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ORTEC Easy-MCS and MCS-32 User Manual, Software v2.2 931054C

1. Use this dialog see Fig 58 to select e AA colors for various features in the two Expanded View spectrum windows Each scroll bar EO cess controls the color of a different feature Foreground The vertical colored stripes behind the ROI scroll bars show the available colors Compare Combine Graticules The Background scroll bar controls the background color of the spectrum Default window Foreground determines the color of the spectrum points or fill Fig 58 Display Color Selections ROI governs the color of the ROI points or fill The points fill of a compared spectrum File Compare use the Compare color unless they overlap with the original spectrum in which case the Combine color is used The grid that can be superimposed on the expanded display uses the Graticules color e To change a color click the scroll bar button and drag it slowly across the different colors The expanded and full displays will change color in real time as you drag the mouse When the desired color is displayed on the screen release the mouse button e To accept the color changes click OK then answer Yes to the pop up dialog 63 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Tocancela color change return the slider button to its starting color or close the Color Preferences palette by clicking Cancel or pressing Esc Toreset the color values to the original MCS 32 colors c
2. LOL 6LvT 66S OVP 66 807 Tre VOTA AzeAQGTT pue UOTIPIQTTPO UYUITM SOW TOANNAW EZT NS 19398u01309d8 sseyw T ZS TT 3 88 0Z TO SOW T se ssed OT TTSM SU OT Fig 23 Example Spectrum Report Column Format 39 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 6 1 5 Compare Data This function displays a disk spectrum along with the spectrum in the buffer so that the two can be visually compared When Compare Data is selected a standard file open dialog opens allowing you to select the desired spectrum file Once the Compare file is opened the Expanded Display Window shows both spectra as illustrated in Fig 24 A MCS 32 Sample1 Mcs Hydrogen background at 8 x 10E 8 torr Sample1 Mcs Hydrogen background a Ea tx File Acquire Calculate Services ROI Display Help Ud 8 2 8 10 aele mar Gt Acquisition Stat f Stop Pass 116146 Preset OFF Chane 0 Pass Len 10 000 Dwell 5 00000 ns Clear Device select Cwcs oO Buffer Graph settings Horiz 5 045 4 Vet LOG X Log C Lin Auto 9 ORTEC 1 14 2011 4 36 52 PM oy aS I 000023 amu 54 6854 amu eee I lt ShiftUp gt lt ShiftDown gt ESC to cancel Fig 24 Compare Mode Screen Note that the spectra in this illustration are displayed in Fill All mode in which all of the area under the peaks is filled with a col
3. gt gt respectively and are available in buffer mode only Execute Peak Search performs the peak search described in Section 6 3 9 and marks the resulting peaks as ROIs This command is available in buffer mode only This duplicates Calculate Peak Search 931054C 1213 5 DISPLAY FEATURES i it Find Previous Peak and Find Next Peak move the marker backward or forward respectively through the spectrum to the next closest peak These functions use the Calculate Peak Search algorithm Section 6 3 9 tir de Find Previous Library Entry and Find Next Library Entry move the marker back ward or forward respectively through the peak identification library to the next closest library entry Any available peak data are displayed on the Marker Information Line The library entry is identified at the bottom of the screen beneath the Sidebar These commands duplicate Alt gt and Alt gt gt respectively Toggle Calibration switches the expanded display between calibrated units and time units in internal dwell mode and between calibrated units and channels in external dwell mode This has the same function as Display Time Units Section 6 6 3 E Toggle Graticules displays or hides the grid marks for the Expanded Display Window This duplicates Display Preferences Graticules Section 6 6 9 4 Finally note that as you pause the mouse pointer over the center of a i la dl Toolbar button a pop up tool tip box opens d
4. 0000 POR 678 0000 QRS 789 1000 RST 890 1000 STU 901 1000 TUW 012 a ps ps pes ps q pes ps ps ps pa ps ps ps ps ps ps ps QD DDDDOIDIDDIDDIIDIDDIDIIDrtUDIUtIr Ir Fig 49 Editing a Library File in Windows Notepad 6 4 3 Sample Description Use this command to read edit or enter a sample Sample Description description for the displayed spectrum Fig 50 The description can be up to 128 characters in length and automatically accompanies the spec trum when it is subsequently copied or saved Enter a description of the data Hydrogen background at 8 10E 8 torr E Sie OK Cancel to a file The description also appears in the Title Lok _ Cancel Bar when the spectrum file is opened Fig 50 Sample Description Entry 6 5 ROI A region of interest ROI is a way to denote channels or groups ROI of channels as having special meaning Channels marked as ROI Recall ROL channels are displayed graphically in a different color than the Save ROI As unmarked channels ROIs are only available in buffer mode so Mark ROI insert the ROI menu is gray inactive when MCS mode is selected UnmarkROI Delete ROIs are typically used to integrate the area under a spectrum Unmark All ROIs peak The ROI menu is shown in Fig 51 Fig 51 ROI Menu 58 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS 6 5 1 Recall ROI Recall ROI opens the dialog shown gt in Fig 52 Select the desired file and Lookin E User e e ae
5. 30 1024M Display Start Channel 0 to Pass Length 5 Display Number of Channels 4 to Pass Length Reserved Discriminator Select 0 2 SCA otherwise Disc Discriminator Edge 0 Falling else Rising Discriminator Voltage Floating Point in Volts SCA Upper Level Voltage Float Pt in Volts SCA Lower Level Voltage Float Pt in Volts Dwell Time Floating Point relative to Dwell Units in Byte 4 Settings Consistent Flag non zero consistent O settings were changed between start of acquisition and saving of data Reserved Calibration coefficient 2 quadratic term floating point Calibration coefficient 3 cubic term floating point MCS ID string 8 characters 0914 001 from SHOW VERSION command of MCS unit The next part of the file contains the spectrum stored as 32 bit integers The number of integers is the pass length in channels See byte 10 in the header The data are written to the disk in groups of 512 channels Therefore the file may contain up to 2044 bytes of meaningless data at the end If the pass length is a multiple of 512 there will be no extra data at the end of the data records If ROI information is saved with the data an ROI record will be present immediately after the last block of spectral data after the meaningless data if the pass length is not a multiple of 512 The ROI record is identical to the ROI file described in the following section 102 931054C 1213 APPENDIX C FIL
