FLAT90: HOT-WIRE Messages: 156 Entries..

Contents: Steve's H.W. tests 
 
Tape created 9/25 
3 files (Charlie thinks) 
First is ~1.5 hours long, data from hotwire deployed at 2m (using 
electrical tape).  Wire was off vertical by about 20 degrees in roll  
(11 o'clock position viewed from the back) and 10 degrees in pitch (down). 
File ends when SUN serviceman brought system down. 
 
Second is after system came up, duration about 30 minutes (I think) 
 
Third is after Charlie finished restoring Kermit from backup tape. 
Runs a long time, but hotwire covered when Jim and Steve O. went to  
masts to make changes (~1600) - probably shouldn't be used. 
 

Hotwire moved to 7m. 
 
This was done about 1230 local today.  The mount may still be adjusted 
(Jim thinks MUST be changed) since the shield does not pull back all of 
the way.  Cable res, capac., and phase adjusted to give rounded, symmetric 
square wave on bridge.  Probe balanced at about 4 ohms (seems a bit low 
to me, but seems to work okay).  Will start a real data tape soon since 
winds are good. 
 

Tape: HW#269#20 started now 
 
Initial scan looked reasonable, though some noise (3 KHz?) on raw 
signal and white noise from 1-5 KHz on derivative signal.  Watch 
for these in the future. 
 

Tape: HW#269#20 stopped now 
 
Data was stopped on this tape so Steve S. could do the daily backup.   
An extra "mt eof" was written on the tape, just to be safe. 
It took about 1 minute for the tape to rewind - this might be the 
amount of time to compare to when skipping forward over this tape. 
 
Winds were good (~8 m/s from the N) throughout the entire period. 
 

restart fast analog 
 
	daisy data_on was restarted at approximately 4:00. 
The tape used was the orginal one used earlier today, 
on the 26th. Hopefully, it started appending to the 
end of the file. 
 
p.s. Steve S. says that it took longer than a minute to fast-forward 
to the first EOF, thus skipping forward takes longer than rewinding 
(not unexpected)...spo 
 

Tape: HW#269#20 stopped again 
 
This tape was still going when all arrived ~ 1500 on #270, despite the network 
crash of all of the other archive processes!!!  Furthermore, despite rain just before 
we got to the site (light rain), the probe itself balanced at about 6 ohms, so it 
should still be alive.   
 
Steve S. stopped the tape writing while Steve O. climbed the tower to cover the probe 
and turn off the bridge (good thing too, since it is raining heavier as I write this). 
 
I am now running my exa_scan program, which should tell if there was a large data gap 
during the night.   
 
Note that if things are to be believed, there should be about 6 hours of data on file 1 
and another 12 hours on file 2 - 18 hours of data on one tape isn't too shabby! 
  
 

Hot-wire data available at 20 Hz 
 
Ragwort 103 is on and archiving.  As of about 1200 (local) it was wired in parallel with 
blazing channel 0.  However, the wire was off most of the day, so it has not had 
real data until about 10 minutes ago.  The winds are still at a bad direction (due south), 
but this data set will be used to develop the calibration software. 
 

Hot wire work today: 
 
1 - climbed tower, brought probe down ~1200 local, rebuilt mount to allow  
    shield to retract better 
 
2 - climbed tower, replaced probe, exposed probe and balanced bridge ~1330 local 
 
3 - climbed tower, covered probe ~1500 local because of rain.  Balanced bridge - 
    the probe still lives!  Turned electronics off. 
 
4 - spent the rest of the day trying (without luck so far) building new probes. 
 

hotwire tape on started 
 

hot wire recording turned off 
 

hot wire archive started 
 
 

hotwire archiving stopped 
 

archiving started for hotwire 
 

hotwire archive stopped for other tape ops 
 

Stopped hot wire archive tape at 23:48. 
 
 

Rebalanced hotwire bridge at 00:45 
and returned to operate mode. 
 
