Updates

The automation for the reservation request system is now repaired. The bad news is that reservation requests will be handled in batch fashion once every ten minutes, so from the time a reservation request is submitted until the time it is handled may be that long. The good news is that you will still use…

With the campus sunset of Google Calendar, the existing calendar and the automation of the reservation system are broken. Using calendars on a personal Gmail account, we have provided a way to post instrument reservations online so that you, dear user, are able to easily see whether or not the instrument you wish to use…

Despite our protestations well in advance – and without a viable alternative being made available – Google Calendar has been shut off. The instrument reservation calendar is still viewable on this site, but the content is now static (nothing can be added). With Calendar as well as Gmail being shut off, the instrument reservation system…

Battery backups were recently installed on some of the instruments in room 140; we have learned over the years that a UPS is a prudent insurance policy. Sadly, the one for the DSC appears to have failed this morning, and failed in a way that suggests that replacement will be needed. In the short term…

The Cary 5000 UV-vis spectrometer is temporarily out of service, awaiting a source replacement and alignment. Anyone needing UV-vis analysis of liquid samples can use the Cary 50, of course. We hope to have the Cary 5000 back in service in a few days (assuming parts come in promptly). UPDATE: it was promptly back in…

Campus facilities personnel will be doing some electrical work on Monday, June 19th – they have scheduled it for that official holiday in order to minimize disruption to the campus community. Power to the entire campus is expected to be off twice – once at the commencement of the work and again when it has…

The TGA is out of service as of this morning; the Windows 10 operating system is refusing to run the instrument control software due to an administrative policy change that apparently was rolled out over the weekend. We are working with IT to try and find a compromise (and are quite concerned about which instrument…

The GCMS has been back in service since the afternoon of February 21st; I forgot to note that here. (Even I am still getting used to having this website, see?)…

The QP-2020 GCMS is out of service with an error in the automatic flow controller for the carrier gas. We’ve seen this error before and have been able to resolve it – but what has been done in the past hasn’t worked today. Hopefully Shimadzu technical support will suggest something that will solve the problem….

The new website for the Shared Instrument Lab is sufficiently complete that it is ready for the world! Look around and see what there is to see; if you have feedback (positive or negative, provided it is constructive) do send it in – surely there is room for improvement. The Instrument Details page will be…