Deliverables

Besides some cartridge assembly work and starting a new Scanner Shield revision with Drew, I got some work done on the group website. See Publications and People pages

See my log for more detail.

It's been a little while since I had a significant deliverable, hasn't it? Anyway, the paper is submitted, as of Saturday around 7PM!

Well, I've done an odd few things this week, including a low pass filter in the Arduino code, and the amplifier for the VCO:

Two out of the three RF chains work again, but it's a different one now. Just R still needs work, and the problem is just that there's a strange frequency response curve that's attenuating a bit too much…
In other news, Scott and I designed and have since fixed a new mount for the output mirror in the cartridge. It should work, now we need to try one!

I've got two out of the three preamp chains working. The third is close, then it's time to attach the HELA-10s and get the split VCO working.
In addition, Drew, Parker, Justin, and I got our abstract written, and the test cut of the support wall for the RF chain went fine, so we've got a way to hold it up in the case.

The Electronics Deck is DONE! (UPDATE: 19 May - we've had to take it apart to make the full color chain in the other monitor work)

Monitor is going pretty well: the RF chain is built, just needs to go into the monitor. The mounting hole for the DVI port is epoxying during this meeting.

The RF boards are started for my monitor!
Plus, the new riser mirror mounts are printed, but there were problems with the top pieces, so those are re-printing.

I've modified the riser mirror mount for the monitor to allow both vertical and tilt axis control. I'm waiting for our printer to get fixed to make one, though.

Well, both Scanner Shields can be locked way easily from just the terminal, as seen here:

A MIRCLE happend on Friday, total accident. But, here's the Scanner Shield Signals:
WE GOT LOCK! The only downside is, it's magically working as long as a ~2 ft. loop of wire is sticking out of the board. Now we just need to compact the fix.

I'm still working on the Scanner Shield. No progress really at all. I tried replacing the PLL chip, but that actually made the voltage pulldown worse. I've got to try going section by section to see if I can isolate the problem. So, here's where we are:

In other news, the Power Supplies are done, and the new back plate for the old chassis is cut and usable!

The Scanner Shield is now driving the Polygon Motor correctly, and Windows recognizes it just fine. Still have issues locking, though.

In other news, we've been getting lots of deliveries so we should be able to start working on the new monitor now.

I got the DVI breakout board completely soldered between yesterday and today.

I also spent some time laying out cutting patterns for the chassis parts. Optimally, we'll use 24×24“ sheets on the larger laser cutter in the CTB. Drew and I both have forms to get permission to use that one.

The Scanner Shield is DONE! Now we just need to test it to see if it works.

In other news, we got started on the parts list, but didn't get too far. Here's the page-in-progress: Mark V Parts List

Getting started on the new chassis and optics setup didn't happen. Instead, I got started populating a new Scanner Shield CCA. Here's my progress so far:

My deliverables aren't quite ready. Ideally, we'd have the polygon motor self-syncing by now. We finally have reliable measurements for PTACH's period, but DSYNC still isn't working. Here's why:

The period that the board is getting is about half of what we see, and the drop is short enough that the polling function occasionally misses it.