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MIT Spectrometer iLab Student Users Guide 

Contents  MIT Spectrometer iLab...................................................................................................................... 1 Welcome to the Spectrometer iLab Experiment ................................................................................ 2 Creating an account on the MIT Service Broker ............................................................................... 3 Scheduling an Experiment ................................................................................................................. 5 Launching the Experiment ................................................................................................................. 9 Saving Your Data ............................................................................................................................. 13 About the Experiment Client ........................................................................................................... 15 

Understanding the directions of motion for the Low Efficiency Detector. ............................. 17 

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Welcome to the Spectrometer iLab Experiment Plugin This experiment uses a National Instruments LabVIEW 2009 plugin. In order to run this experiment, you will need to install the LabVIEW 2009 Run-Time Engine. Sometimes NI requires you to register before you can download the plugin.

• For Windows/2000/Vista x64/Vista x86/XP --- Please download the plugin from ftp://ftp.ni.com/support/labview/runtime/windows/9.0/LVRTE90min.exe or http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1599/lang/en

• For Macs OS X --- Please download the plugin from http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1635/lang/en and click on the LabVIEW2009SP1RuntimeEngine.dmg (32 MB) link. Depending on your browser settings, you may need to double-click the file to mount it, and then double-click the package to launch it.

Advance Notice Use of these experiments requires 24 hours advance notice so that the beamport can be opened. Please email kirky@mit.edu to arrange for the experiments to be setup. Cameras The experiment cameras 1 & 2 require a username and password. Please use "student" for the username and "2209" for the password. Problems In case the experiment is not responding or you receive an error message, please contact Kirky (kirky@mit.edu) during the week at her office 617-253-8651 or her cell phone over the weekend 617-797-2472.

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Creating an account on the MIT Service Broker In order to run the spectrometer experiments over the Internet, you will need to create an account on the MIT Service Broker. Please follow the following instructions.

• Using any web browser (the preferred browser is Microsoft IE), go to http://iLab.mit.edu/ilabServiceBroker

• Click on the “register here” link to create an account.

• Fill in the registration form with the required information.

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• In the “Requested Group” pull-down list, please select “Spectrometer Group”.

• You have now created an account and you have requested membership in the Spectrometer Group. You will be sent an email when your account has been reviewed and you have been added to the Spectrometer Group.

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Scheduling an Experiment Due to reactor guidelines, Spectrometer experiments must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance so that the beam port to the reactor can be opened.

• Once you have been added to the Spectrometer Group, you will receive an email. You can now schedule your experiment time.

• Login to the MIT Service Broker at http://iLab.mit.edu/iLabServiceBroker/

• From the My Labs page for the Spectrometer Group, click on the “Schedule/Redeem Session” button.

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• From the scheduling page, use the calendar to change the month (if necessary) and then the date that you would like to schedule your experiment. By selecting the number of day from the pull-down list, you can see several days at the same time.

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• When you click on a date in the calendar, a scheduling popup should appear. If you notice that nothing happens or that you get an exclamation mark in a yellow star, it means that the popup window has been blocked. To get around this, hold down the “Ctrl” key and click on the “Schedule/Redeem Session” button again.

• Select a green time slot when you would like to schedule your experiment – the Start Time and Duration fields will automatically fill-in. You can use the pull-down list to adjust the Start Time and the duration. Currently students can schedule experiment times up to 5 hours.

• When you have finished editing the experiment time and duration, click on the “Make Reservation” button.

• You should see a green banner confirming the reservation.

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• Close the scheduling popup window.

• The reservation that you have just scheduled should now be listed in the reservations box.

• Please remember to send an email with your reservation time to kirky@mit.edu at least 24 hours in advance so that the reactor beam port will be open for your experiment.

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Launching the Experiment This experiment uses a National Instruments LabVIEW 2009 plugin. In order to run this experiment, you will need to install the LabVIEW 2009 Run-Time Engine. Sometimes NI requires you to register before you can download the plugin.