6. 6 6 9 3 Full View Points Fill ROI e Fill All Wrap Mode y Full View v Graticules v Toolbar Colors Fig 55 Display Preferences Fig 56 Comparison of the Points Fill ROI and Fill All Display Modes This function displays or hides the Full Display Window When the Full Display Window is off more of the Expanded Display Window is visible and the screen updates more quickly How ever the ability to rapidly move from one part of the spectrum to another without increasing the number of channels in the horizontal scale using Narrower is lost 62 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS 6 6 9 4 Graticules This command displays or hides the grid Horz 10 0000 amu per Tick Vert Decade counts per Tick marks for the Expanded Display Window Ready When the graticules are displayed a check mark appears beside the menu item This Fig 57 Graticule Spacing Information command is duplicated by the Graticules button on the Toolbar While the graticules are displayed their spacing is defined at the bottom of the screen as spacing per tick see Fig 57 The spacing units can be counts on the vertical scale and time channels or calibrated units on the horizontal scale 6 6 9 5 Toolbar This displays and hides the Toolbar When the Toolbar is hidden the spectrum windows are larger but the controls the bar provides are not available except for those duplicated on the menus and Sidebar 6 6 9 6 Colors
7. 116 146 To start acquisition in the selected MCS click the Start button de LE Start will then turn gray indicating that it is now inactive E ENSE Dwel 5 00000 ns Click the Stop button to end data acquisition When you click Gem Stop acquisition stops at the end of the current pass While this final pass is collected the Stop button flashes Once the final Device select pass is completed the Stop button stops flashing a dede To You can abort the acquisition without finishing the current pass Ease by clicking Stop a second time When the selected MCS is not Horiz 4 992 4l 4 acquiring data Stop is gray inactive Vet Loa X Log C Lin The Start and Stop buttons have the same function as Acquire aum Start and Acquire Stop see Section 6 2 and are duplicated by the Alt 1 gt and Alt 2 accelerators respectively ORTEC 1 14 2011 The Clear button clears the spectrum data and pass count from 4 35 12 PM the buffer or the selected MCS To clear an inactive MCS click Fig 15 Sidebar once on Clear During acquisition the Clear button is gray inactive The Clear button has the same functions as Acquire Clear Section 6 2 3 and the Alt 3 gt accelerator 5 6 2 View Section The controls in the View lower section of the sidebar are active in both MCS and buffer mode The Horiz and Vert arrow buttons are for scaling the expanded display up and down by factors of two These buttons duplicate res
8. E click on Open E Sample Roi This command sets the ROIs in the buffer to conform to the table in the file created by Save ROI As The data contents of the buffer are not changed by this operation only the ile name Peak Roi ss S ROI bits If the Unmark All check Peak A box on the dialog is marked the pre Files of type ROI Files y Cancel vious ROIs in the buffer are cleared Description 16 bit ROI Settings file Unmark Alk v 6 5 2 Save ROI As Fig 52 Load ROI Information from ROI File This command opens a standard file save dialog so you can save the ROI information in the current spectrum The contents of the spectrum are not changed The default and recommended file extension is ROI 6 5 3 Mark ROI Mark ROI sets an ROI in the region currently selected by the marker To select a region click and hold on one edge of the region drag the mouse to the other edge of the region and release the left button This command is duplicated by the Insert and Keypad lt Ins gt keys and by the Mark ROI button on the Toolbar 6 5 4 Unmark ROI Unmark ROI clears all ROIs in the region currently selected by the marker This command is duplicated by the Delete and Keypad Del keys and by the Clear ROI button on the Toolbar 6 5 5 Unmark All ROIs Unmark All ROIs unmarks all the ROIs in the spectrum The spectral data are not affected 59 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and
9. MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 951054C 1213 6 6 Display Figure 53 shows the Display menu These commands are available in both buffer and MCS mode MCS Buffer F4 or Alt 6 Select MCS Ctrl Fn 6 6 1 MCS Buffer la ax Taller F6 or Up Arrow This function switches the source of the spectrum and Shorter FS or Dn Arrow Status Sidebar display between the MCS and buffer The Automatic Keypad Logarithmic Keypad source of the displayed spectrum MCS or buffer is shown by the radio buttons on the Sidebar The sidebar Marower FF orkevpadt j also shows the corresponding descriptors and presets Wider F8 or Keypad The horizontal and vertical scales remain the same in Center Keypad 5 both views This function is duplicated by the lt Alt 6 gt and lt F4 gt accelerators and the MCS gt Buffer button on the Toolbar Preferences Fig 53 Display Menu 6 6 2 Select MCS Use this dialog Fig 54 to select an MCS from Select MCS the current configuration for display Click the M appropriate MCS then click OK MCS pci SMITH Easy MCS on Panel 2 You can also select an MCS with lt Ctrl F1 gt for MCS 1 lt Ctrl F2 gt for MCS 2 and so on through lt Ctrl F8 gt or by clicking the MCS radio button on the Sidebar then click Cancel ing the up down buttons beside it Fig 54 MCS Pick List Note that although the instrument configura tion program locates all ORTEC
10. Net 129 130 656667 Cnts 16 0000 amu 180230 amu Cnt 52 The centroid is calculated by taking the 18 39 Dati Into Results first moment of the selected data after a linear background is subtracted from the data The background is calculated by averaging the last three channels of the region on each side of the region as end points of a straight line fit The background is calculated from the mid point of the three points used in the average If the region is less than 6 channels wide or the net counts 1s zero the calculated centroid will be the first moment of the selected data without subtracting the background 6 3 3 Sum This command sums all of the data values in the spectrum and reports the value on the Supple mentary Information Line If the MCS is acquiring data at the time the Sum command is issued an approximate sum is reported 50 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS 6 3 4 Smooth The Smooth function transforms the data in the buffer according to a five point area preserv ing binomial smoothing algorithm That is the existing data are replaced channel by channel with the smoothed data as follows S 0 40 60 40 0 16 where S the smoothed data in channel i O the original data in channel i After S is calculated it is rounded off to the closest integer 6 3 5 Strip When Strip is selected the dialog shown in Fig 40 opens prompting Lookin Gus sjefekEM you
