CHAMP:Manual

Manual for the CHARA-Michigan Phasetracker

Quick Startup Guide

How to log into CHAMP for development.

1) POWER ON OUTLETS

Open in a web browser the CHAMP and MIRC APC controls: Use Immediate Turn On for CHAMP scanning PZTs, CHAMP Electronics and CHAMP picomotors (#1, 2, 4 in the list). Use Immediate Turn On for MIRC MOXA Serial Port box.

2) MODTRIG

Log onto champdev@champ

cd ~/control/CHAMP/modtrig/

./modtrig (and press ENTER to stop it)

cd ../user

sudo ./astropci_usr 60000

3) LAUNCH THE CAMERA GUI

Log onto devel@wolverine

cd ~/CHAMP/IRCam_Gui/

./IRCamMain.py

The IR Camera gui should launch.

Click Update DAQ in the FPA Tab.

Click Update Server in the FT Tab.

Click Config Camera in the FPA Tab.

Click Start Exposure in the top bar.

The camera now acquires frames.

4) LAUNCH FRINGE TRACKING GUI

Log onto devel@wolverine

cd ~/CHAMP/FT_Gui/

./champGui.py

This will launch the main FT gui for CHAMP.

NOTE:

champ 192.168.3.136

wolverine 192.168.3.143

Alignment

Nightly Alignment

Starting Shutters: ssh -XY observe@192.168.3.31 shutgtk

Starting the picomotor GUI

ssh -XY devel@wolverine

cd ~/CHAMP/Pico_Gui

python Pixel_Pico.py

Internal fringes

Starting the retro-reflector gui: ssh -XY observe@zoot 'espgtk RETRO' For internal fringes, Press RETE1 (becomes green), home it. Step size is 4 microns (0.004). With pickoff mirrors in front of platform:

JDM references: W1W2 on B1B2: 3.15 mm

W1W2 on B2B3: 6.84 mm

W1W2 on B3B4: 3.28 mm

29 January 2011:

Using the Eps RETRO W1W2 on B1B2: 3.38-3.41

Using Delaylines+ new delayline retros W1 2.2000 W2 2.0079

Full Alignment

1.) Turn on the CHAMP alignment laser
2.) Align each beam on R1 target using A0
3.) Align on L1 using A1
4.) Put blocker on R1 (using L1/L2-target), so you don't see two spots
5.) Align on R2 using A2
6.) Put blocker on L1 (using the R1/2-target)
7.) Align on target L2 using A3
8.) Remove the current blocker from L2 for alignment of Towers of Power
9.) Align on Towers of Power 3 and 4 using L1-L6 mirrors
10.) Remove current blocker on L1
11.) Put blocker on R1 (using R1/R2-target)
12.) Put blocker on Towers of Power 3-4
13.) Align on Towers of Power 1 and 2 using R1-R6
14.) Put blocker on L1 target
15) Remove blocker from target R1
16.) Align on Tower of Power 1-2 using beam splitter A4
17.) Put blocker on R1 target in order to check alignment on Tower of Power 3-4 -- WHAT TO DO IF DISALIGNED ?
18.) Put camera target in front of camera.
19.) Align on camera target using the Towers of Power and the cheat sheet.
20.) Turn off the alignment laser

Notes: Use a paper card to identify beams

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Setting up camera to align spots

Last step is to align the picomotor actuated mirrors using the actual infrared images.

Here are two setup configurations for reading out camera -- a widefield mode and a standard mode.

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Wide field mode:

Rows: 100 Cols: 100 row off: 1 col off: 1 nreads : 4 nframes: 20 framesperreset:10

Fringe tracker speed: 3 Hz. Pyramid Apex: [to be confirmed:] 8,4

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"Normal" Readout

Rows: 16 Cols: 16 row off: 5 col off: 20 nreads : 4 nframes: 20 framesperreset: 10

FT: Freq 29.2571 amp 10.5 OPD 13.2 smooth: .05 delay 0.0

(center of pyramid on wide-field image: 23, 8)

(2010Jul: row off: 7, col off: 9, freq: 30)

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Shutters, spot pico ordering for alignment

using white light and K' filter.

