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Macromolecular Crystallography
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In This Section

Sub Navigation
  • MX Responsive Beamtime Guide
  • Manual
    • Preparing for Beamtime
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      • Navigating in the GUI
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      • Load a Sample
      • Manually Mounted Samples
      • Sample Alignment
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Instruments by Science Group

Macromolecular
Crystallography
Soft Condensed
Matter
Imaging and
Microscopy
Biological
Cryo-Imaging
Magnetic
Materials
Structures and
Surfaces
Crystallography
Spectroscopy
  1. Instruments
  2. MX
  3. Common
  4. Manual
  5. Data Collection Software
  6. Load a Sample

Load a Sample

After a sample is loaded it will be aligned, and can be centered using low dose X-ray rastering. There are currently a few differrent ways to load a sample.

From the Samples Perspective

Samples can be loaded, exchanged and unloaded from the samples perspecive.

  • To load your sample right click on the relevant sample from the registered samples.

Load Sample Perspective

  • Left click on the sample and click 'Load' on the top right hand corner of the persepctive 

Load Sample perspective top right

 

load highlighted sample

  • Alternatively the sample can be loaded by right clicking the sample in the sample changer interface

load sample from sample changer right click

  • To exchange samples simply click 'Load' for the sample you would like to load. This will first unload the current sample.
  • ALWAYS unload your final sample.
    • If on-site wait for the sample changer to finish drying before entering the hutch.

From the Current Sample Button

The sample can be loaded, exchanged and unloaded using the 'Current Samples' button which is found in the top panel on the screen in all perspectives.

The sample changer must be switched on in the 'Samples' perspective before this will work.

  • Click the 'Current Sample' button to see a list of samples registered for the experiment.

Current Sample

  • Select the desired sample (2) and click 'Load' (3):

Current Sample Loading

  • To exchange samples simply load the next sample and it will first remove and store the current sample.
  • ALWAYS unload your final sample.
    • If on-site wait for the sample changer to finish drying before entering the hutch.

From the Data Collection Perspective

The sample can also be loaded from the Data Collection perspective, either by using the 'Data Collection Table' view, or by using the 'Data Collection Settings' panel.

  • In the data collections settings panel click on the 'Not Defined' button to select your sample from a list of registered samples.

Data collection run scan

  • In the data collection table click on the 'Sample ID' column to select your sample from the list.

Sample selection

  • In these cases you should define appropriate collection parameters: 
    • In the data collection table
      • Run Selected
      • run selected​

      • Run All. This will start queued data collection.
      • run_all​

    •  In the data collection settings panel

data_collection_run_scan

  • In both cases the sample will be loaded (or exchanged if there is currently a sample on the goniometer) and the data collection will begin, if manual centering is selected the collection will pause to be centred.

Unloading a Sample

When the next sample is requested, the previous sample will be unloaded. At the end of the visit, or before entering the hutch it is necessary to remove the sample. This can be done by:

  • The top right of the sample perspective has an unload button

unload

  • The unload needs confirmation:

Confirm Sample Unload

  • After it is unloaded, GDA will confirm it is unloaded

Sample was unsuccessfully unloaded

 

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