Re: Incubator box heating mystery

Posted by Craig Brideau on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Incubator-box-heating-mystery-tp6627357p6632091.html

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I've received some requests for recommended brands of dataloggers, so I'll
post it here rather then send out a bunch of individual emails:

A really cheap one is this Lascar Easylogger:

http://www.microdaq.com/lascar/humidity/usb-humidity-logger.php

A colleague bought a 5-pack of them and scattered them around her labs.  You
connect them to a computer to charge and program them, then disconnect them
and put them into your lab(s) at various places.  When you need the
temp/humidity log you plug them back into the computer and download the
records.
They have a higher accuracy version if you need to be more precise:

http://www.microdaq.com/lascar/humidity/high-accuracy-temp-rh-logger.php

For my own lab I have an MSR 145 IP60 which is very accurate and can operate
unattended for many, many months.  It has a much larger memory than the
Lascar model (2M vs 16k points), but if you are checking your logger
frequently and/or logging at long intervals this will be less of an issue.
 It is very small so you can put it easily in tight places, but it is quite
a bit more expensive than the Lascar one.  I actually leave it shoved in a
Thorlabs XT34 rail that is holding some of the optics on my optical table
next to our Ti:Saph.  I usually check it a few times a year.

http://www.msr.ch/en/product/msr145.php

If you need several loggers to cover multiple spots or multiple labs I
recommend one of the Lascar 5-packs.  If you only want/need a single logger
than the MSR one is really nice, especially since it can log for a very long
time due to its larger memory, at very short intervals.  I leave mine set to
record temperature and humidity every half-hour.  Some versions of the MSR
come with analog inputs as well, so you can patch it into other sensors or
status lines on your equipment if you want to monitor something else.  Again
though, it is much more expensive than the Lascar one so it may be overkill.
 If you only log once per hour then you'll have nearly 1 year endurance with
the Lascar one.

I hope this helps!

Craig



On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 6:59 PM, Graham Wright <
[hidden email]> wrote:

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>
> I agree with Craig that the temperature and humidity loggers give you
> a real insight into what's going on with the aircon in your rooms
> (particularly over the weekends in our case). I'd be interested though
> in what you think are reasonable limits for the tolerable fluctuations
> in both temperature and humidity. We are constantly battling with both
> in Singapore!
>
> Regards,
> Graham
>
> ---
> Graham Wright, PhD
> Microscopy Unit Manager
>
> Institute of Medical Biology
> 8A Biomedical Grove, #06-06 Immunos, Singapore 138648
>
> E:   [hidden email]
> W:  http://www.imb.a-star.edu.sg/imu/
>
>
>
> On 29 July 2011 02:51, Craig Brideau <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > *****
> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> > *****
> >
> > We had quite a bit of trouble with our room ventilation until quite
> > recently. We purchased an inexpensive USB datalogger to continuously
> record
> > temperature and humidity in the room.  It picked up large swings in
> > temperature and humidity that the ventilation system was supposed to
> > prevent.  The data we collected finally convinced the building contractor
> to
> > install proper humidity controls and hardware for our room.  I recommend
> > that every facility should keep logs of temperature and humidity.  The
> > loggers are quite cheap now, and can be programmed, detached from the
> > computer, and left unattended for months.  We would move ours around the
> > room to get a feel for any gradients, heat loads from equipment, etc.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Zac Arrac Atelaz <[hidden email]
> >wrote:
> >
> >> *****
> >> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> >> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> >> *****
> >>
> >>
> >> Esteban:
> >>
> >> Your problem might be the changing position of the termometer of the
> >> system, one interesting trial will be putting the overheating system in
> the
> >> non overheating system, to see if is that part fails or remain working
> as
> >> the trial you make the way around.
> >>
> >> If your system is failing you should consider one incubator as the one
> we
> >> have, this is not the huge box making the microscope unreachable, it is
> the
> >> size of the insert in the stage and it has 4 points heating your sample,
> the
> >> cover, the objective used, and the water heater, we have never had a
> >> temperature overshoot as the mentioned by Michael, even if we open
> doors, or
> >> change room temperature ( recorded from 18 to 27°C) the shift in
> temperature
> >> observed trough time in the incubator is about 0.5°C over a 25h period.
> In
> >> such long experiments we have people reviewing samples as you dont want
> to
> >> let the confocal working if the sample has suffered unwanted changes, by
> the
> >> way the brand of the one we have is a INU - Tokai hit incubator.
> >>
> >> I hope this helps a little.
> >>
> >> Gabriel Orozco Hoyuela
> >>
> >>
> >> > Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:01:32 -0700
> >> > From: [hidden email]
> >> > Subject: Incubator box heating mystery
> >> > To: [hidden email]
> >> >
> >> > *****
> >> > To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> >> > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> >> > *****
> >> >
> >> > Hello everyone,
> >> >
> >> > I have a very strage problem with an incubator box heating up. I have
> two
> >> > live cell imaging microscopes enclosed in PeCon incubator boxes (I
> think
> >> > they are Incubator XL). The microscopes are in two separate buildings.
> >> One
> >> > microscope heats up significantly past the set temp. (above 41
> degrees,
> >> set
> >> > to 37 degrees) even though the temp. is being measured and reported
> >> > correctly to the electronics (confirmed by a glass thermometer). The
> >> other
> >> > microscope works perfectly and holds at 37 degrees for days. The
> strange
> >> > thing is that when I put the temp. control components that work well
> >> > (heater, control electronics, temp. sensor, and all cables) onto the
> >> > microscope that heats up, it still heats up, even though the
> components
> >> work
> >> > perfectly on the other microscope! Any ideas why this might be
> happening,
> >> > why the temp. control equipment works on one microscope but not on the
> >> > other?
> >> >
> >> > The temp. equipment is stand-alone, not connected to a computer or to
> the
> >> > microscope in any way. One microscope is a Zeiss Axiovert 200M (the
> one
> >> > that works) and the other is a Leica DM IRE2 (heats up) in separate
> >> > buildings; the incubator boxes surrounding them are very similar. Any
> >> ideas
> >> > on this mystery are welcome.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks,
> >> > Esteban
> >>
> >>
> >
>