9 Nov 2025XA60, POET

How to open protocols in POET XA60 that fail the consistency check

POET on XA60 sometimes refuses to open a stored .pro file, even though the sequence still simulates. Rebuilding the protocol with mephisto fixed it for me.

POET on XA60 with the File menu open, showing Save Protocol with coils and the Routine card of a FLASH protocol.

The workaround

Open your sequence in POET as usual and save the protocol with File → Save Protocol, for example as saved.pro. Close POET.
In the IDEA shell, create an empty token file:
```
copy nul empty.tok
```

Run mephisto on the saved protocol:

mephisto -o saved_with_coils.pro saved.pro empty.tok

This writes a new protocol, saved_with_coils.pro, with the coil selection sorted out. POET should now open it:

poet saved_with_coils.pro

Written by Nils Nothnagel, MRI pulse sequence developer at CMRR, University of Minnesota. nilsnothnagel.com