EXPERIMENTS, EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS AND DECISION GATES
Planning estimates in USD, 21 October 2026. Estimates are engineering allowances, NOT vendor quotations. No purchases or researcher messages have been made. Build around owned equipment; do not depend on borrowing instruments or access to somebody else's laboratory. Exact models must be selected after signal and bandwidth requirements are confirmed.

TRACK H — HELIOS ATTRIBUTION BEFORE SCALING
Question: does a living preparation deliver sustained additional load energy relative to a matched organism-free preparation, and is the effect reproducible across separately prepared runs?
Primary outcome: signed delivered energy in a fixed predeclared passive-load interval, with duration, projected illuminated area and uncertainty. Secondary outcomes: drift, light/dark difference, electrode temperatures, pH, conductivity and oxygen where measurable. Open-circuit voltage is a separate diagnostic. A biased half-cell belongs in a separate series.

Apparatus record required before acquisition: existing organism/culture provenance; medium composition and age; cell volume; electrodes/material/area/spacing/preparation history; load; instrument make/model/range/integration time; wiring and shielding; illumination spectrum/irradiance; electrode temperatures; raw data export. Unknown fields remain unknown. No organism or electrode identity is inferred from the announcement.

Proposed sequence:
H0: Instrument qualification. Open input, shorted input, known reference signal and precision dummy load in the same wiring environment. Collect enough baseline data to quantify drift over the intended experiment duration. Compare ranges/integration times without selecting the most favorable trace. Save saturation/range-change flags.
H1: Matched passive-load cells. Prepare a live and no-organism blank with identical electrode history, medium volume, geometry, temperature and illumination. Randomize physical positions and channel assignment. Predeclare polarity convention, load resistance and analysis interval. Use the same timestamp system. Do not use one reference trace repeatedly as independent control replicates.
H2: Repeat preparations. A pilot of six independently assembled matched pairs across at least three preparation days is a planning starting point, not a power calculation. If the same culture batch supplies multiple pairs, preserve that clustering. Use pilot variance to set sample size for a confirmatory study before collecting it.
H3: Light/dark and thermal discrimination. Use predeclared cycles and equilibration windows. Log both electrode temperatures; include an abiotic heated/temperature-matched comparison where feasible. Light response alone cannot distinguish biology from photoelectrochemistry or heating.
H4: Stored-charge and corrosion checks. Extend passive loading; document rest periods and prior biasing; inspect electrode surfaces; assess whether a finite reservoir explains total charge. Weighing alone may lack sensitivity at the expected currents. If necessary obtain a separately quoted material analysis; do not silently mark corrosion excluded.
H5: Geometry experiment after baseline attribution. Change one geometry feature with matched material/preparation, fixed illuminated projected area and measured mass/loading. Include physical replicate identity and fabrication batch. Define an independent confirmatory comparison; avoid selecting the best geometry and reporting that same data as confirmation.

Analysis: integrate raw signed V*I with exclusions disclosed; keep zero/below-detection results. For paired runs, compute run-level energy differences over matched intervals. Confidence intervals must treat independent preparations as units and account for shared batch and drift; thousands of timestamps do not create thousands of biological replicates. Report effect size and uncertainty, not a single p value. The included kernel stops at run-level integration; confirmatory statistical modeling must be added after the sampling design is fixed.

Proposed gate (engineering choice, not a literature standard): do not advance to scale-up unless instrument checks pass, matched-run effect exceeds the expanded measurement uncertainty, the prespecified run-level interval excludes zero, and the direction repeats on a separate preparation day. These conditions support a narrower attribution claim; they do not prove the complete electron-transfer mechanism. Failed conditions trigger diagnosis, not deletion of inconvenient runs.

