Day 1 - BD Influx™ Installation

Day 1  - Unboxing, Building and Boosting

Video link - http://bit.ly/eVhMW0

The morning began at 9am sharp sipping coffee on the Garvan balcony with Sladjan and Mark. Shortly soon after Craig arrived off a flight up from Melbourne, Brent pulled up in a cab from the airport, fresh off a flight from Seattle and we all eagerly awaiting the trucks arrival. After a mix up on loading docks, the truck finally reversed into the loading dock and we began unloading.

BD worked swiftly and seamlessly, unpacking boxes, arranging the components and it wasn't long before the facility closely resembled a lounge room on christmas morning. The BD Influx™left San Jose only a week ago and arrived in perfect condition only soon to be dismantled and rebuilt after a slight customised addition was fitted: 6 way sorting capabilities.
Brent and Mark raised the instrument by 140mm by fitting new rails onto a new marble plate that would allow for the 6 streams to effectively separate into each 5ml collection tube. The 'boost' took an hour after the Image block was assembled, in order to confirm the placement of the stream camera a quick connect to the screen images would reveal how the piece travelled, this however, turned out to be slightly more difficult than expected so the dismantling and rebuilding began. The Image block or 'heart of the instrument' contains a 20x lense with an NA (numerical aperture) of 0.6 which aids in providing the high end sensitivity for which the Influx is renowned, pieces are pulled apart and removed like arms off a voltron toy, each panel revealing electronic chips, tubes, plugs, cables and ports. Surprisingly, each component looks simply designed and they piece together in a natural, simplistic way, almost as if it were a leg bone connecting to the knee bone; the pre-amp connects to the sort acquisition rack - the electronics connect to the ..etc

A control board is unpacked revealing 24 ports and each cable is carefully connected to its matching partner port on the instrument, 3 data cables extend from the box, the first for ports 1-8, the second 9-16 and 17-24, our system currently uses up 21 of the ports with 7 lasers with hopes to soon fill the last 3 spots with additional PMT's for a 594nm laser line. Almost Medusa like, cables spill out from behind the instrument, umbilicals of leads connect hardware components and we soon learn briefly about the computer system UTOPEX and its remote abilities to be accessed, information extracted and data accrued, the IEC connectors provide easy access for powering up laser lines and are next connected to the power-boards on the legs of the frame. The sample control box clicks into place and the regulator tubing is untangled from pressure console as we listen to tales of the so called 'crack pipe' which turns out to be a sample tube on the end of a weigh funnel, hilarious.

Meanwhile, Sladjan and Craig work hard on the rack mount housing the monitors, video screens and oscilloscope. Sheath regulators and filters are then connected above the tank weigh station and we run through a quick lesson in nozzle assembly, piezo charging and droplet formation - again with a brilliantly simplistic design. The nozzle manifold shoe sits snugly to the bottom left of its housing and the Image relay blocks are mounted. We have a quick look at the herring bone style design of the optical bench, a look into filters, splitters and detection components. The instrument soon regains its shape as its rebuilt into a newly modified version of itself, with the ability to sort more streams, a new black protection door, and an overall seriousness that is the BD Influx™.

We eagerly await tomorrow and look forward to laser installation, alignment and new software.


Yours truly,

Chris