Promethion Metabolic Treadmill – CGF Integration

Complete the treadmill assembly first before starting CGF integration. Once the treadmill has been fully assembled, carefully move it to the CGF. Position the treadmill to allow easy air line and electronic access to the CGF.

Start with setting up a clean air supply via the air pump. Do take note, place the air pump in a site free from potential contamination. Take the 25 feet of air supply tubing and cut in half. Connect the full lengths to the pump outlets when setting up.

Prepare two short lengths of Bev-A-Line tubing with female luers. Insert those into the push-to-connect fittings in the air connection manifold. Insert the coiled venting tube into the far-end connector. Add the baselining Bev-A-Line tube. And finally, insert the large diameter main air inlet tube and connect the other end to the treadmill main air inlet. This completes the air inlet connections from the connection manifold to the treadmill running chamber.

Next, connect a CGF air sampling tube to the air outlet connection on the lid sampling manifold. Before connecting the baseline and sampling tubes to the CGF, first install particulate filters to protect the analyzer banks. Elbow and straight push-to-connect fittings have been provided for this installation. Make sure to connect the filters to the correct baseline and cage designations.

Now insert the baseline and sampling tubes into the filter connectors. Plug the RJ45 data cable into the SableCAN connection. Insert the other end of the RJ45 into the Promethion communication slot in the back of the treadmill controller. The LEDs will light up when the controller is powered ON and communications are established. This concludes the physical integration of the treadmill with the CGF.

Airflow: Pump clean air through the running chamber to the CGF analyzer bank.

Data: From the controller to SableCAN on the CGF.

The next steps are setting the treadmill up in Promethion Live, the CGF operating software. With the treadmill and CGF powered ON, open Promethion Live in a browser window. Just enter the CGF’s unique URL. Click the configuration menu to set the system up. A standard CGF setup will be set for cage monitoring, in this case, a 16-cage full system. Select Use Treadmills and make sure it states Sable. Then unselect all cages, except for cage 9, which is the CGF designation of our treadmill.

Next, click the Analyzers & Flow tab to set the gas analyzers and flow management parameters. Here we will set cage flow rate, chamber, and baseline dwell parameters. First, set cage flow at 3500 milliliters per minute as an indicator, and set baseline dwell time at 30 seconds, chamber dwell time at 180 seconds, and the baseline interleave at 1. Now, to set cage specific flow rates, click on Shared flow rate mode and change to Individual. The configure option will appear. Click on Configure to pop up the flow rate configuration window. First set baseline flow rate to 3500 milliliters a minute consistent with the treadmill chamber flow rate. Then set all cage flows except cage 9 to zero. Set cage 9 to 3500 milliliters a minute. Click Save to confirm the flow configuration change. The CGF default parameters can be left as is.

When all setup edits are completed, click the down arrow next to the Save tab, and enter an appropriate name to save the new setup file as in the Save As window. Since flow rate settings were changed, a service message will alert the user to inconsistent flow rates. Click OK. Promethion Live and CGF are now ready to receive treadmill data.

Click the Status menu option. The Promethion Live status page will appear, showing live status updates for all data parameters – gas analyzers, baseline and chamber flow rate, and the treadmill data parameters. In an optimally set up CGF treadmill configuration, all status values should be green. For data acquisition, click on the Promethion Live logo to navigate to the home page. Then click the Record button to start a CGF data recording. Edit the default file name and click Save to start data acquisition. The system status state will change from ready to harvesting data. If you click on Status again you’ll see the real-time system measurements.

When a recording starts the system immediately switches to baseline airflow. A baseline measure will be taken for 30 seconds, then the CGF switches to Chamber 9. And the treadmill and CGF should both yield a green status across all parameters. Once the treadmill experiment has run its course, click on Promethion Live to return to the homepage and click Stop. The operator can click Status again to monitor the treadmill between experiments.

Treadmill status in Promethion Live: The treadmill error status most users are likely to see is with all treadmill parameters in red. There are three common causes for this. One, the treadmill is not powered on. Two, the treadmill is not connected to SableCAN. Or three, the correct cage address has not been set. Correcting those will yield a green status on all parameters.

Status changes during normal operations: During normal treadmill operations, certain parameters may switch from green to yellow. For example, when speed is set from 0 to 25, the read status will show yellow. As the treadmill motor speeds up and the belt reaches the set speed, the green status will return. Similarly, with inclination, the read value catches up with the set value. If these parameters remain yellow or individual parameters show red, please contact Sable Support.

This concludes the intro to integrating the treadmill with the CGF. Make sure to watch the next video in this series, General Treadmill Maintenance.