VEGAS Pulsar Project Meeting - Sprint Review: 2017 September 18th 14:00 - 15:00pm ET

Present

• Ryan, Jason, Richard, Ray, Joe, Mark

Sprint Story Overview

• VE-292: Investigate BOF files for possible source of 1 ms spurs (COMPLETE)
• VE-321: VEGAS CLEO screen power display (INCOMPLETE)
• VE-323: Prepare for pulsar mode acceptance tests (INCOMPLETE)
• VE-324: Continue work on stage 3 of Matrix (IN PROGRESS)
• VE-313: Review odd bandpass shapes in some pulsar modes
• VE-314: Continue testing low channel incoherent modes (COMPLETE)
• VE-318: Investigate issue with LBW gain and config tool
• VE-320: Dual backend balancing issue
• VE-322: Cannot validate scripts offline for release candidate
• VE-316: Plan for real astronomical commissioning
• VE-302: Configure manager to support Matrix and Classic modes

Story Details

VE-292: Investigate BOF files for possible source of 1 ms spurs

• Randy looked through the BOF files and didn't see anything obvious. Randy wants to dig into this more with Ryan.

VE-321: VEGAS CLEO screen power display

• Currently, CLEO display the input power levels from the IF rack. The issue is that if the LBW balance fails quietyly, CLEO may indicate that the input is well balanced while the output values are not good.
• Ray says that the LBW balancing was failing due to a software bug that has now been fixed. If LBW balancing fails it, config tool should now complain loudly and give the user the option to abort. Ray wonders if CLEO modifications are still needed?
• Ray will talk with Ron to get an estimate of what needs to done.
• Ryan wonders if we VEGAS DM would be the best place to implement this.
• Richard suggests that balance problems should be a CLEO message instead of an Astrid message, and then do away with modifcations to the VEGAS CLEO window.
• Ray and Joe will decide the best way to make sure any balancing errors are reported clearly.

VE-323: Prepare for pulsar mode acceptance tests

• Waiting on other Manager work

VE-324: Continue work on stage 3 of Matrix

• Joe has started thinking about the low bandwidth pulsar modes
• Joe needs to understand the use of overlapping data in the raw and coherent dedispersion modes. Needs to know if raw modes need to write out data blocks with overlap.
• Ryan needs to discuss more with Joe.

VE-313: Review odd bandpass shapes in some pulsar modes

• Randy has some new builds that Ryan will test.

VE-314: Continue testing low channel incoherent modes

• Confirmed that 64-channel modes have incorrect bandpass shape

VE-318: Investigate issue with LBW gain and config tool

• See above discussion about CLEO. This has been fixed.

VE-320: Dual backend balancing issue

• This may have been impacted by Ray's work on LBW balancing.
• Ray and Ryan will need to troubleshoot on the real system. Ryan will take care of reserving maintenance time on Friday.

VE-322: Cannot validate scripts offline for release candidate

• Richard will send Ray tracebacks and scripts.

VE-316: Plan for real astronomical commissioning

• Awaiting other work

VE-302: Configure manager to support Matrix and Classic modes

• Ray modified the VEGAS HPC adapter to do this. Ray is now consolidating code and will need to test in reg test.

VEGAS Pulsar Project Meeting - Sprint Planning: 2017 August 14th 2:00 - 3:00pm ET

Note: The team's "velocity" has been consistent at 11--13 points per sprint. We should aim for 12 points per sprint for planning purposes.

Backlog

• High time resolution modes
• Investigate packet loss in c1500 modes

Critical Issues

• Dual backend balancing
• Final spectral line regression tests
• Final pulsar mode tests
• Offline script validation
• Luke wants to talk about appending delays in BOF files

New Stories

• Implement messaging/reporting of LBW gain balancing errors
• Test modifications to allow switching from matrix to classic

-- RyanLynch - 2017-09-18