CABB Shutdown Diary

For information on what CABB is and what it will do for the ATCA, please see the CABB web pages

Fringes between CA01, 2, 5 and 6 were obtained on Wednesday afternoon, 18th March

Fringes between CA02 and CA06 were obtained around 4pm on Friday afternoon, 13th March. These were the first fringes with CABB gear in its final location.

First fringes with the CABB system to CA06 were obtained around 8pm on Friday night, 6th March

Day 39: 2-Apr-2009

Technical Commissioning
- Did an imaging run on Circinus at 6cm
- Hunting for some RFI
- The problems from the previous night had all been fixed
Greasin bullgear on CA04
Setting up RF levels on CA05

Day 38: 1-Apr-2009

First fringes with all six antennas
Start of Technical Commissioning
- Did some 3 point mosaics on calibrator sources around 0823-500 & PKS 1934-638
- Able to identify a few bugs - that have been fixed
Setting RF levels on CA01
Bull gear greasing
CABB power tidyup on CA05

Day 37: 31-Mar-2009

Continued software checks, sorting some of the problems from the weekend
CABB power tidy on CA03 and CA04
PM on CA04 and 5

Day 36: 30-Mar-2009

Sorting out the array problems from Sunday
RF installation Work continued on CA04
Power tidyups on CA01 and 2

Day 35: 29-Mar-2009

Testing continuing.

This ended up being a somewhat frustrating day, with a number of software issues - parts of caobs that that hadn't been modified since 2000 stopped working!

Day 34: 28-Mar-2009

Testing continuing. Fringes to five antennas, two frequencies, two polarisations, ~1800 channels at 6cm. (The extra modules to increase the number of channels should be installed next week).

Testing mm system worked with 3 antennas, but there were some issues getting CA03 & 6 to work.

Day 33: 27-Mar-2009

Most of the hardware installation is complete (RF work on CA04 continuing). The CABB rack installation in the screened room is to "lock up" stage with only a few more modules to be installed.

Now for testing and debugging

Day 32: 26-Mar-2009

Commissioning of the second correlator is proceeding - all sections have been shown to be working.

CA01, 2, 5 can switch between mm and cm (not 20 or 13cm) automatically

CA03 and 6 work at mm and cm, though we still need to manually switch between frequencies

Day 31: 25-Mar-2009

Commissioning of the second correlator is proceeding

CA01, 2, 5, 6 have full reference change installed, locked and happy, including working mm chain

Day 30: 24-Mar-2009

A big day, with a number of successes

cm fringes to 5 antennas (1, 2, 3, 5, 6). This is the first time we have had fringes to 5 antennas since the start of the shutdown

mm fringes to 3 antennas (well 2.5) 1, 2, 5.

Splicing finished and checked on all antennas. 118 splices per antenna.

Arrival and start of installation of the second correlator (for the second frequency)

RF Installatioin continuing on CA03

Drive motor maintenance continuing on CA04

Day 29: 23-Mar-2009

LO/DC cabling approaching the end on CA03

Fibre installation continuing on CA04

Drive motor maintenance continuing on CA04

Quote of the day:1. If you pull one out, please let us know because we need those signals - Mark Leach

2. "Mark Leach continues his marathon stint on site" - Peter Mirtschin
"- Until Thursday!" - Mark

Day 28: 22-Mar-2009

Mostly recovering from the various problems of Saturday

Day 27: 21-Mar-2009

A challenging day, with a number of issues
- not the least being that the Mopra observers had drunk all the VB!

Day 26: 20-Mar-2009

Day 25: 19-Mar-2009

Continuing with cabling, testing and checking

Fibre splicing to CA03 is finished and fibres connected to the Correlator

Day 24: 18-Mar-2009

Fringes with antennas CA01, 2, 5 and 6

Day 23: 17-Mar-2009 (St Patrick's Day)

Again, it's steady as she goes

CA01

LO and DC cabling

CA03

Az drive motor rewiring finished
fibre checking

CA05

More fibre checking

Status:

Quote of the day:

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Day 22: 16-Mar-2009

Work continues on almost all antennas. During the day, Warwick was able to continue correlation tests using the 2-6 baseline

CA01

Chasing down and fixing various problems

CA03

Az drive motor rewiring

CA05

Splicing continues - getting close to finished
RF Cabling

Status:

Quote of the day:

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Day 21: 15-Mar-2009

CA03

Still splicing

Status:

Quote of the day:

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Day 20: 14-Mar-2009

Work continued through the weekend endeavouring to break the back of the splicing jobs

CA03

Splicing

Status:

Quote of the day:

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Day 19: 13-Mar-2009

First fringes between CA02 and 6

CA01:

Warm up L/S receiver

CA03:

Finished El motor drive rewiring

CA05:

Still splicing
RF Cable work

Other

Chasing various problems on CA01, 2 and 6
Cut over to new Kaputar

Status:Fringes between CA02 and 6

Quote of the day:

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[no pics today]

Day 18: 12-Mar-2009

Mechanical crew finished fitting and mounting the LO and CABB racks on all antennas

CA01:

Continuing with tiding up and finishing off

CA02:

Major work completed - antenna tipped and checked

CA03:

Started the El motor rewire

CA05:

Splice, splice, splice...
Turret junction box installation

Other:

Computing installation continuing: rsyncing data across to new machines
Completed manufacture of turret junction brackets for all antennas

Status: Steady

Quote of the day:"We're done!" - Tuffy

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Day 17: 11-Mar-2009

Today has continued the tidy up.

