Sample Environment Development Lab (SEDL)

The Sample Environment Development Lab in Lab 38 (SEDL) is for integrating existing user sample environments with Diamond's data acquisition and control software (EPICS & GDA), as well as developing and commissioning novel sample environments for the SAXS beamlines at Diamond, and for use of existing sample environments for offline experiments and tests.

User institutions have developed a wide range of sample environments aimed for their specific research interests. These have generally been run independently of EPICS & GDA, leading to separate data streams and limited feedback between sample environments and beamline control. The development lab offers access to a complete beamline setup, from servers and acquisition hardware up to GDA outside of beamtime to allow users to integrate sample environments with our data acquisition stack with the aim of improving data synchronisation and opening up possibilities for active two-way feedback between the systems.

If you are interested in developing an integrated sample environment for experiments please contact Nick Terrill or Paul Wady.

Access to SEDL is now via UAS and can be found in the system like any other beamline. SEDL access comes with two people's subsitance for sample environment development time. Risks associated with user SEDL time should be covered by the ERA in UAS.

Access to other offline facilities at Diamond can be arranged through [email protected]. See also the offline lab access web pages.

Internal sample environment work must either be covered by the existing lab risk assessment, the existing sample environment risk assessment, or a new assessment must be produced, with the aid of the laboratory access team.

For visits to I22 that have a particularly complex set-up, we recommend arranging for a pre-visit period at SEDL.

The following acknowledgement statement must be included in all published reports:

“This work was carried out with the support of Diamond Light Source,  Sample Environment Development Lab (proposal XX12345)” 

We primarily support two pathways for sample environment development

• Rapid access proposal for SEDL time to integrate an existing user sample environment
• Complete development of a new sample environment (full project pathway and grant)

Resources are limited and so projects will be assigned based on how difficult the integration is and the anticipated scientific impact. To maxmise the latter, complex projects should come with support from multi-institution collaborations to maximise future use.

It is anticipated for projects that follow the full project pathway that these environments will be made available to the user community, both for use on I22 and DL-SAXS beamline and in offline institutional laboratories, naturally, expectations will taper off depending on Diamond's involvement in the project.

Rapid access proposals for individual sample environments will typically cover some or all of the following I/O with the following limitations:

• User sample environment controlled by an exisiting python code can be easilly modified to expose a standard API to EPICS (Python is our preferred programming language, other languages may be possible) (strings, floating point variables, etc., updated at 10 Hz)
• Diamond DAQ reads or provides a triggering TTL signal from/to the sample environment (this is to synchronize with beamline instruments for example, detectors) (timing error: +10 ns)
• Diamond DAQ reads or provides +/-10 V Analogue signal I/O (1 MHz, +/- 10^-9 V)
• Diamond DAQ reads +/- 120 μA analogue signal (10 kHz)

Further details on hardware triggering specifications, EPICS interfacing, software APIs and GDA integration are available, however, as documentation for these are currently under development, at present your local contact will either provide details or connect you with an appropriate contact.

We have had considerable success in integrating sample environemts, controls and sensors interfaced with Ardino or Raspberry Pi mircocontrollers with EPICS, allowing them to send and recieve values.

• Micro fluidic stop flow (Duet 2 board controlled)
• pH probe (Atlas Scientific)
• Humidity probe (Seeed Studio Temperature & Humidity Sensor AM2302)
• Mircomecanical tester

Other successes have involved off-the-shelf equipment which could produce analoge I/O which could be read by the PandA box

• EZ-LX uniaxial test machine
• Deben 500 tomographic uniaxial test machine

The sample environment development laboratory, through the I22 beamline, has access to laboratory and staffing resources to put towards sample environment development of use to the general SAXS user community.

The setup available in the lab includes:

• X6000 CO2 Laser cutter
• A selection of breadboards for sample environment mounting
• Common tools, adapters and cables
• A PandABox (Quantum Detectors) providing:
  • TTL/LVDS/Fibre based triggering
  • DAC input and output (+/- 10 V)
  • Position-compare triggering functionalities
• RS232 communications via a NPort 6000 series terminal server (Moxa)
• Motion control via an IMS-II 8-axis Power Brick controller (Faraday Motion Controls) 
• A full Diamond beamline EPICS deployment for software/hardware interfacing
• Diamond's GDA data acquisition software
• Negotiable access to the Xeuss 3.0 (Xenocs) for non-synchrotron based x-ray testing