AUTOMATE SCIENTIFIC ThermoClamp-3 User manual

ThermoClamp®-3and -.
Temperature Controller
User’s Manual
Joe Cordes and David Barton
TM ©
®

©2021 AutoMate Scientic, Inc.
All rights reserved.
!This equipment must be earth grounded using the post on the
back of the controller.

ThermoClamp®-3and -.
Temperature Controller
User’s Manual
The ThermoClamp®is intended for research use only.
Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................3
Packing List
Features and specifications .................................................4
Electronic specications
Acronyms, abbreviations and definitions..........................5
Components.............................................................................6
Controller unit
Perfusion Pencil®
Perfusion Pencil Placement
Bath Perfusion / Water Jacket Feature
Chemical Information
Making sure the device works properly ...........................11
Getting Started.....................................................................12
Settings Menu........................................................................15
Monitoring the ThermoClamp from your computer......19
Autotuning..............................................................................24
TM ©
®

LED Display error codes.......................................................27
Updating firmware over the USB Port..............................28
Switching fluids......................................................................29
Operating without the bath sensor..................................30
Maintenance..........................................................................31
Cutting the Pencil tips .........................................................31
Max Temp LED .......................................................................31
Sensors ....................................................................................32
Replacement Parts................................................................33
Safety Instructions................................................................34
Warranty .................................................................................36
Table of Contents Continued
2

Introduction
FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY
The ThermoClamp is designed for solution-switching use in research
applications ONLY. AutoMate Scientic, Inc. cannot be responsible for
injury or death resulting from medical or pharmacological use.
Packing List
Item Quantity
ThermoClamp®-3 or -3.2
temperature controller 1
Heated Perfusion Pencil®manifold 1
Bath thermocouple 1
Power supply (12V DC) 1
This ThermoClamp user manual 1
3

Features and specifications
ThermoClamp-3 Controller
• Auto-tuning PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) temperature
control accurate to <1.0°C (often ±0.1˚C) with fuzzy logic
• Extremely low noise (analog heating) designed for electrophysiology
• Over-temperature protection
• Three types of user-congurable thermal runaway protection (patent
pending) with fuzzy logic constraints
• Smart voltage setpoint: digital, analog (BNC) or automatic
• Separate displays for both temperatures (control sensor and safety
sensor)
• Constant USB/serial data stream output
• Automatic heater failure detection and prevention
• Utilization of the safety sensor as secondary input for feedback control
Perfusion Pencil®Inline heater
• 1, 4, or 8 channels for solution heating with ow rates up to 5cc/min @
37˚C
• Temperature controlled bath perfusion inline heating with a ow rate
up to 5cc/min
• Small manifold volume for rapid switching
• Temperature can be maintained for the entire bath, or just for solutions
being delivered
• Perfusion Pencil tips are interchangeable / replaceable with standard
AutoMate tips
Electronic specifications
• Power supply: 100-240V AC, 50-60 Hz input; 12V, 5A output
• Heater output: 2 channels at quiet analog 0-12V up to 1A = 24 Watts
total
• Front panel BNC output voltage (to record the temperature): 40mV/
deg C
• Front panel input voltage (to control the setpoint): 20 deg C/V
• Serial baud rate: 230400
• Safety TC limit: 75˚C (adjustable)
• Max setpoint: 65˚C
• Default setpoint: 35˚C (adjustable)
4

Acronyms, abbreviations and definitions
CU ThermoClamp Controller unit
Isopotential Grounding (earth) point
PID Proportional Integral Derivative
TC Thermocouple (temperature sensor)
This equipment must be earth grounded using the post on the back of the
controller.
5

Components
Controller unit
The Controller Unit (CU) is shown in Figures 1 and 2. The integrated
temperature controller and power supply for the heater are the main
components of the controller unit.
Figure 1. Controller unit, front view
The sensor plugged-in to the “Control” port is used to control the
temperature. The thermocouple in “Safety” is just used to prevent
overheating of the Pencil. If you only use one sensor, connect it to "Safety."
Figure 2. Controller Unit, rear view.
NOTE: The ThermoClamp-3 and its heated Perfusion Pencil should both be
grounded for high-gain electrophysiology.
Pencil
connector
Two temperature
displays and
sensor ports
Power
switch
Power entry
module
USB port
Isopotential (grounding)
post
6

