DigiTherm® CircKinetics™: Ideal Drosophila Activity Monitoring Incubator For Circadian Research!

A: There are three connectivity options available:

The Serial connectivity option is only supported for Windows computers that come with a RS-232 port or support a USB-to-RS-232 adapter. This requires connecting a DB9 RS-232 printer cable from the incubator directly to the PC, usually with the PC right next to the incubator.

The Ethernet connectivity option is more universal and works with any Mac, Linux, or Windows computer that has a wired Ethernet (RJ45) network port. The incubator can be plugged directly into the computer with a single RJ45 Cat5 cable, or, more usefully, the incubator can be plugged into your local network (via a hub, data switch, or switch/router) and the computer can be anywhere that can reach that network (in the incubator room, on your desk, or anywhere on the planet with an internet connection). Please note that a known, accessible, external IP address, or "port forwarding," is required for connection from outside the incubator's local area network. The USB connectivity option connects to a PC via a USB port (with our USB->Serial interface). 

A: Any Windows, Mac, or Linux-based computer that can run Java! DeviceCom3 is written in Java, so it runs on a wide variety of platforms. 

A: Ordering a Mac or PC from Tritech Research provides a way to purchase a computer, even with grants that do not allow computer purchases, since it is part of an integrated incubation system. We will also install our software, all important OS updates, the latest Trikinetics software, and OpenOffice on the computer and set is to disable automatic updates and power-saver options that could cause an interrupted connection.

One advantage of a laptop vs. a desktop computer is that laptops have built-in batteries, so they will continue to function during a power failure / fluctuation. 

A: It is not possible to answer how long a temperature transition will take without knowing the ambient temperature, the desired From and To temperatures, and the thermal mass of what will be placed inside the incubator. However, we can give some rough numbers for specific examples. A standard incubator that is empty in a room with 25°C ambient temperature can go from 27°C to 37°C in about 15 minutes and back down from 37°C to 27°C in about 25 minutes. Note that you need to use the software to get those times. When the incubator is running independently of the computer software, circadian temperature transitions are slower - 1 to 2 hours to coast down from 37°C to 27°C. Using the same conditions as above, but adding the Rapid Heating option, cuts the transition time from 27°C to 37°C down to about 2 minutes. Feel free to contact us for more specific or up-to-date information. 

A: Yes, each instance of DeviceCom3 software has it's own name. For example, one incubator might be labName_tritech1 and if you get more they will be labName_tritech2, etc. These can run on the same computer at the same time. Trikinetics monitors are also serialized, so incubator #1 can have 1-4 and incubator 2 can have 5-8, etc. The Trikinetics USB interface box has plugs for 4 incubators, as long as they can be close enough to each other.

A: The computer needs to have a wired Ethernet network port, also called a RJ45 jack. With the MacBook air, you can get a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. On some computers, it may be possible to get a USB to Ethernet adapter. This is a requirement for direct connection with the incubator via a cable and preferable to wifi even for a true network connection since a wired connection is more reliable. The computer needs to have a static IP address (this is something that can be set manually). If it doesn't come pre-installed, the computer needs to have Java installed on it (this is something that can be downloaded and installed). It needs to be set not to "sleep". It is referable if it has a solid state hard drive so there are no moving parts to wear out during long term normal operation. Pretty much any processor speed and amount of memory and storage capacity is enough. All recent versions of Mac OS work fine. Windows 7 is preferable to Windows 10 because automatic updates cannot be disabled on Windows 10 (which could interrupt interaction with the incubator), but either will work. If the same computer is meant to be used with Trikinetics activity monitors, it needs at least one USB port. We currently distribute your personalized version of DeviceCom3 on a CD, so a CD/DVD drive or temporary access to one is convenient. If no CD/DVD drive is available, we can upload your software to an online storage drive, if needed, upon request, for you to download.

A: You can change the static IP of the incubator to what ever you'd like and then make sure the computer shares the same first 3 numbers of that IP and differs in the last number (as per the 255.255.255.0 mask).
There are 3 ways to change the incubator's IP:
- via a the devicemanager software that came on the disk and runs via windows
- with the arp and telnet commands as described in the DeviceCom3 manual.
- via a web browser interface, this is best, but you will have to directly connect with a computer that has its IP manually set to something like 192.16.1.100 to get to the web page at 192.168.1.200 (or 201 for the other incubator). Then make the change, and then set the computer back to its normal IP or DHCP. To log in to the web page, the user id is Admin and the password is to be left blank.
If you choose devicemanager or arp/telnet, the change may be temporarily forced and, after the change, and before powering down the incubator, you still need to log in via the web interface and save the new IP and "Apply Settings" to make the new static IP permanent.
Finally, the new incubator IP can be pointed to by setting it in the DeviceCom3 File--->Preferences--->IP Address submenu. 

