iCys User Guide

Administrator Tasks Defining Custom Carriers
For example:
Carrier Side View
Bottom
Thickness
Base to
Well Height
Outside edge of carrier
{
If you do not know the measurements for Base to Well Height or Bottom
Thickness, use the method described in “Determining the Microplate Z
Parameters” on page C-14. When you have entered these measurements,
return to Focus Methods, below.
✧ Retraction Offset—Only used with some Freeform Carriers. For more
information, see “Defining a Freeform Carrier” on page C-16.
❍ Focus Methods—Specify the preferred (or required) focus method.
✧ Bottom then Top—For thicker plastic-bottomed plates (greater than
400µ) especially; iCys will focus first on the plate bottom, then translate
up by the bottom thickness to the plate top and refocus.
✧ Bottom Only—For glass-bottomed or thinner plastic-bottomed (less than
400µ) plates, iCys focuses directly on the bottom then moves up by the
bottom thickness plus other offsets to bring the sample into focus.
✧ Default—To allow your users to select a focus method (as discussed in
“Focus and Performance” on page 3-33), select both focus methods and
then select the method that you want to use as a default setting.
Note: If the Bottom Thickness is less than 400µ, select Bottom Only as the only
available focus method. iCys will set the default focus method to match.
❍ Test Autofocus—To test whether you have the values for your carrier set
correctly, you can run Test Autofocus. To test under working conditions,
CompuCyte suggests that you fill the test wells with water or another buffered
solution (such as phosphate-buffered saline [PBS].)
Test Autofocus tries to focus the objective correctly on the carrier and
produces a result number, as follows:
✧ If the Test Autofocus Result is greater than 800, the parameters are
correctly set.
✧ If Autofocus did not work, an error message will display. Check the
General tab of the Instrument Setup window (and the Focus parameter in
the task bar) to ensure that Autofocus is selected. You may also need to
check the values of the X,Y, and Z parameters for errors.
✧ If the Test Autofocus Result is between 0 and 800, try to refine the values
for the carrier and retest.
7. When you are happy with the results, click Save to save your changes. Close the
Edit Carrier Type window.
C-12 iCys Research Imaging Cytometer User Guide Revision B
Wells