Model MX630R Siskiyou micromanipulator for electrophysiology. All 3 of the axes no longer work. The control knob turns OK but produces no movements in the manipulator at the the other end of the hydraulic line. None of the parts seem to be stuck. If there needs to be more water? hydaulic fluid? introduced to the line then where and how can I inject it? If there is a bubble, how can I get rid of it? Does anyone have knowledge that something else tends to go wrong with these things that I might have overlooked? I don't want to have to send it back to manufacturer and have downtime and cost of repair.
Hi Randy,
I understand your reluctance to send the manipulator back to Siskiyou for repair, but the recommendation of a hydraulic manipulator is that you need to send it back for refilling every 18 months or so. Eventually the bearings may need to be replaced as well with age. The reason for refilling is obvious, you are using water to transduce pressure into movement, and there is no 'perfect' tubing or seal that can prevent eventual water loss from compression. The bearings is just a matter of wear and tear. Combined with the 'drift' and lower weigh handling ability, hydraulic manipulator is really out of fashion (especially it is only a little bit cheaper than others). Having said that, it has zero electrical noise for patch-clamping! I remember there used to be some procedures you can do to refill the tubes yourself but it is not for the inexperienced. Siskiyou has excellent customer/technical support and I would not hesitate to contact them just to get an idea of the downtime and cost.
Hope this helps.
Hi Randy,
Maybe you can test the output voltage of every pin to determine the problem, since that all 3 axes don't work now. It seems that the driving voltage chip is broken, otherwise the 3 axes should not stop working in the same time. you can use a multimeter to do this, if all the output voltages (i guess it's ~5V) are OK, then it should be the problem as you said above. Good luck!
I have sent mine back and they will work with you to get it done quickly and the cost is worth it - they will check out all aspects of function.
