FAQs

Find answers to fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about our pro­ducts, includ­ing trou­bleshoot­ing tips:

General Incubation FAQs

In this sec­tion we answer fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about the incu­ba­tion of cell and tis­sue cul­tures, espe­cial­ly on the micros­cope. In addi­tion, gen­er­al ques­tions to prob­lems with our incu­ba­tion sys­tems and their main­te­nance are answered. Please also take a look into the prod­uct spe­cif­ic FAQs. A very infor­ma­tive web resource with answers to ques­tions con­cern­ing cell biol­o­gy and much more is the Glob­al Biore­source Cen­ter™ of the Amer­i­can Type Cul­ture Col­lec­tion: ATCC Glob­al Biore­source Cen­ter™, ATCC FAQs.

Cell and Tissue Culture Incubation

Which CO2-con­cen­tra­tion should I use for the Incu­ba­tion Sys­tem on the microscope?

Gen­er­al­ly, use the same CO2-con­cen­tra­tion as in your lab­o­ra­to­ry cell incu­ba­tor. The pH value of the media should ide­al­ly be between 7.4 and 7.6 for most cell types. Sodi­um bicar­bon­ate buffered media with an ini­tial con­cen­tra­tion of 2.2 g/l (for exam­ple the wide­ly used MEM) need approx. 5 % of CO2 to keep this pH-value in unsealed cul­ture flasks or dish­es. Media with a sodi­um bicar­bon­ate con­cen­tra­tion of 3.7 g/l require a high­er CO2-con­cen­tra­tion of approx 7.5 %. These media are, how­ev­er, com­mon­ly used for cell main­te­nance with low effort in a lab­o­ra­to­ry incu­ba­tor and not for the growth of pro­lif­er­at­ing cells. A graph­i­cal com­par­i­son between CO2-con­cen­tra­tion, sodi­um bicar­bon­ate con­cen­tra­tion and pH value. For more details on the gaseous envi­ron­ment for the mam­malian cell in cul­ture, con­sult chap­ter 5 by W.F. McLi­mans in Growth, Nutri­tion and Metab­o­lism of Cells in Cul­ture, Vol. 1 (1972), G. H. Roth­blat and V. J. Cristo­fa­lo, eds. (Aca­d­e­m­ic Press, New York).

General Incubation System Problems

After a few hours of incu­ba­tion, the behav­iour of my cells changes sig­nif­i­cant­ly and the amount of media is reduced. What can I do against this strong evaporation?

In order to sup­port the gas exchange, the lids of most cul­ture ves­sels have lit­tle bases to receive a gap between the lid and the ves­sel. Through this gap, not only gases are exchanged but also water evap­o­rates. To reduce the evap­o­ra­tion rate, two prin­ci­ples can be used:
1. An increase in the rel­a­tive humid­i­ty of the envi­ron­ment with PeCon’s Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles (250ml/500ml).
2. A decrease in the evap­o­ra­tion from the cul­ture ves­sel with­out dis­turb­ing the gas exchange with PeCon’s Foil Covers.

The Incu­ba­tion Sys­tem does not reach the desired CO2-con­cen­tra­tion. What can be the reason?

Please take a look into the fol­low­ing Prod­uct Spe­cif­ic FAQs for suggestions.

Incubation System Maintenance

My Incu­ba­tion Sys­tem needs clean­ing. How can I clean it?

The dif­fer­ent com­po­nents of the Incu­ba­tion Sys­tem can be cleaned as fol­lows (see also the Prod­uct Spe­cif­ic FAQs):

Acrylic glass parts (e.g. Incu­ba­tor, Humid­i­fi­er Sys­tem, CO2-Covers)

Wipe clean with a soft cloth and use only mild deter­gents. Do not use fast evap­o­rat­ing liq­uids like alco­hols since this will dam­age the acrylic glass. Do not auto­clave these parts!

Air and CO2 tubing

Fully extend the air tube and clean the inside with a cloth that is attached to a cord. Pull the cloth through the tube with the cord. The tube can addi­tion­al­ly be cleaned with ethanol. The brown and clear tubes (Ø 38 mm) and the clear CO2-tubes (Ø 4 mm) can be auto­claved (121°C, 1bar-14.5psi, 20 min.). Com­press the brown tube com­plete­ly before auto­clav­ing, oth­er­wise it will main­tain in the decom­pressed state after­wards. If pos­si­ble, auto­clave the clear tubes with­out sharp bends.

Alu­mini­um parts (e.g. Heat­ing Stages, Heat­ing Inserts, Heat­able Uni­ver­sal Mount­ing Frames)

Wipe clean with a soft cloth and only use mild deter­gents. Use ethanol to ster­il­ize the sur­face. Do not put the ethanol direct­ly on the unit since it might seep into the elec­tron­ic parts and dam­age them. Do not use abra­sive clean­ers. Do not auto­clave the devices!  

Con­trol Units

Wipe clean the sur­faces with a soft cloth and only use mild deter­gents. No liq­uid must seep into the device.
  1. Clean the inter­nal mix­ing cham­ber of the CO2-Con­troller 2000 and the CO2-O2-Con­troller reg­u­lar­ly with a moist­ened, soft cloth.
  2. Clean or replace the par­ti­cle fil­ter of the Heat­ing Unit 2000 regularly.
  3. Clean the air chan­nel of the Heat­ing Unit 2000 with com­pressed air if necessary.

How can I clean the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles 250ml and 500ml?

The dis­tilled water inside the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles has to be replaced reg­u­lar­ly (at least once a week). The Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles can be auto­claved (121°C, 1bar-14.5psi, 20 min.). Remove the outer tubes and auto­clave them separately.

How often does the air fil­ter that is sup­plied have to be replaced to fil­ter risky par­ti­cles out of the CO2 or N2 from gas bot­tles before the gas enters a Controller?
The fre­quen­cy of air fil­ter replace­ment depends on the par­ti­cle load of the gas used. Check the fil­ter reg­u­lar­ly (once a month, for exam­ple) and replace it if need­ed. A reduced gas flow is an evi­dence for the need of an imme­di­ate air fil­ter replace­ment.

