Category Archives: Open Access MS status

Open-access LCMS

The Mass Spec Facility must regretfully announce that the open access liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer is no longer operational.  The instrument, an AB Sciex 150EX single quad mass spectrometer, was purchased in 2006, and has been nearing the end of its life span.  The instrument is no longer supported by the manufacturer, so parts and qualified service will be increasingly hard to find.  Thus, it is not possible for the facility to maintain.

Nominal mass samples can still be submitted to the facility and will be given high priority for quick turnaround (generally 24 hrs. or less).  Prior to the purchase of the 150EX the facility routinely ran nominal mass samples in this manner.  Contact James Miller (jrm112@psu.edu) with any questions you might have.

Thank you.

Tania

April 3, 2014

Orbi is running Greg’s samples, John’s samples are next. Eric’s samples are incubating with trypsin. I am working on Joana’s sample.

The open access instrument is still down.

Tania

March 28, 2014

Orbi is running Casey’s samples. John’s and Greg’s samples are next in the queue. Open-access instrument is still down. Eric and I convinced ourselves that size-exclusion chromatography does work, which is always good to know on a Friday.GPC Mar 28 2014

Tania

March 18, 2014

Orbi is running Yingwei’s samples after which I will power it down until tomorrow morning for a scheduled power interruption.

The open access instrument is down again experiencing difficulty to stay on. James is trying his best to fix the single quad while running samples on the LCT.

Tania

March 14, 2014

Happy Pi Day! And Happy Friday!

We have good news to share: open-access instrument is back to live, thanks to Kodel from the Huck’s IT team who replaced the failed hard drive.

Orbi will be running Casey’s samples this afternoon. Joana’s and Yingwei’s samples are incubating with trypsin.

Tania

March 7, 2014

Our Dionex nano-LC system was thoroughly checked today by Jeff Steely, the Thermo engineer, all is well, thank goodness. Orbi is taking this weekend off to rest before running Casey’s samples on Monday.

The open access instrument is still down. It should be up and running next week as soon as we get the hard drive replaced by our IT specialists, a.k.a. computer guys.

Enjoy the heat wave!

Tania

March 5, 2014

Orbi is cleaning up before the next series of analyses.  No samples will be run on Friday, March 7th: a Thermo engineer is coming for the annual PM visit.

The open access instrument is in a process of being fixed. The drive with instrument software was bad. Stay tuned.

Tania

February 21, 2014

Open-access instrument is down. This time it appears to be a computer issue. I noticed that some of our open access users click in many different places so fast that the instrument computer gets confused. Keep in mind, that the PC, whose slow speed is so irritating to some of you, communicates with embedded computer which controls the  instrument and is even slower than the PC you dislike so much. Be a bit more patient next time (provided we can fix the issue and there will be the next time).

Tania

January 6, 2014

Happy New Year everyone! We are back from a nice 2-week vacation, re-energized and ready to run your samples! Orbi has finally established communication with all its parts and now is baking out. LCT is down: it lost one of its pumps, and we are waiting for the pump to be repaired and sent back to us. The open access instrument will be up and running tomorrow as well as the triple quad.

Tania

December 11, 2013

Orbi is running samples for Eric tonight. Eric is a student at Hershey.

M@LDI LR (aka Matilda) has left the facility today to join other Matildas of her age.

The Winter Holiday schedule is up on our door: we will be closed from Monday, December 23rd, through Friday, January 3rd, and back to work on January 6th. Please plan accordingly!