[3dem] Gatan zeolite cycle

Terje Dokland dokland at uab.edu
Thu Aug 21 13:02:49 PDT 2014


Dear all,
Thank you for many helpful hints and suggestions regarding our holder. It turns out this holder does have two heaters, one for the tip and one for the zeolite. 

Many of you suggested checking the wires in the plugs, which do break easily. In fact, two of them broke when I unplugged it from the controller, but I was able to solder them back, after which the cable checked out ok between all the pins that are in use. The controller also works ok, as a voltage of about 15V could be measured at the appropriate pins when the zeolite vs. heating cycle was started. 

However, there was no continuity between the pins on the holder that correspond to the zeolite heater circuit, unlike the tip heater circuit, which measured about 6 ohms.  Looking inside the Dewar, I could see that the wires were connected where they were supposed to be. 

Conclusion: the zeolite heating coil is indeed broken and needs to be replaced... 

Terje  

On Aug 12, 2014, at 3:22 PM, Terje Dokland wrote:

> We are unable to run a zeolite cycle on our Gatan 626 holder. The Smartset controller shows 0.7A of current being delivered, but the temperature does not go up. 
> 
> however, we can set the "smart heater" control to 100 deg C and heat the holder that way, and that seems to work. But is this a different heater from the the one that heats the zeolite? 
> 
> Has anybody had a similar issue? Is it the zeolite heater that is broken or is it a glitch in the controller? 
> 
> Thanks,
> Terje 
> 
> 
> ---
> Terje Dokland, PhD
> Associate Professor
> Department of Microbiology
> University of Alabama at Birmingham
> 845 19th St South, BBRB 311
> Birmingham, AL 35294
> 
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