Dannon- the problems that I saw were with the workaround (see last post). The instance launches, but the program stops when it can't find something (module/dependencies).
There were also some different steps in setting up the instance. I had to create my own key pair, whereas in the past I never had to do that. I guess that simply using the share string that Greg at Janelia created made this step automatic.
The cluster was working well at the end of June. The problem arose suddenly Saturday June 29, when the share string would not load. Thanks again, Deniz