11. Output 5 z ini connectors However for those special applications SCA Input P rune that require a custom cable the connector pin outs are Gate Input d Ceia 3 Q9 shown in Fig 60 Ground Ramp Output Fig 60 Pin Outs A 3 Electrical and Mechanical Dimensions 3 5cmH x 13 4 cm W x 20 5 cm D 1 4 in x 5 3 in x 8 1 in Weight 0 52 kg 1 13 Ib Operating Temperature 0 C to 50 C 32 F to 122 F 10 to 90 relative humidity non condensing 92 931054C 1213 APPENDIX A SPECIFICATIONS CE Conforms to CE standards for radiated and conducted emissions susceptibility and low voltage power directives A 4 Computer Controls and Indicators The following controls and indicators are provided by the MCS 32 operating software A 4 1 Sidebar Controls The Sidebar feature 6 in Fig 10 contains controls for data acquisition and spectrum viewing Data Acquisition Controls Start Displayed button starts data acquisition in synchronization with the next internal clock pulse Stop A single click on the displayed button stops data acquisition at the end of the current pass A second click stops data acquisition immediately Clear Displayed button clears the data and the pass count for the spectrum currently being viewed Buffer or MCS memory Pass Displays the number of the current pass or scan 1 to 4 294 967 295 Preset Displays the preset pass number that will terminate data acquisition Channel Displays
12. V in 1 5 mV steps minimum pulse amplitude 30 mV Triggering selectable for either positive or negative slopes on the fast analog signal IN connector The external channel advance input triggers only on a positive slope SCA IN Thresholds Upper and lower thresholds independently selectable via the computer from 0 V to 10 V with 12 bit resolution Dwell Time e Internal Clock Dwell time per channel is computer selectable from the following ranges with accuracy within 100 ppm over the operating temperature range 100 ns to 1 3 ms in 20 ns steps 1 3 ms to 1 3 s in 20 us steps 1 3 s to 1300 s in 20 ms steps e External Clock Input The external channel advance input CHN ADV IN determines the dwell time The minimum external dwell time is 100 ns per channel Channel Width Uniformity Systematic dwell time variations over the entire pass length are 0 146 for the worst case of 100 ns dwell time Pass Length The number of time bins channels in a single pass is computer selectable from 4 to 65 536 Pass Preset The instrument can be programmed to stop data acquisition after a preset number of scans The Pass Preset can be selected from 1 to 4 294 967 295 or turned OFF Memory Capacity 1 073 741 823 counts channel 30 bits Acquisition Modes e Sum The data set from each pass is added to the sum of the data sets from the previous passes e Replace The data set from the current pass replaces the data set from the previous pass 91 Ea
13. ane RAR NE Ene Bik SORA el viii I INTRODUCTION A ah edite ras 1 Ah BasysNIC S Eeabutes 53 SA TS ASS SAA AAA 1 1 2 Host Computer and Software Requirements oo oooccooocooncocoocr eee eee 2 1 3 What is a Multichannel Scaler E e CER OR e tae tor 2 1 4 A Closer Look at the Basy MCS eee cece eee e hh 3 Ze FHE EAS EME uses a cud x d Rer PUN A UE qst d Re eg Peer eon qi pio A era ae 7 2L Front PANE soe eu Ru nates ee we ce hei EI 1 Se Whee ES RE ASIE e eA Yes 7 ZA APIS AS E SS A SO IS eu nee 7 21 2 2 PUES A A E A ts 8 2 REAL PANEL A O 9 3 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INSTALLATION esseeeee ne 11 3 1 Install the CONNECTIONS Driver Update c vae ee ce Pee mere ee ERN 11 3 2 Install the MCS 32 Software cuotas EORR PERSE e Eds 11 3 3 Connect the Easy MCS to the Computer riores Ee ad R ds 11 3 4 Run the MCS Configuration Program to Build the List of Available MCS Units 12 3 4 1 Customizing the Master MCS List 0 eee eee 12 3 5 Attaching More Than One Easy MCS to the Computer oooooccoooocooo ooo 13 3 5 1 Connecting to and Disconnecting from the Computer 13 4 GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL eseeeee III 15 4 1 Preparing To Acquire Data s cce x xnbegr o PES Ae 15 2 2 collecting Data bx tek ees ES RAPERE CE pda piden adds ded 17 4 3 Saving and Retrieving Your Data save Us SEE IE Eie EE 21 4 4 Aborting Data Acquisition in MCS 32 0 0 0 ccc e
14. by numeric parameter values The header consists of a verb a verb and noun separated by an underscore or a verb noun and modifier each separated by underscores When composing commands the first four letters of any word are always sufficient to uniquely identify the word For example ENABLE DISCRI MINATOR can be abbreviated to ENAB DISC Numeric parameters are either unsigned integers or signed floating point numbers and follow the command header separated by one or more spaces Some commands require multiple para meters separated by commas to specify numeric quantities such as pass length or dwell time For example the command SET RAMP 0 10 0 has three parameters 0 10 and 0 which set the ramp to a full scale triangle Some parameters listed in the command dictionary are optional and are distinguished from man datory parameters by being surrounded by brackets e g SHOW INTEGRAL start length Commands with optional parameters can be sent to the MCB without the optional parameters in which case the instrument behavior is explained in the command description D 2 Error Codes Upon each completion of a command the MCB returns a macro error code and micro error code The macro error code represents the general class of error with 0 meaning no error and the micro error code represents the sub class of error with 0 meaning no error In case of error con dition you can use MIOGetLastError DLL interface or GetErrMajor GetErrM
