Copyright: @(#)MID: Fluoroskan $Revision:   1.1  $


CONTENTS

  FLUOROSKAN II TRANSMIT PROGRAM  (Revision 1.5)

CONTENTS

1.  GENERAL

1.1.  INTRODUCTION

1.2.  INSTALLATION

1.3.  SHORT GUIDE HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM

2.  MENUS

2.1.  READER

2.2.  SETTINGS

2.2.1  MEASUREMENT SETTINGS

2.2.2  TIME SETTINGS

2.3.  COMSETTINGS

2.4.  SINGLECMDS

2.5.  EXIT

2.6.  HELP

3.  CONTROLS

3.1.  MEASURE

3.1.1.  MEASUREMENT MODES

3.1.2.  MEASUREMENT DATA

3.2.  DISPLAY

3.3.  TEMPERATURE ON/OFF

3.4.  TIMER START/STOP

3.5.  INCUBATE BEFORE MEASUREMENT

3.6.  PLATE OUT


INTRODUCTION
1.1.  INTRODUCTION

The Fluoroskan Transmit program is designed to control the Labsystems' Fluoroskan II in the WindowsTM 3.1 environment. All the reader's functions can be performed such as incubation and measuring. The control operations are made in the main window with menus, buttons and check boxes. The parameters to be used are also visible in this window, but changing of them is made in the Settings window.

Through this program it's possible to transfer measurement data easily with clipboard to some other Windows programs (eg. spreadsheet calculation program) for further processing. Data can also be saved to data file for later use. However this program performs no calculations with measured data.

It is not allowed to sell, transfer or distribute to the public any copy of Labsystems Transmit software. The program disk may be copied for backup purposes only.


INSTALLATION
1.2.  INSTALLATION

Program setup is made in the Windows environment. The setup starts by running the "setup" program from the diskette.

Insert the diskette into the relevant drive of your computer.

Select in Program manager:  File, Run and type "a:setup". If your drive is e.g. B, simply substitute the relevant letter for A i.e. "b:setup".

Specify the name of the directory where you want to install the Transmit and its parameter files.

Select the appropriate devices (Multiskan, iEMS, Fluoroskan II, Luminoskan) to be installed.

Program will copy some files to the Windows directory and makes a directory, where it will copy the Transmit program files. It will create also a group and icons for the installed Transmit programs in Program manager.

The hard disk space requirements:

At least 600 kBytes free space on the disk containing the Windows directory. The Fluoroskan Transmit requires about 120 kBytes additional space.

NOTE:	To ensure that the spreadsheet programs can convert measured data to values, the Windows must have a point as a decimal separator. You can check it in the Windows Control Panel (International - Number Format).


SHORT_GUIDE
1.3.  SHORT GUIDE HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM

After installing the Transmit program, open the program by double clicking the Fluoroskan Transmit icon. Before using the program for the first time, you may have to change the default settings.

Set the Communication parameters on the ComSettings window (see Section 2.3 ComSettings).

Connect the Fluoroskan to the computer by selecting Reader - Connect Reader from the Transmit main menu. This command turns the computer control on and enables the Transmit controls.

The control operations are made in the main window with menus, buttons and check boxes. For changing the parameters go to the Settings window (see Section 2.2 Settings).

The Display button opens the data window where the measurement data can be seen. The data is also transferred automatically to the clipboard after all measurements and thus it is ready to "paste" to some other program (see Sections 3.1.2. Measurement data and 3.2. Display).


READER
2.1.  READER

Connect Reader:

The Connect Reader command turns the computer control on and enables also the Transmit controls.

Disconnect Reader:

The Disconnect Reader command turns the computer control off and disables also the Transmit controls.

If the reader sends an error message, it will always be displayed and if some sequence is unfinished the rest of it will be cancelled.

If there is no response from the reader within a certain time period, program gives an error message and disables it's controls.


SETTINGS
2.2.  SETTINGS

In the Settings window all the parameters related to the commands can be changed. If value other than in allowed range is entered program beeps and that keypress is not accepted. In most cases it is not possible to check the validity of the entered value in the middle of the entering, but the program makes the final check when the cursor is moved to the next parameter or by pressing the OK button. The program gives an error message "Invalid value" and it returns the control back to the appropriate parameter to be corrected. In all the parameters the number of accepted characters is restricted. To enter (a) new character(s) the old one(s) have to be deleted first because pressing a key always inserts a character.

Pressing the OK button saves current parameters and they are now available in the control window. Pressing the Cancel button doesn't save the parameters. In this case all the parameters remain unchanged both in the control window and in the parameter file.

Fluoroskan Transmit manual gives information related particularly to this program. Further information of the acceptable range for the parameters and their functions can be found in the Fluoroskan Operating Instructions.


MEAS_SETTINGS
2.2.1  MEASUREMENT SETTINGS

The Measurement Mode, Measurement Area, and Filters are selected from the drop-down lists. The integration time for an individual well measurement can be defined in the Well Meas Time text box.

