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1/22: I read Micah's suggested steps to take. I took out light guide bundle 407 and looked at how far the screw was sticking out of the front collar. It looks like the screw is barely protruding from the collar if it is at all, so that screw seems to be the right length. There is a little plastic from tapping sticking out around the screw hole, but it doesn't seem likely to scrape against the wheel.
1/22: I read Micah's suggested steps to take. I took out light guide bundle 407 and looked at how far the screw was sticking out of the front collar. It looks like the screw is barely protruding from the collar if it is at all, so that screw seems to be the right length. There is a little plastic from tapping sticking out around the screw hole, but it doesn't seem likely to scrape against the wheel.
I need to learn the fiber numbering scheme being used in the lab, but for now I have my own, which involves placing the bundle on the styrofoam as if it were time to polish. The top of the bundle is then the uppermost side when the fibers are put against the wheel, and there are 6 rows and 5 columns. Looking at the end of the bundle to be polished, fibers 1 to 5 in my own scheme are in the top row from left to right, and each row below includes the next 5 fibers counted left to right. Therefore the bottom row consists of fibers 26 to 30. I need to translate my numbers into the standard system in the lab once I understand it.
I need to learn the fiber numbering scheme being used in the lab, but for now I have my own [https://uconn-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/benjamin_willis_uconn_edu/EQsllWpw0spPtfGbtscVwIgBMlVhO_klS26Tp8XewdAgxA?e=KYp623 as shown in a diagram], which involves placing the bundle on the styrofoam as if it were time to polish. The top of the bundle is then the uppermost side when the fibers are put against the wheel, and there are 6 rows and 5 columns. Looking at the end of the bundle to be polished, fibers 1 to 5 in my own scheme are in the top row from left to right, and each row below includes the next 5 fibers counted left to right. Therefore the bottom row consists of fibers 26 to 30. I need to translate my numbers into the standard system in the lab once I understand it.
I explained my way of numbering the fibers, and Jim said it would be all right as long as I document it with a diagram.
I explained my way of numbering the fibers, and Jim said it would be all right as long as I document it with a diagram.
“To be milled”: 40
“To be milled”: 40
“To be fused”: 36
“To be fused”: 36
“To be polished”: 18
“To be polished”: 18
I looked at bundle 407 and identified fiber 15, which is flaring, in addition to the fibers I identified yesterday at Jim's request. I also found bundle 405 and looked for flaring. I saw at least one fiber flaring on the downstream end and four upstream. To identify them, though, I thought I should unbundle them, and I would want to do that on the conference room table. I thought I should get Jim's approval for that idea. I will also have to take out several more bundles to reach bundle 403.
I looked at bundle 407 and identified fiber 15, which is flaring, in addition to the fibers I identified yesterday at Jim's request. I also found bundle 405 and looked for flaring. I saw at least one fiber flaring on the downstream end and four upstream. To identify them, though, I thought I should unbundle them, and I would want to do that on the conference room table. I thought I should get Jim's approval for that idea. I will also have to take out several more bundles to reach bundle 403.
I looked in the box of sci-fis that were there before this month's cutting. I saw the three bags, "To be milled," "To be fused," and "To be polished." As I expected, there are 10 in the "To be milled" bag. I think the other 30 are still in their collar on the sci-fi polishing plate.
I looked in the box of sci-fis that were there before this month's cutting. I saw the three bags, "To be milled," "To be fused," and "To be polished." As I expected, there are 10 in the "To be milled" bag. I think the other 30 are still in their collar on the sci-fi polishing plate. I will have to check whether they look polished. If we only got to the 5 micron grit, they either need more polishing on the same end or they need to be turned around and polished on the other end. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure whether we polished only one end or both ends of those sci-fis.
One thing I can do today is to practice polishing on the light guides I cut last week for the purpose.
1/24: I am ready to begin polishing the practice bundle. The gap between the wing of the plate and the slider is narrower on the left than on the right as I face the wheel. Therefore, I think I should twist the end to be polished right and the end farthest from the wheel left.
