[TASS] Problem #2

[Tom Droege <droege@WWA.COM>]

As I type I think I have found problem #2.  It has been a struggle.  I am
trying to make a number of small improvements.  I installed a new camera at
roughly the same time that I burned new prom code.  At the time this did
not seem serious as there are two cameras in the system, and one should
tell on the other.  In this case the new camera was noisy because of a bad
connections somewhere.  Sigh!  Everywhere I looked I found questionable
solder connections.  This is the problem of hiring non-professional
students.  It is hard to train them to be properly careful when they are so
short term oritnted.  This was problem #1 and it took me a long time to
find it because it was hard to separate the symptoms from #2.

Problem #2 related to the new prom code.  I tried to optimize things so
that there was longer double integration.  To do this I shortened up on the
integrator reset time.  This did not bother the V camera because the
shorting switch seems to have lower resistance than the switch on the I
camera, which happened to be the one I changed.  So needless to say, I was
looking for exotic problems in the I camera rather that problems in the
PROM code.   The symptoms made no sense at all to me.  There were
backgrounds that sloped over the frame, sudden jumps in the level of the
background, etc..

OK, this is probably more than you want to hear about such problems.  But
they have been driving me mad!  One likes to go steadily forward on a
project making small improvements.  When you take a big step backwards and
can't find the cause it is very frustrating.

There is now improved hope that I will make it to NOFS on schedule.

Again this explains why I have not been writing on the paper or reading
your tech notes, or ...  I always hope that there are enough of you and
that I don't have to get involved in everything.  This seems to be the case
as progress seems to be prgressing without me.

Tom Droege