• For Windows/2000/Vista x64/Vista x86/XP --- Please download the plugin from ftp://ftp.ni.com/support/labview/runtime/windows/9.0/LVRTE90min.exe or http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1599/lang/en

• For Macs OS X --- Please download the plugin from http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1635/lang/en and click on the LabVIEW2009SP1RuntimeEngine.dmg (32 MB) link. Depending on your browser settings, you may need to double-click the file to mount it, and then double-click the package to launch it.

• Login to the MIT Service Broker at http://iLab.mit.edu/iLabServiceBroker/

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• From the My Labs page for the Spectrometer Group, click on the “Schedule/Redeem Session” button. You should see the scheduling calendar page.

• In the reservation area of the scheduling calendar page, click on the reservation to select it.

• Click on the “Redeem Reservation” button.

• If you are early for your reservation a green notice bar will appear at the top of the

page to let you know how much time exists until your reservation is valid. Please wait the requested time and click on the “Redeem Reservation” button again.

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• Once you have successfully redeemed your reservation, you should see a “Launch Lab” button on the My Labs page.

• Before you launch the lab, you can open the camera views. There are two

cameras. Camera 1 is an overall view of the spectroscopy experiment and camera 2 is a close-up view of the chopper. The camera views launch as popup windows. Press and hold the “CTRL” key down while clicking on the camera buttons. The username is “student” and password is “2209”.

• When you are ready, click on the “Launch Lab” button. Please be patient, this may

take a minute, if the LabVIEW server is not already running..

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• Click on the OK button to confirm your reservation.

• Click on the LabVIEW run arrow to start the experiment client.

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Saving Your Data The easiest way to save you data is to cut and paste it into a spreadsheet or document.

• Once the experiment has finished running and before you close the LabView client, click on the Data tab in the experiment graphing area.

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• In the data tab, you should see your data results. Click on the “Copy to Clipboard” button to copy your data and paste it into a spreadsheet or document.

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About the Experiment Client

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1. Initialize Button – This button resets the experiment elements back to their

default positions. Before beginning any new experiment, you should initialize. 2. Stop Button – This will stop the experiment and enable you to return to the

Service Broker. 3. Axis of Movement selection list – select which element and the axis you would

like to move.

• Low Efficiency – X • Low Efficiency – Y • Low Efficiency – Z • Xtal – X • Xtal – Y • Xtal – Rotation (deg) • Swing Arm (deg)

4. Current – This field shows you the current position of the element selected in the Axis of Movement selection list.

5. Lower and Upper Limit – These fields show the maximum (upper) and minimum (lower) positions that the element selected in the Axis of Movement selection list can be moved.

6. Target Area – Enter the desired position into the target box and click on the move button. Use the camera views to watch the selected element move to the target location.

7. Chopper Control Area – Use the “Move Up” button to move the chopper in and out of the beam. When the chopper is in the up position, the button will read “Move Down”. Start the neutron chopper by pressing the "Start Spin" button. This button will read “Stop Spin” when the chopper is spinning. You may observe this on Camera 2. The neutron chopper should be in the down position and spinning before taking measurements. Please note that the chopper takes a while (several minutes) to come to a complete stop and may appear to not do anything once the stop spin button is pushed.

• Move Up • Start Spin

8. Experiment Tabs a. BeamScan b. MSC c. AngleScan d. Materials

9. Errors and Warnings Area

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Understanding the directions of motion for the Low Efficiency Detector.

In the upper left corner of the experiment client, use the arrow buttons for the "Axis of Movement" field to find the Low Efficiency Detector for the X, Y and Z axis. Familiarize yourself with the 3 directions of motion for the Low Efficiency Detector.

The X direction moves the detector left and right across the beam. The Y direction moves the detector up and down. And the Z direction moves the detector closer to or away from the beam.

Note the limits of motion. If you would like, move the low efficiency detector and observe the motion using Camera 2. If you choose to move the low efficiency detector, then we suggest you re-initialize by depressing the Initialize button.

Axis of Movement Lower Limit Upper Limit Low Efficiency - Z 0 50 Low Efficiency - Y 0 3.4 Low Efficiency - X 0 1.36