Monitoring an Archon Autosampler remotely

[pacerlaser]

Hi, we are on the verge of a big project and I was wondering if there is an easy way to monitor an Archon Autosampler remotely to be sure that it is running fine. For example, it would be nice to be able to check and see if there is an error from home so that I don't come in the next morning and discover that half of the samples didn't get analyzed. Does anybody know of a software program that would accomplish this? My only other idea is to set up a webcam and log on remotely from home to observe autosampler.

[tlahren]

I used to use VPN to observe the instrument computer. I couldn't see the autosampler physically but usually I could tell if something was wrong my viewing the sequence progress and sample data. I suppose you could connect the camera to the computer as you said and view that through the VPN as well.

I don't know of any Archon specific program for doing this though.

If you are on a private network you would need your IT person or network admin to give you VPN access at your home. Or if in the case of my previous University, all computers had open internet IP addresses so I could just use Remote Desktop connection to them or use a program like VNC Server/Viewer to view the instrument computer.

[pacerlaser]

Thanks for the reply, I was flirting with the idea of using the RS232 output on the Archon Autosampler to send the signal to a notepad type of computer program in the attempt to see an error message on the computer screen. Another co-worker suggested installing a light instead of the beeping noise when an error is encountered so that I can easily see it when I log on remotely to view the webcam.

[tlahren]

Wow. The lights a pretty cool idea. More advanced than what I ever did . I hope it works for you.

[LindseyPyron]

FYI.....

The EST Centurion Autosampler can be controlled remotely. You can basically do everything you can do standing in front of the instrument including creating and starting sequences.

[Yama001]

I would just get access to the network or the acquisition PC and check if the data files you expect to be acquired are there.

The web cam scheme does sound like it could be entertaining, though.

Our crew could have used it last night, as they forgot to watch thier gas tanks and lost a couple instruments