Run setup tool: configure a SciSpinner Max from your computer

A third tool is on the Tools page: run setup for the SciSpinner Max.

The Control Module keeps its settings in a small file, scispinner-config.json, on the module and on the USB drive, and at start-up it reads the USB copy if there is one. The new page writes that file from your computer. It has the same sections as the instrument's own screens: the frame and core speeds and directions, the run plan with duration and time-lapse interval, the lighting schedule and the four lighting presets, the camera settings, and the graph windows and theme of the Sensors screen. The values are checked against the same rules the instrument applies, so a speed outside 0.050–5.000 rpm or an interval under 10 seconds cannot be saved.

Download the file, copy it to the top level of the USB drive, and start the instrument with the drive plugged in. The dials and the Experiment screen then show what you prepared, and the run starts when you press Run; the file never starts a run by itself. Changes made on the instrument afterwards are written back to the same file, so the drive can be brought back to the page to edit the settings again, and the page keeps anything in the file it does not edit.

Two details worth knowing. The lighting presets show an estimate of the strip's current draw with the firmware's own arithmetic, so a scene that would be dimmed to stay under the 3 A budget is flagged before it reaches the instrument. And the motor section links to the clinostat simulator with the chosen speeds filled in, for a look at the time-averaged ⟨g⟩ those speeds give.

Like the other tools, it runs entirely in your browser and nothing is uploaded.