Measurement modes:

The following measurement modes are available:

- Single Reading

- Dual Reading

- Kinetic

Single Reading:

In the single reading mode the measurement is performed with the selected filter pair using the defined well measurement time.

Dual Reading:

In the dual reading mode the measurement is performed with two filter pairs using the defined well measurement time.

Kinetic:

In the kinetic mode the Number of Measurement Points can be from 2 to 40. The maximum Kinetic Meas Interval Time is 23:59:59. The minimum interval time is dependent on the parameter Well Meas Time of individual wells and also on the block to be measured. Program makes an approximate calculation for the interval time when leaving the Settings window with OK button. A warning is given if the defined interval time is shorter than the time calculated from the measurement configurations. However it is possible to accept also an interval time, which is not in the allowed range. In this case the kinetic measurement is performed as fast as possible and the actual times are displayed on the data window.

When the Number of Measurement Points, Kinetic Meas Interval time or Incubation Time is entered and control is moved to another field, the program calculates the Measurement Time and the Total Time. The Measurement Time is time from the beginning of the first measurement cycle to the beginning of the last measurement cycle. The Total Time is the sum of the Measurement Time and the Incubation Time.

Measurement Area:

The following measurement areas can be defined:

- Whole Plate

- Block

- One well

When entering the block corners in the measurement area, the accepted values are the microplate row (A to H) and the column (1 to 12) values. The letters are automatically converted to the upper case letters. The block has to be always rectangular. The upper left corner values must be less or equal to the lower right corner values. They are checked when user is leaving the editing field.

Filters:

The excitation and emission filters can be selected from the drop down lists, where it is also possible to edit the wavelengths. The minimum wavelength value is 270 and only three digits are accepted. The value is changed by pressing enter or by moving control to another field. "0" is also accepted as a "wavelength value" for a missing filter, but such a filter is not allowed to be used.

In the Dual Reading mode the filters for the second measurement can be selected from the similar filter lists, but the filter wavelength values can not be edited in these lists.

NOTE:	Change the filter wavelength setting(s) only if some filter(s) in your reader's filter wheel is changed.

Well Meas Time:

In the well measurement (integration) time the accepted value is from 1 to 99 and it is expressed in multiples of 0.1 seconds.


TIME_SETTINGS
2.2.2  TIME SETTINGS

The Incubation Time format is hh:mm:ss (hours, minutes, seconds). Maximum accepted time is 23:59:59. This concerns also the Kinetic Meas Interval Time.

NOTE:	The actual time separator may be other than colon depending on the Windows (In Control Panel:  International - Time Format) settings.


COMSETTINGS
2.3.  COMSETTINGS

The communication parameters are selected in the ComSettings window:

- Communication port

- Handshaking

- Baud Rate

- ASCII code

To be able to utilise the data in e.g. spreadsheet programs a separator character will be inserted between readings by Transmit. This character is given as an ASCII-code. The accepted values are all valid ASCII codes ( 0 to 255), most commonly used are TAB (9), COMMA (44) and SEMICOLON (59). Zero means that no character insertion will be made.

This window is available only if the reader is "disconnected".

NOTE: 	Be sure, that the communication parameters are the same in the program settings and in the reader, otherwise the data transmission will fail.

NOTE:	 Be careful not to enter a control code as the separator character, which can make data unusable.


SINGLECMDS
2.4.  SINGLECMDS

In the single commands window individual commands can be manually sent to the reader. Commands are selected from the list available and sent using the Send button. The command returning the data (e.g. measurement or version command) transfers it to the Data Window.

Transmit uses the default values given in the Settings window for the command parameters (measurement time, filter change etc.). The commands and parameters can also be edited in this window, but these values are valid only as long as you are in this window.

Your can always send a command in this window, whether the controls in the main window are enabled or not. If you send e.g. the command "quit computer control", it is not possible to send commands in control window before "connecting" the reader again.

NOTE:	In this window you can send ONE command at the time. It is important to check that the command sequence and parameters are correct. There is no time control for reader's response and data is not moved automatically to the clipboard in this window.


EXIT
2.5.  EXIT

The Exit command exits the program. If you have not disconnected the reader, it will be done automatically before exit. If there is unsaved data in the data window, the program prompts if you want to exit anyway or cancel it for saving the data. Here "saving" does not include the automatic data transfer to the clipboard after every measurement.

NOTE:	You can exit the program without saving the data if it has been already "pasted" to some other program after every measurement.


HELP
2.6.  HELP

This opens the help window containing the help file.


MEASURE
3.1.  MEASURE

Measure button performs measurement with selected mode. Before starting the measurement the well measurement time and the filters are set. After the measurement the plate is moved back to the "out" position.

In the Incubation section there is a check box Incubate before measurement, which can be used to perform automatic incubation phase before the measurement. (See Section 3.5. Incubate before measurement).

The Timer display in the Incubation section is used to show the times Incubation Time and Kinetic Measurement Time, if they are used in the measurement (See 3.4. Timer Start/Stop).