15. click and drag the marker over the range of channels to be swept and click the Set Range button The Full Button returns the range to 10 V The Stop Button stops acquisition The Start Button restarts the acquisition and Clear Data clears the data The Cancel Button can be used to exit the SCA sweep mode and return the SCA settings to their original values 6 3 Calculate The Calculate menu is shown in Fig 37 These commands functions are available in both MCS and buffer mode 6 3 1 Settings Settings opens the dialog shown in Fig 38 which allows you to set the sensitivity of the algorithm used in Peak Search Duringa peak search suspected peaks in a spectrum must pass a sensitivity test to be accepted This test compares the magni tude of the smoothed second difference with the weighted error to be accepted The peak search sensitivity is a multiplicative factor in the weighting factor Use the Peak Search Sensitivity slider to set the sensiti vity to a value between 1 and 200 A value of 1 is the most sensitive 1 e finds more peaks and 200 is the least sen sitive 1 e fewer peaks will be found Click and drag the slider to the setting you want To make finer adjustments click the slider bar to activate it then use the 1 1 keys Click OK to activate the new settings Calculate Settings Data Info Dbl Clk Sum Smooth Strip Subtract Normalize Marker Alt M Peak Search Calib
16. events internal trigger mode or an external trigger for the events can start the scan external trigger mode e Internal Trigger Mode The Start Output signal is 160 ns wide positive TTL produced in synchronization with the start of a scan This output can be used to trigger the external events For example this signal can trigger a laser whose output light pulse is used to excite phosphorescence in a sample The decaying counting rate of photons emitted by the sample after each laser pulse is counted by the Easy MCS For measurements requiring analog control of a parameter e g M ssbauer experiments Easy MCS provides a Ramp Output voltage proportional to the channel number in the scan The ramp can be operated with either a sawtooth pattern or a triangular waveform In the sawtooth mode the ramp voltage varies linearly from the beginning voltage to the ending voltage as the scan progresses At the end of the scan the voltage abruptly changes back to the beginning voltage With the triangular pattern the ramp voltage changes linearly from the beginning voltage to the mid point voltage during the first half of the scan During the second half of the scan it makes another linear transition from the mid point voltage to the ending voltage AII three voltages Begin Mid and End are adjustable via the computer from 0 to 10 V in 65 536 steps For precise repeatability 931054C 1213 1 INTRODUCTION the ramp profile is stored as a digi
17. first time the question marks appear Spaces should be included only in the text and not in the filename Filenames with spaces cannot easily be used by DOS commands The following is an example SET MCS 1 SET PRESET PASS 20 LOOP 3 SET MCS 1 CLEAR START WAIT FILL_BUFFER SEIL MCS 0 SAVE TEST MCS END LOOP The above commands run three 20 pass acquisitions and store the data on a disk in TESTOO1 MCS TESTOO2 MCS and TEST003 MCS 80 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES NORMALIZE Normalizes the data in the buffer by dividing the data in each channel by the pass count If the buffer is not selected this command fails This command has the same function as Normalize in the Calculate menu PRINT DATA D Path File Rpt or PRN 0 1 Executes the Print command under the File menu The output can be printed to the printer PRN or saved to a disk file which can be used by other programs or printed later Any valid filename including the drive and subdirectory can be used If the drive and subdirec tory are omitted the last subdirectory used for report files is the default If a file extension is not provided the default extension Rpt is appended to File The loop count value may be used in the file name by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces the in the file name An optional argument is provided to enable or disable the Data Only
18. for a filename and Stripping pres Factor The strip file should be a YH InternalClockTest Mcs valid MCS file containing the same YEEMCS_01 Mcs number of channels as the buffer Once you select a file and click YE Sample Mcs OK MCS 32 strips the specified disk spectrum from the spectrum in the buffer and stores the result in a the buffer Files of type Spectra Cancel Stripping Factor The Stripping Factor is a real Factor by which file data will be multiplied before being subtracted from M spectrum in memory number that is multiplied channel 1 0000 B S EE by channel by the disk spectrum before being subtracted from the Hydrogen background at 8 x 10E 8 torr buffer This factor can be negative Fig 40 Choose a Stripping File and Stripping Factor in which case the spectra are added If the Use Pass Count Ratio box in the file recall dialog is marked the strip factor is calculated as the ratio of the pass count of the buffer spectrum to the pass count of the disk spectrum The pass count is not changed by any strip operation 51 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 951054C 1213 6 3 6 Subtract The Subtract function Fig 41 subtracts a constant from each channel in the buffer This func tion is useful if small peaks are present on a large constant background The background can be subtracted off to get a better look at the peaks 6 3 7 Normalize The Normalize function tra
19. gt Clear the ROL lt Shift 1 gt Shift the Compare spectrum upwards Shift 1 Shift the Compare spectrum downwards Alt 1 Start acquisition in selected MCS Alt 2 Stop acquisition in selected MCS Alt 3 Clear data and descriptors for the selected MCS Alt 5 Copy data in the selected MCS to the buffer Alt 6 or F4 Switch between displaying selected MCS and buffer lt PrintScreen gt Capture screen to Windows Clipboard 66 7 KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS 931054C 1213 yead ueiqi 1341y JX9N gt yead Je 1q1 12M0 JX9N gt s i 3uBu au 03 sjauueYo ye E umop uingj2eds 3VdlWoo 3 Ya 24 0 sjeuueuo ALEJA S IO3 13461 3xeN 9 Jeuousit IOJ 190 JX9N 9 jeuueuo 1euiu yxanle dn unj2eds 34vdWoo S jeuueuo Jamo JX9N gt Joe Li IOS EIN su IOJ 42919 19d 19 ua9 9 J9pIM J8MOJIEN sa NL E LESSE SI INT SE SEN qun Jenuejy s e sojny x I 7 N dup OUR oci septi tilda Y APP qu las SOW 18319 19118194 dois Jouous sd ues 3uBui uea15s yyp9 p dunp ugbBd Ya uea15s uyp9 L dunp dnbd ug SOW 12eles zy o1 1 4 19 S UV UV Z HV VL UV Fig 59 MCS 32 Keyboard and Keypad Accelerators 67 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 If the horizontal scale is expanded when the marker reaches the edge of the spectrum window the next key press past the edge shifts the window to the next block of
