Log entry time 23:38:55 on April 21, 2004

Entry number 82826

Run Coordinator's Report for 20 April Swing to 21 April Swing

Summary (my last)

Significant News

• The raster focus seems to have been on the pivot focus only for short time according to the shift checklist (see log-entry number 82790). According to PD the IOC controlling the raster was rebooted last on April 12 and she thinks that this may have been the time when the setting was accidentally switched. This would be in of course in contrast to our shift checklist. There seems to be no logging of the EPICS variable for the current setting that controls the raster. PD will make sure that a variable is added to the logging, so that we have a possibility to check the status in the future.
• Pump Party: Cryo line of the SMS has been pumped successfully and seems to have done some good. See Damon's log entry number 82781 for details.
• John Musson installed some cables for his new electronics. He will install the board when we have another opportunity to enter the Hall.
• KGB parameters were slightly adjusted yesterday night to get rid of LTD error lights when the beam was tripping (see log entry number 82733).
• At 17:50 SMS fast dumped. Recovery of lHe went rather fast, but it looks like the dump was caused by a faulty power supply. Powering up the magnet has to wait until PS is replaced (Kaz and Joe Beaufait are working on this at the time this report is written). Newsflash: Apparently the power supply is not the only problem. Kaz is paging an expert (Paul Brindza). Sendig the shift worker home since it does not look like we will get the problem fixed very soon.
  Energie measurement postponed until tomorrow morning (assuming we recover by then).

Short term Plans

• Recovery from SMS fastdump. Start taking production data on LH2 until Moller measurement/IHWP change tomorrow morning at 09:00am.
• Moller/IHWP change/Moller.
• Leave target out of beam and perform energy measurement into the hall (Mark Jones).
• Target into beam. Continue with production data taking on LH2.
• Moller/IHWP insertion/Moller every 3 three days (Next one would be Sunday).
• Next access: John Musson will install his new electronics.

Longer term Plans

• Moller/IHWP insertion/Moller every three days.
• NO beam studies until Monday 09:00am.
• 24hrs of aluminum frame target running. Discussion ongoing.
• Deuterium target(?)
• Long 10uA running for deadtime studies(?). This is still under discussion, also because Brian Quinn and Angela Biselli proposed a different way to extract the "deadtime" of sub-threshold particles.

Concerns

• SMS recovery.
• Frequent beam trips and beam parity quality after longer downtimes. The machine was so unstable before the SMS fast dump, that it would have been impossible to deliver both Hall A and Hall C beam at full current (100uA and 40uA, respectively). RC had agreed with the Hall A RC to reduce BOTH Hall A and Hall C by 10% in beam current as a compromise. This should (hopefully) be fixed by tomorrow (according to PD).
• What raster focus were we running with in the last few weeks?
• After replacing the IOC SE20 controller board there are still a few IOC SE20 crashes, but they have gotten a lot less frequent (about once a shift or once every 2 shifts). The IOC crashes in way that makes it hard to detect: The EPICS values freeze at a non-zero value. If this happens the IOC has to be rebooted. Paul King has written a script that gives an audible alarm if the G0 BPM flatline.
  When the IOC crashes the run should be immediately stopped and a note put in the end-of-run comments and in the run summary that states that the IOC crashed at the end of the run.
• Temperature in the electronics cage is rising during the afternoon hours above alarm levels. The big fan in the cage should be started to increase airflow to the FR electronics rack. See Paul King's log entries Monday and Tuesday.
• Spikes in French electronics, possibly caused by a network problem. Paul King claims that the buffer of ROC3 may not be big enough (currently ~2sec) and could be increased up to ~3sec, but then we would have to boot ROC3 every time we change the configuration. Shift crew should also clearly mark runs with spikes.
• NA LTD errors still occurring at a small rate. Brian has generated a "HowTo" document for trouble shooting.