What I want to do

Run through the Oil Testing Kit Beta program so I can better articulate what someone might need to do to run this as a workshop. Did this test with members of the Gulf Coast Chapter!

My attempt and results

Initially I had difficulty getting my oil cuvette holder to line up with the laser. I took a que from @Cindy_ExCites research note on technical adjustments and found that if I raised my holder slightly and angled the laser up just slightly, it lined up much better.

Also, when I got everything lined up correctly, the laser was not lining up where it should be at 405nm, but was instead around 200. So I recalibrated it and tried again. One thing I figured out was that I needed to refresh my scanning page with the new calibration and that seemed to work.

I ran through all the scans and they came out as follows::

Mineral Oil

20w50

5w30

80w90

North Dakota Crude

Diesel

Unknown

I had put the number stickers on my samples and recorded what they were in my notebook. I mixed up my samples and grabbed one without looking at the number, scanned it, and this is what the scan was::

Based on my other scans, I was able to correctly identify that this one was 80w90.

Some of my takeaways include::

• I'm seeing the value having the steps walk you through taking samples. I found myself searching through all the options on SWB to find the ones that I was supposed to use for the beta program (some are right on the page, the others are hidden among many other options that I found a little confusing. One suggestion I could make would be to have a "bear bones" SWB version that is automatic and only includes the macros one needs to run through a basic scan and comparison test. Also a clippy for beginners.

• I found myself wishing that the calibration I selected for my first scan stayed the default for the ones that followed. I had to select the same calibration for all of the scans. --Tags stay the same, can the calibration?

• Some things that are not as intuitive or probably will need explaining on a workshop are ::: your scan page stays open, you only save once your sample scan goes the length of the window, your "sample" then opens on a new tab where you can detail info about what it is. You return to your "scan tab" when you're ready to scan your next sample.

Questions and next steps

Question: I did not change my sample on each scan, just did three scans. Wanted to make sure this was correct.

Next Steps: Keep an eye out for the workshop, coming soon! Also, love some feedback!