 

Hot wire tape started at 01:05 
  
 
 
 

Hotwire tape stopped at JD 280 15:36 
 

Hot wire deployed and tape started 
 
 

Hot wire taking data again 
 
Tony stopped the fast data tape ca. 6pm local (00:00Z) for data backup. 
It has just been restarted after skipping over the previous file. 
This would be tape # hotwire JD281 (started Oct 09 at 2200). 
 
 

Diff. gain now 0.5 (was 1.0) 
 
ql.sh showed that the differentiator signal can go offscale at 1.0, but 
apparently not by much, hence a change was necessary. 
 

hot wire archive started at about 2030 
 

Hot-wire bridge adjustment 
 
Apparently, it is easy to get the bridge to oscillate, (changes with  
balance change).  After a lot of work, a reasonable signal was obtained, 
but it is running at about 4 ohms, rather than the balance point of about  
7.4.  This will have to be worked on further. 
 
Steve was at the masts from about 1300-1600 local working on this and 
the sonics.  Also about 1100-1200 earlier. 
 

archiving stopped for hotwire 
 

hot wire archive restarted 
 

Hotwire balanced and running 
 
The hot-wire wouldn't balance, but the probe was good.  It turned out that the cable capacitance 
was off enough to cause the bridge to oscillate again.  I reset everything AGAIN using the 
square wave test, this time following Carl's instructions to be satisfied with positive and 
negative excursions (not a square wave, more like a square wave differentiated), and to allow 
a few overshoots.  The bridge still looked like it was generating about 10 mv pp of white noise, 
which was reduced by the low-pass filter, still set at 5 KHz. 
 
Tape was started, but will be stopped to do quick_look and restarted now. 
 
 

hotwire archiving restarted 
 

data archive restarted for hot wire 
 

hotwire archive started 
 

hot wire tape archiving stopped during the night 
 

daisy datel card not sending fast data   
 
This means that the hot wire archive has not been 
running for the last hour. 
 
have rebooted daisy. When the hot wire stopped 
writing to tape last night it was probably due to the 
datel not sending data. 
 

hot wire archive restarted 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hotwire archive started 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hot wire archive started 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
to work on fast data disk writes 
 

hotwire archive restarted. 
 

run hot_spec in results/hotwire 
and see what happens! 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hotwire archive restarted 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 
to make tar tape 
 

hotwire archive started 
 

Stopped hotwire recording at 23:00 
in order to do `morning' backup. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire recording at 23:49 
 
 

Stopped hotwire archive at 00:30 
to do evening backup. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 01:23. 
Steve rebalanced hotwire prior to 
restarting. 
 
 

Steve rebalanced the hotwire bridge  
~1.25 turns of the potentiometer at ~16:55. 
The spectral plots appeared noisy at 15:00, 
but it is not apparent yet that there was 
a significant change after Steve rebalanced. 
I'll do a series of plots to further examine 
what is happening. 
 
 

Stopped hotwire archive at 18:35 
to do morning backup. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 19:39. 
 
 

Daisy apparently went down at some 
time prior to 23:35.  It came back 
up with mxreset, but I did not continue 
archiving hotwire data since it was 
close to the time for the evening 
tape back-up. 
 
 

Rebalanced hotwire bridge @ 2:15 
 
 

DAISY - SHUTDOWN 
 
	Daisy stopped writng to tape 
around 15:18 GMT. Rewound tape and restarted  
Daisy at 16:25 GMT. 
 

HOTWIRE - DAISY PROBLEMS 
 
	DAISY did not want to start 
writing files to disk. Had to restart 
Daisy with a mxreset. Tape was restarted 
at 16:51 GMT. 
 
NOTE: When daisy is reset, the first file 
sent to /raw_data/hotwire starts with 
'hw0000' which is placed at the beginning 
of the output message from ls. 
So look carefully before you think 
it isn't running correct. 
 

Stopped archiving hotwire data @18:04 
to do morning backup 
 
 

Covered hotwire at 18:45. 
The clouds are increasing and there 
are visible virga and mammata. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 15:39:00. 
 