Method for aligning spots on camera for 4 beams configuration

Step	Open Shutter	Spot	Pico [alternate]	Comments (To be confirmed)
1	B1	L1	Dicroic 1 (or T3H)
2	B1	R2	T2H
3	B2	L2	Dicroic 2 (or T3M)	bottom spot
4	B2	R3	T2M
5	B2	R2	BC1-2
6	B3	L3	Dicroic 3 (or T4H)	bottom spot
7	B3	R4	T1L	top spot
8	B3	R3	BC2-3	bottom spot
9	B4	L4	Dicroic 4 (T4M)	top spot
10	B4	R1	T2L	top spot
11	B4	R4	BC3-4	top spot
12	B4	L1	BC6-1	bottom spot

Pictures

Hardware Subsystems

Dichroic Pickoffs

We have provided 3 sets of pickoff optics for use with CHAMP (the angle-of-incidence is 3 degrees). Each is designed with a 30' wedge and have been oriented with thick part down (i.e., transmitted beams is bent downward by 13.7', which may be relevant for downstream combiners during alignment procedure). All substrates have a broadband AR coating on the back-surface and the reflected light comes primarily from the front surface.

  * Short-wave Pass (SWP): 

These IR-grade Fused Silica substrates are coated with a dichroic coating to reflect K' band (2-2.3 microns) and to transmit JH bands (1.1-1.8 microns).

• Media:omega_swp.pdf: Performance of Shortwave Pass Dichroic (Omega)

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  * Long-wave Pass (LWP):

These Calcium Fluoride substrates are coated with a dichroic coating to reflect JH bands (1.1-1.8 microns) and to transmit K' band (2-2.3 microns and longer for possible future experiments).

• Media:lwp_performance_001.pdf: Performance of Longwave Pass Dichroic (Omega)

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  * Pickoffs Beam-splitters (BS):

These Calcium Fluoride beamsplitters were rejected from American Torch due to the coating not meeting specifications and the performance curves being proven unreliable. We believe the the coatings are about 50/50 at HK bands but are more like 75/25 (mostly transmitting) at J and beyond K band. This might prove useful in the future, but we do not expect these pickoff optics to be the best choice for most observers. Here is a measured transmission curve from the company, although we have not verified the accuracy yet:

• Media:Torch_BS_performance.pdf: Performance for (rejected) Beamsplitter Coatings (American Torch)

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Piezo Scanners

Piezojena 8micron Hardware card from National Instruments

Beamsplitters

The IR-grade Fused silica beamsplitters are 50% +/- 10% over the full JHK' bandpasses. The coatings were done by Omega Optical and you can find the coating performance here. The angle of incidence is ~11.5 degrees.

• Media:omega_bs.pdf: Beamsplitter Performance (Omega)

%BR%

Software

Real-time system (notes from Ettore 2010May)

Click here for detail on the upgrade to the realtime system RT_System

Interface Computer (wolverine)

Generating OPD Map

JDM: 2011Jan30

1. Acquire internal fringes using the Retro Cube A/B. See wiki page XXXX for table of pickoff mirror positions and Newport ESPGTK positions for easily acquiring fringes.

2. Take 5-10 datasets (10 seconds each) of fringe data. As of 2011Jan30, we using the kludge nsave=10000 which outputs a binary file called ~champdev/control/CHAMP/User/ftdata_#######.dat . This will get standardized using a fits format soon.

3. Copy datasets to wolverine for analysis: user: ~observe/CHAMP/Opdmap/Ftdata_DATE

4. run idl in ~observe/CHAMP/Opdmap

IDL> .r ftdata2idlvar.script

[choose your FTDATA_DATE directory using dialog box and wait for it to finish  ]

Appendices

Diagrams

targets filter box diagram filterwheel key

Spares

Optics

• Two (2) fused silica beam splitters for CHAMP combiner

• One (1) fused silica short-wave pass (SWP) dichroic pickoff

• One (1) calcium fluoride long-wave page (LWP) dichroic pickoff

• One (1) elliptical mirror mounted to invar piezo mount

• Four (4) f=450mm spherical mirrors for Tower of Power

• One (1) image slicer T1

• One (1) image slicer T2

• One (1) image slicer B1 [note: we are using the spare. the original B1 has some coating problems near apex and is put back as a backup/spare

• One (1) image slicer B2 [note: the backup spare B2 has slight problem where the bottom-right quad, B2d, is too large in one dimension. This means the pyramid will not fit in the holder. If one needs to use this backup, one will need to mill-out extra clearance in the holder]

Other things: TBDocumented, some card for camera electronics. zabar motors.

• One (1) motherboard for servers (compatible with mirkwood, champ -- one kept at CHARA, one at UM)

-- Main.monnier - 08 Feb 2009