Claims
- 1. A pipette for delivering a predetermined volume of fluid therefrom, said pipette comprising:a volume delivery adjustment mechanism, a monitoring assembly for producing at least one monitoring signal related to the rotational motion of at least a portion of said volume delivery adjustment mechanism relative to said pipette, an electronics assembly for computing and displaying a fluid volume delivery setting based on said at least one monitoring signal from said monitoring assembly, and a microswitch assembly for detecting relative rotational motion between said pipette and said at least a portion of said volume delivery adjustment mechanism and for providing a microswitch signal to said electronics assembly, said microswitch signal being an interrupt signal sent to a microprocessor in said electronics assembly.
- 2. A pipette according to claim 1 wherein said microswitch signal from said microswitch assembly causes said electronics assembly to supply power to a transducer assembly.
- 3. A pipette according to claim 2 wherein said electronic assembly automatically stops supplying power to said transducer assembly after the passing of a predetermined time interval after receiving said microswitch signal.
- 4. A pipettor according to claim 1 wherein said microswitch assembly includes a microswitch comprising a bobber and a bobber guide, and wherein rotational motion imparted to said bobber guide by said at least a portion of said volume delivery adjustment mechanism imparts linear motion to said bobber, and said linear motion of said bobber causes said microswitch to generate said microswitch signals.
- 5. A pipette according to claim 4 wherein said bobber and said bobber guide include engaging intermeshing teeth, and said rotational motion of said bobber guide causes said intermeshed teeth to disengage.
- 6. A pipette according to claim 1 wherein said monitoring assembly is a transducer assembly and said monitoring signal is a transducer signal.
- 7. A pipette according to claim 6 wherein said transducer assembly includes at least two Hall-effect sensors.
- 8. A method for minimizing power consumption of an electronically monitored pipette wherein said pipette includes a volume delivery adjustment mechanism for delivering a predetermined volume of fluid from the pipette, a monitoring assembly for producing at least one monitoring signal related to the rotational motion of the at least a portion of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism during fluid volume delivery setting adjustment, an electronics assembly for computing a fluid volume delivery setting based on the at least one monitoring signal and displaying the current fluid volume delivery setting, and a microswitch assembly for providing a microswitch signal to the electronics assembly whenever the fluid volume delivery setting is being changed, wherein said method includes the steps of:displaying a present fluid volume delivery setting in a first, low power consumption mode, activating the monitoring assembly in a second, high power consumption mode, calculating a new fluid volume delivery setting based on the at least one monitoring signal received by the electronics assembly from the monitoring assembly, returning to the first, low power consumption state by turning off the power to the monitoring assembly, displaying the new fluid volume delivery setting.
- 9. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of activating said monitoring assembly includes activating said monitoring assembly in response to a microswitch signal sent to the electronics assembly.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the microswitch signal is generated by rotation of at least a portion of the volume delivery adjustment mechanism relative to the pipette.
- 11. A pipette for delivering a predetermined volume of fluid therefrom, said pipette comprising:a volume delivery adjustment mechanism, a monitoring assembly for producing at least one monitoring signal related to the rotational motion of at least a portion of said volume delivery adjustment mechanism relative to said pipette, an electronics assembly for computing and displaying a fluid volume delivery setting based on said at least one monitoring signal from said monitoring assembly, and activation means for activating said monitoring assembly when said volume delivery adjustment mechanism is activated.
- 12. A pipette according to claim 11 further including deactivation for deactivating said monitoring assembly when said volume delivery adjustment mechanism is deactivated.
- 13. A pipette according to claim 12 wherein said deactivation means includes said electronics assembly.
- 14. A pipette according to claim 11 wherein said activation means includes a microswitch.
Parent Case Info
This application claims benefit of Provisional application 60/025,694 filed Sep. 9, 1996.
US Referenced Citations (18)
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60/025694 |
Sep 1996 |
US |