Work on CA03 and 4 has commenced with removing modules and installing racks

CA01:
- Tidying up
CA02:
- Tidying up
CA03:
- Modules removed
- Sampler rack removed
- LO and CABB racks moved into place
CA04:
- Modules removed
CA05:
- Splice, splice, splice...
Screened Room:
Other:
- Computer restructure tidy up

Status:

Quote of the day:"If we don't tidy up now, it will never happen - Mark Leach

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Day 16: 10-Mar-2009

Today has continued the finishing and tidying tasks on the antennas. There has been a major rearrangement of the computing hardware.

CA01:
- Fibre splicing finished
- Coax cabling done
CA02:
- Interim RF modules constructed
CA05:
- Fibre splicing commenced
Screened Room:
- Clock Distributer installed and tested
Other:
- Site computer facilities rack repopulated and recabled
  (Apologies that this exercise (unexpectedly) bought the web server down)

Status: Still seems to be on schedule

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[Pics later]

Day 15: 9-Mar-2009

Today has mostly been a day of lots of small, sundry jobs - tidying up and finishing off various things.

CA01:
- Turret Junction box mounted
- Ongoing splicing
CA02:
- RF & Conversion Cabling
- Turret Junction box mounted
- Fibre splicing work measured and tested - finished
CA05:
- Fibres pulled through snake, fanned out and ready for splicing
Screened Room:
- Clock Distributer mods
Other:
- Brett has gone to meetings

Status: Still seems to be on schedule

Quote of the day:"They are all individuals" - Mike Hill (of antennas)
"I'm not!" - Scott Munting

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Vis plots

Day 14: 8-Mar-2009

CA01:
- Splicing largely completed
Other:
- Testing correlation with new CABB CA03, 4 and 6

Status: Splicing on CA01 almost finished; CABB tests looking good

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Antennas 3 and 4 tipped and observing

Day 13: 7-Mar-2009

Around eight people continued to work hard on Saturday

(Found my list.)

CA01:
- Splicing continuing
CA02:
- Splicing almost completed
CA03:
- New C32 firmware testing
CA05:
- Ran fibres through snake
Other:
- CABB correlator tests continuing: imlementation of delay machinery to handl large delay offsets to CA06, problems with synthesisers identified and fixed
- LO rack replumbing
- Building second frequency clock distribution
- New C32 firmware testing

Status: CA06 is great! CA02 splicing is closer than CA01

Quote of the day:Q: How many RF engineers does it take to plumb a rack?
A: Four + an OHS rep - Mark Leach

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First fringes from the ATCA with CABB after replacing the old conversion and LO systems, samplers and correlator

Fringes achieved between CA03, 4 and 6 at around 8pm. CA03 and 4 are still using the interim CABB system, but CA06 is all new

Day 12: 6-Mar-2009

CA01:
- RF module installations
- Upgraded and modified the CABB rack power supply control
CA02:
- Splicing happening
- Junction box cabling done
CA05:
- Tested antenna drives after az motor rewire
CA06:
- Fibre splicing completed and tested
- Installed temporary RF modules to get C-Band signal to CABB
- Tested antenna drives after (last week's) az motor rewire
Screened Room:
- CABB rack powered up and working
Other:
- Fringes between CA03 & 4 with new CABB system
- Modifying C32 firmware for CABB
- Manufactured and painted all CABB rack and modified turret junction rack brackets for installation next week

Status: Fringes with the CABB system - this is a major step.

Quote of the day:

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Day 11: 5-Mar-2009
cd

CA01:

Splicing progressing

CA02:

DC Power wiring

CA05:

CABB and LO racks installed and Sampler rack removed

Finished az motor rewire

CA06:

Signal reference and digitisers powered up and locked up and more-or-less going

CABB monitoring working back to monica

Screened Room:

CABB racks being powered up and problems chased

Other:

Monica mods to import CABB data

RF cabling continuing

Modifying C32 firmware for CABB

Status: Some setbacks today, but everything appears to have solutions.

Quote of the day: Evan's had an electronic, thermal incident - Mark Leach

Caption Comptition: The winner of last week's caption competition is Norm Webster, who suggested
"Mauritius tomorrow! I can see it now!"

Please see Brett for your box of sampler rack bits.

For the next competition, who has a caption for this photo

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Day 10: 4-Mar-2009

CA01:

RF & Comms cabling

DC power wiring

Splicing commenced

CA02:

Finished installing CABB & LO racks

Pulling fibre through snake

CA06:

Retrofitted correct adapter mounting plate

Calibrated and updated CABB rack power supply control

Turret Junction Box powered up

Screened Room:

Reinstalling CABB gear in moved racks - and gradually powering it up

Underfloor power wiring completed

Tiles cut and installed

Other:

Turret junction box brackets and top CABB rack mounts fabricated

Status: Going well.

