Advanced Light Source - ALS

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Beamline 8.3.1

Users have the possibility to collect data on site at ALS or remotely  

• Create an account here and update your arrival time.

The User office will send your updated profile to Berkeley Lab Shared 

Services Office. 

• Once you receive a confirmation that processing is complete, send an email to siteaccess@lbl.gov and make an appointment with the Berkeley Lab Badge Office to obtain a badge if you wish to collect on-site 

(not required for remote data collection) 

• ONCE YOU GET THE LBNL#, complete all required training in ALSHub to get access to the ALS experimental floor.

• Getting access could take a couple of weeks so plan your registration in advance if you still don't have a badge

• ALS 8.3.1 Schedule https://bl831.als.lbl.gov/~mcfuser/schedule/schedule.php

Check the calendar and send an email to George and Kathryn with the beamtime preference. Mention the date, time and if it's a remote or on-site data collection. 

Contact

Mehagan Hopkins: mhopkins@lbl.gov

Kathryn Burnett: kburnett@lbl.gov

Protocol

1. Freeze your crystals into a unipuck (see back table of S176 for shared pucks)

2. Place the puck in your lab's travel dewar labelled with your name, lab, date, and cell phone number

For in person data collection

2. • Dewars will be transported to ALS either by car, or by shipment (each lab should purchase the dewar shipment) 

To ship your crystals with Fedex, use this address:
Mehagan Hopkins:

LBNL

One Cyclotron Road

MS 6R2100, Building 69

Berkeley CA 94720

For remote data collection 

2. • • Test-connect using NoMachine NX Client (remote desktop)

       1. Download NoMachine NX Client

       2. Setup Connection to bl831.als.lbl.gov

       3. You will have to call/text George Meigs (gmeigs@lbl.gov) for the Username and Password. 

       4. Ensure the desktop you are joining has 0 connections and is named with your institution/username so you don't kick another collector off their beam-time!

       5. Connect, make sure you can interact with the desktop and log off well before your beam-time

       6. Original instructions here ((https://bl831.als.lbl.gov/~gmeigs/remote/index.html))

   • Connect to bl831.als.lbl.gov using NoMachine NX Client at your beam-time to a desktop with 0 connections (should be your desktop)

   • Naming and loading procedure of crystal data

3. Download your data from ALS 8.3.1

   • Data is usually in /data/mcfuser/ucsf/PI_name  - but this depends on who collected it.

   • Open Terminal on Mac  https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/beginners-guide-mac-terminal/ 

   • use these commands called Scp or rsync to download your data:

     • $ scp mcfuser@bl831.als.lbl.gov:/data/mcfuser/ucsf/PI_name/your_data_folder/ ./your/directory/

     • $ rsync -azv mcfuser@bl831.als.lbl.gov:/data/mcfuser/ucsf/PI_name/your_data_folder/ ./your/directory/

Resources:

• ALS 8.3.1 Schedule https://bl831.als.lbl.gov/~mcfuser/schedule/schedule.php

• Remote data collection software: https://bl831.als.lbl.gov/~gmeigs/remote/index.html (referred to as "NX" in)

FAQ for ALS access (click here to know more)

Please read all communications carefully and contact the User Office if you have any questions.