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MXCuBE & microdiffractometer

Issues with MXCuBE often directly come from the microdiffractometer (MD2s). Access to the MD2 software should only be attempted by experienced users. Here are a few symptoms that can be dealt with within MXCuBE. Note that a reload of the MXCuBEweb4 interface (F5)often solves most of the issues - always try this first. MXCuBEweb4 also has an "equipment" tab that allows to abort an action from microdiffractometer if it is "stuck", flagged as busy (hence not ready).

Loosing the 3-click centering

  • Press F5 to reload the web interface
  • If it doesn't work manually change the MD phase at the top left hand corner under "phase control" from centering to tranfer for example and back
  • If it doesn't work, you need to restart the MXCuBE server (to do so see below: how to restart the MXCuBE server)

The video stream in your MXCuBE client web UI seems to become slow/your MXCuBE client UI seems to become slow

  • Refresh your MXCuBE client web UI by pressing F5.
  • If this does not help, change tab in MXCuBE (e.g. click on the sample or the equipment tab) and come back to the main data collection tab.
  • If this still does not help, close your MXCuBE tab in your internet browser and reopen a new one. You will have to log back in again and sync your sample names again before carrying on with the experiment.

A sample transfer is not happening or you are stuck (omega not rotating...)

  •  If present, kill the action by clicking on the button “STOP” at the top of the the right-hand side panel of the MXCuBE main data collection tab
  • Try to manually change the MD phase from your MXCuBE client web UI, at the top right hand side, change the current phase (e.g. to “centring” if in “data collection”)
  • Try the last action again
  •  If this does not solve the problem
    • Go to the equipment tab at the top
    • Look at the diffractometer status, if it is not ready it is flagged as "busy"and highlighted in red. Click on abort
  • If this does not solve the problem a restart of the MD2 software might be necessary

Restart the MXCuBE server

  • Open a new tab in your internet browser and connect to remote.esrf.fr (Guacamole remote desktop solution)
  • Login with your individual SMIS/ESRF account and password (not the proposal one)
  • In the connections tree on the left-hand side, go to Beamlines/id23-1/ and select “id231control2 (console)”
  •  You will now see the id23-1 beamline control machine in “console” mode, i.e., as if you were sitting in front of it.
  • As it is a dual display, it will appear too small so press simultaneously the LEFT CTRL+ LEFT SHIFT + LEFT ALT keys to open the Guacamole side panel
  •  Scroll down and increase the size of the forwarded display to see only the left screen
  •  On the left screen you see the MXCuBE server running
  • Minimise the MXCuBE window if not already done
  • Click on the “Stop MXCuBE” desktop icon
  • Click on “MXCuBE server” icon and waits it finished to initiate the server
  •  Click on the “MXCuBE Web” icon to start the UI
  • Log in with your proposal account
  • You may need to reload the client (where you were collecting remotely on your local machine) to carry on with the experiment

partners

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility - 71, avenue des Martyrs, CS 40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.