[evlatests] EVLA Operations Tests

[Pat Van Buskirk]

The operations test time proved very useful today. We first re-ran
Friday night's test to determine why the EVLA script failed - turned out
to be a browser problem. Rich's new Java-based software will prevent
this from happening in the future.

We discovered that Barry and Ken are not using Rich's executor interface
during their testing, so some errors are not surfacing until operations
gets involved in the testing, sometimes in the middle of the night. It 
would be helpful if Ken and Barry (or someone other than Rich) would 
begin using the interface to help in both debugging and providing feedback.

We created a new obs file from our two-hour pointing file and attempted
to convert it with obs2script. Our obs file had a blank line at the end
of the file which caused a "file not found" error. We eliminated the
blank line from the obs file and successfully converted and executed the
file. Could obs2script ignore blank lines, perhaps?

Obs2script also converted the date incorrectly, setting the julian date
one day earlier than current. Did we do something wrong, or is this a bug?

We found that aborting a file and even stopping the executor did not 
stop the EVLA antenna from receiving commands. Pete Whiteis explained 
that this is due to the pointing polynomial 'Limit Time' parameter, 
which had not expired. How will this be handled when observe files are 
running one after the other?

Rich demonstrated his new Java-based screens which the operators liked
very much. He and the operators spent some time running scripts,
reviewing screens and making suggestions for improvements.

We finished by having the operator first set up the VLA antennas, then
create and execute an EVLA script from scratch with the web interface.
Next week, we plan to use new Java-based software to perform similar tests.

Cheers,
Pat


-- 
You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take
risks, jump over the hurdles and break though the brick walls that are
always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind
of feeling for what it is you are doing, you'll stop at the first giant
hurdle.

George	Lucas (American film maker)