Dear Peter and Brendan,
I just got a phone conversation with Mike. I believe that his last statement are valuable and you should spend a few hours studying the situation.
Our suggestion is the following:
1-Close the valve between the separator and the kicker
2-Contact M.Koller (vacuum) for venting the kicker via the little valve located just beam right of the last magnet.
3-Once the kicker is at air, open both middle flanges. Use one to install some light. Use the other one to look at the HV1 connector between the wall and the plate. Using a "telescope" could be very nice and let you avoid some strange physical exercises. Find a way to look at the connection in the wall, at the connection at the plate (little ball).
This would allow you to know if there is some problem at that level or somewhere else.
The venting time is around 1hour. Once you close the system, you will have around 8 hours before the kicker is at a good vacuum. For any details about re-pumping, ask M.Koller and/or myself later on.
If you need to contact Mike by phone, he is available today and tomorrow morning (022 767 4424).
Best regards
Francoise
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Winter
To: Michael Barnes
Cc: Gary D Wait; kiburg@npl.uiuc.edu; Mulhauser Francoise; kammel@npl.uiuc.edu; hertzog@uiuc.edu; michael.barnes@triumf.ca; Robert M Carey; Anatoly Gafarov; rmcnabb@uiuc.edu
Sent: 01/12/05 11:49
Subject: Re: Kicker test - URGENT action required ?
Dear all,
while Mike was sending us his last email, I was already inside the area
to do the next tests. First I checked the optic fibre on card DN-13. For
that I,
1) I disconnected the fisher plug, cleaned it carefully with alcohol and
also its counter part as much as possible. Then I taped it in a safe
position
2) I exchanged the optic fibres DN-13 and DN-12
3) I ran with DC high TTL signal ramping up HV1 to ~3.4kV. ALL red LEDs
on the lower stack in HV1 were on.
4) I exchanged the optic fibres again to the normal status and it worked
as well
5) I changed to kicking mode (5mus @ 1kHz) and ramped HV1 and all 34 red
LEDs were visible at around 6-7kV.
It seems that the problem with the card is gone.
Then I tried to run the kicker in DC with the cleaned fisher plug. While
cleaning I was looking at it carefully but could not see any carbonized
parts or black parts etc. I was also removing the white part of the
insulation tube on the plug and cleaned the whole metal pin which makes
the connection. The counter part connected to the plate was difficult to
clean since it's inside and partly hidden by the metal side walls. After
reinserting the plug, the current increased immediately when raising the
HV on HV1.
Due to Mikes last email I now turned off the HV on both cabinets since
if I understood correct he's afraid that other parts might break down,
too.
So the question rises: When are we going to open the kicker to inspect
it? I think we'll have a discussion here internally but proposals from
all of you are welcome. For now I will go back to mu+ lower rate without
kicker.
Peter