Remote Experiments

If your experiment is remote, here are the things you need to do before your experiment:

• Submit the list of remote investigators at least 3 weeks before your experiment via the UAS. Only the people you include on this list will be able to login to/access B18 control systems during the experiment, so it is very important that you do this in time so that everyone has access. 
• Submit your ERA. For instructions, please visit the 'Before your Beamtime' tab. Health and Safety will need some time to validate your ERA, and without a valid ERA, your samples will not be allowed on the beamline, so please make sure you submit the ERA in time.
• Mail your samples to your local contact sufficiently early, just in case there are postal delays. When you mail the samples, please make sure you write your proposal number on the package, so that Diamond Goods and Handling know that there are samples inside. The address for mailing samples is:

         <Your Local Contact's Name> (B18)

          Diamond Light Source Ltd.

          Goods Handling

          Synchrotron Stores, Zone 8,

          Harwell Campus, Didcot

          Oxfordshire OX110DE

You can connect remotely to our workstations using NX software, and control the beamline (i.e. align samples, collect data, etc) remotely. 

• Download and install Nomachine software from https://www.nomachine.com/download-enterprise#NoMachine-Enterprise-Client 

           Instructions on how to create a virtual session on a beamline working station are in this video: 

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6FHWuy0Oug&feature=emb_logo

• If you have a beamtime on b18, you will have a choice connecting to b18-ws001:4000 or b18-ws003:4000. You can pick either one of these workstations. Note that only registered participants for the beamtime will be able to connect. 
• You will have to accept your local contact and your collaborators into your session. When they try to connect, a pop up message will appear at the top right side of the screen for you to accept them.
• In order not to have problems with screen sharing, move the mouse to the right top corner of the screen, and click on the folding paper that appears. Go to Display -> Change settings sand:
  • set the resolution of the session to max (1920x 1080)
  • untick "Match the client resolution upon connecting"
  • on the main Display menu, choose "Fit to window"
• When leaving your workstation, don't logout but just disconnect from NX. This will allow the experiment to proceed and other persons connected to the session will be able to keep monitoring its status:
  • move the mouse to the right top corner of the screen and click on the folding paper that appears. Go to Connection -> Disconnect
• Remember to log out at the end of your session.
• To reconnect, after logging in with nx.diamond.ac.uk, find the virtual session you created initially: the list of running sessions can be long, so use the search bar and filter the sessions
  looking for 'b18'. Identify your one (recogniseable by your fedID), select and 'connect'.

If you can't log in,  this could be because:

1. You aren't registered on a session on the beamline at this time
   • If you aren't registered on the session, you will not be able to log in to B18 . Outside of working hours this is likely unfixable in the time frame you require - you should have registered for the visit well ahead of the scheduled beamtime in the user administration system. During working hours please contact the PI of the experiment to register you in the system.
2. You are using the wrong FedID or password
   • You can check your FedID/ reset your password here. We recommend you do this immediately if you fail to log in twice. Following a third failed attempt with either incorrect FedID or password further log in attempts from your IP will be temporarily blocked for 15 minutes.
3. Your university firewall is blocking the connection
   • If this happens, please contact your university IT department. For information, you need to be able to connect to 193.62.222.2 on TCP port 4000

At B18 we have a large sample plate, which can hold multiple sample holders. If your experiments involves measuring several ex-situ pellets/samples, we can post you some sample holders ahead of time. You can then make the pellets in your lab, and send them to us already mounted in the sample holders. 

You can prepare a spreadsheet with the sample information while you are mounting the samples on the holders, to avoid any mix-ups during the experiment. To facilitate this, please fill up the template below and email it to us once you post your samples. During your beamtime, your spreadsheet will be automatically imported into our data acquisition software, so please make sure you fill in all the fields. 

You can download your data via ftp. For detailed instructions, please visit the following page:

https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Users/Experiment-at-Diamond/IT-User-Guide/Not-at-DLS/Retrieve-data.html