Summary of M1 mini engineering run at Livingston (Nov 23, 2002)

[6-hour run: 8:00 p.m - 2:00 am. CST]

Ongoing commissioning work of the preceding nights (photodiode troubles) left the interferometer in a fragile state in which it could lock, but in which the common mode feedback could not be enabled, despite valiant efforts by commissioners present during the run. So sensitivity was not very good during M1 (but it didn't need to be for the purposes of the run). Because many monitors report results only if IFO is in science mode (including common mode), we had to manually set that bit to fool them.
Because of the troubles in locking the interferometer in the preceding nights, there was no pre-existing, relevant calibration curve for use by SenseMonitor, but the commissioners succeeded in carrying out a calibration during the run. Lines were also injected, although the initial amplitudes were excessively high, causing some troubles for glitch monitors with adaptive thresholding based on high-pass rms noise.
On a more positive note, the interferometer gave us a stable 3-hour lock and another 2-hour lock.
We rigged up an extra wall projector to allow prominent display of DMT viewer figures of merit. Dedicated wall space and new projectors are promised for E9.

Defined DMT viewer xml files for nearly all proposed figures of merit and saved for posterity.
Reached consensus that DMT viewer time histories plots should have time axes that display 0 on the far right (present time) with increasingly negative time values as one moves toward the left. The "t0" displayed at the bottom left of the pad should be present time, not the start time of the time series.
Various DMT bugs reported or suggestions made for improvement (see snapshot of bug report below)
Audible DMT alarms tested

On the whole, the mini-run was well worth holding. Our DMT monitors and control room procedures have clearly benefitted from M1.
Holding mini-runs in the midst of commissioning does run the risk of having an interferometer that is far from a nominal data run state.
Having up-to-date calibration info (reference curve and sensible injected line amplitudes) before the run is highly desirable, since more than one DMT monitor relies on that info.
One disappointment: Had no time to spend on updating scimon shift checklists