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Day 9: 3-Mar-2009

CA01:

CABB & LO rack installed

Fibres routed in preparation for splicing

Turret junction box mods

CA02:

Sampler rack removed

LO rack out

(LO & CABB rack should be both installed tomorrow)

Fibres routed in preparation for splicing

Turret junction box mods

CA05:

L/S receiver warm

az motor rewire proceding

CA06:

?

Screened Room:

Delay racks out (late last night)

CABB plinth installed

CABB rack moved to new home

Connected up mains to repositioned racks

General tidying up

Other:

RF cabling, mods and tests continuing

The AT clock is back in the Control Room (and other places)

Status: Going well, though we all know it's much easier to dismantle things than put them back together

Quote of the day: "I've just been watching" - Evan Davis

Quote of the day - 2: "I'm quite happy to argue" - Robin Wark

"You are not alone!" - bystander

hmmmm - I guess I can't argue about a quote against me - but the question remains, "Should 'Day 1' be this Monday or last Monday"? I'm happy to hear arguments (is the editor allowed to explain their gaffs?)

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The Old Correlator is no longer

(Thanks to Jamie Stevens for the slideshow js)

Day 8: 2-Mar-2009

First day of the shutdown proper

Activites the day:

CA01:

Sampler rack dismantled and removed to the pedestal room

CABB rack disconnected and prepared to be remounted on the turret

LO rack ready to be fitted to the turret

CA02:

Dismantled cabling and wiring in preparation for removing sampler rack and moving LO rack

CA05:

Start warmup on L/S receiver

Started the El motor rewire

CA06:

Completed splicing

Power up and commissioning started

Screened Room:

Removal of old correlator racks

Status: Mostly on target

Quote of the day: "The AT clock in the control room won't work - it WILL come back" - Peter Mirtschin (Unsurprising, given the gutting that has happened in the screened room, it's only surprising that more hasn't stopped working)

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Days 6 & 7: 28-Feb-2009 and 1-Mar-2009

And then we rested.

Very little shutdown activity happend on the weekend, VLBI continued

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reinstalled turret junction box

Day 5: 26-Feb-2009

Splice, splice, splice, ... splice, splice, splice... After a solid week at it, the antenna 6 splicing is almost complete. It is hoped that it will be finished early on Monday.
We are still waiting for Mike's surprise

Other activities during the day:

Reinstall turret junction box

Meetings to consider this weeks events and modify shutdown planning in the light of what has happened this week

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Day 4: 26-Feb-2009

CABB installation is still mostly about getting fibre splicing done

Other activities during the day:

Turret junction box mods

Firmware Tests

Making up RF cables

Painting mounts for CABB rack plinth

Status: The splicing is taking longer than we hoped, however, the whole reason for starting a week early is to find out how long it takes.

Quote of the day: "Beyond half way" - Scott Munting (On being asked how he was going: I suspect somewhat pessimistic, though it's obviously an issue.)

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Day 3: 25-Feb-2009

CABB installation was mostly about splicing fibres today.

The job is going well, but there's still a long way to go.

Other activities during the day:

Turret Junction Box mount has been modified to relocate the box

CABB Rack top mounting bracket has been manufactured

Receiver system mm conversion module has been modified

Receiver to Rack RF cables have been routed and installed

Planning wiring changes and modifying LO and Conversion rack bins

CA06 Az motor rewire completed, but not tested
[they need to be able to drive the ant for this]

Installed a new isolation switch in the UPS

Status: Still about on target: Some jobs are a bit ahead, some are a little behind, but overall things are about where we expected them to be

Quote of the day: "You can get up now Norm" - Mark Leach

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Day 2: 24-Feb-2009

CABB installation continued on CA06 today:

During the day:

CABB rack is in place and installed

Single mode fibres fanned out and ready to splice tomorrow

LO module mods happening

Commenced modifying mm conversion box

Rack fan air speeds tested (and meets specs)

Az motor rewire is on schedule

Status: This is about where we hoped to be at the end of day 2.

Quote of the day: "Yes Tuffy, this hole has to go here." - Tim Wilson

Caption Competition: A box of bits from the Sampler Rack for the best caption for this photo

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Day 1: 23-Feb-2009

CABB installation has begun

Though the official start for the shutdown doesn't begin until next Monday, the observing through this week doesn't need antenna 6, so the work can begin.

During the day:

Removed Sampler Rack

Removed Turret Junction box

CABB rack lifted and a test fitting done to calculate required work for supporting plate. Work needs to be done to move rack fan

LO rack modified and relocated into new position

Relocation of fibre cables commenced

Started the Az motor rewire

Status: This is about where we hoped to be at the end of the first day.

Quote of the day: "No surprises yet!" - Mike Hill
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If you find offence in anything on this page, please let me know: I'm trying to be fair to all and present a light, but up-to-date state of the nation!

Original: Robin Wark (23-Feb-2009)
Modified: Robin Wark ( 3-Apr-2009)