Claims
- 1. A calibration system for an electrically monitored mechanical pipette having an electrical assembly which monitors a volume delivery adjustment mechanism, said calibration system comprising:
- a volume delivery adjustment mechanism including a longitudinally and rotationally displaceable actuating member and driving mechanism, said driving mechanism responding to a rotational displacement of said actuating member,
- a transducer assembly for producing at least two transducer signals related to a rotational displacement of at least a portion of said driving mechanism,
- an electronics assembly comprising a microprocessor capable of receiving said at least two signals from said transducer assembly, said electronics assembly including a calibration map comprising defined values that have been generated by rotation of at least a portion of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism one fill revolution and recordation at predetermined rotational intervals throughout said one full revolution of the transducer signals generated thereat, said microprocessor further being capable of computing a volume delivery setting based on a comparison of said calibration map defined values with said at least two signals from said transducer assembly, and
- a display for displaying the computed fluid volume delivery setting.
- 2. A calibration system according to claim 1 wherein said at least two signals from said transducer assembly are sinusoidal signals which are 90.degree. out of phase from each other.
- 3. A calibration system according to claim 1 wherein said at least two transducer signals also relate to the direction of said rotation of said at least a portion of said volume delivery adjustment mechanism.
- 4. A calibration system according to claim 1 wherein said display can be adjusted to change the displayed fluid volume delivery setting without otherwise effecting said electronics assembly or said calibration map.
- 5. A calibration system for an electrically monitored mechanical pipette having a volume delivery adjustment mechanism and an electronics assembly for monitoring the volume delivery adjustment mechanism, said calibration system comprising:
- a volume delivery adjustment mechanism including a longitudinally and rotationally displaceable actuating member and driving mechanism, said driving mechanism responding to a rotational displacement of said actuating member,
- a transducer assembly for producing at least two transducer signals related to a rotational displacement of at least a portion of said driving mechanism,
- an electronics assembly including means for determining a fluid volume delivery setting based on a comparison of said at least two signals from said transducer assembly with a calibration map comprising defined values that have been generated by rotation of at least a portion of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism one full revolution and recordation at predetermined rotational intervals throughout said one full revolution of the transducer signals generated thereat, and
- a display for displaying the computed fluid volume delivery setting.
- 6. A calibration system according to claim 5 wherein said means for computing a fluid volume delivery setting incudes a calibration map.
- 7. A method for calibrating an electrically monitored mechanical pipette including a volume delivery adjustment mechanism having a longitudinally and rotationally displaceable actuating member and driving mechanism, the driving mechanism responding to a rotational displacement of the actuating member and an electronics assembly for monitoring the volume delivery adjustment mechanism, the electronics assembly receiving at least two transducer signals from a transducer assembly which relate to a rotational displacement of at least a portion of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating a calibration map of the at least two transducer signals by:
- reading the signal values from the at least two transducer signals;
- storing the signal values as a pair;
- rotating the volume delivery adjustment mechanism a predetermined rotational distance;
- checking to see if all predetermined signal values have been read and stored; and
- repeating said step of reading signal values of the at least two transducer signals until all signal values related to each predetermined rotational position of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism have been read and stored as a calibration map.
- 8. A method according to claim 7 wherein said method of calibration further includes the steps of:
- reading and storing signal values for two complete calibration maps,
- checking the sinusoidal shape of the two sets of signals for each calibration map; and
- choosing the calibration map which corresponds most accurately with sinusoidal shaped transducer signals.
- 9. A method according to claim 7 wherein the electrically monitored mechanical pipette further includes a display for displaying a fluid volume delivery setting, said method further including the step of:
- displaying a fluid volume delivery setting in the display that has been computed by the calibration map.
- 10. A method according to claim 9 further including the steps of:
- measuring the actual fluid delivered by the pipette at a given fluid volume delivery setting being displayed by the display; and
- adjusting the fluid volume delivery setting being displayed by the display to reflect the actual measured fluid delivery volume.
- 11. A method according to claim 10 wherein said step of adjusting the fluid volume delivery setting on the display includes pressing at least one display adjustment button located adjacent the display.
- 12. An electronically monitored mechanical pipette comprising:
- a volume delivery adjustment mechanism including a longitudinally and rotationally displaceable actuating member and transducer driving mechanism, said transducer driving mechanism responding to a rotational displacement of said actuating member,
- a transducer assembly for producing at least two transducer signals related to a rotational displacement of said transducer driving mechanism,
- an electronics assembly comprising a microprocessor capable of receiving said at least two signals from said transducer assembly, said electronics assembly including a calibration map for computing a volume delivery setting based on said at least two signals from said transducer assembly, and
- a display for displaying the computed fluid volume delivery setting.
Parent Case Info
This application claims priority based on Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/025,871 filed Sep. 9, 1996.
US Referenced Citations (22)