A Pictorial Operation Guide in Five Easy Steps The Birck LEGO Scanning Probe Microscope March

STEP I. Under normal operating conditions, the Main Dashboard for the LEGO SPM instrument should be displayed as shown below. You only have three options to select. The display monitor is touch sensitive. Select a button with your finger to execute the task described. 2

3 STEP II. If you touch the View Video button, a short video will play illustrating the operation of the LEGO Scanning Probe Microscope. The video will run for about 1 minute. A small status bar is displayed beneath the video to indicate how much time remains before the video ends. Be aware that the video can be paused by touching the screen and resumed again by another screen touch. When the video ends, the Main Dashboard will again be displayed. A few photos taken during the video are shown here.

4 STEP III. If you touch the Quick Run button, the LEGO Scanning Probe Microscope will execute a small area scan of the LEGO landscape. The scan will take about 5 minutes. As shown below, the display will switch to a new screen in order to plot the result of the scan. The image is updated after every row has been completed.

5 During a scan, the image can be rotated by touching the screen and dragging your finger in the direction you wish to view the image. The default orientation of the image can be restored by touching the Default View button. Top View Default View Side View The color bar indicates the height of the image. The colors selected for the display are somewhat arbitrary. For the LEGO SPM, we tried to match the color of the LEGOs.

6 During a scan, if the Rest to Home button is pushed, the scan will terminate and the LEGO platform will return to its home position. The image plotted will show a flat plane over that region which has not been scanned. After pushing Reset to Home, a flat plane appears where the LEGO landscape has not been scanned.

7 STEP IV. If you touch the Full Run button, the LEGO Scanning Probe Microscope will execute a full area scan of the LEGO landscape. The scan will take about 3 hours. The display will switch to a new screen in order to plot the result of the scan. The image can be rotated during the scan. The image is updated after every row has been completed. Below is an example of a partial image during a full scan taken in March of 2013 (the LEGO landscape may change from time to time). The blue status bar provides a visual indication of what percentage of the scan has been completed.

8 STEP V. If you touch a button on the front panel display and there is no response, the software has hung. To reboot, you need to unplug the computer, count to five, and then plug it back in. The computer is programmed to reboot and automatically restart the LEGO SPM software in about 1.5 minutes. You will see a number of intermediate screens (numbered 1-4 as shown below.) After ~60 seconds, you should see this screen. When it appears, count to 15 and then press the Administrator icon. If you push the icon and nothing happens, count to 10 and try again and finally…. after waiting another ~30 seconds, the main Dashboard should appear. You are good to go! 4.

9 +X direction +Y direction -Z direction For reference: The LEGO SPM Coordinate System