Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 21:47:35 +0000
Hi All.
I’ll reiterate the problem mentioned by David regarding the ease with which
users can bump the SampleCasePlus safety arm, tripping the sensors and turning
the light red. This used to happen several times a day when I got my first SC+,
and it was making life an ordeal.
What has saved me has been installation of a rubber band that adds a little
extra spring to the arm. See attached photo. By hooking a rubber band between
the arm and a cable mount stuck to the side of the autosampler housing at a
position that confers reasonable nonexcessive tension, my incidence of
spurious autosampler errors has dropped to negligible levels (once every several
weeks now).
There is a time element here, too. When I got my first SampleCasePlus a few
years ago, the problem was bad, but coaching my users and posting signs helped.
Over time, however, the lever arm developed a friction problem – bumping the
lever arm resulted in it staying where it was in the sensor’s optical path -
equivalent to the spring losing its springiness. Thorough cleaning of its pivot
point helped, but the issue persisted. I asked Bruker for a replacement spring,
or even additional springs to double them up, but got no materials. The rubber
band solution has kinda saved my sanity. I don’t know what I’d do now that I
have three SC+’s. All the 24-sample SampleCases have not had this problem.
Of course, the rubber bands do wear out and can snap, especially around the
organic samples. I just replace the rubber band on my SampleCasePluses about
every month and it’s been fine.
I hope this helps!
Thanks. – Josh
Josh Kurutz, PhD
NMR Facility Manager, Chemistry Dept.
University of Chicago
https://chemnmrlab.uchicago.edu/
jkurutz_at_uchicago.edu
> From: main_at_ammrl.groups.io on behalf of Vander Velde, David
> Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 4:13 PM
> To: main_at_ammrl.groups.io <main_at_ammrl.groups.io>
> Subject: Re: [AMMRL] Bruker SampleCase error
What we have noticed is that even a tiny bump of the red safety bar irreversibly
sends the light red. Previously, you could bump it and it would very briefly turn
red, but go back to green on its own if the bar returned to its neutral position.
Now, it stays red, and I haven't found anything other than a power cycle on the
sample changer to turn it green again.
I put a large note on the magnet by the sample changer to inform users, don't bump
the red bar, but if you do, a hard reset is required. Repetitions of this problem
have fallen way off since a few people learned the hard way about this.
To me, it seems excessive that a momentary tap on the red bar brings the changer to
its knees, but perhaps there was a bad outcome somewhere that led to this change.
The whole changer runs and sounds somewhat differently after the firmware update. For
instance, depressing the blue or green buttons doesn't lead to an instantaneous
activation of the pneumatic valves.
________________________________
> From: main_at_ammrl.groups.io on behalf of Perry Pellechia
> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2024 1:20 PM
> To: ammrl_at_groups.io <ammrl_at_groups.io>
> Subject: [AMMRL] Bruker SampleCase error
Hello All,
I am working with Bruker on a fairly intermittent error we are getting on a
AV-IIIHD system running with a SampleCase (ambient, 24 samples). The error is
showing up on average every 4-7 days (100-200 samples). This started shortly
after upgrading the host workstation to Topspin 3.7.0 (new HP Z4G5 workstation
with Win 11). We were not seeing this before the upgrade (TS 3.6.1 on Win 10).
I am not necessarily seeking a solution (it would be fantastic if there is one
w/o a software patch) but looking for anyone else who might be seeing the same
or similar error.
The message we are seeing (similar on both Topspin and IconNMR) is:
“WebService Error: 1000 STOP_CHANGER SampleTransporter: System not ready
to accept new command”
With the error, the sample changer goes “red" and automation stops. This
certainly seems like a software bug and the issue has been upgraded to second
tier support. Any additional information could be helpful for coming up with
a software/firmware fix.
Since this is our primary walkup instrument you probably can see that this
is fairly inconvenient. Other than this, the 3.7.0 upgrade has gone very well
on our 4 systems. This was probably the most trouble free software upgrade I
have applied and I was happy to retire 10-12 year old computers. However, this
system stopping automation remains the only significant issue.
Thanks for any similar reports or suggestions.
Perry.
--
Perry J. Pellechia
Director of NMR Services
Research Professor
University of South Carolina
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
--
Perry.
--
Perry J. Pellechia
Director of NMR Services
Research Professor
University of South Carolina
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
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