[evlatests] EVLA tests of Sept 7

[Rich Moeser]

>> Approximately 40 minutes later, the antenna stowed
>> itself and corrected the elevation limit;
>
> I had a mysterious experience last night which bears on this.
> Antenna 14 was again driven into a limit because the antennas
> were pointed before the script was properly started.  Why that
> happened is another story.  By the time I was called the
> antenna had probably been in a limit for some time: the exact
> time can be found in the monitor data base.  In preparation for
> getting the antenna out of the limit I asked the operator to be
> sure that the ACU was getting valid postition commands by hitting
> the 'go' button while there was a valid elevation in the elevation
> command box.  He did this several times and reported that the
> antenna had started moving up in elevation.  It eventually was
> stowed and secured.  All this without having submitted the limit
> override command to the ACU.  It seems likely that an antenna
> that wanders into a limit on its own as has been happening lately
> will eventually timeout and autostow.  It is not clear whether
> an antenna which is purposelfully driven into a limit will also
> do so.  This, perhaps, helps explain the behavior Pat reported
> above.
>
> Does anyone remember if the ACU was actually designed to operate
> this way?
>
> As an aside the operator reports that there is no box in the new
> ACU screen to type in motor control commands.  Had it been necessary
> we would have had to use the old ACU screen for the purpose.

Actually, if you take a look, there are az and el command textfields in the 
new ACU screen. They are located on the bottom right hand corner of the 
screen with the other command components. The operator need only enter a 
value in the textfield and hit 'Enter' (there is no 'go' button on the new 
screen).

--Rich