MACRO_SHIFT_SUMMARY_FROM_2ND_OCT_TO_13TH_OCT_1999


Subject: MACRO_SHIFT_SUMMARY_FROM_2ND_OCT_TO_13TH_OCT_1999
Brajesh.Choudhary@lngs.infn.it
Date: Wed Oct 13 1999 - 05:38:02 EDT


 MACRO-USA Shift Report (2nd to 13th Oct, 99): By Brajesh Choudhary, CALTECH
 --------------------------------------------- -----------------------------

 PEOPLE PRESENT IN THE DETECTOR AREA: BCC, EK, IK, MO, NZ
 PEOPLE PRESENT OUTSIDE : SK, NEW TECH.

 MACRO runs progressed rather well over last 11 days when I was on shift.
 Shift summary is given below run by run.
 Minor glitches which are common in any experiment and keeps on happening
 on every day basis will not be reported in this shift summary. Problems
 which lead to shifters and others investigate the problem, and time loss
 is reported.

 Date Runs Problems if Any

 02-10-99 18350-53 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
 03-10-99 18354-55 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
               18356 Run crashed due to "target buffer busy" probelm.
                              I could not find a satisfactory explanation for
                              this or what it means. As told to me by veterans
                              of MACRO, this is a rare happening. It is
                              advised to REBOOT all uVAXes after this failure
                              so that the run progresses normally.
               18357-58 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
 04-10-99 18359-63 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
 05-10-99 18364 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
               18365 2.12hrs - uVAX 5 crashed.
               18366-67 JUNK
               18368 VERY SMALL - ALMOST USELESS.
                              Run 18365 crashed after 2.12h at 8:33 UT due to
                              a broken fan unit on Pisa's uVax5 (SM5). The
                              broken component was identified to one ball
                              bearing of the fan unit. After two unsuccesful
                              attempts (runs 18366 and 18367), run 18368 began
                              w/o uVax5. The fan unit was replaced and run
                              18369 started with full MACRO at 9:10 UT. Total
                              35 minutes lost. The broken fan unit was
                              immediately fixed IK.
               18369-71 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
 06-10-99 18372-73 NORMAL. NO PROBLEMS.
                              The runs from 18371-18373 had very frequent
                              alarms. NO Q-response from CAMAC Module
                              M:2 B:1 C:6 N:9. 4670 alarms for run 18371.
                              6043 alarms for run 18372. 4548 for run 18373.
                              This resulted in over 6% dead time on uVAX2. All
                              these runs were between 18:37 hrs of 5th and 9am
                              of 6th when shifters are outside the tunnel.
                              The problem was due to a poor connection on a
                              cable. Solved. The data quality is GOOD.

 POWER SHUTDOWN ON 6th October.
 -----------------------------
 In the morning of 6th october there was a planned power shutdown at 9am for
 earlier planned work on electrical system. The entire detector and the daq
 computers VXMACA and VXMACB were shutdown before the planned power shutdown.
 The power shutdown and electrical work started at 10:20 am. The work took
 5h30mts instead of planned 4hrs. When the detector was turned on about 4pm,
 as expected a number of problems appeared.

 For the scintillator system:
 4 PHRASE power supply broken
 1 TOHM kinetic 1502 power supply broken
 5B11 had a very high trigger rate for TOHM (was disconnected)
 WFDs on SM1 no longer received the Stop signal.

 The last one was the most serious problem. uVax1 was out of acquisition for
 overnight runs. As usual our genius engineer IK with help from technical staff
 MO and NZ fixed it next morning before calibration began. Streamer tube had
 also several problems which Paolo Lipari mentioned in his general mail.

 The run resumed at about 16:17 with mVax 3,4,5,6. The run was interrupted
 after 45minutes because of a broken power supply (the run also had a number
 of other problems)
 At 17:21 a new run was started with mVax 2,3,4,5,6 (mVAX 1 out OF ACQ).
 The runs 18376 onward continued normally till next morning except for very
 high rate of ERP GC triggers on the south face

 06-10-99 18374 Very small run. Useless.
               18375 uVAX 3 and complete PISA only.
               18376-77 NORMAL. No uVAX1.
                              Very high rate on (almost X20times higher)
                              ERP GC on SM6. Problem fixed by J. Reynoldson.
 07-10-99 18378 NORMAL. No uVAX1. Stopped midway for calibration.
               18379 PISA only run while calibration proceeded.
                              Calibration was done on thursday instead of usual
                              wednesday because of power shutdown on wednesday.
        ****CALIB RUN BEGINS ****
              *91565* LED/TDC on uVAX3.
              *91566* LED/FMT on uVAX3.
              *91567* LASER on uVAX3.
              *91568* LASER on uVAX3 on Attico.
                              Both LASER calibration used settings offset by
                              10 w.r.t the standard setting to see the effect
                              of aging due to LASER light.
              *91569* LAMOSSKA on uVAX3.
              *91570-71* LED/MONO (350nsec) on uVAX3.
              *91572-73* LED/MONO (1usec) on uVAX3.
              *91574* LED/GC on uVAX3.
        ****CALIB RUN ENDS ****
               18380 NORMAL. FULL MACRO started.
                              Problem with WFD on uVAX1. 1.4hrs run.
               18381 NORMAL. RUN w/o uVAX1. WFD problem fixed.
                              Lemo cable connecting SM1 stop master and
                              WFD-stop latching scalar was not working
                              properly. It was changed. Run ended after
                              30 minutes.
               18382 NORMAL.
               18383 NORMAL. Stopped taking data from uVAX2 during run
                              18382. Italian shifter ended this run from
                              outside to reboot uVAX2. 20mts long run.

 08-10-99 18384-85 NORMAL.
               18386 NORMAL. Run ended after 1.7hrs due to system
                              error on uVAX 2 and 5.
               18387 NORMAL. Run with uVAX 1 and 6 only. 11mts long
                              run. Almost USELESS.
               18388 NORMAL. Run with uVAX 1,3,5,6 only. 7mts.USELESS.
               18389 NORMAL. Run with uVAX 1,3,6 only. 2.5hrs.
                              The problem since RUN 18387 was due to a partial
                              power outage on MACRO. Phase R of the second
                              "blinosbarra" (whatever it means in Italian),
                              powering part of SM4/SM5 was lost because of some
                              electrical work taking place and some cables
                              were simply unplugged. Power service people were
                              contacted and the problem was fixed.
               18390-91 NORMAL. Full MACRO detector.
 09-10-99 18392-96 NORMAL.
 10-10-99 18397-401 NORMAL.
 11-10-99 18402 NORMAL. Low dats rate on uVAX2 during night.
                              uVAX2 had stopped collecting data after some time
                              in the run. But when next run (18403) started
                              uVAX2 was working fine.
               18403 NORMAL. uVAX2 collecting normal data.
               18404 NORMAL. 52 mts long run. uVAX2 stopped collecting
                              data. Run stopped.
               18405-06 JUNK RUNS. 12 and 2 mts long. uVAX2 not fixed.
               18407 NORMAL run w/o uVAX2. Problem on uVAX2 due to
                              its synchronization with other two uVAXes. 2.5hrs
                              long run. Synchronization crate was powered down
                              after this run. The problem is fixed.
               18408-10 NORMAL. With FULL MACRO detector
 12-10-99 18411-15 NORMAL.
 13-10-99 18316 NORMAL. Calibration in progress.

 Respectfully Submitted

 Brajesh C Choudhary
 CALTECH (MACRO-USA)
 13-OCT-1999



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