8. Instruments
The “Instruments” menu lets you keep track of instrument or setup changes. It provides the place to store information about your machinery used for research that is not directly related to the ESS and also is not general enough to be stored in Documents.
This will be mainly log entries like tracking the daily state of a setup or noting things done to the instrument like maintenance, break-downs or readjustments.
When clicked, the menu will present a list of the instruments of the group as well as instruments that are “shared” to the user, e.g. from another group, and he has the rights to use it. Supervisors will also see a list of deactivated instruments (if the group has some).
The entries in the table let you see information about the instrument, change it, or deactivate the instrument. The menu bar has a point to create new instruments. On clicking the instrument name, the instrument journal will open, presenting the journal entries in a chronological order.
8.1. New instrument
The new instrument menu item will open the instrument create form. You have to define an identifier (this will be sanitized to be suitable to be used as a directory name), the location of the instrument as well as can have a long description. You can define templates for instruments, if you have a bunch of similar instruments.
8.2. Instrument view
Clicking on the i-symbol will open the instrument view for this specific instrumentation entry.
The instrument view displays all the information above, as well as a table of all journal entries for this instrument. You can attach files to the instrument view, e.g. PDFs of manuals etc. It might be a good idea to make a wiki link [[]] to documents or the main document that contains information or procedures specific to this instrument. Remember that wiki document pages can just be created from other wiki documents.
In the instrumentation view, default templates for new journal entries, new ESS as well as for PPM entries called from this instrumentation view can be defined. Further, journal entry types can be defined and be associated with this instrument.
Finally, journal entries of this instrument are listed and files can be uploaded associated with the instrument.
8.3. Editing instrumentation
Clicking on the pencil symbol allows editing the instrumentation entry.
8.4. Deactivating an instrument
Clicking on the power symbol will deactivate the instrument. Only supervisors can see the instrument, and no new journal entries are possible. The supervisor can delete deactivated instruments, but this is not recommended as any associated information gets lost.
9. Journal entry overview
Clicking on the instrumentation identifier in the instrumentation view will open the journal entry overview of this instrument. Journal entries are shown in chronological order, with the latest entry shown first. The entry can be displayed by clicking on its title.
The menu allows for creating new journal entries (also available at the bottom of the entries table), creating a new ESS (using the default template of the instrument) or displaying the instrument information.
9.1. New Journal Entry
This menu allows creating from a new journal entry using the default template defined for the instrument. Besides a title (or an identifier), a journal entry type as well as a long description can be provided.
9.2. Journal Entry
Clicking on the title, the journal entry will be displayed.
Here, files can be associated with the entry and previewed.
The menu allows editing the current entry or defining it as a template.