Owned-bench equipment specification and budget allowances:
• Low-current measurement: select range so expected signal is well above measured system leakage/drift, with headroom against overload. Guarded cabling, isolation and timestamped exports matter as much as display resolution. A Keithley 2450 is a candidate for characterization, not automatically sufficient for every sub-nA experiment. Its lowest-range accuracy includes offset terms; never treat 10 fA resolution as 10 fA accuracy. Allow $8,000–15,000 including relevant accessories/calibration, pending quote.
  Manufacturer datasheet: https://www.tek.com/en/datasheet/smu-2400-graphical-sourcemeter/model-2450-touchscreen-source-measure-unit-smu-instrument
• Biased electrochemistry, optional second acquisition: a true potentiostat with stable reference-electrode operation, documented low-current behavior, impedance capability if needed and exportable raw samples. Gamry Reference 620 is a candidate; manufacturer lists 11 current ranges from 60 pA to 600 mA. The older 600/600+ appear in legacy documentation, so do not assume current availability. Allow $15,000–30,000 pending quote. Do not buy both this and an SMU before resolving the initial measurement mode.
  Manufacturer: https://www.gamry.com/potentiostats/reference/reference-620/
• Matched vessels/electrodes, spares and fixtures: $600–2,000. Select exact materials from the existing apparatus record and corrosion analysis, not from the example paper alone.
• Calibrated illumination measurement and controllable source: $1,000–4,000. Sensor spectrum must match the source; a lux meter is not a general irradiance standard.
• Two electrode-adjacent temperature channels plus ambient logging: $300–1,200. Target resolution better than 0.1 C as a planning requirement; calibrate differential offset. Small resolution does not imply that thermal artifacts are excluded.
• Guarding/shielding/cables/load standards/reference source: $800–2,500. Characterize leakage with the actual wet setup.
• Basic chemistry logging and consumables: $500–2,000. Probe maintenance and calibration solutions included in allowance; analytical corrosion measurements may be separate.
• Calibration/service and shipping contingency: request quotes; reserve roughly 20% of the selected subtotal.
Starting allowance using one SMU path: about $13,400–32,000 including that contingency. This is not a purchase recommendation or a binding total. Existing qualified equipment can reduce the scope after its performance is documented.

TRACK W — PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRICAL BOUNDARIES
W0: Establish a static 50-ohm termination benchmark. Measure matched and intentionally mismatched loads, cable delay and reflections. The code gives Gamma=(ZL-Z0)/(ZL+Z0) only for real positive resistances; extend to complex impedances only with tested phase conventions.
W1: Measure the selected varactor's capacitance versus voltage, parasitic resistance, leakage and hysteresis over the chosen range. Include modulation-feedthrough measurements with the signal source off.
W2: Implement a low-frequency single-mode LC experiment, with current/voltage acquisition and modulation input measured. Compare the model's stored-energy change with integrated pump work and dissipation. This is a preparatory classical circuit study.
W3: Only after reviewing R02's complete circuit/supplement, define a distributed transmission line, cell pitch, effective-medium bandwidth, dispersion, termination, modulation synchronization and readout. Measure S-parameters in static bias states before time-varying trials.
W4: Separate the incident signal, reflected signal and modulation leakage using calibration and time gating. Compare static control, modulation-only, signal-only and synchronized combined runs. Report repeat runs and source/bias consumption alongside signal gain.

Owned-bench candidate for W0/W2: Keysight EDUX1052G, official page specifies 50 MHz and two analog channels with generator. This is a basic low-frequency candidate and is NOT adequate by assumption for the 200 MHz modulation preprint. Four synchronized channels or a separately synchronized digitizer may be required for full accounting.
https://www.keysight.com/sg/en/product/EDUX1052G/oscilloscope-50-mhz-2-analog-channels-waveform-generator.html
Plan $2,000–6,000 for scope/generator capabilities, $500–2,000 for probes, loads, fixtures and shielding, and $500–2,000 for prototype boards and spares. A distributed fast-modulation replication may require $10,000–30,000 or more in additional bandwidth/synchronization equipment; obtain a circuit-specific quote. Do not order from these allowances.

TRACK C — CASIMIR MODEL QUALIFICATION
C0: Run packaged analytic and convergence checks. C1: obtain material response data and its provenance; quantify low-frequency extrapolation uncertainty. C2: implement thickness/substrate transfer matrices and benchmark against an independent solver. C3: obtain a geometry-specific convergence study; compare PFA only within its demonstrated error. C4: design force metrology, electrostatic calibration, gap calibration, roughness measurement and patch characterization. The equipment specification depends on force range and geometry; no defensible complete hardware price exists yet. Keep hardware spend gated. An ordinary electrical bench does not establish nanometre-gap force metrology.

90-DAY SEQUENCE (RELATIVE TO ACTUAL START DATE)
Days 1–10: integrate provenance and unit validation; obtain Helios apparatus/data inventory; H0; finish missing primary-source methods. Exit: usable raw-data pipeline and identified instrument limitations.
Days 11–30: H1–H3 pilot and W0/W1 owned-bench characterization. Exit: measured repeatability, uncertainty and feasible bandwidth; select confirmatory endpoints and sample size.
Days 31–60: repeat independent Helios preparations; W2 energy-accounting test; C1 material-response ingestion if data available. Exit: model-to-data residuals and explanations of major confounders.
Days 61–90: confirmatory experiment defined before collection; one geometry change if earlier gates pass; review whether W3 is justified. Publish a methods/results note only for actually completed work. If controls or source access remain blocked, record a revised decision and continue the lower-dependency track.