Perfusion Pencil®
The Heated Perfusion Pencil® (Pencil) manifold is shown in Figures 3,
4 and 5. The actual heating of the solutions happens in the Pencil. The
optional bath solution is also heated as it ows through the Pencil.
Figure 3. Side view of the Perfusion Pencil.
Figure 4. Detailed view of the rear part of the Perfusion Pencil.
Chamber
outow Thermal
insulation
Multiple solution
heater inow tubes
Power cables
to the CU
Drug ow orice.
Tighten removable tip
for minimum dead
volume
Chamber bath
inow
TC cable to CU
Multiple
solution heater
inow tubes
Pencil
mounting rod
Chamber bath
inow
Power cable to
the CU
7

Figure 5. Heated Perfusion Pencil schematic.
Perfusion Pencil Placement
Your Heated Perfusion Pencil must be placed as close as possible to the
perfusion chamber. If it is too far away, the liquid in your tubes will
lose all of its heat before it reaches the chamber. The maximum distance
between the Pencil and chamber depends on a number of variables
including: tubing material (thermal conduction), uid dripping versus
owing into the perfusion chamber via submerged tube, and ambient
temperature and drafts. You may be able to mount your Pencil farther
from the chamber if you try double-tubing – use a piece of large Tygon
tubing as thermal insulation outside a small piece of Teon tubing. Make
sure your solution ows into your chamber rather than dripping. The
extra exposure to cool room air will greatly decrease the delivered liquid
temperature. Finally, avoid placing your chamber in a location where
it is regularly blown by air drafts. Many researchers purchase or build
enclosures around their chambers or entire microscopes to help control the
temperature and avoid air drafts.
8

Bath Perfusion / Water Jacket Feature
The Heated Perfusion Pencil includes an extra tube for heating a
owing bath solution. This heated high-ow line will maintain the bath
temperature while quickly washing-out drugs applied through the tip.
The Pencil can maintain at least 37˚C with ow rates of 5cc/min.
This extra line can also be used with a water jacket on certain perfusion
chambers. A “water jacket” is usually a separate chamber or bath outside
a perfusion chamber for circulating a heating or cooling liquid. The
perfusion chamber must be equipped with a water jacket. It is not usually
something that can be added later. Simply provide a high ow of water
from a large reservoir through the Pencil, into the chamber’s water jacket,
and out to a drain or recirculating pump for ideal heating.
Figure 6. Set up example of ThermoClamp temperature controller and
accessories.
Reservoirs
with the drug
solutions
Bath and Pencil TCs are
connected to their corresponding
sockets
Chamber heating
uid source
Chamber with the cell
under examination
9

Chemical Information
The tubing inside the manifold body is polyimide (nylon) coated with
PTFE. Additional connection tubing is silicone. The removable tips include
a medical-grade polypropylene Luer-lock tting with a fused silica
(quartz) needle coated with polyimide outside and PTFE inside. These
materials are resistant to most acids, bases and organic solvents. To avoid
dust contamination, we recommend pre-rinsing the Perfusion Pencil and
tip with distilled water. Also, it is good practice to discard the rst few
microliters of solution before using the device. The Heated Perfusion
Pencil and removable tips are shipped non-sterile. The Pencil can be
chemically sterilized with cleaning solutions in each line. The removable
tips can be chemically sterilized or autoclaved. However, repeated
autoclaving may weaken the adhesive bond between the luer-lock tting
and the needle.
10

Making sure the device works properly
1. Connect the Pencil connector to the ThermoClamp control box (CU).
2. Connect the Pencil thermocouple plug to the Safety TC socket.
3. Connect the bath thermocouple plug to the Control TC socket (if used.)
4. Connect the tubes to their valves and reservoirs. Notice the fragile
capillaries.
5. Warning: Do not leave any solution tubes at the rear of the Perfusion
Pencil unconnected.
6. Fill and plug any unused tubes on the rear of the Perfusion Pencil with
solution to prevent backow and cross-contamination.
7. Connect the power cable to the CU via power entry module.
8. Ground the CU using the grounding post on the rear face, and the
Pencil.
9. Turn on the on the CU power switch. The temperature controller
should display the ambient temperature. If the “Pencil Max Temp”
LED lights or the red "Safety" display shows "Err", check the Safety
thermocouple plug. If the blue "Control" temperature display is blank,
check the Control thermocouple plug (if used).
10. Adjust the setpoint above the ambient temperature. (Refer to the
section on adjusting the setpoint.) The controller will start heating
the Pencil. If the controller has not been autotuned, the temperature
will probably overshoot. (Refer to the section on autotuning the
temperature controller.)
11. To verify that the Pencil does not leak internally, open the bath
perfusion ow and all of the delivery valves. Look for leaks at each
end of the Pencil.
11