Product specific FAQs

Please read the fol­low­ing answers to the fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions before con­tact­ing us. In most cases, we already have a solu­tion for your prob­lem. Read the FAQs of all the pro­ducts of your Incu­ba­tion Sys­tem, some­times a prob­lem that occurs on one com­po­nent is caused by anoth­er com­po­nent. Please also take a look at the Gen­er­al Incu­ba­tion FAQs.

General remarks:
  • Please check all fuses if a device does not work prop­er­ly. Always remove the fuses from the hold­er before check­ing them!
  • The ser­i­al num­ber of the PeCon Con­trol Units can be found under the excess top lip of the hous­ing cover at the back side of the Con­trol Unit.

Heatable Universal Mounting Frames Series 2000

Is it pos­si­ble to mod­i­fy the open­ing in the base plate to adapt it to my spe­cif­ic cell cul­ti­va­tion ves­sel by sim­ply drilling a new hole? 

No! Please do not try to mod­i­fy the opening(s) by your­self. The alu­minum base plate is equipped with fine wires at the bot­tom to enable heat­ing. If you enlarge the open­ing, you will cut the wires and dam­age the Heat­able Uni­ver­sal Mount­ing Frame.

Can I use the Heat­able Uni­ver­sal Mount­ing Frames with Laser-Scan Microscopy (LSM) applications?

We do not rec­om­mend the usage of these frames for LSM and other high res­o­lu­tion appli­ca­tions. We sug­gest to use our Heat­ing Inserts P or P Lab-Tek™ 2000 if possible.

Heating Inserts Mxx 2000

PeCon sup­plies a red rec­tan­gu­lar plas­tic insert with this unit. What is the use of this insert?

This insert can be put into the Heat­ing Inserts Mxx 2000 instead of the mul­ti­well dish in order to close the obser­va­tion open­ing. Espe­cial­ly dur­ing incu­ba­tion appli­ca­tions with a CO2-enriched air stream, this insert pre­vents a loss of CO2 and heat through the unclosed obser­va­tion openings.

I have trou­ble get­ting all wells into focus. The mul­ti­well plate seems to be bent. Why does this happen?

The mul­ti­well plate becomes bent if the lat­er­al fix­ing screw is tight­ened too much. A soft fix­a­tion is enough to hold the mul­ti­well plate. The Heat­ing Inserts Mxx 2000 can also be lev­eled in the stage by means of the screws locat­ed at each cor­ner to com­pen­sate for focus problems.

Heating Inserts P / P Lab-Tek™ 2000

PeCon sup­plies a red cir­cu­lar plas­tic insert with this unit. What is the use of this insert?

The insert can be put into the Heat­ing Inserts P / P Lab-Tek™ 2000 instead of the cul­ture ves­sel in order to close the obser­va­tion open­ing. Espe­cial­ly dur­ing incu­ba­tion appli­ca­tions with a CO2-enriched air stream, this insert pre­vents a loss of CO2 and heat through the unclosed obser­va­tion opening.

I have trou­ble get­ting all posi­tions of the cul­ti­va­tion ves­sel into focus. Why does this happen?

The Heat­ing Inserts P / P Lab-Tek™ 2000 can be lev­eled in the stage by means of the screws locat­ed at each cor­ner to com­pen­sate for focus problems.

Cooling/Heating Insert P

PeCon sup­plies a red cir­cu­lar plas­tic insert with this unit. What is the use of this insert?

This insert can be put into the Heat­ing Inserts P / P Lab-Tek™ instead of the cul­ture ves­sel to close the obser­va­tion open­ing. Espe­cial­ly dur­ing incu­ba­tion with a CO2-enriched air stream, this insert pre­vents loss of CO2 and heat through the unclosed obser­va­tion opening.

I have trou­ble get­ting all posi­tions of the cul­ti­va­tion ves­sel into focus. Why does this happen?

The Heat­ing Inserts P / P Lab-Tek™ can be lev­elled in the stage by the screws locat­ed at each cor­ner to com­pen­sate for focus problems.

Objective Heaters 2000

Is there the pos­si­bil­i­ty of dam­ag­ing my objec­tives by heat­ing them with the PeCon Objec­tive Heaters?

We rec­om­mend to ask your micros­cope man­u­fac­tur­er for the max­i­mum tol­er­a­ble tem­per­a­ture of your objec­tive. Gen­er­al­ly, we limit the max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture to 40.0°C. For this rea­son, the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 and 2000-2 only heat up our Objec­tive Heaters to a max­i­mum of 40.0°C. The tem­per­a­ture sen­sor inside the Objec­tive Heater 2000 is locat­ed very close to the heat­ing ele­ment to ensure a max­i­mum pro­tec­tion from overheat.

I want to heat up the Objec­tive Heater 2000 to more than 40.0°C. How­ev­er, the para­me­ter set for the Objec­tive Heaters 2000 at the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 and 2000-2 lim­its the heat­ing to 40.0°C. How can I still achieve a high­er temperature?

Should a dif­fer­ent con­trol char­ac­ter­is­tic of the device be required in excep­tion­al cases, the para­me­ter set can be man­u­al­ly altered at all times (see Man­u­al Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 and 2000-2) Then, tem­per­a­tures of more than 40.0°C can be reached. Do this at your own risk!

Humidification Bottles (250ml and 500ml)

How can I clean the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bottles?
The dis­tilled water inside the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles has to be replaced reg­u­lar­ly (at least once a week). The Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bot­tles can be auto­claved (121°C, 1bar-14.5psi, 20 min.) Remove the tubes and auto­clave them separately.

Small Incubators (e.g. Incubator PM 2000 RBT/ HF 2000)

The small incu­ba­tors are designed for warm air incu­ba­tion, CO2 and O2 con­trol in com­bi­na­tion with a Heat­ing Insert or a Heat­ing Frame. They are suit­able for high-resolution microscopy and can be used alone or inside a large PeCon incubator.

The incu­ba­tor does not heat. What may be the reason?

