CABB Shutdown Diary
Day 39: 2-Apr
Day 38: 1-Apr
Day 37: 31-Mar
Day 36: 30-Mar
Day 35: 29-Mar
Day 34: 28-Mar
Day 33: 27-Mar
Day 32: 26-Mar
Day 31: 25-Mar
Day 30: 24-Mar
Day 29: 23-Mar
Day 28: 22-Mar
Day 27: 21-Mar
Day 26: 20-Mar
Day 25: 19-Mar
Day 24: 18-Mar
Day 23: 17-Mar
Day 22: 16-Mar
Day 21: 15-Mar
Day 20: 14-Mar
Day 19: 13-Mar
Day 18: 12-Mar
Day 17: 11-Mar
Day 16: 10-Mar
Day 15: 9-Mar
Day 14: 8-Mar
Day 13: 7-Mar
Day 12: 6-Mar
Day 11: 5-Mar
Day 10: 4-Mar
Day 9: 3-Mar
Day 8: 2-Mar
Days 6 & 7: 28-Feb & 1-Mar
Day 5: 27-Feb
Day 4: 26-Feb
Day 3: 25-Feb
Day 2: 24-Feb
Day 1: 23-Feb
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
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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
- LO and DC cabling
- Az drive motor rewiring finished
- fibre checking
- More fibre checking
Status:
Quote of the day:
 
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
- Chasing down and fixing various problems
- Az drive motor rewiring
- Splicing continues - getting close to finished
- RF Cabling
Status:
Quote of the day:
 
Day 21: 15-Mar-2009
- Still splicing
Status:
Quote of the day:
 
Day 20: 14-Mar-2009
Work continued through the weekend endeavouring to break the back of the splicing jobs
- Splicing
Status:
Quote of the day:
 
Day 19: 13-Mar-2009
First fringes between CA02 and 6
- Warm up L/S receiver
- Finished El motor drive rewiring
- Still splicing
- RF Cable work
- Chasing various problems on CA01, 2 and 6
- Cut over to new Kaputar
Status:Fringes between CA02 and 6
Quote of the day:
 
[no pics today]
Day 18: 12-Mar-2009
Mechanical crew finished fitting and mounting the LO and CABB racks on all antennas
- Continuing with tiding up and finishing off
- Major work completed - antenna tipped and checked
- Started the El motor rewire
- Splice, splice, splice...
- Turret junction box installation
- 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
 
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
 
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)
- Site computer facilities rack repopulated and recabled
Status: Still seems to be on schedule
 
[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
 
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
 
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
 
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:
 
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
 
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.
 
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?)
 
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)
 
Days 6 & 7: 28-Feb-2009 and 1-Mar-2009
And then we rested.
Very little shutdown activity happend on the weekend, VLBI continued
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
 
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.)
 
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
 
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
 
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
Top of Page 
 
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)