Zeiss -- Attenuator is here

The attenuator for the new mercury illumination system arrived last week and is in place. It allows for a very fine level of control over the light level, although it doesn't dial down in 1% increments like the Atto Arc. It sits in the Aperture slot right behind the red suppression filter in the Zeiss fluorescent light path. It's reasonably straightforward and easy to figure out.

Survey is out -- please respond

I emailed all the CMN Core users on the main email list a link to the new CMN Core services and equipment survey. Responses from this will be critical in shaping how we make purchase decisions, what services we offer, what types of training and workshops should be offered, and how the website will be managed. Thank you to anyone who has already filled out the survey, and please fill one out right away if you haven't yet done so!

Zeiss -- Fluorescence is working now

Our rep, Sam Byerly, was able to bring by a loaner X-Cite illumination system, and it works great. There is no alignment to do, and the field is evenly illuminated due to the "liquid light" system, I believe. The bulbs last 2000 hours, instead of just 300, so that's an improvement too. The only downside is that instead of using the Atto Arc and dialing down by 1% increments to adjust intensity, there is a slider on the X-Cite unit that allows 0%, 12%, 25%, 50% or 100% of the light through. We have ordered an additional attenuator that should effectively allow us a similar level of control but with a less simple interface (coordinating the attenuation using both controls in tandem). Anyway, I took my first virtual slice today, using red fluorescence at 10X, spanning about 10 fields of view, and WOW! It looks great, and without me having to tweak the alignment. We can now do fluorescent montages without having to crop as many pixels and without having to account for the uneven illumination. Our X-Cite unit will be identical to the one we're borrowing, and should arrive next week.

Confocal -- Back up and running

Our rep, Colleen Lavin, came and installed a new DOM unit in the confocal. Apparently that's a small hard drive in the C1 controller that communicates with the computer. It seems to have done the trick; everything's working now.

Zeiss - New illuminator ordered, may get loaner

We have put in an Emergency Transaction to try to get a new fluorescence illumination system (X-Cite) right away. Our rep said that if there was any delay with the order processing, he would loan us a system to use until our new one comes in. It sounds like we could expect that later this week or early next week.

Confocal - looks like it'll be a while

I went through a brief troubleshooting session with a Nikon rep and confirmed that the problem was not with the BIOS of the controller. Thus, he said we need to ship the controller and the scan head to NY for service. I asked if we could have anything loaned to us for the time being, so experiments could continue, and he said he'd get back to me. (I wouldn't count on it) I spoke with Colleen, our local rep, and she said that she would try to get a Nikon confocal service engineer up to Madison if possible, to see if it could be fixed locally, and would also talk to Steve Fryer and/or anyone who might be able to help. I requested that as a minimum, could she send a Nikon person to come do the disassembly as it appears to be a bit complicated.