1. The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 is not con­nect­ed to mains power or is not switched on. Check the setup of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 (see man­u­al Tem­p­Con­troller 2000).

2. The main fuse of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 is blown. Check the fuse of the device and replace if necessary.

3. The incu­ba­tor is not con­nect­ed to the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000. Con­nect the incu­ba­tor with the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 (see sec­tion “Assem­bly”)

4. The channel(s) of Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 is/are not acti­vat­ed. Acti­vate both chan­nels of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000).

Why does the incu­ba­tor not reach the nom­i­nal temperature?

1. It takes approx. 10 min to reach a work­ing tem­per­a­ture of 37°C.

2. The chan­nel of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000 is not con­fig­ured with “Inc PM” (see “Oper­a­tion”). Check the con­fig­u­ra­tion on the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000.

The cells already die at an early point of time or show unusu­al behav­iour. How can I pre­vent this?

The gas mix­ture out­put of the CO2-Con­troller 2000 or the CO2-O2-Con­troller 2000 is blocked. Clean it with a high­er air pres­sure (max. 2,5 bar / 36 psi).

Large Incubators (e.g. Incubator XL 2000 / i8 / OL IX73/83 cellVivo 3 / NL-2 2000)

What is the max­i­mum pos­si­ble tem­per­a­ture that can be reached inside this incubator?

The max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture is, of course, depen­dent on the ambi­ent tem­per­a­ture. At a room tem­per­a­ture of approx 22°C this incu­ba­tor can be heat­ed up by the Heat­ing Unit 2000 to approx 40°C.

Where am I sup­posed to place the tem­per­a­ture sen­sor inside the incu­ba­tor? Why does it not have a fixed posi­tion like in the other incubators?

In the user man­u­al you can find sev­er­al sug­ges­tions for tem­per­a­ture sen­sor posi­tions. Start with these for your first incu­ba­tion exper­i­ments. How­ev­er, if you are not sat­is­fied with the cell vital­i­ty, you might have to change the sen­sor posi­tion to improve the heat­ing of the cul­ture ves­sel. A fixed posi­tion of the sen­sor would not allow the user to adapt the incu­ba­tion con­di­tions to the spe­cif­ic micros­cope setup (con­denser, micro­ma­nip­u­la­tor, etc.). The setup of com­po­nents inside the incu­ba­tor influ­ences the flow of the warm air and, as a result, can alter the tem­per­a­ture of the cul­ture vessel.

Why are you using a local CO2-incu­ba­tion instead of con­trol­ling the CO2-con­tent inside the whole incubator?

Sev­er­al argu­ments speak against the con­trol of the CO2 inside the large incu­ba­tor interior:

  • A homo­ge­neous CO2-dis­tri­b­u­tion inside the large incu­ba­tor hous­ing is dif­fi­cult to achieve. This would need a lot of air move­ment with the dis­ad­van­tage of a high evap­o­ra­tion rate.
  • Unavoid­able seal­ing gaps between the incu­ba­tor and the micros­cope would lead to a high CO2-con­sump­tion. This is not eco­nom­i­cal and, even more impor­tant, a high safe­ty risk for the user, espe­cial­ly in small, badly ven­ti­lat­ed rooms.
  • To reduce a neg­a­tive evap­o­ra­tion of water from the medi­um, an increase of the rel­a­tive humid­i­ty inside the incu­ba­tor will addi­tion­al­ly be need­ed for a suc­cess­ful long time incu­ba­tion. The humid­i­fied air inside the whole incu­ba­tor could get into sen­si­tive parts of the micros­cope and might then pre­cip­i­tate. Fur­ther­more, the con­densed water could react with the CO2 that is also present inside the whole incu­ba­tor to car­bon­ic acid and this could addi­tion­al­ly dam­age the micros­cope and other parts like scan­ning stages or micro­ma­nip­u­la­tors. With the prin­ci­ple of a local CO2-incu­ba­tion inside our large incu­ba­tors we have devel­oped a safe solu­tion with a low CO2-con­sump­tion. The small loss of CO2 can be eas­i­ly com­pen­sat­ed with low amounts of a CO2-air mix­ture from our CO2-Con­troller 2000 which final­ly results in a low evap­o­ra­tion rate. To improve the low evap­o­ra­tion rate, the small gassed com­part­ment can be addi­tion­al­ly humid­i­fied with­out any neg­a­tive effects for the microscope.

I am shar­ing my micros­cope with other users. How quick can I mount or dis­mount this incubator?

The incu­ba­tor can be mount­ed or dis­mount­ed by just one per­son with­out the need of any tools with­in a few min­utes. Just remove the base plates, open the lamp sup­port seal­ings at the top and lift the incu­ba­tor from the micros­cope. The mount­ing is sim­ply the other way around.

CO₂-Covers

 

I am using a CO2-Cover with the cor­re­spond­ing heat­ing insert/frame inside a large incu­ba­tor, but the CO2-incu­ba­tion does not work prop­er­ly. After a while, the color of my media changes, indi­cat­ing that the CO2-con­cen­tra­tion under the CO2-Cover is not suf­fi­cient. What can be the rea­son for this?

It is very impor­tant that the CO2-Cover, the cor­re­spond­ing heat­ing insert/frame, and the cul­ti­va­tion ves­sel are a closed enti­ty. Leaks can occur at sev­er­al places:

1. The cul­ture ves­sel does not rest com­plete­ly on the rim of the heat­ed unit. Since CO2 is heav­ier than the sur­round­ing air, it will pre­dom­i­nate­ly pass through open­ings at the bot­tom of the small incu­ba­tion chamber.

2. The cul­ture ves­sel does not cover the obser­va­tion open­ing com­plete­ly or the sec­ond obser­va­tion open­ing of the heat­ing insert/frame (e.g. Heat­able Uni­ver­sal Mount­ing Frame K-H 2000) is not sealed with tape. There­fore, the CO2 gets lost under the CO2-Cover.

