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KNOWN PROBLEMS AND BUGS (JTR 06 DEC 2002)

CONTENTS
  1. XUI PROBLEMS
  2. DV PROBLEMS
  3. SYSTEM FREEZES


Frequency of occurence:

BUG: Always
COMMON: several times per night
OCCASIONAL: once per night
RARE: once per run


  1. XUI

    1. No response to GO

      Integrations occasionally need to be aborted to correct a setting (eg. forgetting to turn AUTOSAVE ON). This is done by clicking the red STOP button next to the green GO button at the top of the XUI screen. When the integration is restarted occasionally there is no response to clicking the GO button ie. the status bar remains green and no integration in progress "Busy... % time left" message appears, even after clicking on GO several times. This is fixed by running the "array_init" macro on bigdog. Similarly for guidedog. OCCASIONAL.

    2. Integration fails to finish

      The most likely cause is that the telescope daemon has died. The solution is to ask the operator to check and restart the daemon. RARE.

    3. Calibration macro fails to finish or hangs up

      The most likely cause is that a GO error has occured (see 1), probably because a STOP was used to end an integration early. When STOP is used the exit is sometimes ungraceful and the array needs to be reset. Abort the macro by clicking on the STOP button in the MACRO window followed by the STOP button next to the GO button. Fix the GO error by running the "array_init" macro on bigdog. Before restarting the calibration macro make sure that all the lamps are off and the cal box mirror is out. RARE.

      Another possible cause is an error on the IN/OUT (cal box) mirror (LMP/MIR/SH icon shows red ERROR message). Abort the macro by clicking on the STOP button in the MACRO followed by the STOP button next to the GO button. Fix by initialsing the mirror in the SETUP window. Before restarting the calibration macro make sure that all the lamps are off and the cal box mirror is out. VERY RARE.

      Very rarely communication between XUI and the cal box can freeze causing the LMP/MIR/SH icon to report a red ERROR message. To check this have the operator 'ping hotdog'. If hotdog is not responding ask the operator to check the CAT5 cables and remote AC power switches to the cal box. VERY RARE.

    4. The spectrograph focus mechanism fails to initialise, AFOCUS "Error"

      The spectrograph focus mechanism takes two AFOCUS.INITs to initialise. BUG. (Not something an observer will normally need to do.)

    5. Mechanism shows "Error" following a commandered move. Click on mechanism init icon in SETUP menu (eg. "CalMir.Init"). VERY RARE.



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  2. DV

    1. No A-B autmatic subtraction

      When doing many cycles of A-B pairs (ABBAABBAABBA....) DV is supposed to automatically display the latest (buffer C=) A-B pair. For reasons unknown the auto update only works intermittently. The work-around is to update manually by executing c=a-b in the DV MATH window. BUG.



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  3. SYSTEM FREEZES

    1. No responce from XUI and/or DV

      If there are no indications of other problems such as above (GO hangs, mechanism errors, or daemon hangs), and you can get no response from the XUI or DV, first try restarting the ICs. If the screens on stefan have completely frozen then the problem is probably with the system. As a last resort the TO can reboot bigdog or/and guidedog. Follow the instructions in "SpeX statup and shutdown procedures". RARE.



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