NASACAM:Anderson Notes

2011 May:

Determining why Vdetcom is shorting out.

Matt created a wiki account .

No shorts found in wiring harness or across card.

Begin work to get DSP code running on Mac or Windows 7.

2011 June:

Continue work on DSP code as it is needed for further debugging of Vdetcom short.

Information for updating the tim script for use under Wine can be found here: media: WineScript.pdf in an email from Bob Leach.

Other information on the electronics system and software, including login information for Astro-Cams, can be found here: Leach Electronics

June 10: More info on Wine can be found at http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ

Wine + DSP Assembler installation on lab computer. Fedora Version Running: Fedora release 7 (Moonshine)

cmd: more /etc/redhat-release

Install Wine:

cmd: yum install wine
Wine installed.

DSP Versions:

ASM Class 56300
DSP Gen III

Debugging Process:

Used chmod -x to make the script Wine_tim executable.
Throws 2 errors. 1. :Bad Interpreter 2. No such file or directory.
Fixed with dos2unix Wine_tim.

DSP SUCCESS!

DSP compiled with no errors... No testing of if the tim file works yet.
Wine_tim is the script for compiling the dsp code.
Wine_tim is found in /home/matt/Desktop/DSP/
Command to compile is ./Wine_tim
timboot.asm, timIRmisc.asm, and timmisc.asm must be present in directory for compiler to work.

DSP Check.

New timing files have been checked via diff command. Files are identical except that in some cases an additional digit
has been added to the ends of some values. These digits come after the decimal place and are always zero so no change
in voltage should be observed.

VSS1 pin # 19 at DB37 reads -1V as listed in CRC744.waveforms.
VSS2 pin # 17 at DB37 reads -1V as listed in CRC744.waveforms.
VDDCL pin # 16 at DB37 reads -1.7V as listed.
VDDUC pin # 33 at DB37 reads -3.5V as listed.
VRSTUC pin # 14 at DB37 reads -3.5V as listed.
VDDOUT pin # 32 at DB37 reads -1.2V as listed.
VOFFSET pin # 15 at DB37 reads -1.5V as listed.
VGG1 pin # 13 at DB37 reads -3V as listed.
VGG2 pin #31 at DB37 reads 0V as listed.
VSSSCANF pin # 12 at DB37 reads -1V as listed.
VSSSCANS pin # 11 at DB37 reads -1V as listed.
VDET pin # 29 at DB37 reads 0V as expected (the short).

NOTE: Wine_tim is only executable as superuser at this point.

2011 July:

VDET short found. A split in the insulator around the insulator has cracked such that when bent, the conductor is exposed and
causes the short. The wire is being replaced.
The other wires of the same material are being checked and replaced if necesary.

AT LEAST 2 OTHER WIRES IN THE FEED THROUGH ARE IN DANGEROUS CONDITION. THE WIRE IS VERY HEAVY AND STIFF AND SHOWS EVIDENCE OF A CREASE
CAUSED PERHAPS BY BEING CAUGHT IN THE HEAT SINK. FOR THE SAFETY OF THE ELECTRONICS IT IS NECESSARY TO REPLACE SEVERAL, IF NOT ALL
OF THE CONSTANTIN WIRES THAT WERE SOLDERED BY THE PEOPLE WHO INSTALLED THE COAX INTO THE WIRE HARNESS.

2011 August:

Rewiring of feed-through completed. Connections and wiring layout confirmed. Leach Electronics timing board upgraded and video board repaired of blown pins.

2012 June:

The old laptop used for camera control is being replaced by the lab IMAC. IRCamMain has been updated to run in Python 2.7 without the numarray library as it was not brough up to the 2.7 version. Numpy takes over all functionality from numarray. Python 2.7 is installed via macports, but there is an outstanding issue where macports runs in 64bit mode which is incompatible with the MIRC Clone being used in the lab. Currently Python 2.7 is being installed in a Universal Form that should allow 32 bit functionality. (6/27).

Ongoing Wiring Problems:

Upon several occasions, wires have been pulled out of their solder cups on the feedthrough. I think this is due to the stress applied to the joints when the feedthrough is in place. The current plan is to glue the wriring with stycast once things are known to function. As of last cooldown, there was a problem. A vertical striping pattern was seen on the readout which led me to believe that there was a wire dislodged. No such wire was found in the feed through. The internal wiring will also be checked for loose wires.

Running IRCam control on Imac:

To use the python control interface, python must be launched in 32-bit mode under the updated version of IRCamMain.py. This file is located in /Users/monnierlab/Subversion/MIRC/NASACAM_python/IRcamNumpy. (The numarray library is not used in Python 2.7, so everything has been updated to Numpy. In theory, everything will behave the same as it did under the old version. <- But not necisarily!) To run control interface use $arch -i386 python IRCamMain.py The arch -i386 command forces the computer to run the 32-bit version of python 2.7. (6/28)

When installing the ports, the universal variants must be used. This will install both 32 and 64 bit versions of the ports.

port install XXXXXXXXX +universal
will install the universal variant (07/18/12)

 Note: Be careful if installing matplotlib, this will default to tkinter graphics but existing control interfaces use gtk2.
 port install py27-matplotlib +gtk2 will intsall the proper version.(07/18/12)

2011 July:

Communications socket still hangs on occasion. Commonly this occurs on 'Config Camera' or 'Start Exposure'. (7/17) Traceback (most recent call last):

 File "/Users/monnierlab/Subversion/MIRC/NASACAM_python/IRcamNumpy/mainWindow.py", line 1079, in updateDoImageSave
   self.ircc.updateDoImageSave()
 File "/Users/monnierlab/Subversion/MIRC/NASACAM_python/IRcamNumpy/IRCamCommands.py", line 217, in updateDoImageSave
   self.sock.send('SD')
 AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'send'

This error usually accompanies a socket failure on the interface machine. On the control machine, this gives a segmentatoin fault. Restarting the terminal program on the interface machine and the server on the control machine fixes this problem.

Camera shows white and black vertical stripes. It appears that every 4th column is white.

Note: On further examination, the bars do not appear to be of consistent width.

Resistance testing of the analog signal paths seems to suggest that there is a problem with VSS1. Testing on 9/8/11 showed a resistance of 1.185 M Ohms between VSS1 and ground. Testing today (7/17/12) measured an overload suggesting that the wire may be disconnected. Further testing data is in the project notebook page 41.

The camera is now warming back up 8 pm. (7/17/12)

Camera is warm and open. (7/23/12) Checking of wiring connections reveals no connection problems. Confirmed and updated wiring layout for the internal wiring harness: File:IRCamWiring.xlsx Visual check of the wires found 2 splits in the insulation on the VSS1 wire. These splits could explain the anomalous resistance measurements on 7/17. This wire will have to be replaced. The splitting of the insulation brings our plan to stycast the connectors as we could not easily replace a wire that split if the connectors are epoxied over.