3. The CO2-Cover is not cor­rect­ly attached to the cor­re­spond­ing heat­ing insert/frame. A lit­tle gap may already be the rea­son for a sig­nif­i­cant CO2-loss. It is also impor­tant to check if the CO2-Con­troller 2000 deliv­ers enough of the CO2-air mix­ture to com­pen­sate the unavoid­able lit­tle loss­es. Increase the pump set­ting on the con­troller and check this by the bub­bles inside the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion Bottle.

CO₂-Controller 2000

The chan­nel dis­play at the front stays black when switch­ing on the device. Where is the failure?

The mains fuse is blown, replace it with a sub­sti­tute of the same type only. The fuse can be found in the rec­tan­gu­lar fuse box above the power cord con­nec­tor (see user manual).

After “Sys­tem Test” the LC dis­play goes dark.

“Bright­ness” is prob­a­bly set to zero. Change the bright­ness to a high­er value. To enable this, tem­porar­i­ly increase the ambi­ent light so far, until the LC dis­play is readable.

I can­not make any changes to the set­tings by the front panel but­tons. Why is that?

The device is in the “remote mode” and can only be con­trolled via PC. In this exclu­sive mode no set­tings can be made with the but­tons. 1. Exit the soft­ware if no impor­tant func­tion is run­ning. 2. Turn the equip­ment off and on again.

Why does the con­troller not reach the CO2-con­cen­tra­tion that I have set? Why does it take so long until the desired value is attained?

Not enough CO2 is get­ting into the con­troller. This may have sev­er­al reasons:

1. The loop con­trol is not acti­vat­ed. Acti­vate the con­trol (see sec­tion “Con­trol”).

2. The CO2 sup­ply to the device is inter­rupt­ed. Check the CO2 supply.

3. The pres­sure of the sup­plied CO2 is too low. Increase the pressure.

4. The air fil­ter of the CO2 sup­ply is blocked. Replace the air filter.

5. There is no Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle con­nect­ed to the “GAS MIXTURE OUTPUT”. Con­nect the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle between the device and the CO2-Cover / small incubator.

The CO2-value shows a sig­nif­i­cant over­shoot above the set­point value and/or an unsta­ble con­trol of CO2 occurs. How can this be stabilized?

Too much CO2 is get­ting into the con­troller, the pres­sure of the sup­plied CO2 is too high (> 2 bar / ~ 30 psi). Decrease the pressure.

Gas is escap­ing from the plug con­nec­tor for the CO2 sup­ply. What can I do?

1. The plas­tic tube has not been fully insert­ed into the plug con­nec­tor. Push in the plas­tic tube cor­rect­ly into the plug connector.

2. The plas­tic tube does not seal up suf­fi­cient­ly. Short­en the end of the tube for 1 – 2 cm and recon­nect it. The end of the plas­tic tube should not have kinks or other damages.

3. The sup­plied plas­tic tube was not used for the con­nec­tion. Use the sup­plied plas­tic tube PUN-4×0,75-BL (# 900 044-L4000).

DEVICE ERROR CODES AND STATUS MESSAGES

The CO2-Con­troller 2000 has a built-in auto-diagnosis func­tion that is able to detect and report fail­ures in tech­ni­cal com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, an error mes­sage is dis­played on the LC dis­play at the front side of the device. Depend­ing on the sort of error and appro­pri­ate mea­sures for user safe­ty are car­ried out (e.g. switch­ing off the gas control).

Boot­loader: Sys­tem Test Errors
Error code Cause / Solution
129 Inter­nal RAM error. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
130 Flash check­sum error. Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool.
131 Appli­ca­tion error. Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool.
132 EEPROM check­sum error. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
133 Key­pad error. A key­pad but­ton is defect. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.

 

Appli­ca­tion: Sta­tus mes­sages of the chan­nel (E)
Chan­nel sta­tus message Cause / Solution
OK The chan­nel is ready for operation.
WAIT FOR SENSOR The CO2 sen­sor is ini­tial­iz­ing. Wait until the sen­sor is ready (typ­i­cal 30 sec).
HEATING SENSOR The sen­sor is cur­rent­ly not at its opti­mal work­ing tem­per­a­ture. Wait until the chan­nel sta­tus mes­sage dis­plays OK. Heat-up phase CO2 sen­sor: approx. 15 – 30 min.
REFERENCE GAS The sen­sor is in the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure and is flushed with ref­er­ence gas. Wait until the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure has finished
AUTO COMPENSATE The CO2 sen­sor is in the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure. Wait until the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure has finished
AMBIENT AIR The sen­sor is in the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure and is flushed with ambi­ent air. Wait until the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure has finished
FALSE SENS TEMP The CO2 sen­sor has not reached the work­ing tem­per­a­ture with­in 60 min. after the device start. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
LAMP OVER LIMIT The inten­si­ty of the IR source of the CO2 sen­sor is out of the allowed tol­er­ance range after the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure. Make sure that all pre­con­di­tions for the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure are given and start the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure again. If the sta­tus mes­sage appears again after cor­rect­ly repeat­ing the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure, the sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
FALSE CALIB VAL The cal­i­bra­tion val­ues of the CO2 sen­sor for 0.0/10.0/100.0% CO2 are invalid. The sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
NEAR AD LIMIT The inter­nal raw data of the CO2 sen­sor is near or exceeds the limit of the AD con­vert­er. Because of this the actu­al value is inac­cu­rate and there­fore the sen­sor is deac­ti­vat­ed. The sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
NO SENSOR The sen­sor does not com­mu­ni­cate with the device. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.

Are chan­nel sta­tus mes­sages dis­played which are not spec­i­fied in the upper list, please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support!

CO₂-O₂-Controller 2000

I can­not make any changes to the set­tings by the front panel buttons.

The device is in the “remote mode” and can only be con­trolled via PC. In this exclu­sive mode no set­tings can be made with the buttons.

1. Quit the software.

2. Turn the equip­ment off and on again.

The chan­nel dis­play at the front stays black when switch­ing on the device. Where is the failure?

The mains fuse is blown, replace it with a sub­sti­tute of the same type only. The fuse can be found in the rec­tan­gu­lar fuse box above the power cord con­nec­tor (see user manual).

