New tool: run setup

A third tool is now 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. At start-up it reads the USB copy if one is present. The new page lets you create that file from your computer.

It has the same sections as the instrument's own screens: frame and core speeds and directions, the run plan with duration and time-lapse interval, the lighting schedule and four lighting presets, camera settings, and the graph windows and theme of the Sensors screen. 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 Experiment screen then show the settings 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 and edited again. The page also preserves anything in the file that it does not edit.

Two details are worth knowing. The lighting presets estimate the strip's current draw using 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. The motor section also links to the clinostat simulator with the selected speeds filled in, so you can look at the time-averaged ⟨g⟩ those speeds produce.

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