In order to create a reproducible experiment protocol, also conditions, operations and observations are important to be specified. This part explains how to add conditions to the protocol.

Assume you would like to cool down a solution to 0° during 15 minutes and keep it at this temperature during 10 minutes. We will use the solution specified in the previous part for this:


  1. Click the "Condition" button in the Add Op dropdown menu - or press Ctrl-6 alternatively:

     

  1. The condition panel expands, containing 25°C as default temperature. Note that fields with a yellow background always mark required entries. Now replace the default temperature by "0". Note how the title of the condition automatically changes to "Cool To" when doing so. Then specify a cool down time of 15 minutes. You can do this by entering "0:15" or more conveniently "0.15", or ".15". Note: Cool down and heat up times are important parameters for the reproducibility of an experiment.

     

The blue "now" links conveniently allow to insert the current time: Click the upper link when you start an operation, and the lower one as soon as you are done. Espresso ELN then automatically fills in the elapsed time.

  1. Click the Add Next button to directly add the next condition. Leave the default temperature value at "0", enter ":10" as the time and click OK. After the condition panel collapses, the protocol should look as below:


  1. During the specification of above second sequential condition point, a graph describing the current condition range appears in the Condition Ranges area. This graph also appears when selecting a condition of the range in the protocol later on.



    The graph can display any number of sequential conditions; however, a condition sequence will stop whenever interrupted by a material entry. When clicking inside a condition graph area, the corresponding part in the protocol is highlighted, which helps navigation in the presence of multiple condition sequences:


    Press ESC to clear this selection again.


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