The con­troller does not reach the CO2-con­cen­tra­tion that I have set or it takes very long until the desired value is attained.

Not enough CO2 is get­ting into the con­troller. This may have sev­er­al reasons:

1. The loop con­trol is not acti­vat­ed. Acti­vate the con­trol (see sec­tion “Con­trol”).

2. The CO2 sup­ply to the device is inter­rupt­ed. Check the CO2 supply.

3. The pres­sure of the sup­plied CO2 is too low. Increase the pressure.

4. The air fil­ter of the CO2 sup­ply is blocked. The air fil­ter has to be replaced.

5. There is no Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle con­nect­ed to the “GAS MIXTURE OUTPUT”. Con­nect the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle between the device and the CO2-Cover / small incubator.

The con­troller does not reach the O2-con­cen­tra­tion that I have set or it takes very long until the desired value is attained.

Not enough N2 is get­ting into the con­troller. This may have sev­er­al reasons:

1. The loop con­trol is not acti­vat­ed. Acti­vate the con­trol (see sec­tion “Con­trol”).

2. The N2 sup­ply to the device is inter­rupt­ed. Check the CO2 supply.

3. The pres­sure of the sup­plied N2 is too low. Increase the pressure.

4. The air fil­ter of the N2 sup­ply is blocked. The air fil­ter has to be replaced.

5. There is no Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle con­nect­ed to the “GAS MIXTURE OUTPUT”. Con­nect the Humid­i­fi­ca­tion bot­tle between the device and the CO2-Cover / small incubator.

The CO2-value shows a sig­nif­i­cant over­shoot above the set­point value and/or an unsta­ble con­trol of CO2 occurs. How can this be stabilized?

Too much CO2 is get­ting into the con­troller, the pres­sure of the sup­plied CO2 is too high (> 2 bar / ~ 30 psi). Decrease the pressure.

The O2-value shows a sig­nif­i­cant over­shoot above the set­point value and/or an unsta­ble con­trol of CO2 occurs. How can this be stabilized?

Too much N2 is get­ting into the con­troller, the pres­sure of the sup­plied N2 is too high (> 2 bar / ~ 30 psi). Decrease the pressure.

Gas is escap­ing from the plug con­nec­tor for the CO2 sup­ply. What can I do?

1. The plas­tic tube has not been fully insert­ed into the plug con­nec­tor. Push in the plas­tic tube cor­rect­ly into the plug connector.

2. The plas­tic tube does not seal up suf­fi­cient­ly. Short­en the end of the tube for 1 – 2 cm and recon­nect it. The end of the plas­tic tube should not have kinks or other damages.

3. The sup­plied plas­tic tube was not used for the con­nec­tion. Use the sup­plied plas­tic tube PUN-4×0,75-BL (# 900 044-L4000).

Gas is escap­ing from the plug con­nec­tor for the N2 sup­ply. What can I do?

1. The plas­tic tube has not been fully insert­ed into the plug con­nec­tor. Push in the plas­tic tube cor­rect­ly into the plug connector.

2. The plas­tic tube does not seal up suf­fi­cient­ly. Short­en the end of the tube for 1 – 2 cm and recon­nect it. The end of the plas­tic tube should not have kinks or other damages.

3. The sup­plied plas­tic tube was not used for the con­nec­tion. Use the sup­plied plas­tic tube PUN-4×0,75-SW (# 900 139-L4000).

Boot­loader: Sys­tem Test Errors
Error code Cause / Solution
129 Inter­nal RAM error Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
130 Flash check­sum error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool.
131 Appli­ca­tion error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool.
132 EEPROM check­sum error Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
133 Key­pad error A key­pad but­ton is defect. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.

 

Appli­ca­tion: Sta­tus mes­sages of the chan­nels (E1 & E2)
Chan­nel sta­tus message Cause / Solution
OK The chan­nel is ready for operation.
WAIT FOR SENSOR The CO2 sen­sor is ini­tial­iz­ing. Wait until the sen­sor is ready (typ­i­cal 30 sec).
HEATING SENSOR The sen­sor is cur­rent­ly not at its opti­mal work­ing tem­per­a­ture. Wait until the chan­nel sta­tus mes­sage dis­plays OK. Heat-up phase CO2 sen­sor: approx. 15 – 30 min.Heat-up phase O2 sen­sor: approx. 2 – 3 min.
REFERENCE GAS The sen­sor is in the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure and is flushed with ref­er­ence gas. Wait until the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure has finished
ADJ. OTHER SENS The other sen­sor is in the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure. Because both sen­sors are locat­ed in one com­mon cham­ber the gas con­trol of this chan­nel is deac­ti­vat­ed dur­ing the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure. Wait until the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure has finished
AUTO COMPENSATE The CO2 sen­sor is in the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure. Wait until the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure has finished
AMBIENT AIR The sen­sor is in the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure and is flushed with ambi­ent air. Wait until the cal­i­bra­tion procedure/compensation pro­ce­dure has finished
FALSE SENS TEMP The CO2 sen­sor has not reached the work­ing tem­per­a­ture with­in 60 min. after the device start. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
LAMP OVER LIMIT The inten­si­ty of the IR source of the CO2 sen­sor is out of the allowed tol­er­ance range after the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure. Make sure that all pre­con­di­tions for the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure are given and start the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure again. If the sta­tus mes­sage appears again after cor­rect­ly repeat­ing the com­pen­sa­tion pro­ce­dure, the sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
FALSE CALIB VAL The cal­i­bra­tion val­ues of the CO2 sen­sor for 0.0/10.0/100.0% CO2 are invalid. The sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
NEAR AD LIMIT The inter­nal raw data of the CO2 sen­sor is near or exceeds the limit of the AD con­vert­er. Because of this the actu­al value is inac­cu­rate and there­fore the sen­sor is deac­ti­vat­ed. The sen­sor head has to be replaced with a new one. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
NO SENSOR The sen­sor does not com­mu­ni­cate with the device. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.
HEATING V ERR The heat­ing of the O2 sen­sor has failed. The device must be repaired. Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support.

