April News

Grant Awarded

On April 1, 2013, NE-CAT received word that the NIGMS Advisory Council had recommended that our grant be funded in full.  Though we are still subject to sequestration, we will be the “NE-CAT Center for Advanced Macromolecular Crystallography” for the next five years.

PMAC Software Improvements

In order to increase speed and provide additional capability to the MD2, new software was implemented to communicate directly to the MD2 PMAC (Programmable Multi-Axis Controller).  The new software has been in use since the beginning of the 2013-1 run and has exhibited some instability and problems.  NE-CAT continues to work on de-bugging and fully integrating the software into our beamline controls.

MK3 Now Request Only

The MK3 mini-Kappa on 24-ID-C continues to experience clutch slippage.  It was sent back to Maatel for repairs in March.  As we have now sent the MK3 back to Maatel for repairs multiple times, it is no longer permanently installed on the 24-ID-C MD2.  The MK3 is now available to users on a request-only basis.

High Current Studies

On the last day of the 2013-1 run, APS performed high current studies in preparation for moving to 150 mA operations by 2019.  Similar to the studies in August 2012, participating beamlines, such as NE-CAT, were asked to provide information on the performance their high heat load (HHL) optical elements at the baseline 100 mA, as well as at 130 and 150 mA.  APS requested information such as rocking curves, first and third harmonic outputs, power loading on the monochromator including current, gap/energy, slit settings, coolant flow, and temperatures.  The feedback will guide design HHL optics design during the upgrade.

GPFS1-4 Retired

After the 2013-1 run ended, the decision was made to take GPFS1-4 offline.  These filesystems are the original RAID storage of NE-CAT and are composed of two EVAs from Hewlett-Packard.  Currently, we are not using any of these 4 filesystems, having moved to GPFS5-10 on the three larger SATABeasts.  The EVAs remain functional and are available for future use should the need arise.