20. in MCS mode Ramp Control and Adjust Live Input are not available in buffer mode These functions belong to the Acquire menu and are discussed in detail in Section 6 2 5 5 Buttons and Checkboxes This section describes the MCS 32 radio buttons arrow buttons and checkboxes To activate a button or checkbox just click it Radio buttons Fig 13 allow you to select only one of the choices The arrow buttons in the lower section of the Sidebar are for scrolling through the list of available MCS instruments and adjusting the expanded display s horizontal and vertical scaling Checkboxes Fig 14 allow you to choose one or more of the options at the same time View Include MOSH at Colors Display M Hardware Iv Calibration I C Buffer Horiz 15 KIK Fig 14 Checkboxes Vert 1268K z e Fig 13 Arrow Buttons 5 6 The Sidebar Figure 15 shows the Sidebar 5 6 1 Acquisition Section The Acquisition top section of the Sidebar is activated when MCS 32 is in MCS mode and displays the pass pass count preset channel pass length and dwell time settings for the selected MCS In buffer mode the Acquisition fields show the presets for the current buffer or MCS contents and except for the Clear button are inactive or read only 30 931054C 1213 5 DISPLAY FEATURES The Start and Stop radio buttons provide controls for the data Acquisition acquisition functions as well as status information 3 2 Pass
21. in the brackets then releasing both keys simultaneously Functions that use the keypad keys begin with the word Keypad e g Keypad lt 5 gt As usual for any Windows application the menus are accessed by clicking them with the mouse or by using the Alt key plus the key that matches the underlined letter in the menu item name For example the multi key combination to activate the File menu is Alt F gt Note that the MCS 32 accelerator keys do not interfere with Windows menu operations or task switching For example when a menu is active 1 e pulled down the 2 and lt 1 gt lt gt keys revert to their normal Windows functions of moving across the menu bar and scrolling up down within a menu respectively As soon as the menu is closed they behave as MCS 32 accelerators again 7 2 Marker and Display Function Keys 7 2 1 Next Previous Channel lt gt gt lt gt The right and left arrow keys move the marker by one displayed pixel in the corresponding direction This may represent a jump of more than one spectral data memory channel especially if the horizontal scale in channels is larger than the width in pixels of the window see the discussion in Section 5 2 65 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Table 1 Quick Reference to MCS 32 Keyboard Commands Key Function I or F5 Increase the vertical scale so peaks appear smaller 1 or F6 Decrease the
22. is calibrated both calibrated and channel values are given for 1 6 above and in addition the following is also included 38 e The best match from the library Corrected net area of the peak using the factor supplied in the library ACQ 01 20 88 at 11 52 12 10 mS Dwell 10 Pass es Mass Spectrometer SN 123 MENNEO1 MCS with calibration and library Range 121 241 408 amu to 135 269 414 amu Gross 534209 Net 127924 Centroid 129 150 257 711 amu ID XYZ 138 at 258 411 amu Adjusted Net 406107 5 Range 200 399 44 amu to 212 423 444 amu Gross 493232 Net 118381 3 Centroid 206 129 411 7 amu ID ABC 198 at 411 8044 amu Adjusted Net 123945 3 Range 300 599 479 amu to 311 621 483 amu Gross 498328 Net 117078 Centroid 305 325 610 13 amu ID RST 103 at 610 33 amu Adjusted Net 2075851 Range 354 707 5 amu to 366 731 505 amu Gross 535655 Net 127914 3 Centroid 360 453 720 409 amu ID ABX 126 at 720 5 amu Adjusted Net 237754 4 Fig 22 Example Spectrum Report Paragraph Format 6 MENU COMMANDS 931054C 1213 vY YSLLEC TS8SL0Z SP6ECT S LOT90F 39N pv nue 005 0ZL nue 0 oro nue v08 IIFT nue TIP 8SC 9ZT Xgav OT Lsa 86T DEWY 8ET ZAX AzreAqTI nue 60H 0ZL nue Q T OT9 nue 00L TT nue TTL LSZ ptozquep TPIG6LCI SS9St S 8LOLTT 8ct 86FT T8t 8TI ceceorv vZ6LZT 60cTt S 3eN Sso1s5 SOS TEL 87 T79 AAA VIP 692 oL 005
23. next Set the dwell threshold voltage to a value 44 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS between 1 6 V to 3 0 V inclusive Typically the threshold voltage should be set halfway between the upper and lower amplitude limits of the signal provided to the Channel Advance input The Acq Mode radio buttons determine how new data is collected e Sum The current pass data are added to data from previous passes e Replace The current pass data replace the data from previous passes e Rep Sum The first pass replaces any current data then the remaining passes are summed The Trigger radio buttons determine how passes are started e Internal The first pass begins immediately when the Start command is issued When a pass completes the next pass starts immediately with no dead time e External A pass does not start until the appropriate signal is applied to the START input on the front panel of the MCS After a pass completes the MCS unit stops and waits until another start signal occurs on the START input before beginning the next pass See Section 2 1 1 for timing details In general the External trigger is used to synchronize the MCS to the external hardware while the external hardware is synchronized to the MCS by selecting the Internal trigger See Sections 2 1 1 and 2 1 2 The current Pass Count Preset and Dwell Time for the selected MCS are shown on the Sidebar These values are not affected while you enter the va
24. reading in an ROI file This ROI file has been previously defined by looking at the spectrum and marking the peak or the region around the peak These ROI data are saved on the disk under the name PEAK ROI This JOB file will work on different peaks just by changing the ROI file RECALL ROI PEAK ROI The peak areas of the marked peak or peaks is printed on the printer by this command REPORT PRN This gives a list of the peak areas for the marked peak If the library LIB MCS has a peak near this peak the peak identity will also be printed The set of instructions as written so far will only collect data and report once There are two ways to make the process repeat itself for a series of samples The first and hardest is to write one set of the above instructions for every sample in the series A much more efficient way is to use the LOOP command To use this put LOOP before CLEAR and END LOOP after REPORT The whole JOB file now looks like this SEI MCS 1 SET DWELL TIME 1e 6 SET PASS LENGTH 7500 74 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES SET PRESET PASS 1000 LOOP 10 CLEAR START WAIT FILL_BUFFER SET_ZMES D RECALL_ROI PEAK ROI REPORT PRN SET_ZMES 1 END_LOOP Note that an additional SET_MCS 1 has been inserted after REPORT so the loop will operate on the desired MCS This file is included on the MCS 32 CD ROM under the name SAMPLE JOB If a typical instal lation was performed this file will be located in c