Are chan­nel sta­tus mes­sages dis­played which are not spec­i­fied in the upper list, please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support!

TempController 2000-1

The chan­nel dis­play at the front stays black when switch­ing on the device and the con­nect­ed unit is not heat­ed. Where is the failure?

The mains fuse is blown, replace it with a sub­sti­tute of the same type only. The fuse can be found in the rec­tan­gu­lar fuse box above the power cord connector.

Why does the dis­play go dark after “Sys­tem Test”?

1. “Bright­ness” is prob­a­bly set to zero. Change the bright­ness to a high­er value.

2. The ambi­ent light is too dark. Increase the ambi­ent light.

Every­thing seems to work fine and I can change the set­point value. How­ev­er, the con­nect­ed unit is not heated.

This may have sev­er­al reasons:

1. The heat­ing of the chan­nel is not acti­vat­ed. The sta­tus of the heat­ing of the respec­tive chan­nel has to be acti­vat­ed (“On”).

2. The con­nect­ed com­po­nent may be dam­aged. Please also check the chan­nel at the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 with anoth­er heat­able com­po­nent if possible.

3. Is there a chan­nel error? (overheating/overloading)

4. The loop con­trol algo­rithm does not acti­vate the heat­ing. Check bar­graph (E1 or E2). It should dis­play a sig­nif­i­cant value as long as the actu­al value is well below the set­point value. Check the chan­nel configuration.

The tem­per­a­ture of the con­nect­ed com­po­nent is not con­trolled prop­er­ly (sig­nif­i­cant over­shoot or con­stant devi­a­tion). What is the reason?

The chan­nel is not con­fig­ured with the appro­pri­ate para­me­ter set. Check the chan­nel con­fig­u­ra­tion and cor­rect it.

Which set­ting should I choose for the con­trol algo­rithm para­me­ter set?

Every heat­ed com­po­nent has spe­cif­ic prop­er­ties regard­ing its heat­ing behav­ior. This has to be con­sid­ered for a sta­ble con­trol of the tem­per­a­ture of this com­po­nent. To obtain the best adap­ta­tion of the loop con­trol to the heat­ed com­po­nent, the con­trol para­me­ters can be con­fig­ured in wide ranges for the chan­nel of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2. The para­me­ters which deter­mine the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the dig­i­tal PID loop con­troller are com­bined to para­me­ter sets. A total of 8 para­me­ter sets is avail­able in the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2. One of these para­me­ter sets can be assigned to the heat­ing chan­nel. To facil­i­tate the allo­ca­tion “para­me­ter set to heat­ed com­po­nent”, the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 has an inter­nal table in which the name of the heat­ed com­po­nent and the num­ber of the stan­dard para­me­ter set is stored. Thus, only the name of the con­nect­ed com­po­nent needs to be select­ed for each chan­nel on the user inter­face. The match­ing stan­dard para­me­ter set is select­ed auto­mat­i­cal­ly and should only be changed in excep­tion­al cases.The fac­to­ry setup of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 is as follows:

Chan­nel Device Component(s)
1 H Insert P Heat­ing Insert P 2000 or S

1. Select “Chan­nel 1 Setup”. The setup menu for chan­nel 1 opens. Select menu item “Device” and press the “OK but­ton” (see user man­u­al “Con­fig­u­ra­tion”).

2. A list of heat­able com­po­nents that can be con­nect­ed to the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 appears. Select the com­po­nent con­nect­ed to the respec­tive chan­nel and press the “OK but­ton”. The name of the com­po­nent appears on the right next to “Device”, the cor­re­spond­ing para­me­ter set in the line below.

The device is work­ing fine and the unit is heat­ed up, but I can­not make any changes in the set­tings with the front panel buttons.

The device is in the “remote mode” and can only be con­trolled via PC. In this exclu­sive mode no set­tings can be made with the buttons.

1. Exit the soft­ware if no impor­tant func­tion is running.

2. Turn the equip­ment off and on again.

The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 has a built-in auto-diagnosis func­tion that is able to detect and report fail­ures in tech­ni­cal com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, an error mes­sage is dis­played on the screen at the front side of the device depend­ing on the sort of error and appro­pri­ate mea­sures for user safe­ty are car­ried out (e.g. switch­ing off the heat­ing). For fur­ther infor­ma­tion see user manual.

Can I upgrade my device?

Yes, of course. Every Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 can be upgrad­ed to the lat­est hard- and soft­ware ver­sion. The firmware, the val­ues of the 8 para­me­ter sets and the list with the allo­ca­tion of the para­me­ter sets to the heat­ed com­po­nents can be updat­ed via a Windows-PC. The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 is equipped with a USB con­nec­tor (USB-B sock­et). For this pur­pose, a suit­able USB cable (# 900 089) is includ­ed in the accessories.

This com­mu­ni­ca­tion link is required for:

– an update of the Firmware

– the com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the PC

DEVICE ERROR CODES

The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-1 has a built-in auto-diagnosis func­tion that is able to detect and report fail­ures in tech­ni­cal com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, an error mes­sage is dis­played on the screen at the front side of the device depend­ing on the sort of error and appro­pri­ate mea­sures for user safe­ty are car­ried out (e.g. switch­ing off the heating).

Boot­loader: Sys­tem Test Errors
Error code Cause / Solution
129 Inter­nal RAM error
130 Flash check­sum error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool
131 Appli­ca­tion error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool
132 EEPROM check­sum error
133 Key­pad error A key­pad but­ton is defect

 

Appli­ca­tion: Chan­nel Error (F)
Error code Cause / Solution
OK No error detected.
No sen­sor Tem­per­a­ture sen­sor sig­nal can­not be detect­ed or is out of valid range. A cable wire might be bro­ken or a cable could be dis­con­nect­ed. Check cables and cable Connections.
Overtemp Actu­al value is greater than max­i­mum set­point value plus 5°C.The chan­nel is com­plete­ly deac­ti­vat­ed (heat­ing and power sup­ply of con­nect­ed com­po­nent). Reset by switch­ing off/on (after cool­ing off). The con­nect­ed com­po­nent might be defect.
Over­cur­rent Power con­sump­tion of con­nect­ed com­po­nent is > 4 A. The chan­nel is com­plete­ly deac­ti­vat­ed (heat­ing and power sup­ply of con­nect­ed com­po­nent). Reset by switch­ing off/on.

