Sample

The I11 sample stage. Design-phase; values are reverse-engineered from dodal or inferred.

The sample stage is the experiment hutch: the powder diffractometer, the capillary spinner, the thermal sample environment (the earn), and the sample-changing robot.

The diffractometer and spinner

Device	Family	Control handle	Notes
Diffractometer	RotaryStage	BL11I-MO-DIFF-01:	theta (sample rotation) + two_theta / delta (detector-arm angles) + spos
DiffractometerBase	LinearStage	BL11I-MO-DIFF-01:BASE:	diffractometer base translation
Spinner	RotaryStage	BL11I-EA-ENV-01:	capillary spinner (enable + speed) for powder averaging

The diffractometer is modelled as per-axis RotaryStage Assets under a DiffractometerStage Assembly, not the Goniometer Family that I03 graduated. The distinction is load-bearing: I03's Goniometer is a multi-axis sample-orientation cradle (omega/chi/phi converging on one sample point for MX centring); I11's two_theta/delta are detector-arm angles and theta is a single sample rotation, so reusing Goniometer would conflate detector-arm motion with sample orientation (GONIO-1). The axis PVs are to confirm (the dodal class was not read axis-by-axis) (DIFF-1). The spinner is a sample-rotation device (RotaryStage) for powder averaging (SPIN-1).

The thermal sample environment (the earn)

Device	Family	Control handle	Notes
CyberstarBlower1	TemperatureController	BL11I-EA-BLOW-01:	Cyberstar hot-air blower; Eurotherm controller, updating PID
CyberstarBlower2	TemperatureController	BL11I-EA-BLOW-02:LOOP1:	Cyberstar blower; autotuneable Eurotherm
Cryostream1	TemperatureController	BL11I-CG-CSTRM-01:	Oxford Cryostream 700 plus
Cryostream2	TemperatureController	BL11I-CG-CSTRM-02:	Oxford Cryostream 700 standard

This is what makes I11 generative. The four actuators are continuous-setpoint devices: the Eurotherm controllers expose set(value), setpoint, ramprate, PID, and autotune. After the loose TemperatureController family was carried at I22 (the Linkam) and I03 (cryostream/thawer), I11 was the rule-of-three that earned:

1. graduating the TemperatureController catalog Family, and
2. a new settable-continuous-setpoint actuator Role, Regulator (CORA had none: Positioner is spatial, Controller supervises, GenericProbe is read-only), requiring a new Settable affordance.

Because the Role was a code change (SEED_ROLES, drift-guarded) and core vocabulary, the earn was routed through the gate-review panel rather than the i11 scaffold. That gate-reviewed change has now landed: TemperatureController is a catalog Family presenting Regulator.

The sample-changing robot

Device	Presents	Control handle	Notes
Robot	Positioner Role	BL11I-EA-ROBOT-01:	NX100 arm + carousel that loads / unloads samples on the spinner

The robot reuses the settled I03 / 19-BM position: one Positioner-presenting Asset that loads and unloads a Subject (a sample from the carousel), gated by a Clearance, with the vendor robot in a bound Model. Not a new SampleChanger Family. The custody lifecycle and exchange Procedure are deferred (ROBOT-1).

See Open questions and Inventory.