Recently in PX robot Category

The crystals server (an Apache Tomcat webapp) has been installed. The crystals webapp will allow you to upload an excel spreadsheet, containing a list of samples, to the SIBYLS beamline for use with DOMO. The spreadsheet will be automatically converted to an XML file and will become available to you via Blu-Ice once you start data collection. The webapp was developed at the SSRL and is in use at their Macromolecular Crystallography facility. If you have used the SAM robot at Stanford and uploaded your spreadsheet to their server then you will notice a distinct similarity.

We've installed a sweet new blue anodized aluminum air dam on the pneumatic lid for the DOMO sample dewar (with color coordinated electric blue CPU fans). The air dam helps to draw off frozen ice crystals from the air above the liquid nitrogen when the dewar lid is open. This will hopefully prevent the ice from falling into the LN2 and contaminating it. If it doesn't work at least it looks cool.

DOMO (Dynamic Offsite MX(Macromolecular Crystallography) Operator) mounted crystals remotely for the first time today. The user accessed the beamline via port 22 (i.e. ssh) from San Diego using NX Client and was able to successfully screen through 50 or so crystals. Although I could have monitored the shift from my office, from home, or from Tahiti, I thought it would be more prudent to remain close to the beamline in the unlikely event that intervention was needed…. Well I’m glad that I stuck around. Although DOMO performed well, there were a couple of times that I needed to step in a make things right. Overall, however, it was a very successful first run.

If you are interested in collecting crystallographic data from the comfort of your own lab (or Tahiti) I would encourage you to apply for time on the SIBYLS beamline. We have a small supply of sample cassettes and the necessary tools for loading the cassettes. A cassette kit can be sent to you, whereupon you load the cassette with your valuable samples, and thusly send it back to the beamline in time for your shift. It’s loads of fun!

Scott Williams, a postdoc in the Tainer group at The Scripps Research Institute, was the first crystallographer to use DOMO. Here he is kicking back and enjoying some of the fine espresso available at the beamline while DOMO mounts his samples from the custom LN2 sample dewar in the hutch.

Scott screened through ~40 samples during his 16 hour shift, and collected several useful datasets.

After determining that operating the LN2 sample dewar without a lid was going to be problematic with regards to ice accumulation in the liquid nitrogen I decided to design and install a pneumatically operated guillotine lid. Here is a nice aerial shot of the closed lid.

hit the jump for details and more pics…

Today DOMO mounted its first pin from the sample dewar that was filled with liquid nitrogen.

This video is pretty large so unless you are on a fast connection or have alot of time to waste trust me DOMO is finally crawling.

After two days of code wrangling, two snapped electrical cables, one crash into the goniometer, and several reconfigurations of the force sensor and gripper arms DOMO is alive. On Friday afternoon DOMO mounted its first sample successfully. There is still much work that needs to be done and many bugs to be ironed out, but the PX robot is now functioning.