Getting Started
1. The Bath sensor (if used) is plugged-into the “Control” TC port, and
the thermocouple built-into the heated Perfusion Pencil™ manifold or
QuickStage™ heated perfusion chamber (with brown wire) connects
to the “Safety” TC jack. The blue LED display (left) shows the bath
temperature. The red display (right) is the safety temperature. If
you do not wish to use the bath sensor, then it should be unplugged.
Then the ThermoClamp will keep the Pencil or chamber at the set
temperature using only their internal sensor.
2. Set your desired temperature digitally or with the analog voltage input
BNC connector. To set it digitally, press the “Set” button once, briey,
and the “Setpoint” LED will illuminate. Use the left, blue display to
set your desired temperature. Click or hold the Up or Down buttons
until the desired setpoint is displayed. If you don’t press anything for
a few seconds, then the green light will turn o and the blue display
will show the actual bath temperature again. The maximum setpoint is
65˚C.
3. You can also use the analog input with a voltage from your computer
to set the setpoint. This input uses 20 deg C/V. Therefore, give the
ThermoClamp’s BNC input a voltage of +1.6 V for a 32˚C setpoint.
Then you can also use your computer to change it.
4. Since it has both digital and analog setpoints, the ThermoClamp auto-
selects which one to use. If you don’t connect anything to the analog
input, then the controller will use the digital setpoint. If you connect
an analog voltage to the input, then the controller automatically uses it.
It is possible to override this automatic selection by selecting “Digital”
or “Analog” setpoint mode in the settings menu (see settings menu
section for details). You will see the displays update briey when the
mode changes. The system defaults to “Auto”.
5. One of the cool features of the ThermoClamp controller is thermal
runaway protection. If you are using a bath temperature sensor
and you turn your perfusion ow o, then the bath will start to get
cold. Previous controllers will try to increase the stage or inline
heater temperature, but the bath temperature will continue to
drop. This is called “thermal runaway.” This is why our heaters
all include a Safety sensor - so they will only increase to about 75˚C
before they stop heating any further. While this may protect the
12

Figure 7. This graph shows the temperature controller with thermal runaway
protection turned OFF. The “Control” sensor is placed in a bath of water which
is electrically heated by the ThermoClamp. You can see the bath temperature
represented by the blue line was near the desired 37˚C Setpoint from time 150 to
350 seconds when the Control sensor is removed from the bath to simulate a user
purposely or accidentally removing it. The temperature controller doesn’t know
the sensor was removed. It simply sees the temperature drop steeply at time 350
sec, so it quickly ramps-up the heater until its Safety sensor reaches a maximum
of 75˚C (orange line). When the Control sensor is returned to the bath around time
575 seconds, one can see that its temperature has also risen well over the Setpoint
which would have permanently damaged the experiment.
equipment, it is probably undesirable to expose your cells to this
maximum temperature. This ThermoClamp-3 detects when runaway
is happening (perfusion stops or the sensor is removed from the
chamber), and it holds the heater temperature constant until the bath
sensor starts warming up again. This should make it much easier to
turn perfusion o or temporarily remove the bath sensor. This new
feature is so unique, we applied for a patent.
6. The controller will also detect when perfusion ow may have stopped
unexpectedly and the bath sensor is cooling slowly over time. This
will also trigger an error state that protects the system from driving the
inline heater or QuickStage up to its maximum temperature (Fig. 7).
13

