Joint Research Group Macromolecular Crystallography
Prepare for Remote Access Experiment
Please follow the required steps to prepare for a remote access experiment.
Remote Access Beamtime Booking
A prerequisite for remote access is a confirmed beamtime slot. Currently, we are offering remote access for 8-16h at BL14.1 and BL14.2, starting 09:00 am (BL14.1) and 10.00 am (BL14.2) Wednesday till Saturday, respectively.
Please book your remote beam time using GATE. All GATE bookings are considered as a remote beam time access request on default. Changes to hybrid or on-site experiments can be done.
Within the task "Preparing experimental time as responsible experimentalist" do the following steps, 3-5 working days at latest, prior to your beam time :
- Add experimentalist (including yourself if needed)
- Finish registration if the experimental team is complete
- Select "Remote responsible" from the experimental team (MX remote access training required)
- Submit phone number for phone communication by the HZB-MX staff to remote responsible (must be reachable the whole time)
- Submit "Safety confirmation"
- Add chemicals if required or confirm "No chemicals"
- Link samples to experiment time
Remote Access User Qualifications
To carry out successful remote experiments, the remote user shall have the following qualifications:
- You have joined the remote user training (future offer), or you have already collected diffraction data at the respective beamline in person.
- You have a valid rex_account, which designates you as the responsible scientist throughout the whole experimental beamtime.
- We expect you to have a solid understanding of macromolecular X-ray crystallography, which enables you to plan and carry out your experiments independently. The remote user support helps you on a technical/scientific basis during your experiment, which mainly focuses on using our experimental infrastructure.
If you do not meet the requirements, please refrain from proceeding. Instead, contact Manfred Weiss or the beamline scientists and ask for a scientific collaboration before the anticipated beam time. The terms and conditions will then be discussed depending on your individual needs.
Remote Access Credentials
Prior to the remote access beam time, you will be granted a so called "rex_account", which enables you to access our beamline intranet via the NoMachine Server foris.helmholtz-berlin.de. The rex_account is still valid after your experiment, so please safe a credentials data.
In addition to the rex-account credentials, you are also require a Multi-Factor-Authentication (MFA) code. This code will be created on demand from the Authenitcator app of choice, in which you did register the access to the Foris system.
This account is allowing access from 07:00 am at the day of the experiment.
In addition, we will send you the PX-account credentials, which enables you to login into the beamline control computers and the zoom login for the meeting with your user support at 09:00 am of the day of your beamtime
Supported Sample Containers and Sample Holders
Sample containers:
Currently, we are only supporting Uni-pucks at BL14.1 and at BL14.2 only.
Sample Holders:
Please make sure only to use specified sample holders. Please check through all of them according to our specifications, which can be found here:
Sample specifications
Sample Annotation Tool
we are offering to all beamline users a new tool, which allows to annotate the sample names within your shipped dewar prior to the experiment. This allows us to import this data into MXCuBE and can be used to automatically create subdirectory structures and image file names during the experiment
Documentation:
Please check out this webpage and download the template xlsx-file:
Sample annotation tool webpage
Dewar Shipment
Please send the dewars in good time prior to your beam time, which is for EU users 3 working days before the beam time.
Please send together with this dewar a portable storage media (usb3-hd or usb3-ssd).
Please follow our instructions: Dewar shipment instructions