1/25: I finished polishing the practice bundle today. There are a few imperfections still, so I will have to see if the polishing is satisfactory.
I used the reverse setting for the grinding wheel for just about all the time I spent polishing. It looked like it was going to be really good until near the end, when some blotches appeared as I was polishing with copier paper. The blotches were at the borders between fibers. I polished some more and reduced them to little scratches, but they are still visible.
I bumped into the rods sticking out of the heating box this week, so I will have to mention that to Jim sometime when he's around and see if anything needs to be repaired.
1/26: I can start practicing fusing today. Dr. Jones said I need to use light guides rather than sci-fis.
I fused 10 fibers today. I tested five of them and the strongest one held the hanger plus 300 grams. It broke after several seconds under 500 grams.
1/29: I asked Jim some questions this morning.
He said it would be all right to move fibers to the conference room table, but I need to be aware that after testing, they must remain in the same position in a bundle ever after.
I can move the fibers to a different compartment in the storage box as long as I vacuum it out first. However, since the fibers seem to be dusty already, it would be best to clean them before moving them to a clean compartment. They should be clean before they are tested. I need to ask Dr. Jones for some lint free- cloths. All I could find was tack cloths.
There is a bag, I think of sci-fis, that should stay in the front compartment, Jim said.
The same collars should work for both light guides and sci-fis. I need to calculate what I plan to take off, though, to be sure. I think I should also check once I have polished a bundle that they fit right in the splicing unit. If they are too long, I can take more off, but if they are too short, they will be more likely to be no good.
Jim thinks we need a LG bundle highly polished on both ends for dark rate testing. The dark box testing equipment needs to be calibrated before it is useful. Right now, all we could tell is that a fiber is very bad. We can't tell whether a fiber is very good, barely good, or a little less than adequate. One problem is that the SiPMs are reading differently, and another is that the laser brightness is not uniform across the beam. There is a screen for the laser that is not quite perpendicular to the beam, and that is causing the variation in brightness.
Jim also showed me how to make socks for the fibers.
I should figure out a schedule of things I need to do.
I looked in the storage box, and there are 7 bundles of sci-fis counting the "To be milled" ones.
I inspected bundles 403 and 405 for flared fibers. I found a few and [https://uconn-my.sharepoint.com/:i:/g/personal/benjamin_willis_uconn_edu/EUIoW0DQt8xIqY137PP2OLoBlo8F2XHMdCrS_46L4NRGfg?e=bBsRel identified them in a table].
1/30: Following Jim's suggestion, I made 128 paper sleeves for the ends of the fibers to protect them from being scratched when they are moved. If we want sleeves for both ends of all the fibers, we need 480 of them. I want to see how well these work, so I should put them on bundles sometime. I suspect they might not be useful for keeping on fibers in the storage box because they would come off while being put in and taken out. They might be useful at other times, though.
I may have finished polishing the "To be milled" sci-fis. Since Micah used 5 micron grit on them the last time he polished, I started with 1 micron and continued to 0.3 micron grit and copier paper. They look pretty good, though there is a more heavily striated area in the second row from the top, and some small marks that may be from melting are visible. I should look at the bundle with the Carson camera or the microscope in lab 405.
1/31: Since I don't have gloves, just one left in the box, I decided to try out the microscope in lab 405 this morning. I looked at one of the practice fibers I fused and it appears to be only partly fused. I thought I could see a gap going rather deeply toward the middle of the fuse site. That may be because the practice fibers don't have a flat surface at the ends.
I tried to take a picture with the camera on top of the microscope, but it won't even show the image of the fiber on the screen. I looked at the [http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/6/0400000016/01/PSA590IS_CUG_EN.pdf camera manual], but have not yet discovered what is wrong.
I have uploaded the beginnings of a [https://uconn-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/benjamin_willis_uconn_edu/ERKh3A2AUwBPvlLJxPOaHekB9XSjUhP96nz5kXyrjeNa1A?e=pR9n3a work schedule].