I uncovered the hotwire at 15:00 and 
rebalanced the bridge to ~7.8.  Then 
I left the switch in 'balance' to see 
what output would be generated by 
hot_spec.  I rebalanced the bridge 
again at 15:30 to ~9 ,and put the  
switch in 'operate'. 
 
Three hot_spec files were saved while 
the hotwire was in `balance'.  Hot_spec 
bombed processing two of these.  The 
third showed 1 1/2 cycles of an oscillation 
over the sampling period (this may have  
been when I was turning the pot). 
 
 

HOTWIRE - Daisy crash 
 
	Daisy went down around 17:00 GMT while 
we were removing the ussr sonic electronics. 
Daisy was reset and the field and archiving of 
hotwire was restarted at 17:12 GMT. 
 

HOTWIRE - tape problems 
 
	While installing the ussr 
instrument back in the chem. shelter, 
daisy crashed again. Daisy was reset 
in the field again. Back at the base, 
a 'tape-off' command was executed to 
write an eof to the last file. To play it 
safe, the tape was rewound and checked for 
the correct number of files. Upon restarting 
daisy, data_on and tape_on, i/o errors came 
from daisy (reference to tape drive). 
Decided to remove the tape and start a new one. 
The new tape was started at 18:35 GMT. 
 

Stopped hotwire archive at 00:09 
to do backup. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 02:14 
 
Rebalanced bridge from 9 to 7.5. 
 
 

Stopped hotwire archive at 14:35. 
 
Checked balance and found it to be 
okay. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 15:33 
 
 

Daisy stopped  writing to tape at 
some time prior to 00:10.  
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 01:30 
 
 

Rebalanced hotwire bridge @ 01:57 
to 7.2 
 
 

Rebalanced hotwire bridge at 15:27 
to ~6.5 
 
 

hotwire tape archiving stopped around 1704, 
rebooted daisy and restarted. 
 

Stopped hotwire archive at ~20:50 
to do `morning' backup 
 
 

HOTWIRE - restarted 
 
	Hotwire archive restarted at 21:43 GMT. 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hotwire archive started 
 

hotwire archive stopped due to tape problem 
 

hotwire archive started - new tape 
 

hotwire archive stopped, end of file 1 
 

hotwire jd297 started now 
 
 

Buck and Gain changed on Eb 
 
Gain set to 5, Buck set to +3.5.  Hopefully, this will increase our signal-to-noise 
ratio during nighttime runs.  (But probably won't change derivative signal.) 
Previous settings were gain=1, buck=0. 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 

hotwire archive started, file #2  
 

Hotwire buck and gain changed back 
 
Old values were buck of +3.50 and gain of 5, changed to: 
new values of buck = 0, gain = 1 
Time was 1601 local - 2201 GMT (note that the fast data should have 
been going, but crashed soon thereafter - this was towards 
the end of hotwire jd297 file2) 
 
 

hotwire archive stopped and restarted. File 3 
 
due to someone fiddling with wires 
in the shelter. Wrote eof and restarted tape. 
 

hotwire archive stopped 
 
end of file 3 
 

hotwire archive started - file 1 
 

hotwire archive stopped - file 1 
 

hotwire archive started - file 2 
 

hotwire archive started - file 1 
 

Rebalanced hot wire bridge at 18:21 to 
~4.25 ohms. 
 
 

Stopped hotwire archiving at 00:10. 
 
 

Resumed hotwire archive at 01:03. 
 
 

Stopped hotwire tape at 14:39 
 
The hotwire tape was stopped at 14:39, JD 299. 
The new tape was started at 15:25 but only ran for 10 minutes when Daisy 
stopped archeiving. The tape was pulled and the ASTER backup occupied 
the tape drive. 
 

Hotwire restarted at 16:46 
 
The hotwire was restarted after ASTER backup tape finished 
 

Hotwire tape stopped at 23:55 
 

Rebalanced hotwire bridge at 20:23. 
 
 

Hotwire tape started JD300 01:15 
 
 

Hotwire JD300 stopped 1554. 
 