Are chan­nel sta­tus mes­sages dis­played which are not spec­i­fied in the upper list, please con­tact the tech­ni­cal Support!

TempController 2000-2

The chan­nel dis­play at the front stays black when switch­ing on the device and the con­nect­ed units are not heat­ed. Where is the failure?

The mains fuse is blown, replace it with a sub­sti­tute of the same type only. The fuse can be found in the rec­tan­gu­lar fuse box above the power cord connector.

Why does the dis­play go dark after “Sys­tem Test”?

1. “Bright­ness” is prob­a­bly set to zero. Change the bright­ness to a high­er value.

2. The ambi­ent light is too dark. Increase the ambi­ent light.

Every­thing seems to work fine and I can change the set­point val­ues. How­ev­er, the units are not heated.

This may have sev­er­al reasons:

1. The heat­ing of the chan­nel is not acti­vat­ed. The sta­tus of the heat­ing of the respec­tive chan­nel has to be acti­vat­ed (“On”).

2. The con­nect­ed com­po­nent may be dam­aged. Please also check the rel­e­vant chan­nel at the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 with anoth­er heat­able com­po­nent if possible.

3. Is there a chan­nel error? (overheating/overloading)

4. The loop con­trol algo­rithm does not acti­vate the heat­ing. Check bar­graph (E1 or E2). It should dis­play a sig­nif­i­cant value as long as the actu­al value is well below the set­point value. Check the chan­nel configuration.

The tem­per­a­ture of the con­nect­ed com­po­nent is not con­trolled prop­er­ly (sig­nif­i­cant over­shoot or con­stant devi­a­tion). What is the reason?

The respec­tive chan­nel is not con­fig­ured with the appro­pri­ate para­me­ter set. Check the chan­nel con­fig­u­ra­tion and cor­rect it.

Which set­ting should I choose for the con­trol algo­rithm para­me­ter set?

Every heat­ed com­po­nent has spe­cif­ic prop­er­ties regard­ing its heat­ing behav­ior. This has to be con­sid­ered for a sta­ble con­trol of the tem­per­a­ture of this com­po­nent. To obtain the best adap­ta­tion of the loop con­trol to the heat­ed com­po­nent, the con­trol para­me­ters can be con­fig­ured in wide ranges for each chan­nel of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2. The para­me­ters which deter­mine the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the dig­i­tal PID loop con­troller are com­bined to para­me­ter sets. For each chan­nel a total of 8 para­me­ter sets is avail­able in the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2. One of these para­me­ter sets can be assigned to each heat­ing chan­nel. To facil­i­tate the allo­ca­tion “para­me­ter set to heat­ed com­po­nent”, the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 has an inter­nal table in which the name of the heat­ed com­po­nent and the num­ber of the stan­dard para­me­ter set is stored. Thus, only the name of the con­nect­ed com­po­nent needs to be select­ed for each chan­nel on the user inter­face. The match­ing stan­dard para­me­ter set is select­ed auto­mat­i­cal­ly and should only be changed in excep­tion­al cases.The fac­to­ry setup of the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 is as follows:

Chan­nel Device Component(s)
1 H Insert P Heat­ing Insert P 2000 or S
2 Obj Heater Objec­tive Heater 2000 or S

1. Select “Chan­nel 1 Setup”. The setup menu for chan­nel 1 opens. Select menu item “Device” and press the “OK but­ton” (see user man­u­al “Con­fig­u­ra­tion”).

2. A list of heat­able com­po­nents that can be con­nect­ed to the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 appears. Select the com­po­nent con­nect­ed to the respec­tive chan­nel and press the “OK but­ton”. The name of the com­po­nent appears on the right next to “Device”, the cor­re­spond­ing para­me­ter set in the line below.

The device is work­ing fine and all units are heat­ed up, but I can­not make any changes in the set­tings with the front panel buttons.

The device is in the “remote mode” and can only be con­trolled via PC. In this exclu­sive mode no set­tings can be made with the buttons.

1. Exit the soft­ware if no impor­tant func­tion is running.

2. Turn the equip­ment off and on again.The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 has a built-in auto-diagnosis func­tion that is able to detect and report fail­ures in tech­ni­cal com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, an error mes­sage is dis­played on the screen at the front side of the device depend­ing on the sort of error and appro­pri­ate mea­sures for user safe­ty are car­ried out (e.g. switch­ing off the heat­ing). For fur­ther infor­ma­tion see user Manual.

Can I upgrade my device?

Yes, of course. Every Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 can be upgrad­ed to the lat­est hard- and soft­ware ver­sion. The firmware, the val­ues of the 8 para­me­ter sets and the list with the allo­ca­tion of the para­me­ter sets to the heat­ed com­po­nents can be updat­ed via a Windows-PC. The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 is equipped with a USB con­nec­tor (USB-B sock­et). For this pur­pose, a suit­able USB cable (# 900 089) is includ­ed in the accessories.

This com­mu­ni­ca­tion link is required for:

– an update of the Firmware

– the com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the PC

DEVICE ERROR CODES

The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 has a built-in auto-diagnosis func­tion that is able to detect and report fail­ures in tech­ni­cal com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, an error mes­sage is dis­played on the screen at the front side of the device depend­ing on the sort of error and appro­pri­ate mea­sures for user safe­ty are car­ried out (e.g. switch­ing off the heating).