If the measurement area is defined to be the Whole Plate, the measurement is performed using the Fluoroskan internal plate measurement command. In other cases the measurement area is defined in the Transmit and the measurement is made with sequential movement and measurement commands. This causes some differences in the measurement compared the whole plate to the other area definitions. See notes in the next section.


MEAS_MODES
3.1.1.  MEASUREMENT MODES

Single Reading:

In the single reading mode the defined block is measured with the selected filter pair and the well measurement time.

Dual Reading:

In the dual reading mode the defined block is measured with the first filter pair and right after with the second filter pair. However it is possible to select from the check box Pause before 2nd meas whether the program stops between the measurements or not. If "pause" is selected the progran stops to wait the user's action after the first measurement. If the second measurement is cancelled, only the data of the first measurement is displayed.

Kinetic Mode:

In the kinetic mode the measurement cycles are performed using the parameters Number of Measurement Points and Kinetic Meas Interval Time. If the interval time is long enough, the plate out and the autocalibration are made automatically between every measurement cycle. The time needed for the autocalibration is dependent from the Well Meas Time. If it is set to 1, the interval time must include about 20 seconds additional time to perform the autocalibration procedure.

NOTE:	When the measurement area is defined as Whole plate, the autocalibration and the plate out procedures are always included in the measurement cycle. The reader sends the data after the whole plate is measured.

Breaking the measurement:

The measurement can be stopped before the normal end by pressing the Break button in the Measurement section. If the measurement is stopped with the Break button or due to any reader error, the already measured data is automatically transferred to the Data Window and to the clipboard. After the break no further commands are proceeded and the plate remains at the current well position.

NOTE:	When the measurement area is defined as Whole plate, the Transmit break button can not stop the Fluoroskan internal plate measurement procedure.


MEAS_DATA
3.1.2.  MEASUREMENT DATA

After a measurement the data is always ready to "paste" to some other program. The data is also inserted automatically to the Data Window (See 3.2 Display). The data is in the microplate format and is displayed after the measurement has been performed. The plate results are separated with a line containing the filter numbers and wavelengths. In the dual reading mode the separation lines contains respectively the first and second filters.

The results for the wells not measured are always printed as " 0.000".

KineticMode:

In the Kinetic mode the data format is different from the other modes because it is sorted by the time (See the example print at the end of the manual). At the beginning there are all measurement times in form "hh:mm:ss" so that the first time is always zero. If the Measurement Time is longer than 24 hours, the individual times are in "absolute" form containing both Date and Time.

After the times there are eight groups, one for each microplate row. Every group contains data from twelve wells and each column contains results of one well in time order. So in the first group there are all results of row A and in the second group row B and so on.


DISPLAY
3.2.  DISPLAY

The Display button opens the Data Window, where the measurement data is collected. You can insert your own comments in the data window. It is also possible to save the whole contents of the data window to a file or copy it to the clipboard. If you save the data to a file, which already exists, the data will be inserted at the end of the previous data. If the file name is new, the file will be created.

The data is always stored in the data window even if it's not visible. The separator characters are not in the data window, but they are inserted to the data automatically when it is moved to the clipboard or to the file.

NOTE:	Do not edit data lines in the data window. If the length of the data lines is changed, the program do not insert the separator characters into the measured data when it is copied to the clipboard or to the file from this window.

The Print operation prints the contents of the data window to the Windows default printer. The printing is always made with 64 lines per page.

The Clear operation empties the whole contents of the data window. Before clearing the data window the program gives a warning in case the data is not saved.

In the Single Reading mode data up to 40 plates can be inserted in the data window. The number of plates will be reduced if any extra information has been added to the data window  (e.g. your own comment lines)

In the Kinetic mode the number of plates is dependent on the number of measurement points. If the number of points is eg. 10, it is possible to measure 4 plates without clearing data.

NOTE:	Remember to save or clear the old data to ensure that there is enough space for the new measurement data. Otherwise the measurement can not be started.

NOTE:	Saving the data to the clipboard destroys it's old contents. After each measurement only the last measured data is on the clipboard.


TEMPERATURE
3.3.  TEMPERATURE ON/OFF

The Temperature On/Off check box turns the Fluoroskan temperature control on or off. The Incubation Temperature setting is always 37 degrees and it can not be changed from the Transmit Program. Starting the incubation time does not set the temperature on.


TIMER
3.4.  TIMER START/STOP

The Timer Start/Stop button starts and stops the timer. After the time has elapsed, program starts beeping with one second interval until the timer is stopped. In this way the timer can be used as a simple alarm timer.

The timer display is used also if the incubation is connected to the measurement. It shows the remaining time during the Incubation Time (lag time in kinetic). In the kinetic mode it shows also the remaining time during the Measurement Time.


INCUBATE
3.5.  INCUBATE BEFORE MEASUREMENT

If the Incubate before measurement box is selected, the incubation phase is automatically connected to the measurement. In this case the Incubation Time is started by pressing the Measure button. After the incubation time has elapsed, the measurement starts automatically.


PLATE
3.6.  PLATE OUT

The Plate Out button moves the plate out. This command is automatically performed after a measurement sequence. So plate out command is not normally needed except after a break or error condition.