Troubleshooting
Grating Unit Times Out
- Manually re-select the same CWL on the LUCI IMGUI and commit.
**** Remember to hit refresh at the bottom of the IMGUI prior setting any desired parameters. Selecting Submit will commit the entire instrument configuration, so any stale entries, such as mask position, will also be committed. ****
- If if still fails to stabilize, change CWL +/- 0.1um or so and commit, go back to the desired CWL.
- If it still fails, change grating and CWL, go back to desired settings if this works.
- Avoid high EL observations (>80 degrees) if possible.
- Ask OSA (telescope operator) to note date, time, EL, and ROT in IT#2772
Re-submit science script once the grating has stabilized at the correct CWL. Note that the science script will resubmit the instrument configuration. If the alignment acquisition has been acheieved it may be desirable to either skip to the next obs item not containing an instrument configuration, or turn off the instrument in the observer panel and manually configure as needed. Remember to turn the instrument back on before sending next script!
Filter Wheel fails to reach position
- In the Instrument Manager GUI initialize the Filter Wheel(s) that failed.
- The in the IMGUI command the filter wheels to the desired position.
**** Remember to hit refresh at the bottom of the IMGUI prior setting any desired parameters. Selecting Submit will commit the entire instrument configuration, so any stale entries, such as mask position, will also be committed. **** - If the Filter Wheel still fails to reach the desired position contact the ISA for further troubleshooting.
GUI components freeze/unresponsive
- There are no popups waiting for acknowledgement. If so acknowledge.
- The RTD is downloading the most recent file. If it is waiting for a file, just wait until the operation completes and try again.
xkill
on a command line and click on the problem GUI to close it.
Restart GUIs
The open_observer script can also re-start individual components in case you run into trouble and must close something. In an xterm, type:
open_observer luci
and you will get a summary of the options.
As an example, if you close the observer GUI, it can be re-opened with:
open_observer luci observer
More on starting the software here.
Guide Probe Vignetting Science/Calibration FOV
If users note a gradient in the “lamp on” calibrations, likely the AGW probe is vignetting. This can happen if an on axis preset was sent and the probe not parked/homed afterwards. Below is an example of an LUCI1 1″ longslit K band flat with the guide probe was left on axis. The counts over 3/4 of the field are drastically diminished.
If this feature is seen noted during calibrations ask the Telescope Operator or Mountain Manager to park the probe. If the field appears vignetted during scripts with the telescope mode set to ACTIVE, ADAPTIVE, or ESM, then confirm in the OT Position editor that the guide probe footprint for the selected star does not vignette the Science FOV.
Found mask cabinet position -1
This means that the requested mask is not in LUCI. You will most often see this when a mask is re-designed after having generated the observing script. Verify the correct mask name in the Instrument GUI mask drop-down list, then Edit a copy of the script. SED works well for this:
sed -i ‘s/oldmaskname/newmaskname/g’ scriptcopy.xml
Reset the queue, load the corrected script, and Go!
Field Stop Alignment for N3.75 Imaging
Do not try to align on the N1.8 camera images! The field stop can be realigned on the N3.75 camera images using the AFC tab in the Real Time Display (last tab on the right).
To align the FM4 mirror using this tab, go to the
- “Move flexure compensation mirror” section (highlighted in red in the figure above on the left), select “current”.
- In the Aladin Window, click on a distinguishable spot on the image (see where “current” is noted – it can also be a corner). Then select the “Target” radio button.
- In the Aladin Window, select to where you want the current spot to move.
Field Stop Alignment for N30 camera for LUCI-AO
Slow display or missing images in RTD
The RTD/Aladin are notified when a new image is saved on the LUCI computer and will download a local copy (to ~/.luci/readoutN) before displaying. If this transfer is interrupted, you see a corrupted filename in Aladin, or a new image is missed, you can re-download them by “sync”ing the last 3-5 images. You will then likely have to “add” them back into the RTD on the “live view” tab. It is OK to delete the existing files in the local .luci directory as they are all copies. If Aladin seems excessively slow, you can try to “stop/start” the Aladin GUI from the RTD as well as re-sync the recent files as described above.
Misc odd RTD problems (slow interaction, delays after button clicks)
Sometimes the RTD gets completely hung up, or interaction with it is extremely slow. One common symptom is that any click takes about 5 seconds to register. In this case the suggestion would be to just do a complete reset of the RTD and Aladin. To do this:
- Close all currently running RTDs and Aladin windows
- In a terminal type the command: luci_reset_aladin
- Wait until the messages indicate it is done
- Restart the RTDs as needed with the command: luci_rtd 1 <or> luci_rtd 2
Exposure time negative countdown
This issue for the most part has been resolved. Although slightly negative countdowns are to be expected, ff you see highly negative countdowns (over -5 seconds) contact your ISA. The negative countdown likely comes from the higher level software (readout managers) not receiving notification of the end of the exposure from the lower level software (GEIRS). Any negative countdown over -5 seconds is a symptom of this problem. To recover, the recommended procedure is:
- Insert a pause in the script where it is currently executing
- Open the GEIRS GUI using open_observer if it is not already open
- Set a short exposure time (0 second LIR, will default to 2.502…)
- Click the READ
- Wait for exposure to complete and display on the GEIRS display GUI
- Resume the script by clicking “Go!”