25. that may have been left over from a previous experiment You are now ready to get started with your first acquisition However before starting an acquisition you must set the pass and input control parameters 15 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 D 2 3 16 MCS 32 Easy MCS on Panel 2 File Acquire Calculate Services ROI Display Help sl ali yale alale aja eri Acquisition Stat C 5i Pass 265432 Preset OFF Chane 0 Passlen 1000 Dwell 100 000 ns Clear Device select mes 1 4 C Buffer Graph settings Hoiz 4 4 4 Vet 24 x Log Lin Auto 9 DRTEC 1 14 2011 4 45 45 PM 0 0000 us 0 0000 ps Ent 0 Horz 0 0400 ps per Tick Vert 200 000 counts per Tick Fig 5 The MCS 32 Screen Select Pass Control from the Acquire menu To set the pass control parameters click the Acquire menu at the top of the screen and select Pass Control This will open the Pass Control dialog shown in Fig 6 Set the Pass Length to 1000 Assume that 1000 channels of data are required To set the Pass Length to 1000 double click the current value to highlight it or click and drag across it until it is highlighted Type 1000 this will overwrite the previous value but don t click OK yet Set The Pass Count Preset to 1 Use the same procedure as was used for Pass Length Double click the current value an
26. that may take on values from 0 to 10 If an invalid value is specified the MCS rounds off to the nearest legal value This command performs the same function as the Lower slide bar on the Input Control dialog Acquire Input Control This command fails if the buffer is selected SET SCA UPPER lt f gt Sets the SCA upper level discriminator voltage to f volts f is a floating point number that may take on values from 0 to 10 If an invalid value is specified the MCS rounds off to the nearest legal value This command performs the same function as the Upper SCA slide bar on the Input Control dialog Acquire Input Control This command fails if the buffer is selected SET TRIGGER n Sets the trigger to Internal if n is 0 and to External if n is not 0 This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data SMOOTH Smooths the data in the buffer using a five point area preserving binomial smoothing algo rithm Its function is the same as Smooth under the Calculate menu The original contents of the buffer are lost This command fails if the buffer is not selected START Initiates data collection in the selected MCS This function is the same as Start under the Acquire menu This command fails if the buffer is selected STOP Stops data collection in the selected MCS at the end of the current pass To stop before the end of the current pass issue this command twice If the MCS has already been sto
27. the channel number into which counts are currently accumulating starting with channel 0 Pass Length Displays the number of channels selected for the pass length Dwell Displays the selected dwell time per channel Spectrum Display Controls MCS Selects the number of the MCS for viewing the spectrum in that unit s memory either during or after an acquisition The software supports up to 8 units of the Easy MCS in one computer Buffer Displayed button selects the buffer memory in the computer for viewing the previous spectrum while the MCS is collecting the next spectrum 93 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e Horiz Indicates the number of channels viewed in the larger expanded spectrum and the width of the window in the small full scale spectrum display Displayed arrow buttons permit expansion or contraction e Vert Indicates the maximum number of counts in the vertical scale currently selected for the large expanded spectrum Displayed arrow buttons permit scale changes e Log Displayed button selects a logarithmic vertical scale for the large expanded display e Lin Displayed button selects a linear vertical scale for the large expanded display e Auto Displayed button automatically adjusts the vertical scale and centers the window around the marker in the large display for optimum viewing of the spectrum e Marker The vertical line can be dragged left or right in the displ
28. the channels to be printed Comment Pint to fle highlight the region by clicking and drag ging the mouse from one edge of the _ Cancel region to the other edge Fig 20 Print Spectrum Use the Print dialog Fig 20 to print the output or save it in a disk file click Print to file to mark it 6 1 4 Report The Report function creates a report ROI Report describing acquisition conditions and Printer contents of all ROIs and sends this to Name Adobe PDF Properties a text file and or the printer in one of Sexo HERE two output formats Paragraph or Type Adobe PDF Converter Column Where My Documents Comment Print to file The ROI Report dialog shown in jg Paragraph C Col DK Cancel Fig 21 opens first If you check naui ux EET gu Print to file a file save dialog opens Fig 21 ROI Report Dialog prompting for a filename Enter a name and click OK Examples of the Paragraph and Column style reports are shown in Figs 22 and 23 respec tively Both report formats supply the same information If the spectrum is not calibrated the following are reported for each ROI ROI number 1 is lowest Start channel of the ROI Stop channel of the ROI Gross area of the peak Net area of the peak as calculated in Calculate Data Info Centroid channel of peak as calculated in Calculate Data Info 37 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 If the spectrum
29. the spectrum is not properly calibrated for reaching further entries with the marker In any case if an appropriate peak is available at the location of the marker data on the peak are displayed on the Marker Information Line These functions are duplicated by the Library indexing buttons on the Sidebar 7 2 5 First Last Channel lt Home gt lt End gt These keys move the marker to the first or last channel of the spectrum 7 2 6 Jump 1 64 Screen Width lt PageDown gt lt PageUp gt lt PageDown gt and lt PageUp gt jump the marker position to the left to lower channel numbers or right to higher channel numbers respectively 1 64 of the window width regardless of the horizontal scale The status of the ROI bit is not altered when the marker is moved with these keys that is the mark unmark state is ignored The marker channel contents and Marker Infor mation Line are continuously updated as the marker jumps so when the jump is complete the marker information is up to date for the current channel 68 931054C 1213 7 KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS 7 2 7 Insert ROI Insert or Keypad lt Ins gt These keys mark a selected set of spectrum channels as an ROI To select the channels to be marked highlight the region by clicking and dragging the mouse from one edge of the region to the other edge These accelerators duplicate the function of the Mark ROI Toolbar button and the ROI Mark ROI command see Section 6 5 3 7 2 8 Unmark R