Boot­loader: Sys­tem Test Errors
Error code Cause / Solution
129 Inter­nal RAM error
130 Flash check­sum error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool
131 Appli­ca­tion error Reload lat­est firmware with soft­ware tool
132 EEPROM check­sum error
133 Key­pad error A key­pad but­ton is defect

 

Appli­ca­tion: Chan­nel Errors (F1 and F2)
Error code Cause / Solution
OK No error detected.
No sen­sor Tem­per­a­ture sen­sor sig­nal can­not be detect­ed or is out of valid range. A cable wire might be bro­ken or a cable could be dis­con­nect­ed. Check cables and cable Connections.
Overtemp Actu­al value is greater than max­i­mum set­point value plus 5°C. The chan­nel is com­plete­ly deac­ti­vat­ed (heat­ing and power sup­ply of con­nect­ed com­po­nent). Reset by switch­ing off/on (after cool­ing off). The con­nect­ed com­po­nent might be defect.
Over­cur­rent Power con­sump­tion of con­nect­ed com­po­nent is > 4 A. The chan­nel is com­plete­ly deac­ti­vat­ed (heat­ing and power sup­ply of con­nect­ed com­po­nent). Reset by switch­ing off/on.
Sum Over­curr Sum of power con­sump­tion of both chan­nels is > 4.2 A. Both chan­nels are com­plete­ly deac­ti­vat­ed (heat­ing and power sup­ply of con­nect­ed com­po­nents). Reset by switch­ing off/on.

Are chan­nel sta­tus mes­sages dis­played which are not spec­i­fied in the upper list, please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support!

Heating Unit 2000

The green LED “Oper­a­tion” does not light up. What may be the reason?

1. The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 does not receive a sig­nal from the tem­per­a­ture sen­sor. Con­nect the Heat­ing Unit 2000 with the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 and with the tem­per­a­ture sen­sor in the incubator.

2. The tem­per­a­ture sen­sor could be defect. Check the tem­per­a­ture sen­sor and the con­nec­tion cable for damages.

3. The heat­ing for chan­nel 1 is not acti­vat­ed. Acti­vate the chan­nel 1 on the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2.

4. The Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 is not switched on. Switch on the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2.

Why does the green LED “Oper­a­tion” flash?

The device has no mains power for the heat­ing ele­ments because of one of the fol­low­ing reasons:

1. One of the mains fuses is blown. For infor­ma­tion about a replace­ment see “Main­te­nance”.

2. The heat­ing switch is set to “0”. Set the switch to “1”.

3. The mains volt­age is not in a valid range. Check the mains volt­age (see sec­tion “Spec­i­fi­ca­tions”).

The device does not heat. The yel­low LED “Heat­ing” does not light up. What can I do?

1. Does the green LED “Oper­a­tion” light up per­ma­nent­ly? If it does not, check the two points above.

2. Does the red LED “Over­heat” light up? If it does, check table “Device Error Codes” below.

3. Is chan­nel 1 of Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 cor­rect­ly con­fig­ured? Is the set­point value above the actu­al value?

Why does the air in the incu­ba­tor not reach the nom­i­nal temperature.

1. The tem­per­a­ture sen­sor of the incu­ba­tor is in an unfa­vor­able posi­tion, e.g. near the cold­er incu­ba­tor wall. Test new sen­sor posi­tions (see man­u­al incubator).

2. The heat­ing power of the Heat­ing Unit 2000 is designed for max. 25°C above ambi­ent temperature.

3. Depend­ing on the ambi­ent tem­per­a­ture, it takes approx. 30 – 60 min to reach work­ing tem­per­a­ture of 37°C. (At an AT of 22°C it takes usu­al­ly 30 min. to reach 37°C.)

The tem­per­a­ture in the incu­ba­tor oscil­lates about 0.5 – 1°C around the set­point value.

The chan­nel 1 at the Tem­p­Con­troller 2000-2 is not con­fig­ured cor­rect­ly. For the cor­rect con­fig­u­ra­tion see “Oper­a­tion”.

The red LED “Over­heat” flash­es or lights up per­ma­nent­ly. How can I reset this status?

The device has dis­cov­ered an error and switched off the heat­ing. For the cause of the error see table “Device Error Codes” below.

How can I pre­vent a strong evap­o­ra­tion of water from the cul­ture media?

Spe­cial Foil­Cov­ers for dif­fer­ent cell cul­ture sys­tems are avail­able to reduce the evap­o­ra­tion. With a CO2-Cover and the Humid­i­fi­er, it is pos­si­ble to local­ly increase the humid­i­ty around the cul­ti­va­tion chamber.

DEVICE ERROR CODES

The Heat­ing Unit 2000 has a built-in self-diagnosis func­tion that detects and reports mal­func­tions of device com­po­nents. If the device detects an inter­nal error, the LEDs at the front panel indi­cate the type of error and appro­pri­ate actions for the user’s safe­ty are taken (e.g. the heat­ing is switched off).

LED Detect­ed error Cause / Solution
Green LED”Operation” flashes

The sup­plied AC line volt­age is not in the spec­i­fied range. The sup­plied AC line volt­age is not in the spec­i­fied range. Check the line volt­age, the sock­et, the mains fuse and the posi­tion of the heat­ing switch or con­tact your elec­tri­cian for help.
Red LED”Overheat”flashes The tem­per­a­ture of the main­board exceeds 70°C. The case fan is defect. It has to be replaced by a ser­vice technician.
Red LED”Overheat”flashes The self-resetting ther­mal pro­tec­tion switch has released. The heat­ing ele­ment inside the device has become hot­ter than 170°C. The heat­ing will remain deac­ti­vat­ed until the user con­firms this error.To reac­ti­vate the heat­ing, let the Heat­ing Unit 2000 cool down first. As a next step either switch off the incu­ba­tion sys­tem or the heat­ing power with the heat­ing switch for at least 10 sec­onds. The red LED should go out and the heat­ing should start run­ning again when the heat­ing switch is set to “1”.
Red LED”Overheat”lights up

The fan rota­tion speed is too low. The fan is defect (e.g. the bear­ing is worn out).It has to be replaced by a ser­vice technician.
LEDs cycle up and down.  The boot loader is active -> The appli­ca­tion firmware has crashed. Due to an error in the appli­ca­tion firmware, the boot loader is active.Please con­tact the tech­ni­cal sup­port for help.

Are chan­nel sta­tus mes­sages dis­played which are not spec­i­fied in the upper list, please con­tact the tech­ni­cal support!