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FMX

Frontier Microfocusing Macromolecular Crystallography at NSLS-II, beamline 17-ID-2: microfocus rotation MX data collection on a single-omega goniometer and an Eiger detector, with an autonomous robotic sample changer. This page describes how CORA would model and run FMX; the model is reverse-engineered from public configuration, not yet confirmed by FMX staff.

Property Value
Asset FMX (root Asset, tier = Unit, parent_id = None)
Facility NSLS-II (bound via facility_code = "nsls2", FacilityKind = Site)
Sector Sector 17 (PV namespace XF:17ID*, the 17-ID-2 branch)
Institution Brookhaven National Laboratory (context; not modeled as an Asset or Facility)
Status Reverse-engineered from public config (design-phase scaffold)
Source IVU21 in-vacuum undulator on the NSLS-II 3 GeV ring (shared with AMX on the 17-ID straight)

How CORA would land on FMX

These pages describe how CORA would model, govern, and conduct FMX, the fourteenth NSLS-II beamline after FXI, HXN, BMM, SRX, SIX, CHX, CSX, XPD, ESM, SMI, IXS, SST, and ISS, and CORA's second macromolecular-crystallography beamline after Diamond i03. They are not a survey of the beamline's current software. The hardware facts (devices, EPICS PVs, axes) are read from public NSLS-II open source (the NSLS2/fmx-profile-collection bluesky / ophyd startup files; the MX acquisition logic lives in the lsdc / mxtools libraries) and verified against it; the goniometer / robot / detector vendor identities and the crystal cut are not in it, so they, and every read value, are carried confirm until FMX staff verify them (Open questions). This is a design-phase scaffold: the descriptor and these docs, with scenarios deferred.

The defining shape: the second MX, pure reuse

FMX is CORA's first NSLS-II macromolecular crystallography beamline and its second MX deployment overall, after Diamond i03. Its value is coverage and reinforcement, not a graduation: FMX coins no new Family and graduates nothing. It reuses the MX vocabulary i03 established, the graduated Goniometer (the single-omega micro-goniometer with x/y/z centring), the Camera (the Eiger pixel detector), the graduated Transfocator (the CRL), the Monochromator, the Mirror (the HFM and the KB microfocus pair), and the robot-as-Positioner pattern, at a second, independent facility. It brings the three MX Methods (rotation mx_data_collection, grid_scan, sample_exchange) to their second consumer, which strengthens but does not coin them (they stay pending, the energy_scan deferral discipline). The genuinely non-obvious part of MX, the autonomous sample-exchange loop, is the modelling target it shares with i03: a Procedure over the spine threaded through a Subject custody lifecycle and gated by a Clearance.

The beamline

Along the beam, in order:

  • Source: the shared IVU21 undulator, the front-end and photon shutters, and the high-heat-load slit, then the optics, the horizontal double-crystal monochromator, the focusing mirrors (HFM + the KB pair), the CRL transfocator, the beam-conditioning attenuators, and the slits.
  • Sample: the micro-goniometer, the automated sample-changing robot, the on-axis viewing and illumination, and the sample cooling.
  • Detector: the Eiger area detector, the Mercury fluorescence detector for edge selection, the beamstop, and the beam-position and flux monitors.

Cutting across all three:

  • Controls: the rotation vector controller, the Zebra trigger box, and the LSDC / mxtools acquisition seam.

The cross-cutting reference view is the Inventory.

Techniques

Techniques: the rotation data collection, grid scan, and autonomous sample exchange FMX runs, and why their Methods stay pending.

Governance

Governance: who may act at FMX and the trust shape CORA applies; CORA brings its own per-Actor authority, and the autonomous robot loop is gated by a Clearance.

Model

Model: the developer's by-kind index into where each CORA aggregate's FMX content lives, and why FMX graduates nothing.