Molecular Devices FlexStation II, Руководство оператора

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1 System Description
Important! Temperature of samples in all assay plates will be affected by evaporation.
Time-Tagged Data
The FlexStation II platform is a single channel reading system. Although the scan time is
very fast (8 wells in about 1.0 seconds; 1 well in about 50 ms), the difference in the exact
time each well is read is dependent on the number of rows chosen in a column. This
difference is an important factor in fast kinetic assays.
For this reason, all readings are tagged with an exact read-time, and when multiple-well
fast kinetic responses are plotted, the curves overlie each other as plotted by SOFTmax
PRO. If kinetic data are to be exported, you may choose either time-interpolated data or
raw time-tagged data. Molecular Devices recommends that you select time-interpolated
data. This option is explained in more detail in the SOFTmax PRO user’s manual.
Time-Tagged Data Example
Optical System
The instrument uses excitation and emission filter wheels to decrease interference by
stray light, thus augmenting the wavelength selection that is provided by the
monochromators. Two independent, single-channel reading heads can service top and
bottom reading requirements. The top reading head supports coaxial excitation and
emission beams; in the case of the bottom reading head, excitation and emission beams
are also both coaxial.
The instrument’s electrical, firmware, and optical designs incorporate many features that
work together to virtually eliminate instrument-based day-to-day and instrument-to-
instrument variations in fluorescence values measured.
For more detail of the optical design and an illustration of the optical system, see section
1.4.4, Detection Module.
Bottom and Top Reading
Switching to bottom or top reading capability is activated through software – no manual
positional switching of the read-head is required. Bottom reading allows for well
22 FlexStation II Operator’s Manual – Rev. D