CAMAC Progress Report

                       Week Ending: May 17, 2002
                               Week: 68


Tom Folkers:

Tom Sargent:
     1. Helped David Forbes get the printer working on his Linux 
        system.
     2. Worked on sun hide software. I got it working (on the 
        simulator) the way I intended, but the algorithm needs some 
        refinement. The sun avoidance maneuver is a 2 step process. 
        First, the telescope is moved to a near by point just outside 
        the solar avoidance zone and then it is moved a long way away 
        from the sun.  Sometimes in going to the nearest safe "corner" 
        of a box around the sun, it actually gets a bit closer to the 
        sun for a few seconds.  I altered the code to give it a much 
        larger selection of near by safe points. This will minimize 
        the time it spends within the avoidance zone.  It hasn't been 
        tested yet.
     3. I did a number of tracking comparison tests using some 
        position and time logging software that Bill added to the old 
        SMT control system. It appears that the new system is 
        calculating the LST that is off by 0.25 to 0.35 sec.  Though, 
        I've gone through the calculation manually and don't see where 
        the error is. The various components that make up the 
        calculation seem to be right.
     4. I added the polar wandering correction factors to the Latitude 
        and Longitude of the telescope used in the new program. I 
        discovered, comparing it to the corresponding code in the old 
        system, that Johann's software used the wrong sign on the 
        telescope's longitude. The magnitude of the polar wandering is 
        small- usually less than 0.5 arcsec- so it wasn't noticed.
     5. I added a shell command to the control program to allow me to 
        alter the pressure, temperature and humidity that are used in 
        the refraction calculation (rather than compiling fixed values 
        in).  The computer cannot yet read the weather station 
        parameters.  The new command will allow us to make sure the 
        refraction calculation in the new system matches that in the 
        old one when we compare the positions calculated by the 2 
        systems.

Pete Hubbard:
     1. Testing SN65LBC172 and SN65LBC 173 with old differential line 
        receivers and line drivers. Using about 50 feet of 50 Ohm coax 
        and they work well.
     2. Completed board design for differential line receivers and 
        drivers. PC board layout is now in progress and may only take 
        about  a week.
     3. Finished changes to VCO Mux chassis and modified the test 
        signal box that now has 4 output signals for testing the mux. 
        Also installed the chassis back in the rack for SMT testing 
        next week.
     4. Started looking at how to read model 711-2 Tiltmeter with cio-
        da801 computer board. Robert found the scale factors that were 
        used to cal the Tiltmeter.

David Forbes: