I. On the User computer (the one between the server and the Mac) or the main control computer, look for an icon labeled startup. Double-click on it. The opening screen appears:

Select “File” > “Open” >“All files (from default location)”. Many of the drop-down boxes contain data in these files. If there is something missing (see below), then you will have to edit the appropriate file, close the Startup program, and restart it.

Select the drip-down box for User List. This is an alphabetical list off all people registered as users of X17B2.

Check this list for everyone in your group. If there is someone missing, edit the Users.List file to add the missing person/people, including their BNL ID number. Each user's name will appear in the "Experimenters" window when selected, with his/her ID number in the BNL IDs box. Continue to select each of the users in your group. Don't add support personnel, unless they are part of the experiment. If a mistake is made, click on the incorrect name and it will disappear.

Add the PASS and Safety Approval Form numbers in the appropriate boxes.

After each entry is made, an “X” will appear in the box next to each item; if not, press <enter> in the text box.

Select the next tab:

Select each drop-down box and select the appropriate answer for your experiment. If the "X" doesn't appear in the box, press "Enter". Again, if the correct answer is not available, you will have to edit a file, in this case, it is called "Startup.params".

Now, go to the File/Path menu (do the Heater/TCs.Cell menu later):

The Filename List is a list of all previous runs. If you are doing an experiment on a material which has been done before, anappropriate filename should be apparent. Select the one with the highest number or, if this is similar to an experiment you have done before, select that one.

Press "Check Filename". This will check the entries for that filename in the Rundata.log file, put them in the boxes below, and give you the message "Filename is NOT unique" (which is the correct answer, since you have selected an existing filename). Correct or enter the proper information in each of the boxes. For the Path box, press "Browse", and create a new folder, with a name in the style of the previous folders, but with a new number. That number should be one greater than the largest number listed. If more than 99 entries exist, there may be some inconsistancy between 2-digit and 3-digit numbers (e.g. the number 099 is greater than 98, but will be listed earlier). Three-digit numbers are allowed and actually preferred (e.g. 099), especially if there are likely to be more than 99 data sets for this material ever! Make sure the folder is in the right location, not as a sub-folder under another data folder. Press "Enter" in each box, even if the existing entry is correct.

As a check, go to the SAMDATA directory (either G: on the server, or T: on any other computer). Navigate to the folder you just created and confirm that it has been created. Leave this window open, because you will be checking it again.

Go to the Filename box, and correct it. The number should be the same as that entered when you created a new folder. Make sure neither the filename nor the folder name have an spaces in them!

Press "Check Filename" again, and the message in the bottom box should change to "Filename is unique".

If you are doing a totally new experiment, then all the entries will have to be made manually. Most of the previous filenames are of the format XXX__nnn, you can use the same format, or use XXXX_nnn or XXXXXnnn, but be sure to keep the total number of characters to 8. The last three characters, of course, are the number of the run for that material and, in this case, should be "001"

Now, go back to the Heater/TCs,Cell tab:I

Select the appropriate material and shape for the heater. When you select the shape, the dimension parameters will appear in the box below. Enter the dimensions requested, in microns.

The box labeled Cell Description is a free-form text box where you can enter anything. Put special information about your cell and/or sample which was not entered in the File/Path menu. It may be left blank.

Whether or not you have any thermocouples, press the "up" arrow in the Control box. The available thermocouple calibration parameters will be displayed here. If the correct one for your experiment, DO NOT edit the file, but ask for help.

Whatever thermocouple you pick for the control thermocouple, the same one will be selected for the secondary one. If you have only one thermocouple, or the secondary one is of a different type, make the appropriate change now.

If you have no thermocouples, change the control thermocouple selection to "1", then back to "0". This tells the program that you have actually made the thermocouple entry.

The next tab is for other apparatus, at this time, this is for Ultrasonic Interferometry and/or monochromatic experiments, If neither of these apply, you may skip this tab.

Press the “View Rundata” button.

All information you have entered will be shown. If anything is missing, that fact will be noted. Correct the missing items.

If you can't figure out what is missing, proceed to the next step.

Press “Print Rundata”. The parameters will be displayed and printed on a letter-size page, to be put into the data binder. Anything missing will be tagged.

Close the display window and continue.

Press “Print Label”. The parameters will be printed on a label, to be put into the experimental notebook. After either of the previous two steps, if you see any mistakes, you can correct them and repeat those steps.

Make sure that no one else is running, (the previous user hasfinished), and press “Update PVs”, which will update the Process Variables (Experimental Information parameters and Thermocouple parameters) on the VME crate. This will replace the current parameters. The computer may appear to hang up when you Update PVs; just wait until the hour glass goes away.

Finally, press “Add Record”, which will update the Rundata Log file, copy several files to your working directory, and cause the Startup program to exit.

Go back to the folder list and check that there are several new files in your new folder. One of them will be a dummy data file, with the sequence number 0000 and the extension MED (for Multi Element Detector). Now, go to the root of SAMDATA, and there should be a file called "LastFileWritten.txt". The "...0000.MED" file mentioned above, along with its complete path, should be the only line in that file. This file is updated every time a new MED file is saved.