Humidity Chamber

Mosquito Humidity Chamber

Especially useful for setting up LCP trays or trays with drops much smaller than 100 nl, the humidity chamber creates an environment of elevated humidity (but doesn't allow to control the humidity level – no feedback from the two humidity meters in the chamber).

• Blue glow indicates sufficient water in the vaporizers.  On red, they need to be refilled.
• For normal applications, the humidity should reach between 70 and 80%.
• If the humidity goes too high or if condensation is a problem in the chamber, the sliding windows in the back can be opened.
• The middle pane that covers the humidity chamber can be removed for easy access when the chamber is not in use.

Operation

The humidity chamber can be operated manually (on and off with a button in the main window of the Mosquito software) or automatically (as part of a protocol, the vaporizers cycle through a defined on/off pattern).  To use the humidity chamber with a crystallization protocol, add a step to the beginning of the protocol you want to use with the humidity chamber.  Use transfer type humidity control and set the prefill time to 2 sec and the humidity level to medium in the advanced settings.  Turn off the option for “turning off the humidifiers on pausing”.  Then go through the following steps:

1. Add distilled water (available in the facility) to the reservoirs below the humidity chamber.  The water level must not rise into the necks of the reservoirs.  Park the Mosquito stage in the middle and turn on the humidity chamber.
2. Start the protocol Humidify in the LCP folder.  This will prefill the chamber for 10 minutes.  The humidity level is set to High, and humidifiers will keep running when the instrument is paused.  During humidity equilibration, get ready for the run:  Get the plates, aliquot protein sample into the micro-reservoir strip.
3. Before you start your run make sure the humidity is at a level you prefer (~80%). The humidity monitors read about 10% lower than where the plates are. An indicated level of 80% corresponds to about 90% around the plates.
4. When done setting up the plates, empty the reservoirs of the humidity chamber and turn everything off.