Walk up instrumentation

Walk-up instrumentation

Instruments which you are able to walk up and run your sample immediately are generally simpler to locate your files. When recording data it is important that you make a note of the filename which is created the time of data collection. The filenames usually consist of three parts:

• You will need to know the name of the PC used to record the data. These are usually displayed on a label on the PC monitor. PCs in teaching labs start with 'CTL' (standing for Chemistry Teaching Labs), then the next bit of the name usually relates to the technique being used (eg IR) and an instrument number. For instance a PC used for recording IR might be named 'CTLIRPC1'.

• The next part of the name consists of the date. This is given in the format yyyymmdd (year, month, day).

• The final part is the time the measurement was taken, and is in the format hhmmss (hour, minute, second). Note that some instruments record the time at the start of the measurement, and some the time when data collection finished.

When recording data, you should make a note of the PC name, along with the date and time you recorded the sample. This filename will also usually be displayed by the instrument in its software, so that you can record this into your lab book, or if not, record the time from the clock on the PC, and the PC name which will be on a sticker on the monitor.

A typical filename might be "ctlirpc1_20200313_155702", which would correspond to a teaching labs (CTL) PC connected to IR number 1 (IRPC1), recorded on 13/03/2020 at 15:57:02.