2026/05/21 Installed new power supplies to Radar1
2026/05/21 Radar 2 brought up to 601, Radar1, Radar2, RCP8, and RVP8 all connected locally. Difficulty connecting to RVP8.
2026/05/27 problem connecting to RVP8 determined to be a boot issue, connected a monitor and keyboard to RVP8, and determined it was having difficulty connecting to hard drive. Reseated hard drive ribbon cable, boot sequence now works as intended. When keyboard is connected, requires key input at power on and pressing esc to boot before beginning sequence.
2026/05/27 mod voltage Fuse F3 10asb blown. New fuse ordered. Temporarily fitted a 15asb fuse, loud mechanical sound, 15asb fuse removed.
2026/05/27 door latch bolt replaced, door switch still not always signaling closed, waiting fixes issue.
2026/06/02 New 10ASB fuse was fitted into Mod Voltage. Fuse was heated to the point of melting the solder, indicating a short somewhere in the Radar electronics.
2026/06/09 Mod voltage fuse light had a loose connection, causing the fuse to melt, radar still not operating after fix. Currently assumed to be an issue with the magnetron or pulse package.
2026/06/15 radarpi setup in CH601, radar2 is now connected to the internet and is able to be connected to via terminal. At the moment, data will have to be processed and displayed on the connected computer.
2026/06/17 Rack in CH601 was rearranged to fit new transmitter assembly. The UPS was moved up to directly below the RCP8, and the new Transmitter assembly was installed below that. A few mounting brackets were removed that were not put back, and the old Azimuth/Elevation servo controller was removed. It was found that the system of wires that adapt the older connections to newer equipment has live exposed wires. A better solution or rewiring is being considered as part of the renovations.
2026/06/18 Some cable management was done to organize and understand the connections between the cabinet, the RCP8, the Azimuth/Elevation servo control, and radar1 and 2. It has been noted that the current RCP8 setup uses several homemade splitters and adapters to change the cord from the cabinet into VGA plugs that the RCP8 can accept. Because of this configuration, it may work best to continue to use the green cabinet and funnel new systems through the old cables.
2026/07/23 Two engineers from WMI visited to assist in getting the radar running. The found fault was a ground wire on the voltage modulator that had come loose, causing the system to always behave as if the door was open preventing a charge from passing to the magnetron to start transmitting. The door switch for the main door to the green cabinet was also found to be faulty, while the exact reason is unknown it has been removed and the wires have been attached to each other, meaning the radar is always operational with the door open. This can be fixed in the future with a new switch. The radar is now operational and is able to take scans. WMI also viewed the new equipment from Stevenson and offered to ask Vaisala a cost estimate to move it to dualpol from single pol.
2026/07/24 While attempting to start the radar, we had the same issue of the door switch holding capacitance, and in an attempt to fix it the switch was grounded to the floor of the cabinet. The power supply fuse then blew; it is unclear if this was caused by grounding the door switch or if it was a coincidence. New fuses have been ordered and are on the way.
2026/07/30 The door switch signal was changed from critical to normal in the IRIS RCP8 setup. This allows IRIS to ignore the red flag warning that the interlock is open. It was discovered that the transmitter cabinet has it's own interlock detection system that requires the door to be closed long enough to build up voltage, this seems to be working so it is assumed that the short is somewhere between the cabinet and the RCP. The system was ran with the ignored interlock warning and ran for several minutes, detecting the storm west of UND. The program was ended by a shutdown of the RVP8. The RVP8 was repeatedly rebooting, but the DSP socket was not connecting to IRIS. IRIS was able to launch so it can see and interact with the RVP8 computer but not use it's DSP. The RVP8 was left manually turned off and will need to be turned back on on a cooler day. Current temperature wis 86 F with no sun.
2026/7/31 Several attempts were made to get the RVP8 running again this morning. After the initial power on the RVP was pingable from radar1 but IRIS still reported no DSP connection. After running several test codes while sshed into RVP it hit an error that it could not interact with the IO card. The RVP was then rebooted but now the IFD lights refused to turn on. The RAM was reseated again, and all cable connections were checked. The RVP still is unable to boot, and connected monitor showed no input. The RVP is currently powered off and another attempt will be made on Monday to start the RVP8.
2026/8/15 The new Jump Station was installed by UND IT allowing ethernet connection and faster data transfer. It also allows a more secure connection to outside computers.