Every setup is different with different manufacturers of computers and different operating systems / software installed. We aim to make the P2 Solo as robust as possible on all platforms. The following set of tips should be followed to prevent any chance of disconnection.

If using any Platform:

1. Use the 1m USB-C cable provided in the box (labelled ‘P2’) or a USB-A cable provided by your technical services representative. This vendor been validated internally.

2. Ensure your compute meets the Minimum IT requirements. Compute that struggles with load will struggle to acquire data. This may lead to MinKNOW / USB crashes.

3. If using a desktop computer, please plug the P2 Solo into a USB-C or A port on the rear of the tower. This connector is directly on the motherboard and bypasses any internal USB hubs that can potentially be less reliable.

4. Make sure no unnecessary USB peripherals are plugged into the computer during a sequencing experiment. USB is a bus protocol which means additional devices share the bandwidth. If several unnecessary peripheral occupies too much bandwidth it may result in some data being lost.

5. If writing data directly to direct attached storage (e.g., a portable SSD drive), save your data output to internal storage and transfer your data after the run.

6. Make sure no unnecessary programs and processes are running during a sequencing experiment. If the central processing unit (CPU) is under sustained load, this can lead to dropped USB frames. Too many dropped frames can potentially cause a disconnect. We advise not to run any applications that cause unnecessary load on the compute, for example watching video or running intensive bioinformatics and the same time. Use the appropriate utility for your operating system (e.g., Task Manager for Windows, Activity Monitor for MacOS or htop for Ubuntu) to identify which applications (apart from MinKNOW) have high CPU utilisation.

7. Ensure your compute has sufficient clearance and is in a cool environment. Computers are able to run quicker when they have sufficient, cool airflow. If not, the device functionality will be throttled and it may not be able to keep up with the data acquisition demand of the P2 Solo and MinKNOW.

If you still encounter issues whilst following these tips. Please reach out to Technical Support to assist you.