BW May 2014

I started learning how to test fibers in the dark box. There are two important cautions to observe when testing. It is very important for all the electronics to be off whenever the dark box is open. If they are on, the silicon photomultipliers could be ruined. Also, we must treat the fibers gently.

I did some more housekeeping, sweeping the lab and emptying and cleaning the fish tank. I brushed corrosion off the metal parts for the bending unit and cleaned collars, screws and other small parts with vinegar.

I worked on the LabVIEW program for bending the fibers to make it finish heating them at a set time. To do that, I added to the program we already had and developed three other programs: one to calculate how long it will take to heat the water, another to convert the completion time to seconds, and a third to monitor the current time and control the other two new programs. The computer should not be constantly calculating how long it will take to heat the water. To avoid that unnecessary calculation, I used case structures and shift registers to make the main program call the calculating function only at the beginning of a run and after a change to our desired completion time.