 

hotwire JD300 file 2 started 16:59 
 

hotwire JD300 ended at EOT 
 
We recently noticed that blazing archiving had stopped.  mt status said sense key=EOT, 
thus it is probably safe to assume that the tape was at the end.  Too bad we didn't 
notice the exact time.  I wrote an additional EOF just to be safe and rewound the tape. 
I won't bother to get it going until after the archiving since winds are still southerly. 
 
 

hotwire JD 301 started 01:54 
 
Bad wind direction and light winds - pretty stable! 
 

hotwire JD301 file1 stoppeed 1445 
 
(later than normal, since we just changed to daylight-savings-time, but we didn't 
get breakfast yet!) 
 
 

Hotwire tape started JD 301 15:58 
 
The fsf 1 took about 15 minutes to complete. 
 

 
Hot wire stopped at JD 302 00:08 
 
O 
 
 

hotwire JD302 started 03:02 
 
This is late since I was looking at the signal in detail.  It turned out 
that the bridge was unstable, and cable capacitance had to be changed. 
This was causing a lot of extra noise on the hotwire signal.  (The noise 
level was relatively low, so it didn't appear until the quiet stable 
conditions tonight.)   
 
I had also tried connecting the wire directly to the differentiator 
(on both channels, the diff. bypassed on the Eb signal), to avoid 
having the buck&gain.  This didn't help the signal at all, so it is 
back.  I also resoldered all of the connections on the other bridge (#2) 
and will try using it again tomorrow. 
 
  
 

daisy crashed about 11:10 
 
For some reason, daisy appears to have stopped writing data sometime after 11:10. 
(The exabyte tape, jd302 had also stopped.)  I am rebooting daisy now. 
 
 

hotwire jd302.2 started 16:45 
 
y 
 

hotwire jd302.2 ended about 00:20 
 

hotwire jd303 started 01:07 
 
 

hotwire rebalanced about 10 min. ago (~01:40) 
 
Since hot_spec showed a lot of noise, it was necessary to change something. 
The bridge had wanted to balance at about 4 ohms this afternoon (~0130 local) 
so I changed it.  Just now, I've changed it back to about 7 and the noise 
went away (or at least diminished in amplitude).  This means that the  
last 5 hours of data may be bad.  (But mostly bad directions anyway.) 
 
 
 

hotwire JD303 file 1 stopped ~14:55 
 
 

hotwire JD303 File 2 started 15:54 
 

hotwire JD303 File 2 stopped@EOT ~23:00 
 
 
 

hotwire jd304 started 01:25 
 

HOTWIRE - STOPPED 
 
	The hotwire was stopped at 21:14 GMT 
to perform morning backup. 
 

HOTWIRE - started 
 
	Hotwire was balanced at 22:10 GMT. 
At 22:24 GMT the hotwire archiving to tape was 
restarted. 
 

HOTWIRE - Started   
	Hotwire was started at 01:54 GMT. 
 

HOTWIRE - down 
 
	Daisy stopped during the night. 
The datel shutdown again. 
 

HOTWIRE - started 
 
	Hotwire archive to tape started 
at 17:03 GMT. 
 

HOTWIRE - stopped 
 
	The hotwire was stopped at 00:35 GMT. 
Due to the possibility of moisture tonight, the 
hotwire will be covered up. No data will be collected. 
 

hotwire archive start jd 308 2037 file 1 
 

Uncovered hotwire and replaced fast t at 
7 m on the uw tower.  On the tower from  
2020 to 2030. 
 
 

Stopped hotwire archive @ 00:09, JD 309. 
 
 

Restarted hotwire archive at 01:37 
 
 

hotwire bridge was in balance mode from 
yesterday until now. Bridge has been 
balanced and switched to operate mode, BUT 
it is raining, so we are going to cover it  
up. 
 

The hotwire data files have a file size of 
zero after 13:38.  Then they were no longer 
written after 16:34.  This may be associated 
with the nework failure last night and restart 
this morning. 
 