7. When the controller detects thermal runaway or stopped ow, it will
show a letter “E” before the blue bath temperature. It will watch for
the bath temperature to rise again, and automatically disable the error
when the sensor starts warming. If the controller mistakenly detects
runaway or you return the sensor to the bath quickly after the error
shows up and it doesn’t clear itself, then you can reset it manually by
clicking the Up or Down button.
8. Run-away detection is enabled by default, showing an “E” in the LED
output when the control temp moves in the opposite direction it’s
expected to move based on heater's output, or when it doesn’t change
when it’s expected to. The sensitivity of these error detection modes
can be adjusted in the settings menu, and they can also be disabled by
setting ESF or ESB sensitivity to zero (ESB = runaway, ESF = stopped
ow), or by setting the (E LO = low temperature) threshold to its
maximum value of 15.0.
Figure 8. This second graph shows the temperature controller with thermal
runaway protection turned ON. Again, the blue line shows the Control sensor in
the bath at the desired 37˚C Setpoint temperature until it is removed around time
340 seconds. The temperature controller again believes that the bath temperature
has dropped, and rapidly increases the heater output. However, this time it
recognizes that the bath temperature is not increasing, and the Safety sensor shows
that the heater is warming. From this information, it deduces that something has
gone wrong and thermal runaway has begun. Instead, it switches to maintaining
the heater’s old temperature as measured by the Safety sensor (orange line). Later,
when the Control sensor is returned to the bath, one can see that it was kept near
the 37˚C Setpoint without overshoot or damage (blue line).
14

8.1 If you start testing with the default settings and too many errors
are being triggered in your test setup, then the rst step is to decrease
ESF until you no longer get unwanted “stopped ow” errors, since this
is the most sensitive of the three error detection algorithms.
8.2 If low-temperature errors persist after stopped ow errors have
been reduced, then increase the “E LO” parameter in the settings menu
to reduce the low-temperature error sensitivity.
8.3 After adjusting “ESF” and “E LO” as described, you can control
the speed at which the system will detect rapid cooling of the bath
sensor (falling out of the bath) by adjusting the “ESB” value. A higher
ESB value will cause the system to more quickly detect errors, and a
lower “ESB” will result in fewer false positive errors.
9. The yellow “max temp” LED only comes on when the safety TC
reaches its max value (adjustable, default = 75˚C). This is not
dangerous, and the ThermoClamp and heated Pencil can both exist at
this temperature indenitely.
10. The controller includes a bi-directional USB port on the side. It can be
used to update the rmware on the ThermoClamp or output a constant
stream of data on temperatures, input/output voltages, power, etc.
Settings Menu
1. The ThermoClamp includes a settings menu that can be accessed by
pressing and holding the “Sel” button for at least 3 seconds. Once the
controller enters the settings menu, it will briey display “Set Adj” on
the blue and red LED displays until the “Sel” button is released.
2. When the system is in the settings menu, the “Sel” button can be used
to switch to the next parameter, and the “Up” and “Down” buttons can
be used to adjust the value of each parameter. The parameter names
will be displayed on the blue (left) LED display, and the value of the
parameter will be displayed on the red (right) display. For example,
(blue) = SPED (red) = FAST means that the SPED parameter is selected
with a current value of FAST.
3. If the controller detects that nothing has been changed for 10 seconds,
then it will store the current settings to its non-volatile memory and
15

leave settings mode. It will also leave settings mode if the “Sel” button
is used to cycle through all of the available parameters and the end of
the settings menu is reached.
4. The following parameters can be adjusted, with the format of
[parameter name]:[value] (value with *asterisk is the default):
4.1 [SPED]:[FAST, *NORM, SLOW, AUTO]
This Speed setting adjusts the parameters (gains) used for PID
control. AUTO are the gains resulting from autotuning the controller
(explained in Chapter 4). The NORM gains are preset values that
should work well for smaller water baths or higher ow rates, where
there isn’t much time delay between the heater turning on and the bath
sensor warming up. The SLOW setting will work better for setups
with large water baths or longer delays between the heater and bath,
and FAST will work best when the bath sensor warms very quickly
after the heater turns on.
4.2 [INPT]:[*AUTO, ANLG, DGTL]
This sets the input mode for the controller’s setpoint. AUTO will
detect if an analog voltage is connected to the front panel "Setpoint"
BNC connector and use it, otherwise it will use the digital setpoint.
ANLG will force the analog setpoint to be used, even if nothing is
connected to the BNC, and DGTL will force the digital setpoint to be
used, even if an analog input is connected.
4.3 [TUNE]:[YES, *NO]
The TUNE parameter will start autotuning the controller if it is set to
“YES,” and the controller exits the settings menu (either by timing-out
after 10 seconds or after other parameters are adjusted). Autotuning
will not run after exiting the settings menu if TUNE is set to “NO”. See
chapter 4 for more information on auto-tuning.
4.4 [VERB]:[*ON, OFF]
The VERB (Verbose) parameter either enables the controller to output
text diagnostic and error messages over its serial port (ON), or it
disables text output from the controller (OFF). Disabling text output
can be useful if data is being recorded in numerical format for post-
processing and it is undesirable to mix text output in with the rest of
the numerical data being recorded.
16

