We purchased an Oxford Diffraction (then Agilent then Varian) Gemini in
2008 and use it in an undergraduate research setting to screen crystals
and collect full data sets. The SuperNova is similar, but has a brighter
Cu beam than our system. The data collection/integration/scaling
software, CrysalisPro, is easy to use and seems to work just fine. The
software is set up to accommodate both protein work and small molecule
work. Some bugs in the mtz export utility have been fixed over time. The
software engineers have been responsive to bug reports, and
Oxford/Agilent/Varian has been generous in letting us share the
processing software with collaborators who have collected data on our
instrument.
The hardware has been mostly maintenance-free, with some early hiccups
that were related to trying to cool our system with house water. (Don't
do it!) Once we switched to a closed-circuit chiller system, we have had
few issues, and those mainly revolve around some easy-to-replace
plumbing parts with limited service lifetimes that are in various
cooling circuits, e.g. flow meters, external cooler pumps, solenoid
valves etc. We have replaced the copper source once (about $4000, not
too bad) and will replace the Mo source this year. With our duty cycle
(about 30-35% of the available time) we are getting about 24 months on
the Cu tube and can squeeze out 36 months on the Mo tube. Humidity is
always going to be an issue with ice formation on your pins, but there
are some angle ranges that can minimize the effects of ice formation,
and we use them during the more humid months to collect data.
Our basic maintenance has been to pump down the cryojet legs every 6
months, dry out the cryojet dewar about once a year, replace the X-ray
tubes every 24-36 months, and replace mechanical parts in the water
circuits as needed.
We've been happy with our system, which serves both protein and small
molecule crystallography. If I were looking for a protein system again,
I would also take a look at the Rigaku system, as it has the potential
to be upgraded piecemeal in the future (new sources, detectors, etc.)
Cheers,
_______________________________________
Roger S. Rowlett
Gordon & Dorothy Kline Professor
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, NY 13346
tel: (315)-228-7245
ofc: (315)-228-7395
fax: (315)-228-7935
email: [email protected]
On 3/26/2013 2:44 PM, Stefan Arold wrote:
Dear All,
I am looking for a sealed tube in-house X-ray system that can (almost
literally) withstand sandstorms. The system should be largely
maintenance-free, robust to infrequent use and humid climate, with
intuitive and simple piloting software. It should allow both, rapid
screening and collection of full data sets.
I’d be grateful for any feedback concerning the pleasures and pains
experienced with the following candidates:
- Rigaku Compact HomeLab (with Pilatus or CCD)
- Agilent SuperNova (with single or dual wavelength tubes)
- Bruker D8 (with IuS microfocus source).
Thank you for any suggestions and warnings!
With best wishes
Stefan
PS: the last discussion on this topic I found was from 2007 – I apologise
if I have overlooked a recent thread.
