Warranty Extensions

All OLIS clients are encouraged to keep their instruments under warranty for immediacy of support and repairs and (frankly) for our fiscal stability. Our full staff is available to every user of all OLIS equipment for free under the first year warranty. Your need for support will not end at that point, and our need for your assistance in covering the costs of top quality support personnel, immediate repair/ replacement hardware, and software updates does not end either. By honoring our request for an annual warranty extension at less than 5 % of the original purchase price of each OLIS product, we both win. Thank you for helping us offset the price of keeping top tier support staff in place for your use. Request a price quotation for a single or multiple year warranty extension here. [sales@olisweb.com]

Wavelength Calibration for the Olis RSM 1000

In Live Display when you press "W­Calibrate Wavelength," the gratings rotate until the system identifies the position at which sensor is activated; this position is the calibrate point. Now you must determine what the actual wavelength is when the gratings are at the "calibrate point."

Ideally, the actual calibration wavelength will be at 0 nm. If the actual calibration wavelength is not at 0 nm, you will need to determine the actual wavelength and set this value in the RSM fluorimeter.

If your RSM is set up for absorbance measurements, the procedure is as follows:

1. Ensure that the lamp is turned on and that you are using matched gratings.
2. In the Parameter Setup menu in the Data Collection Parameters, ensure that the program is set to "Collect Scans" and "Dual Beam Mode."
3. In the Monochromator Parameters, ensure that the Lines of the Grating and the Blaze Wavelength match the specifications of the gratings you are using.
4. In the Monochromator Parameters, press "A­Calibration Wavelength" and enter "0." The system will move the gratings and find the calibrate point and assign "0" as the calibration wavelength.
5. Press "ESC" to return to Command Mode. Press "V" to enter Live display. Press "A" to adjust the high voltage (if necessary). Press "Enter" to view only the spectral graph and press "X" to toggle the x-axis of the display from 'time' to 'wavelength.'
6. If everything is just as it was when the RSM was originally set up and calibrated, the graph displayed on your computer screen will look like Figure 1. The peak is caused by light reflected from the gratings; if the gratings are correctly positioned, the reflection occurs at wavelength "0."
7. If the calibrate point and the actual calibration wavelength are not the same, the peak caused by reflected light from the gratings will not occur at wavelength "0." Figure 2 is an example of the display you would see if the calibrate point and the actual calibration wavelength were not the same; in this example, the peak occurs at ~ 5 nm.
8. If calibration is off, adjust the calibration wavelength in the Monochromator Parameters submenu of the parameter Setup menu. Press "ESC" to return to Command Mode; in the Monochromator Parameters submenu, press "A­Calibration Wavelength" and enter a number to offset the actual calibration wavelength enough to shift the peak to wavelength "0." Then press "Enter." The system This is a trial-and-error procedure, but it is somewhat intuitive in the sense offsetting a red-shifted peak will require the entry of a negative number and offsetting a blue-shifted peak will require the entry of a positive number. You can estimate the offset number to enter by visually assessing the number of wavelengths away from "0" at which the peak appears. In Figure 2, for example, the peak is red-shifted approximately 5 nm. Going back to the Parameter Setup menu and entering "-5" under "A­Calibration Wavelength" (Figure 3) produces the Live Display graph shown in Figure 4; notice that the peak is now at wavelength "0" and the "Center Wavelength" is identified as "-5 nm."

Click on an image to open a window with a larger view.
Figure 1	Figure 2	Figure 3	Figure 4

If your RSM is used as the emission monochromator, the procedures are the same as above except you will need to provide a light source for calibration. This could be a fluorescent sample. Room light will also serve the purpose. Therefore, for fluorescence-configured RSMs, follow the same procedures as above except in Step #1, instead of turning on the lamp, open a port in the sample chamber to allow room light to enter put a fluorescence sample of known spectrum in the cuvette.