Related Manuals for Nicoya OpenSPEC
Summary of Contents for Nicoya OpenSPEC
- Page 1 NICOYA LIFESCIENCES Operation and Service Manual V1.0 Last Updated: April 20, 2016 (V1.0) support@nicoyalife.com...
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Page 2: Table Of Contents
GETTING STARTED ........................7 ..........................7 NITIAL QUIPMENT ETUP 1.1.1 Before any Steps are Taken........................7 1.1.2 Standard Equipment Supplies ........................7 1.1.3 Setting up the OpenSPEC™ Instrument ....................7 SPEC™ I ..................9 VERVIEW OF NSTRUMENT OMPONENTS ........................... 10 PERATION UIDELINES 1.3.1 Required Items ............................ -
Page 4: Safety And Preparation For Use
Safety and Preparation for Use Line Voltage The OpenSPEC™ operates from a 120/240 V, CSA Class 2 Approved power supply, with a frequency between 50 and 60 Hz and 6 W power. Only use the power supply provided with your instrument. -
Page 5: Operating Conditions
5. Do not operate unattended and not designed for 24 hour continuous operation. 6. OpenSPEC™ is not waterproof – do not spill liquids onto it and be very careful of leaks. 7. Do not operate the system in the presence of strong magnetic fields. -
Page 6: Specifications
Specifications Size and Weight Recommended Software Requirements Length 216 mm Communication USB 2.0 Width 150 mm Platform Windows 7 Height 120 mm Microsoft .NET Framework Weight 1 kg Memory 4 GB RAM Dual Core Data export format CSV, TXT Electrical Specifications Voltage 120/240 V Frequency... -
Page 7: Chapter 1: Getting Started
1.1.3 Setting up the OpenSPEC™ Instrument 1. Read the OpenSPEC™ Operation Manual. 2. Install the OpenSPEC™ software onto your computer if a computer was not provided with your instrument. Ensure that the computer meets the specifications listed above. Follow the instructions in the “Software Installation”... - Page 8 5. Switch on the OpenSPEC™ power switch located at the back of the instrument [Figure 1.1]. The blue LED on the front of the instrument should turn on [Figure 1.2]. Start the OpenSPEC™ software by double clicking on the “OpenSPEC” desktop icon to connect the device.
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Page 9: Overview Of Openspec™ Instrument Components
1.2 Overview of OpenSPEC™ Instrument Components The OpenSPEC™ instrument consists of an optical detector (spectrometer), a light source, and a cuvette holder [Figure 1.3]. There are also two temperature sensors within the instrument: one on the circuit board (“Internal”) and one on the top plate of the instrument (“External”) (not shown). -
Page 10: Operation Guidelines
1.3.2 Experimental Procedure 1. Ensure the OpenSPEC™ is connected to the computer and the power is ON. 2. Open the OpenSPEC™ program on the computer by double clicking on the program shortcut. The OpenSPEC™ Home Screen will open [Figure 1.4]. - Page 11 USB. If so, click the reconnect icon in the top left corner of the screen. If the software still does not connect, a combination of turning the OpenSPEC™ device on and off, unplugging and plugging the USB cable and restarting the software or computer may be required.
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Page 12: Taking New Reference Spectra
6. Once connected to the hardware, a new test can be started by clicking on the Start Icon in the upper left corner. 7. The software will prompt you to take reference spectra. The reference spectra include the light and dark reference. Reference spectra consist of a Dark Reference and Bright Reference used to calculate the absorbance. -
Page 13: Loading A Sample
any sample in place, the absorbance spectrum should be a flat line at an absorbance of zero [Figure 1.8]. Figure 1.8 - Absorbance graph without a sample loaded. A flat line should be displayed. If this graph does not display a flat line and the “Reference” graph looks good, retake the Bright Reference by clicking the “Bright”... - Page 14 Figure 1.9 - How to properly insert a cuvette into the cuvette holder 4. You should now see the absorbance spectrum of your sample appear on the Absorbance graph. Select OK to proceed. 5. The software will now prompt you to begin data fitting [ ], in which the optical Figure 1.10 spectra is fit and the peak position plotted in the Response graph on the right hand side of...
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Page 15: Optimizing Peak Tracking Manually
Figure 1.11 – Plotting of the peak position in real time 7. If the software cannot optimize the algorithm to find the peak automatically, you can manually adjust the algorithm’s fit parameters in the “Parameters” tab in the ribbon bar as described below. - Page 16 The peak tracking works by fitting a Gaussian curve to the portion of the peak specified. The Fit Parameters that can be adjusted include the Absorbance, Sharpness, Fit Width and Fit Index, which are explained below: Absorbance Determines the minimum absorbance cutoff that the fitting algorithm will use to find your peak.
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Page 17: Recording Events
Figure 1.13 Example absorbance spectrum. In the “Data Averaging” section of this menu, the user can also control which data is displayed in the Response Window, the raw data or averaged data or both. The user can also set the number of raw data points used to produce the averaged data. -
Page 18: Other Software Features
Each of these features are listed and explained below, from left to right. Figure 1.15 - OpenSPEC™ software tool bar. Start/Finish Flag – This icon begins and ends the experiment. The user will be directed to carry out specific tasks to conduct an experiment once it is clicked upon. - Page 19 the Integration time, they will see if the signal is saturated. The usual range of integration times lie between 300 µs and 700 µs. Boxcar Width – The boxcar width averages a single data point with the points around it, thus smoothing the spectrum.
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Page 20: Adjusting The Response Graph
Absorbance Window. Temperature – OpenSPEC has 2 temperature sensors, one on the circuit board (“Internal”) and one on the top plate (“External”). Temperature values from each are recorded in the Test Results file. - Page 21 Autoscale – Autoscale will automatically set the x and y extents of the graph to enable viewing of all of the data in the graph. Scale Axis – This opens the x and y max and min settings for the graph. Here the user can enter the exact x and y max and min that they would like to have.
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Page 22: Chapter 2: Troubleshooting
System is not connected: Unplug and replug the USB connections to the OpenSPEC™ and computer and retry. If it still does not work, restart the OpenSPEC™ program, and try power cycling the instrument. If it still does not work, restart your computer. -
Page 23: Chapter 3: Theory
Chapter 3: Theory 3.1 Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance OpenSPEC™ is a label free biosensing platform that utilizes localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) to make extremely sensitive measurements of biomolecular interactions. LSPR is an optical phenomenon that occurs when light is absorbed by noble metal nanoparticles. These particles are typically on the order of 10 –... -
Page 24: References
RI that occur within this distance. This feature along with the sensitivity of the nanoparticles, which is also dependent on their shape, allows Nicoya Lifesciences Inc to tailor the performance of the sensor directly to the biomolecular system of interest, thus maximizing performance.