30. 000 lt CR gt Upper level report as 0 V ULSCA 00000 002441 lt CR gt Upper level report as 2 441 mV 117 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 ULSCA 00009 997559 CR Upper level report as 9 997559 V ULSCA 000000000010 lt CR gt Upper level report as 10 V SHOW VERSION Reports the Easy MCS firmware version number in the form Fmmmmm vvv CR where mmmmm is a 4 character model designator and vvv is a 3 character version designator Example Responses EZMS 002CR gt Easy MCS firmware version 2 START seg mask Starts the acquisition of data The optional segment mask may be any value from 0 to 65535 but is ignored If external start is enabled see ENABLE TRIGGER the first scan will start on the first external start input after the START command is issued see Section 2 1 1 for hardware details If external start is disabled the first scan starts immediately after the start command is issued STOP seg mask Stops the acquisition of data at the end of the current pass The optional segment mask may be any value from 0 to 65535 but is ignored When the STOP command is issued the acquisition will not stop until the end of the current scan Use the SHOW ACTIVE command to deter mine when the acquisition actually stops If you wish to stop the acquisition without com pleting the current scan use the STOP command twice VERIFY DWELL value step Used to determine the valid dwell time se
31. 2 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 More Analysis Options Further software features allow you to compare two spectra subtract or add two spectra nor malize the vertical scale subtract a flat background or smooth statistical fluctuations Also available is a routine that automatically finds each peak in a spectrum and marks it with an ROI The centroids gross counts and net counts from all the ROIs in a spectrum can be printed either with or without library matching If the computer has been asked for a match to a user defined library of peak locations the library information will be printed along with the matching ROI data In addition to the standard MCS file format spectra can be imported and exported as ASCII text Programmed Data Acquisition Some measurements require changes in the data acquisition conditions as different spectra are acquired The Start JOB command gives you an easy way to define a stream of job commands that varies the instrument settings and controls acquisition of multiple spectra The job stream can be simple or sophisticated Once the job stream is defined and imple mented data acquisition proceeds automatically under the job s control If you wish you can set up a job as an icon on your Windows desktop and run it with one click of the mouse Other software programs can activate the Easy MCS for a specific operation by calling the MCS 32 software with a JOB file name specified on the command line Altern
32. 3 9 Peak Search This function initiates a Mariscotti type peak search on the spectrum in the buffer This smoothed second derivative peak search algorithm is useful for peak widths in the range of 2 20 channels full width at half maximum FWHM The peak search sensitivity is set in Calculate Settings Each peak found is marked as an ROI Overlapping or close peaks may have contiguous ROIs Existing ROIs are cleared before the command executes This command is duplicated by the Peak Search button on the Toolbar The Report command see Section 6 1 4 can be used with Peak Search to produce a semi quantitative peak list for the spectrum 6 3 10 Calibrate The Calibrate command is used to establish a calibration for or remove a calibration from the spectrum such that channel numbers and peak parameters are reported in the specified units as well as time The calibration is stored with the spectrum when the Save Spectrum As command is exe cuted The calibration values are also saved in the default configuration settings that are loaded when MCS 32 is started so the calibration is automatically restored To calibrate a spectrum 1 Select Calibration This will open the Calibration Worksheet dialog shown in Fig 44 This dialog provides a place for entering up to 64 time or channel values and the calibration values that correspond to the times or channels By default time values are entered when the dwell is internal
33. 300sTest Mcs Y InternalClockTest Mcs YEEMCS_01 Mcs YEE Samplet Mcs Vi Sample1_rois Mcs YEE Sample Mcs Save as type Spectra Cancel Include ROls v Include View sition start time hardware and sample descriptions acquisition mode and calibration if any The MCS file structure is detailed in Appendix C Fig 19 Save Spectrum File Dialog The check boxes labeled Include View and Include ROIs determine whether or not the scaling and or ROI information will be saved in the file Click Save If the file already exists a message box opens asking you to verify the entry or cancel the operation Click OK to overwrite the existing file or click Cancel When you click Save a Sample Description dialog will open in which you can enter a short description of the file contents This is the sample description displayed at the bottom of the Recall Data dialog when a file is selected After the file has been written its filename is displayed on the Title Bar if MCS 32 is in buffer mode This command is duplicated by the Save Data As button on the Toolbar 36 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS 6 1 3 Print Data This command prints to the printer or a text ASCII file the contents of the chan Printer nels currently selected with the marker Name AdobePDF x Properties The data are formatted at seven channels Status Ready per line with the channel number on the ut OP ME left To select
34. CA See also SHOW LLSCA and VERIFY LLSCA Responses LLSCA 0000000000000 lt CR gt Lower level report as 0 V LLSCA 00000 0024414 lt CR gt Lower level report as 2 441 mV LLSCA 00009 9975586 lt CR gt Lower level report as 9 997559 V LLSCA 0000000000010 lt CR gt Lower level report as 10 V 114 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES SHOW MODE Responds with a record that indicates what type of acquisition the unit performs The Easy MCS always responds with EZMS SHOW PASS Returns the number of passes scans completed in the current acquisition See also SET PASS and CLEAR COUNTER When the pass count reaches 4294967295 the counter rolls over and starts back at zero Responses G0000000000075 lt CR gt Pass count reported as 0 G4294967294131 lt CR gt Pass count reported as 4 294 967 294 G4294967295132 lt CR gt Pass count reported as 4 294 967 295 maximum reportable value SHOW_PASS_LENGTH Returns the number of channels in the scan See also SET_PASS LENGTH Responses C00004091 lt CR gt Pass length is 4 channels minimum C00005092 lt CR gt Pass length is 5 channels C65535109 CR Pass length is 65535 channels maximum SHOW PASS PRESET Returns pass count preset setting If the returned value is zero then there is no pass preset See Also SET PASS PRESET and CLEAR PRESETS Responses G0000000000075 lt CR gt Pass count preset reported as 0 no preset G4294967294131 lt CR gt P