4.5 [ESB]:[0,1,2,*3,4,5]
The ESB (Error Sensitivity Bath) setting sets the error sensitivity level
for bath sensor runaway detection. This is designed to detect when
the bath sensor accidentally falls out of the bath, or is removed while
changing cells/dishes. Setting it to 0 disables the error detection
completely, and 1 is the least sensitive setting (so errors will not show
up unless the bath sensor cools signicantly when it’s not expected to.)
Setting the value to 3 results in nominal sensitivity, and setting to 4 or
5 will make the error detection more sensitive, allowing the controller
to detect that something may be going wrong more quickly, but also
increasing the chance that it gives false-positive errors when the bath
sensor warms and cools slightly during normal testing.
4.6 [ESF]:[0,1,2,*3,4,5]
The ESF (Error Sensitivity Flow) setting sets the error sensitivity
level for stopped ow detection. This detects when the bath sensor
cools slowly over a long period of time when the controller wouldn’t
expect it to do so (usually because perfusion ow stops). Setting it to
0 disables the error detection completely, and 1 is the least sensitive
setting with the error enabled. Setting the value to 3 results in nominal
sensitivity, and setting to 4 or 5 will make the error detection more
sensitive, allowing the controller to detect that something may be
going wrong more quickly, but also increasing the chance that it gives
false-positive errors when the bath sensor warms and cools slightly
during normal testing.
4.7 [SAFE]:[50.0…85.0]
The SAFE parameter adjusts the maximum temperature limit for the
heater. This is the upper limit for the safety temperature at which the
heater power is turned o, no matter what. The safety temperature
may continue to rise above this maximum temperature as heat
continues to spread in the QuickStage or inline heater after the power
is shut o, but no current ows to the heater transistors when the
system is above this maximum temperature and the yellow “Max
Temp” LED is illuminated. Default is 75.0˚C.
4.8 [Curr]:[0.5…1.2]
The Curr (Max Current) parameter sets the maximum current (Amps)
that the controller outputs per channel at the maximum software
command. This is an approximate upper limit, and the heater channel
currents will typically be slightly below this upper maximum during
operation. Default is 0.9 Amps. Using a lower maximum current
setting slows the heating rate and may improve performance if there
17

is a large time delay between the heater being powered and the bath
sensor warming, but setting Curr too low will increase the chance that
the system detects overcurrent and displays errors over the serial port
as it adjusts its output to stay below the maximum current level.
4.9 [E LO]:[3.0…15.0]
The “E LO” (Error Low Temp) parameter denes a threshold
temperature band below the setpoint that will trigger an error if the
control sensor continues to cool slowly when it should be warming,
even if it doesn’t cool rapidly enough to generate an “ESF” or “ESB”
error. When the control sensor temperature reaches a value of “E LO”
less than the setpoint and it has been steadily cooling, then this error
will occur. Setting the “ELO” parameter to a large value decreases its
sensitivity, since this requires the control sensor to fall more before
reaching the threshold temperature. Setting it to the maximum value of
15.0 will disable it completely. Its default value is 5˚C.
4.10 [VER]
The VER (Version) parameter is a read-only value that displays the
current rmware running on the controller. It will be in the format of
x.yy (eg. 1.25). After pressing “Sel” to move past the VER parameter,
the system will exit the settings menu and return to normal operation,
since it is the last parameter. The current rmware version is also
printed out to serial immediately after the controller is powered on.
18