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4.
Using the Monolith
®
NT.115 Instrument
Turn on the Monolith NT.115 instrument using the power toggle switch on the back of the instrument
and start the control notebook. The display of the Monolith NT.115 instrument will show the following
screen:
The words “Ready” in the first line and “Connected” in the last line indicate the successful connection
between the Monolith
NT.115 instrument and the control notebook.
The arrows on the right hand side (up and down) are used to open and to close the front door of the
instrument in order to load/remove the sample tray.
The activities of the instrument are shown in green letters “MST POWER OFF” and “LED OFF”.
When the experiment starts, these letters will
turn red and indicate “MST POWER ON” and “LED
ON”, respectively. The status of the LED informs you if fluorescence detection is running and the
status of the MST power shows if the IR laser is working and generating temperature gradients in
the samples.
I
n the middle of the screen you find information on the “Temperature Control”. First, you can see if
the “Temperature Control” is activated (“OFF” or “ON”) – this is set with the control software. Below
this,
the “Actual Temperature” and the “Target Temperature” of the instrument is displayed. Please
note that this is not the laser induced temperature gradient used for MST measurements.
For most measurements room temperature is appropriate, so there is no adjustment necessary.
IMPORTANT
: Before running measurements, insert the tray containing capillaries filled with samples
and wait for the “Target Temperature” to be reached!
To start a measurement, start the MO.Control Software. Please refer to the MO.Control software
manual for details on performing measurements.