Daisy, however, is currently running and the 
hotwire data files are being generated. 
 
 

hotwire JD312 started!! 
 
wire was just exposed and rebalanced. 
New tape started about 20:55. 
 
 

hotwire jd312 died ~2335 
 
The Datel in daisy apparently died.  An extra weof was done just to be sure. 
It was necessary to search (ps -axg) for the "etc/rmt" process and kill it 
with a -HUP in order to release the tape drive. 
 
 

hotwire JD313_1 started 01:37 
 
This is on a new tape after rebooting daisy. 
 
 

hotwire jd313_1 stopped at EOT 
 
This happened sometime in the last 2 hours while I was at the 
masts. 
 
 

hotwire jd313_2 started now 
 
I'm just about to start another tape which will be a bit 
strange since it will stop in another hour for system backup stuff. 
 
 

hotwire jd313_2 file 1 ended 00:12 
 
This is being done to enable the evening backup. 
Append to this tape after. 
 
 

hotwire jd313_2 messed up 01:21 
 
I forgot to skip forward on this tape and put about 1 minute of data overwriting 
the old data.  I stopped writing and tried to "fsf 1" to the end but got a 
sense key = blank check after an I/O error. 
 
This tape was stopped and a new one put in the drive. 
 

hotwire jd314 File 1 ended 15:27 
 
so that I could do morning backup. 
 
 

hotwire jd314 File2 started 16:23 
 
analog processing had stopped on daisy - daisy was mxreset and data_on'ed. 
 
 

hotwire jd314 file2 stopped last hour 
 
the tape got to EOT as usual - probably about 2300 
 

Hot wire tape started at nov 11 01:14:00 
 
  
 

hotwire jd315 File 1 stopped 1450 
 
to do the morning backup. 
 
 

hotwire jd315 File 2 started 15:39 
 
 

hotwire jd315 file 2 stopped 22:55 
 
 

Hotwire tape started Nov 12 01:15 
 
Hotwire tape started. 
 

Hotwire tape taken offline and returned online Monday morning 
 
Hotwire tape stopped at JD 316 15:45:00. 
Hotwire tape restarted on file 2 at 16:50. 
 

Hotwire tape off Nov 13 15:36 
 

Hotwire tape on JD 317 17:13 
 
The exabyte refused to give a green light when tape first reintroduced. 
In fact it did not recognize that a tape was loaded. I unloaded the tape 
and cycled power and reloaded. That time it accepted the tape. 
 
 

Hotwire tape filled at approx Nov 14 23:30 
 
 
 

Hotwire tape started Nov 14 01:20 
 
 
 

Hotwire tape off Nov 14 1990 at 16:04  
 

Hotwire tape on Nov 14, 18:00 
 
 
 

Hotwire data stopped incoming at Nov 14, 19:00, restarted at 19:30 
 
The yellow light stopped. killed the rmt, put in a weof and restarted tape 
 

HOTWIRE - stopped 
 
	the hotwire tape archive was stopped at 00:07 GMT. 
 

HOTWIRE - started 
 
	The hotwire tape archive was started at 00:43 GMT. 
 

hotwire jd319 stopped now (18:54) 
 
so that I can change to a new wire. 
tape will be restarted after eof written once change is done. 
 
Also note that the U-Haul truck which the NOAA 
people were using just left the site. 
 
 
 

hotwire jd319 restarted 19:02 
 
new wire put in - balances at about 6.7 ohms. 
Note that I've been climbing the mast to do this swap. 
 
 

hotwire jd319 stopped at EOT ~2130 
 
extra EOF written 
 
 

hotwire jd319.2 started ~21:45 
 
This will have a short file as we stop again for backup. 
 
 

hotwire jd319.2 stopped 22:59  
 
Stopped to do backup, but got "media error", and wouldn't write eof. 
 
 

hotwire jd320 File 1 started 00:56 
 
 

hotwire jd321 started 02:15 
 
It's easier to put a tape in and take data than to take down the hotwire!! 
Might as well take some data while things are there.