If you have used Labbot.exe (version 1.3 or older) and Viewer 2, this page is for you. Labbot 1.5 is a big step: the programs have new names, people sign in, and data is kept in one managed place. Nothing you have is thrown away, but a few things work differently, and some choices are made once, at the first start. Read this page before you install, and decide those choices with your lab first.
The new names
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
Labbot (Labbot.exe) |
Labbot Core - controls the instrument and runs experiments |
| Viewer 2 | Labbot Lens - opens, plots and compares the data |
The installer removes the old Labbot, Labbot_FWU and Viewer 2 and installs Labbot Core, Labbot Lens and the drivers in their place.
winver.Documents\LABBOT data in each Windows account. They stay
there (Your experiment data).The full installation procedure is in the Labbot Core Admin Manual that comes with the installer.
In Labbot 1.3 everybody shared one program, one list of procedures and whatever Windows account was logged in. Now each person has a Labbot Core account and signs in when Labbot Core starts. This gives you:
There are three roles. Each can do everything the one above it in the table can:
| Role | Typical person | Can |
|---|---|---|
| User | Most people in the lab | Run experiments, make their own (personal) procedures and titrants, copy a shared procedure to adapt it, change their own password. |
| Manager | The person responsible for the lab’s methods | Everything a User can, plus look after the shared library: edit shared procedures and titrants, promote a good personal procedure to the shared library, or take one out. Can see everyone’s personal procedures and data. Can update the instrument firmware. |
| Admin | Lab manager or IT contact - one or two people | Everything a Manager can, plus create and manage accounts, reset passwords, set the lab-wide choices below, and the Service menu (pump, filter-wheel and absorbance offsets). |
How a lab usually works with this: a Manager keeps a small set of approved procedures in the shared library. Users run those, or copy one to their own procedures to try something new. When a personal procedure has proved itself, the Manager promotes it so everyone can use it. Keep the number of Admins small - there is always at least one, and Labbot Core won’t let you remove the last one.
When the first Admin account is created, Labbot Core shows a recovery code - once, and never again. It is the only way back in if every Admin password is lost: with it, an Admin account can be reset or a new one created. Neither Labbot Analytics nor anyone else can do that for you - there is no master key, on purpose, so that nobody outside your lab can get into your installation.
How to use it is described in the Admin Manual, “Recovery”. Create a second Admin account early on as well: then a forgotten password is simply reset by the other Admin, and the recovery code is only for when both are lost.
A lab with several instruments can set the accounts up once and copy them to the other PCs (User ▸ Export Users… / Import Users…, no passwords in the file).
This is chosen once per PC (Admin can change it later).
Independent (recommended for most labs). Labbot Core has its own accounts and passwords, separate from Windows. The sign-in window lists the accounts and pre-selects the last one used. Several people can share one Windows login - common on an instrument PC - and each still signs in as themselves.
Windows-bound. Each Labbot Core account belongs to the Windows account with the same name. Whoever is logged in to Windows is that Labbot Core account - with or without a password - and nobody can pick someone else’s account. Some labs, for example in regulated (GMP) settings, want this: Windows sign-in is already controlled by IT, and they want one identity, no shared logins and no way to work under another person’s name.
The price: every person must have their own Windows account on the instrument PC, with a name that matches their Labbot Core account. An account without a matching Windows account can’t be used at all. If people share a Windows login on the instrument PC, stay with Independent.
Also chosen once per PC, and it covers procedures, titrants and experiment data together.
Free (the default). Everyone can delete their own procedures, titrants, runs and manual measurements; a Manager or Admin can delete other people’s too. This is how most research labs work, and close to how Labbot 1.3 behaved.
Restricted. Only an Admin can delete anything. Windows itself also stops anyone from deleting a run from the data folder in File Explorer. Choose this when the data is a record that must be kept - quality control, studies that will be audited, or simply a shared instrument where an accidental delete would hurt.
Copying is never blocked. In both modes anyone can export, copy and share their results; restricted mode only stops the original from being removed.
New runs are saved in one managed place:
C:\ProgramData\Labbot\Experiments\, one folder per Labbot
Core account. (An Admin can choose another folder, for example a network
drive.) You don’t need to browse there: Data ▸ Experiment
Data… lists your runs, lets you filter them by date, status,
user and project, add a note or status (“Failed”, “Needs review”),
Export a complete copy to wherever you like, and
Open in Labbot Lens. Projects let you group runs per
study or customer.
Your old runs are not moved and not changed. They
stay in Documents\LABBOT data where Labbot 1.3 saved them,
and Labbot Lens opens them as before. They don’t appear in the
Experiment Data window until they are copied into the new place. Labbot
Core can’t do that by itself, because nothing in an old run says which
person it belongs to. If you want them there - recommended if you choose
restricted deletion, which only protects the new place - an Admin copies
them by hand; the Admin Manual, “Upgrading”, has the
steps. Back up Documents\LABBOT data before you start, as
with any move of important data.
Labbot Lens shows the instrument’s data as it was recorded. The original files are never changed. Your own plots and calculations can be added next to them, and anything else is done on an exported copy.
The installer keeps your old procedure and titrant library unchanged
as an archive (C:\ProgramData\Labbot\Legacy\). At the first
start, Labbot Core asks once what to do with the old procedures:
Titrants are always taken over. The choice can’t be changed afterwards, but the archive is kept either way, so nothing is lost.
Old procedures run as before, with three things to know:
Help is available wherever you are in the program:
? button in the corner of every
window opens the manual at the section about that window.?
buttons and Report a Problem….Everything is described in the Labbot Core Manual and the Labbot Lens Manual (both in the Help menu and in the release package), and every change is listed in the Release notes.
Questions? Use Help ▸ Report a
Problem…, or write to issues@labbot.bio.