With Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF), Acquisition keeps track of the number of injections and the number of days since a maintenance activity was performed for your TQ or Q-TOF instrument. EMF allows you to plan for scheduled maintenance when it is convenient and increase the instrument uptime. If a limit is exceeded for an EMF item that is enabled, then the EMF icon changes to yellow, and the tooltip displays the cause in the device pane. Set the limits for each EMF item in the Maintenance dialog (LC/MS).
EMF provides information on the operational status of your instrument based on the recommended factory maintenance schedule. EMF provides information only and does not force you to perform any actions.
There are three rates of EMF detection:
Fast – Every 5 seconds: Capillary clog
Medium – Every 50 seconds: Injection count, divert valve, rough pump oil, gas filter, Autotune expired, Checktune expired
Slow – After an Autotune or Checktune: empty CDS bottle or clogged nebulizer, bad capillary (TQ only), unstable spray, aging detector (TQ only)
In the SQ device on the Dashboard, hover over the EMF icon to see any Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF) messages for the SQ. For example, it can report if the Checktune and Autotune are expired.
Use the Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF) (LC/MS) to review the timer, set the limit, and reset the counter for each EMF item:
In the Instrument Status window, right-click the SQ device, and select Maintenance. The Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF) (LC/MS) opens.
(optional) Disable an EMF item to turn off EMF warnings for that maintenance activity and disable the settings for that item.
(optional) Select an EMF item to enable EMF warnings for that maintenance activity and enable the settings for that item.
Review the threshold for each of the maintenance items.
(optional) Enter a new threshold value for a selected EMF item and click Set to custom value, or click Set to factory value to set the threshold to the default value.
Review the remaining Counts or Days for each maintenance activity. If the number of days shown in the Remaining column is expired, you may need to do the appropriate action in order to clear the warning or alert status shown on the device panel. See Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF) (LC/MS) for descriptions and resolutions for each EMF item.
If appropriate maintenance is performed on an EMF item, click Reset counter to reset the remaining counts or days.
Click OK.