Re: Kicker overcurrent

[Michael Barnes <barnes@triumf.ca>]

Dear Peter,

You should be looking for strands of wire, carbon tracks, tools left in
the cabinet, etc. which could cause the breakdown (or in the case of the
carbon track, show the path of breakdown). The problem is most likely near
the output of HV1. It could be a problem associated with the output
connector, deflector plates etc, so may not be readily visible.

One thing you could try is to disconnect (desolder) the output of both
stacks in HV1 from the cable to the output connector and apply voltage to
the wire to the connector (e.g. from a suitable current limited HV
supply). Slowly turn up this supply and see if it draws current. If there
is nothing wrong with the output from the HV1 cabinet there will be NO
current flow during this test. Current flow would indicate a problem.
If you do this correctly there should not be any voltage applied to the
stacks during this test.

Good luck,
Mike

> Dear Mike,
>
> we just inspected the kicker cabinets. Since we didn't know what to
> exactly look for we tried to find any differences between the lower and
> upper stack in HV1 and we compared it to the other cabinets. Nothing
> obvious could be found.
> Just for information: Tomorrow there will be no beam the entire day.
> Therefore, this is an ideal time for us to do any extensive diagnostics
> if that's necessary. Today, we will now continue taking data so we have
> no direct access to the kicker.
> Greetings
> Peter
>
>