A: You can use the DeviceCom3 software that came with your incubator to write a user program to do anything that you could do manually. If you have the CD that came with the incubator, it will have PDFs of both the incubator's manual and the DeviceCom3 software manual. The manual goes through the commands, and the program itself has a quick command guide under its Help menu.
As an example, here are directions on how to switch the temperature once from 18C to 29C:
In its simplest form, you could set T1time and T2time to the same time as each other (but not midnight) and this will force the incubator to use Temp1 only. The you can set Temp1 to 18.0C and then the program to change it to 29.0C would be:
WAIT [the number of seconds from now until the specific day, for example it would be 259200 for 3 days]
SETMENU 0001 0290
And that will wait the designated number of seconds and then set menu number 1 (Temp1) to 29.0C.
So if you were starting the program on Wednesday at noon and you wanted the shift to happen on Saturday at 1:00pm here are two choices:
WAIT 86400
REPEAT 2
GOTO 1
WAIT 3600
SETMENU 0001 0290
or
WAIT 86400
REPEAT 2
GOTO 1
TIME 13:00:00
SETMENU 0001 0290
In the two examples above, we are waiting 1 full 24 hour day and then using the REPEAT command with a parameter of 2 to execute the GOTO 1 twice before proceeding the WAIT 3600 or TIME 13:00:00 command for a total of 3 days.
Doing a simple setmenu command to change the temperature will erase any "learning" that the incubator has done and probably cause the incubator to overshoot 29C (it will work it's way down after overshooting). It you would like a better, more controlled temperature transition, then you can use the T1time and T2time menus to switch between temperatures after learning has been completed, and without erasing that learning. When both T1time and T2time are set to midnight (0:00) then the incubator is forced to Temp2 only. So, here is a better program, which is more complete, starting from an incubator that has just been turned on:
SYNC
SETMENU 0001 0290
SETMENU 0007 0180
SETMENU 0008 0000
SETMENU 0009 0000
'This is a comment and doesn't count as a line number
'We have now sync'ed the incubator's clock with the computer's clock, Set Temp1 to 29.0C, Temp2 to 18.0C, and set T1time and T2 time to midnight, so the incubator will to to and stay at 18.0C
'The next line number will be line 6 because there were 5 real command lines above
WAIT 3600
REPEAT 3
GOTO 6
'The above will cause the program to wait an hour, then 3 more house (4 hours total) which should be enough time for the incubator to get to 18.0C and stabilize
SETMENU 0008 0001
SETMENU 0009 0001
'The above will force the incubator to go to Temp1 and stay at 29.0C. We will wait 4 hours again so that it can overshoot and learn the correct power level.
'The next line number is 11
WAIT 3600
REPEAT 3
GOTO 11
'Now the incubator has learned how much power to use for both temperatures so we'll go back to 18.0C and wait until the weekend. Next line is 14
SETMENU 0008 0000
SETMENU 0009 0000
WAIT 86400
REPEAT 2
GOTO 16
TIME 13:00:00
SETMENU 0008 0001
SETMENU 0009 0001
'If this is the end of the program, the incubator will go to 29.0C and stay there indefinitely because the program will end.

A: Generally speaking, we recommend using the Ethernet interface for controlling the incubator with our DeviceCom3 software that comes with the DT2-CIRC-TK incubator. That way it is completely separated from Trikinetics activity monitors that always use USB via DAMSystem Software. The Ethernet interface also gives you the possibility of connecting to the incubator remotely over a network in addition to a direct connection. But, if you want to use direct wired connections for both functions and you don't mind keeping the port numbers straight, you can use USB for both. Internally, our incubator control box communicates using the RS-232 serial protocol. Since most modern computers don't support this, most labs prefer either the very flexible Ethernet interface or the USB interface, so we offer a built-in RS-232 adapter for the desired interface as part of the control box.