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Initializing the Instrument

In the COMMANDS window there will be a series initializations and various messages. The program will ask for the temperature of the instrument. The default value in the parenthesis should be checked for validity to an accuracy of about 5-10 degrees F. This is used to compensate for thermal expansion of the stage encoders.

The program will next prompt for enabling electronic power to the racks. Answer yes if the racks are currently off. There is no harm in answering yes even if the racks are already powered on (though you will save a bit of time by answering no ). There are times, however, during problems where it will be necessary to answer no when the power is already on.

After the power has been established, the program will halt until the

coldstart

command has been executed. This command initializes the motors; finds the home positions for the X, Y, and Z axes; and resets the encoder counters to correspond to the center of the focal plate. It takes approximately one minute for a coldstart to complete. If the gripper camera is turned on along with the gripper LED's, you should be able to see the motion of the X and Y stages as they home.

At the end of the coldstart, the program will automatically execute a where and a status command. The first line of values should read x=0, y=0, z=0. (The motor values will be non-zero as they are recording the positional information from the motor resolvers.) The gripper should be empty.

NOTE: If there are problems, please contact trained personnel (your OT, mountain electronics, or your startup person).

After this there should be a `Fiborg' prompt showing the current version number. If not, hit carriage return to see the prompt.

The instrument is now ready to move fibers.

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Sam Barden
Tue Aug 29 16:45:05 MST 1995