Modify declination encoder mount. Bob and Paul pulled most of the cables. Tony machined the dec encoder mount and the ha limit sensor. Looked at the dome slit opening circuit. Designing the Dec limit mounts.
July 21, 2008: Change the orientation of the HA encoder so it indicates increasing to the west. Change the polarity of the drive amplifier so the motor servos properly. Unlock the telescope and a remove a lot of weights to get it close to balance. Turn on the servo and get the telescope to move albeit haltingly. Install the new limit dogs. Design the Declination encoder mount. Install azimuth encoder. Remove old wires from slip ring.
July 20, 2008: Remove dead wood wires in the dome motor conduit. Pull the dome drive motors and mount the new ones. Try to mount the encoder, but there is a plate in the way; redesign them to a bit to fit. Order home switch for dome and spare limit switch plus some tools.
July 19, 2008: Install the home sensor on the HA temporarily. Install both the normal and failsafe limits for the East and West. Get the HA motor to spin (with belt off); can't get it to servo because the telescope is constrained.
July 18, 2008: Install the HA encoder. Install the two HA limit dogs. Start work on the Declination motor, modify motor mount so that it will fit. Start designing the dec motor adapter plate.
July 17, 2008: Tony finished stripping the declination plate. If the hour angle works.. this will be a simple copy. Bob and Tony removed most of the unused cables under the floor. We got the HA motor mounted and pulled some of the interlock cables jury rigging them closed. I tried to fire up the motor, but the amplifier made an unknown fault; since lightning was in the distance we shutdown the electronics. Started to work on the hour angle limit dogs.
July 16, 2008: Bob and Tony finished stripping the declination plate. Tony started making the adapter plates for the HA motor and encoder. Bob and I pulled the wires for the HA axis. We connected the encoder and saw the computed HA changed when you spun it by hand; a start.
July 15, 2008: Bob and Tony stripped finished pulling out the old cables and stripped most of the declination plate. With a clear view of the hour angle mounting plate I was able to design the adapter plates for the HA encoder and drive motor.
July 14, 2008: Bob and Tony have stripped the Hour angle plate of all of the old parts all before lunch. Wow!. They then began pulling out the old cable from the declination axis. I gathered together the parts on the dormitory table.
June 14, 2008: Motor mounts have arrived from machinist.
May 13, 2008: Some home index markers have arrived. I am not sure exactly which one to us until the install.
May 3, 2008: Send the drawings of the Hour angle and declination motor mounts to the machinist.
April 5, 2008: Install TPoint on hill.
February 21, 2008: Update the installation plan to show the recent change of plans. This page will be fleshed in much greater detail in the future.
February 20, 2008: Realize that it will be impossible to make a gradual transition to the new TCS and with blessing of, I think, everyone, decide to make a more abrupt transition in July at the start of summer shutdown. John dubbed it a "non-adiabatic" transition, as we will rip out the old stuff with no looking back.
February 19, 2008: Machine limit switch mounts.
February 11, 2008: Book trip to Tucson Feb 18-22. Order plate for dome controller. Metal for limit switch mounts has arrived.
February 04, 2008:
Write a reply for R. Pogge on tserver
and simulators.
Think about planning a trip to KP, but the snow
makes me think twice.
January 30, 2008: Designing the limit switch mounts. Order metal. Order belts for HA and Dec drives.
January 29, 2008: Start designing the limit switch mounts.
January 18, 2008: Come down at twilight and watch Kelly Denney open the observatory.
January 17, 2008: Come down to the 1.3meter and install a lock and document carrier to the box. Also make some measurements and try designing the HA limit switch mounts. My plans for greater things, however, are put on hold as some high priority problems at the RCT must be solved.
January 6, 2008: Order East box and locks.
January 4, 2008: Cobble together servers and turn them on in McGraw.
January 3, 2008:
Put last years entries into separate file.
Catch many minor errors in web pages.
Create bin and logs
directories in the telescope@mcgraw account and start
moving binaries to that location.
Ask to have the TCS box connected to power and internet.
