Contact Angle Goniometer Quick User’s GuideUpdated 12/15/2016

Start up

1. Turn on the HG-DM light for the goniometer.

2. Put water in the syringe.

3. Use a level to make the stage level (knobs D).

4. Mark the edge of a glass slide with a marking pen and place it on the platform.

5. Move the syringe so it almost touches the slide.

6. Align the mark on the edge of the glass slide with the syringe needle.

7. Locate the AmScope camera box in the bench drawer and take out the camera

with lens attached.

8. Remove the eyepiece of the telescope on the goniometer.

9. Insert the camera into the telescope tube in place of the eyepiece

10. Plug the AmScope camera into the computer with the USB cable.

11. Start the software by clicking on the icon “TourView” on the desktop.

12. Click the camera icon in the menu bar and choose the camera.

13. A real time image from the camera should appear on the computer screen.

14. Adjust the light level by turning the knob on HG-DM.

15. Focus the camera

on the edge of

the slide by

turning Knob A. If

the slide does not

appear horizontal

rotate the

camera so it is.

(See picture).

16. Move the stage

(knob B and C) to

align camera on the needle (this should be right above the mark on the slide but

the image may be upside down that can be fixed by rotating the camera:

a) Move the needle left/right with knob B and up/down with ring C to locate

the needle in telescope view

b) Focus the telescope on needle with knob A (see figure below).

17. Find end of the needle by moving syringe up and down (knob E).

18. Put your sample on the stage under the syringe.

19. Move syringe close to end of the needle).

20. Make sure the camera is aligned on the end of the needle.

21. Expel one drop of water onto your sample.

22. Focus camera on the drop on the substrate.

To take pictures:

1. Click “Snap” in the software to take a picture.

2. Click “Save as”, to name and save your pictures.

3. Help for the camera is on the desktop.

To Measure the drop Angle

1. Start imageJ program

2. Load an image into imageJ

3. Launch the plugin Drop Analysis Software (Drop Snake and LB-ADSA) to measure

the contact angle of your droplet.

4. Initialize the snake

a) Run the fast automatic initialization by pressing on:

b) Or

c) • When in the Add/move knot mode , place roughly a few knots on the

drop contour (5-10 knots). Please ensure that you define the drop contour

starting at the left interface point going along the drop contour until the right

interface point. When the last knot has been placed, double click anywhere

on the image to close the spline. Once the spline is finalized, the knots

positions can be adjusted by drag and drop.

d) It is recommended to run the Fast Snake on this initialization spline to refine

it

5. If the initialization spline is satisfying, go to next step. Otherwise, adjust roughly

the blue knots position and run the fast snake on this spline using:

6. Accept the curve by pressing on : The blue curve will be replaced by the red

one.

7. Evolve the blue curve by pressing on the snake button:

8. Contact angles are displayed in the image and in the table. Further informations

such as the surface of the meridional plane, the contour length of the meridional

plane, the contact radius or the interface tilt angle are also available.

Another way of initialization is to enable ”Place knots automatically” in the setting

menu, and to create a new curve. In this mode, the user must click at the position of

the first knot (left contact point) and then follow the drop contour until the last knot

(right contact point). A double click define the position of the last knot.

Contact angle is still a tricky parameter to measure and several parameters such as

dimensional parameters may influence its measure. Care should be taken when

modifying parameters from the setting men

9. For help see drop analysis users guide.

Finish up

1. Exit the software.

2. Remove water in the syringe.

3. Clean the stage.

4. Unplug EM-500M Camera and put it back to the white camera box with the USB

cable and put in the drawer.

5. Put the eyepiece back to telescope.

6. Log off the computer.