Unplugged-cable behavior fixed end to end: heat grid rolls on the slot boundary (view computes the newest slot from the draw clock; history sampled every frame so slots color within a frame; noise phase displayed as commanded straight from the shared clock — radiating and the per-slot vote deleted), SNR ghost panic disambiguated via the PMA 1.1 latch (link dropped mid-read discards the batch, ghost on a proven-up link still dies), measure skips the 25s relink wait when the ECD verdict says faulted and the header says MEASURING instead of GOOD while a diag runs, RollBall mailbox deadline resized to 10s from bench measurement (<25ms linked, ~220ms no-link, >3s during a live plug's training; docs/modules/wiitek updated)

noise.go

@@ -65,6 +65,16 @@ type noisePort struct {
 	frame []byte
 }
 
+// The cycle is a pure function of the shared slot clock: even slots up — ports
+// admin-up and the wire loud, training or frames — odd slots down. Everything
+// that shows the phase computes it from the clock through here rather than
+// sampling the actuator, whose ioctls lag the boundary.
+func slotUp(seq int64) bool { return seq%2 == 0 }
+
+func noiseUp(now time.Time) bool {
+	return slotUp(int64(now.Sub(rateEpochStart) / histSlotSpan))
+}
+
 type noiser struct {
 	eps   [2]endpoint
 	ports [2]noisePort
@@ -73,8 +83,6 @@ type noiser struct {
 	// phase. Latched across the down phase, where the missing carrier is our
 	// own doing and says nothing about the cable.
 	connected atomic.Bool
-	// The cycle's up phase: ports admin-up and the wire loud, training or frames.
-	radiating atomic.Bool
 }
 
 func newNoiser() (*noiser, error) {
@@ -124,9 +132,9 @@ type noiseView struct {
 
 // missing is zero while the cable was there at the last verdict, one while it
 // was not: the shape the error cells already colour by, so absence paints as
-// the fault it is. on is the cycle's phase, presence granted.
+// the fault it is. on is the commanded phase, straight from the clock.
 func (n *noiser) view() noiseView {
-	v := noiseView{on: n.radiating.Load()}
+	v := noiseView{on: noiseUp(time.Now())}
 	if !n.connected.Load() {
 		v.missing = 1
 	}
@@ -188,7 +196,7 @@ func (n *noiser) run(done *atomic.Bool) {
 	applied, wasUp, linked := false, false, false
 	for !done.Load() {
 		<-tick.C
-		up := (time.Since(rateEpochStart)/histSlotSpan)%2 == 0
+		up := noiseUp(time.Now())
 		if !applied || up != wasUp {
 			// A whole up phase with no link is many times the ~1s the wire
 			// needs to train, so at its end the silence is the cable's answer.
@@ -196,7 +204,6 @@ func (n *noiser) run(done *atomic.Bool) {
 				n.connected.Store(linked)
 			}
 			n.setLinks(fd, up)
-			n.radiating.Store(up)
 			applied, wasUp, linked = true, up, false
 		}
 		if !up || !n.bothUp() {