Never Build a Flat Roof

[Tom Droege <droege@wwa.com>]

The subject says it all.  I have spent the afternoon mopping my laboratory
floor.  The worst thing, I can't detect where it is leaking in.  Sigh.  One
of my outlets was buzzing this morning.  The wall was hot.  Sigh!  A good
way to start a fire.  When things driy out a littlie I will have to take
the electrical system apart and check for damage.  Yes, I will watch it
closely so the house does not burn down.

But there is progress anyway.  Tuesday night there was enough clear sky
that I got a rough focus.  Problems.  There is a limit on the signal at
about 30,000 electrons.  Should get to 80,000 by the spec sheet.  I
speculate that it is an electronic problem with the preamplifier in the
head saturating.  Wednesday night I got to within 0.01" of the correct
focus.  Still saw the saturation problem.  

Today I took the camera heads apart and took out the x6 gain.  This hurts
the signal to noise ratio, but we will be far from that being a problem.
If I get any holes in the clouds tonight I will be able to see if the
preamplifier was the problem.  Sigh!  Cameras ser #1 and #2 seem to be
different from ser #0.  It is now very awkward to look at signals.  I will
probably start assemblying Arne's system next week when Dan is here and
debug on that system.  

There is still a possibility that the CCD chip voltages are not right.  The
high voltage is set at 20 when the spec sheet says 22 but serial #0 worked
fine there.

Wednesday I wrote a big order for shafting and bearings and gears and ...
I keep plugging away on the production line.  

Tom Droege