Minutes 8-23-2006

FDC Weekly Meeting

Date: August 23, 2006

Participants: Daniel, Simon, Brian

Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 @ 9:30 a.m.

---

Cathode Planes

 - The stretched cathode planes spent some time in the vacuum
   overnight to remove moisture.  This had essentially no effect
   on the high resistance shorts on the planes.
 - The problem was tracked down to the soldering on the cable
   connectors.  All 4 connectors on the two planes have been
   replaced and the shorts are now gone.

Small-Scale Prototype

   Simon has reconfigured the FDC prototype.  He has the
   field/sense wire plane and the two tensioned planes in the
   configuration.  He took data overnight and is analyzing the
   results at the moment.  Note that the tensioned cathode planes
   were stretched laterally by several millimeters.

Cosmic Ray Chambers

   Simon has not yet tested the signals in the cosmic detectors
   now that alcohol has been added.  That will happen this week.

Mechanical Drawings

   Brian has begun work on mechanical drawings for the full-scale
   FDC prototype.  This includes frames, cathodes, and wire planes.
   He will have something to show next week.

Wire Stringing

   Brian will contact Karen Kephart at FNAL to find out what
   stringing they can do for us.  How long will the wire chamber
   shop be in business at FNAL?

Design Discussions

 - We should do some studies of gravitational sag of sense and
   field wires vs. angle.
 - Decide on layer rotation angles.  Possibly 60 deg is not
   optimal and a shallower angle would reduce the effect and
   reduce distortions.

Schedules

   Simon will be on vacation next week - we will begin laying out
   the progress report that is due to the DOE at the end of
   September upon his return.

Minutes prepared by Daniel. Send any comments or corrections along.