The Model 14 has two power supplies located on the lower shelf. The power supply
to the left controls various subsystems of the instrument. The power supply to the
right is one of those subsystems, the UV lamp power supply. To turn on the instrument,
begin by turning on the UV lamp power supply only by turning on the "UV lamp" switch.
The Xenon lamp has a very large current draw, and all other electrical systems must
be off when striking the UV lamp.
The "control power on" light will illuminate on the UV lamp power supply. The UV lamp
power supply will then begin to draw current in order to charge the capacitor which
will be discharged to strike the lamp.
When the UV lamp power supply is charged, the "lamp ready" light will illuminate.
This is the indication that the UV lamp power supply is ready prepared to strike the
lamp.
Strike the UV lamp using the red "ignite lamp" button. There will be an audible
crack as the power supply attempts to strike the lamp. If the lamp strikes, the
"lamp on" light will illuminate. If the lamp does not strike, you will have to wait
until the "lamp ready" light illuminates again before trying to strike the lamp again.
Warning: If the UV lamp goes off at any time, you must turn off all
other systems, in the reverse order they were turned on, before the "lamp ready"
light will re-light. You will then have to bring the rest of the instrument and
experiment back up from the beginning.
With the UV lamp lit, the power to the instrument can be turned on with the center
power switch, "CPU/INST." You will not need the visible lamp for monitoring a protein
thermal denaturation, there is no need to turn on that lamp.
As the instrument is powering up, press the power button on the desktop computer to
begins its boot sequence. Login as Administrator when presented with the login prompt.
The password is under the display on a yellow note. Don't worry about the warnings
related to invalid/counterfeit copies of Microsoft Windows. The machine is not connected
to the network and can't phone home to check license status.
Launch the instrument control program from the "AVIV MODEL 14 SPEC" icon on the left
of the desktop. This program will initialize the instrument through a variety self-tests.
There will be some motors which run and gears that move, don't be alarmed. It may be
two or three minutes, depending on operating system boot status, before the software
is ready to respond to your direction.
From the "File" menu, select "Read Aviv Macro." In the resulting dialog, select
the "tmelt.amc" file. This macro file defines the thermal denaturation experiment. It
includes both machine and experiment configuration and allows the same experiment to be
run repeatedly.
From the menu, select "Configure Experiment" and change the "Type" of the experiment
to "tmelt" in the resulting dialog. This instructs the software to use the settings
and follow the directions in the t-melt macro file. Confirm this selection by clicking
"Exit/Save Configuration."
Start your experiment by clicking "RUN EXPERIMENT" in the lower left corner of the
application. This will launch the "Aviv Macros Command" Window which will guide the
instrument through the experiment. From this point, the experiment will run for
roughly seven hours, without your assistance or intervention.
The "tmelt" macro is programmed to save data to the path "C:\DATA" naming each file
by the experiment name, experiment serial number and cell number. You (or your lab
assistant) will find your data in "C:\DATA" at the end of your experiment. Do not
be alarmed, but when your experiment ends, your data disappear from the data display.