!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> Initial On Telescope Alignment

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OBSERVATORIES / LICK OBSERVATORY

AO Initial On Telescope Alignment

Once the Adaptive Optics system is mounted on the Shane 3-m telescope, fully cabled, powered on (refer to System Cabling Checklist), and was well aligned in the laboratory, you should be ready to check out the system and fine tune alignment for science.

Check cabling (often cables are forgotten or misconnected so a double check is a generally good idea).
Check that the following are powered on:
- Pulizzi power controllers
- lgs7 computer
- IRCAL electronics
Take covers off all the AO optics.
Put shields up and turn off most lights in the dome.
Ping computers and lantronices:
- lgs7 (the main AO computer)
- lgs11 (single port lantronix)
- lgs13 (PC that runs the Slow WFS Camera)
- lgs14 (8 port lantronix)
Start Some Software
- Make sure that no AO software is already running.
  From user@shard type ps -e | grep ao to make sure there are no power or motor daemons running.
  From user@gouda type ps -e | grep lickAdaptive to make sure that the LickAO software isn't running.
  If any of these programs are running, either stop them or determine why they are running before continuing. The best way to stop aomot* is to type ao stop. The best way to stop the power daemon is ao120power.sh stop.
- Start the power server
  From user@shard type ao120power.sh start
- Start the power gui
  From user@gouda type ao120power_fe &
  If you can't connect to lgs11 do the following:
  1. telnet lgs11
  2. Login password> access
  3. Username> [space]
  4. show port 1
  5. set priv
  6. Password> system
  7. logout port 1
  8. show port 1
  9. logout
Turn on the following from ao120power_fe:
1. LTT Camera
2. WFS Camera
3. Video Dist. Amp
4. IRCAL Temp Control (also restart the monitoring software on homer if necessary)
5. Red Laser Source
6. 5V Encoder Power
7. Turn on all Servo Controllers and Stepper Controllers
8. Turn on all Filter Wheels
9. Back WFS Camera
10. TT 100V Power
Start real-time code on lgs7:
- Log into lgs7 as root.
- Type aostart &
Start Rest of Software
- motor dispatchers
  From user@shard type ao start disp
- LickAO
  From user@gouda type LickAO &.
  When prompted, Connect to Traffic
- aomot_gui
  Push Motor Status in the LickAO gui or from user@gouda type aomot_gui &
- soundserver
  From user@gouda type eventsounds ircal &
- ircaldisplay
  From user@gouda type ircaldisplay &
- ircalui
  From user@gouda type ircalui (you will be prompted for a password) or as user@ircalbox2 type ircalui &
- pvcam
  On lgs13 click the IDL icon.
Program TT 100V power controller:
1. Put in Standby mode.
2. Type 100 and press Enter.
3. Take out of Standby mode.
Turn on WFS monitor in 3-m ROR. With luck it will show hartmann spots.
Start CentDiag from LickAO-PowerUp menu.
Click SMC Image button in CentDiag to start Tip/Tilt camera.
If either the LTT or WFS cameras are not updating, click on lttcami or wfscami (respectively) in the More... menu of CentDiag to initialize the cameras.
Click HartmannGUI in CentDiag (you may then close it immediately to keep it out of the way - but this starts the gui for use later).
Turn on 100V DM Power from ao120power_fe.
Test IRCAL
1. Home motors.
2. Put motors in Dark position.
3. Reset DSPs and take a couple test exposures.
4. Check read noise: Take two dark exposures of 1000ms (with 16 reads and 1 coadd). Subtract them and calculate the standard deviation (use the Stats button in the Image Browser GUI). The read noise (standard deviation) should be less than 3 DN. If the read noise is greater than 3 DN, cycle power the IRCAL electronics and push the "Reset DSPs" button in ircalui. Take a few exposures and check the read noise levels again. Repeat if necessary.
Test Back (Slow) WFS Camera
1. On lgs13, from PVCam-Camera-Open menu, click herbcam.
2. From PVCam-Exposure-Display menu, click Hook.
3. From PVCam-Exposure menu, click Setup and set exposure time to be 10 seconds.
4. From PVCam-Grab menu, click New Image to take an exposure. This image will probably be bland (either saturated or just scattered light or noise, but we just want to make sure the camera works at this step).
Turn on 24V Motor Power from ao120power_fe.
If alignment is sufficiently off that you cannot see spots on the WFS, proceed but with caution.
Set IrisClose zero position:
1. Calibrate motor - click Calibrate in aomot_gui IrisClose detail panel.
2. Turn off motor - click Servoing Off in detail panel.
3. Manually set the IrisClose motor position to give a 1 or 2mm diameter opening.
4. Assert Zero in the IrisClose detail panel.
5. Open motor to 15000 or more counts (larger is better if you don't currently see hartmann spots on the WFS).
Calibrate motors:
- The following motors don't have load encoders, so calibrating doesn't move the motors, it just sets the state of the control software appropriately so you can move the motors.
  TurningMirrorX, TurningMirrorY, WFSMX, WFSMY, TTCubeX, TTCubeY, IrisX, IrisY, WavePlateInsert, IrisClose, WavePlate (NB: at this point IrisClose has already been calibrated and WavePlateInsert and WavePlate may not be installed)
- The following motors are best homed one at a time as the motors will move to find the index mark.
  FiberSourceX, FiberSourceY, 1stDichroicX, 1stDichroicY, 2ndDichroicX, 2ndDichroicY, WFSFocus, IRCamFocus.
  Once each stage is homed, move it to 0.
  Recently the 0 positions for a few of the stages has shifted, so odds are that when all motors are at 0 the hartmann spots on the WFS won't look very good. Do the following offsets:
  Note: Below numbers have changed (Mar 2010) but I haven't updated this document - refer to log book to figure out what position the 2nd Dichroic X and Y stages should be set to. 2ndDichroicX +75
  2ndDichroicY -655
  You should now get OK hartmann spots with a small iris aperture. If this is the case, Assert Zero for each of these stages. If this is not the case, you will have to do some more manual motor moves to get alignment close before asserting zero.
If you have decent spots on the WFS, we will assume that the system wasn't shaken up much while being moved and mounted and that you can test that NGS loops close at this point.
1. Create a fresh cflat: Turn off RLS, press cflat button in the CentDiag GUI and check that counts per subaperture are approximately zero, then turn RLS back on.
2. Close TT loop.
3. If TT loop closes, then close AO loop.
4. Open loops.
5. Do the Daily LGS Alignment Procedure even if you will be only doing NGS operations.
6. Install Turning Mirror if not already in place.
If you did not have good spots on the WFS you might have to do the more extensive LGS Optical Alignment procedure.

Elinor Gates

Last modified: Wed Jun 15 13:29:22 PDT 2011