Grasping StarGrasp

Engineering verification is split between daytime and nighttime activities, which is a good thing, considering the weather.  This week, we have two of the StarGrasp team, Peter Onaka and Greg Ching, here to help us with the tuning of the system and to do some technical training of mountain support personnel.  StarGrasp is the controller system that runs the detectors - voltages and signals - and receives and organizes the data coming back.  We had a very successful training session this morning in which Peter and Greg went through the entire system architecture and design, discussed how one diagnoses problems and what to do if the system is not working properly. The support model for StarGrasp is that we have a set of spare modules that can replace failed ones, and that the failed ones are then returned to Hawaii for repair.  The StarGrasp group has a second set of spares, and they send us their spare upon receipt of the failed one from us.  They then repair the failed one and it becomes the spare for next time.  For this to be effective, we will depend on the KPNO Electronics Maintenance staff to help diagnose which module has failed.  Daniel is still the local authority on StarGrasp, and he will coordinate this effort.  We will be putting this system into place over the next few months as we move into scientific commissioning and then shared risk observing.

Todd