Technical Updates
Jul. 18th, 2009 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo yeah, my new computer got here, I put in my old harddrive, made sure I had everything backed up, decided that the resolution on the screen it came with just about drove me batty, cracked the case and swapped in the (nicer) screen from my old box, put it all together, and life is very good. I'll still be working on reviving the other box - I'm hoping to at least get to to where it will be a decent server - but I'm no longer feeling like my arm's been cut off.
And then two days later someone on the Lenovo forums posted an answer to my query, saying basically that they supposed I could do that, but really, I'd be better off to leave well enough alone. (Um, no. I don't care if the rest of the world is satisfied with crappy laptop resolution, I am not.) So I wrote back, explained that I'd already made the switch and that everything works great, and marked my own reply as the solution. Under the circumstances, I feel justified in this response.
Then there was a problem with micromanipulators failing in the lab. C again offered to show me how to fix them (or in this case show his lab manager - who is an old friend, so we had a chance to catch up - how to fix them.) So I went over there, was introduced to the theory, found out that our micromanipulators were made by an evil company who doesn't want anyone to do their own maintenance and repair and has deliberately made the process more difficult... and then they realized that they couldn't find the micromanipulator drive oil. Hence my last post.
Much research ensued. (Hey, I'd never really read up on hydraulic systems before.) I finally ended up on the phone with a guy in CA who maintains older devices from this company (the company mostly tries to make you buy new ones - and we're talking $10,000 devices, though I'm better I could make one with similar functionality for a lot less, not to mention one that had a better interface...) Anyhow, guy in CA, who will completely have our business if we need service beyond my skills, is awesome. He confirmed that we were on the same page about how much money I wanted to give to the parent company at this point, and how little I cared about following the user's manual. He explained the one technical problem (if you get air into the system, you've added a compressible element and you lose a lot of your precision). (This by the way is exactly the issue around which the devices were designed to be hard to service without sending them back to their makers - bastards.) I told him I thought I was up for it, and he recommended mineral oil.
Well.
So I'd kind of patched together a protocol in my head to get around the bubble problem. I picked up mineral oil, took apart the system again to see what I was up against, made a custom nozzle which I hoped would allow me to put new oil in under pressure, and went out it. (Well, omitting a break to head home and grab tools that the lab lacked. Isn't that lame? But I will order the tools on Monday.) The first axis worked, but didn't have enough pressure the first time, so I went back and redid it. The other two actually went pretty quickly. Of course, part of my protocol to disallow the possibility of air bubbles meant that I was working with a surfeit of oil, so oil dripped all over the paper towel I'd put down on my bench. And I didn't get to set it on fire, either.*
But S, our expert on the uses of such devices, vetted the device and says it works as far as she can tell, and she won't know for certain until she's using it to impale actual cells on Monday. We have backup plans in case of difficulties.
Meanwhile, there are three or four more that may or may not need repair, and Dr. C is trying to lure me into repairing them with the vision that everyone who wants to use them will then have to coming begging or bribing me. Um. I am susceptible to bribes, but really, it sounds like a bother. But I'll get the others up and running as I have time.
Meanwhile, I am now thinking that the tentacles should be driven with hydraulics rather than pneumatics. I mean it's obvious, really.
* However, J and M, our undergrads, found a source of liquid nitrogen, which K and I had been wanting to use to help them on some of their experiments next week, so I got to play with liquid nitrogen, and really, that's even more fun than setting things on fire.
And then two days later someone on the Lenovo forums posted an answer to my query, saying basically that they supposed I could do that, but really, I'd be better off to leave well enough alone. (Um, no. I don't care if the rest of the world is satisfied with crappy laptop resolution, I am not.) So I wrote back, explained that I'd already made the switch and that everything works great, and marked my own reply as the solution. Under the circumstances, I feel justified in this response.
Then there was a problem with micromanipulators failing in the lab. C again offered to show me how to fix them (or in this case show his lab manager - who is an old friend, so we had a chance to catch up - how to fix them.) So I went over there, was introduced to the theory, found out that our micromanipulators were made by an evil company who doesn't want anyone to do their own maintenance and repair and has deliberately made the process more difficult... and then they realized that they couldn't find the micromanipulator drive oil. Hence my last post.
Much research ensued. (Hey, I'd never really read up on hydraulic systems before.) I finally ended up on the phone with a guy in CA who maintains older devices from this company (the company mostly tries to make you buy new ones - and we're talking $10,000 devices, though I'm better I could make one with similar functionality for a lot less, not to mention one that had a better interface...) Anyhow, guy in CA, who will completely have our business if we need service beyond my skills, is awesome. He confirmed that we were on the same page about how much money I wanted to give to the parent company at this point, and how little I cared about following the user's manual. He explained the one technical problem (if you get air into the system, you've added a compressible element and you lose a lot of your precision). (This by the way is exactly the issue around which the devices were designed to be hard to service without sending them back to their makers - bastards.) I told him I thought I was up for it, and he recommended mineral oil.
Well.
So I'd kind of patched together a protocol in my head to get around the bubble problem. I picked up mineral oil, took apart the system again to see what I was up against, made a custom nozzle which I hoped would allow me to put new oil in under pressure, and went out it. (Well, omitting a break to head home and grab tools that the lab lacked. Isn't that lame? But I will order the tools on Monday.) The first axis worked, but didn't have enough pressure the first time, so I went back and redid it. The other two actually went pretty quickly. Of course, part of my protocol to disallow the possibility of air bubbles meant that I was working with a surfeit of oil, so oil dripped all over the paper towel I'd put down on my bench. And I didn't get to set it on fire, either.*
But S, our expert on the uses of such devices, vetted the device and says it works as far as she can tell, and she won't know for certain until she's using it to impale actual cells on Monday. We have backup plans in case of difficulties.
Meanwhile, there are three or four more that may or may not need repair, and Dr. C is trying to lure me into repairing them with the vision that everyone who wants to use them will then have to coming begging or bribing me. Um. I am susceptible to bribes, but really, it sounds like a bother. But I'll get the others up and running as I have time.
Meanwhile, I am now thinking that the tentacles should be driven with hydraulics rather than pneumatics. I mean it's obvious, really.
* However, J and M, our undergrads, found a source of liquid nitrogen, which K and I had been wanting to use to help them on some of their experiments next week, so I got to play with liquid nitrogen, and really, that's even more fun than setting things on fire.
