Setting up a VIA Thaw CB1000 on Chronicle

What you will need:

• A VIA Thaw CB1000.
• An Admin user account for your Chronicle instance.

Overview

To securely connect to Chronicle the thawer needs to be provided with an API key, and for WiFi connections, it also needs the name of the WiFi network and WiFi password. To do this without a keyboard, we are going to ask the thawer to create a WiFi network of its own, connect a laptop to that network and open up a thawer settings webpage on the laptop so we can enter the necessary info. This is a one-time configuration step. 

Get an API Key

1. Log into Chronicle at (https://starter.chronicle.bio) or your organization's custom domain.
2. Navigate to the equipment record that represents the thawing unit we are trying to set up on Chronicle. If a record for this piece of equipment does not yet exist you will need to create one as described here: Creating instrument records.
3. Take a note of the API password that is displayed for the device. It may be useful to copy this into another file for easy access for the next step, as we will not be able to access the internet while connected to the thawing unit.

Enter the API password into the thawer

1. Turn on the thawer and choose a thawing mode.
2. When the screen changes to show a summary of a thaw profile, press and hold the O button.
3. Navigate through the menus to the "Reset Network" item. This route is "Menu" -> "Network" -> "Reset Network".
4. Press the O button to reset the network configuration. The device will automatically restart in preparation to have a new network configuration applied.
5. On a laptop search for a WiFi network with the same name as the Thawer's serial number
6. Once the laptop is connected, open up a web browser and navigate to 192.168.1.1, where you will see a settings page.
7. In the settings page, enter the API password and domain for the Chronicle service that you determined in step 1 (e.g. starter.chronicle.bio). You can also edit other network settings, such as the use of a static IP address, or the WiFi SSID and Password.
8. Click on the "Save" button when you are finished.
9. We should now see a message which informs us that the network configuration has been updated.
10. Restart the thawer by un-plugging and re-plugging it.
11. When the thawer reboots, it should be able to communicate with the Chronicle instance when it has an internet connection.