35. CONNECTIONS compatible instruments the Select MCS dialog shows only Easy MCS and legacy ORTEC MCS instruments 6 6 3 Time Units This command switches the expanded display between calibrated units and time units if the dwell time is known e g when running in internal dwell mode For external dwell times it switches between calibrated units and channels For example in internal dwell mode if the dwell time is 1 second and the pass length is 100 channels it will take 100 seconds for a single sweep each channel represents one second 60 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS If the spectrum is calibrated switching off the time units shows the display in calibrated units If the spectrum is uncalibrated switching off the time internal dwell or channel external dwell units does nothing since an uncalibrated spectrum is shown in time internal dwell or channels external dwell 6 6 4 Shorter Taller Shorter and Taller switch the spectrum display to a linear vertical scale and respectively increase or decrease the full scale value by a power of two In either case the current vertical full scale value is shown in the Vert field on the Sidebar Shorter and Taller are duplicated by the lt F5 gt lt F6 gt and lt gt lt 1 gt keys 6 6 5 Automatic Automatic is used to switch the spectrum window from a logarithmic vertical scale to a linear scale that is automatically adjusted until the largest peak shown is at 1ts maximum
36. CS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 CLEAR The channels of spectral data are set to zero The pass count is also set to zero This command is equivalent to the combination of CLEAR COUNTER and CLEAR DATA commands CLEAR ALL This command is equivalent to the combination of CLEAR COUNTER CLEAR DATA and CLEAR PRESETS commands CLEAR COUNTERS The pass count counter and the start time and date are set to zero CLEAR DATA The channels of spectral data are set to zero CLEAR PRESET The pass count preset is set to zero disabled DISABLE ACLEAR Disables the AutoClr function of the Easy MCS When disabled the acquisition mode is set to Sum mode See also ENABLE ACLEAR SHOW ACLEAR and ENABLE SUMMATION DISABLE DISCRIMINATOR Disables Discriminator input and enables the SCA input See also ENABLE DISCRIMI NATOR and SHOW DISCRIMINATOR DISABLE DWELL EXTERNAL Disables External Channel Advance signal and enables the internal dwell time clock Dwell time is set to the value it held before the ENAB DWELL EXT command was issued See also ENABLE DWELL EXTERNAL and SHOW DWELL EXTERNAL This command is invalid when acquisition is in progress DISABLE SUMMATION Places the MCS in replace mode In replace mode new data replaces the old data when a scan is made In sum mode new data is added to the old data when a new scan is made See also SHOW SUMMATION and ENABLE SUMMATION DISABLE TRIGGER Disables External Start signal and enab
37. D LOOP Spooling the report may take some time To overlap the data collection with the analysis the logic of the JOB file needs to be modified to restart the acquisition after the data have been moved to the buffer NOTE All of the analysis is performed on the buffer spectrum so the MCS spectrum can be erased and the next one started Insert CLEAR and START after FILL BUFFER as shown here SEI MCS 1 SET DWELL TIME 1e 6 SET PASS LENGTH 7500 SET PRESET PASS 1000 CLEAR START LOOP 10 WAIT FILL_BUFFER CLEAR START SET MCS O DESCRIBE SAMPLE This is sample SAVE PEAK MCS RECALL_ROI PEAK ROI REPORT PRN SET_MES 1 END LOOP 76 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES 8 1 2 The RUN Command The RUN command can be used to execute other programs For example if the system consists of a computer controlled filter changer and an Easy MCS you can write a program that triggers the filter changer to change the filter Following is an example of this type of JOB SET MCS 1 SET DWELL TIME 2e 6 SET PASS LENGTH 7500 SET PRESET PASS 1000 CLEAR START LOOP 10 WAIT FILL_BUFFER CLEAR RUN MOVEFILT EXE START SET MCS O DESCRIBE SAMPLE This is filter SAVE PEAK MCS RECALL ROI PEAK ROI REPORT PRN SEI MCS 1 END LOOP Now the filter is changed before each acquisition Note that when an EXE program is run the program starts but returns to the JOB before it exits This is usually undesirable For ins
38. Discriminator S you to adjust the discriminator or SCA levels while data collection is in progress This feature is useful in setting up the thresholds since the data responds immediately as the threshold is adjusted In contrast if you use the Input Control dialog to adjust the thresholds you must close that dialog before the adjustment takes effect Fig 34 Adjust Input Levels During Data Acquisition 6 2 9 SCA Sweep This command opens a dialog and sidebar that allow you to efficiently choose the optimum SCA settings An SCA window with a width of 19 5 mV between the upper and lower levels is swept from 0 to 10 V in 512 steps The Easy MCS records the number of counts that arrive during each setting The resulting histogram displays the pulse height spectrum presented at the SCA input 47 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 If the buffer contains unsaved data when you issue the SCA Sweep command a warning dialog Fig 35 opens To cancel the sweep without losing the buffer contents click No f Data in Easy MCS on Panel 2 and the Buffer will be lost Ok to Sweep SCA Input No Once the SCA Sweep dialog and sidebar open EM Fig 36 the Easy MCS continuously sweeps Fig 35 Warning that Buffer Contents Will Be the SCA discriminator voltage to create the Lost histogram Each sweep takes 5 to 20 seconds depending on the speed of the computer Click the Stop butto
39. E FORMATS C 2 ROI Files This file is created by the Save ROI As command and contains a list of the start and stop channels for the ROIs in the display The file contents are as follows Byte Byte Use Offset Length 0 2 Must be 2 2 2 Start channel number of first ROI 4 2 Stop channel number of first ROI s Continue for all ROIs in the display n 2 Start channel 1 is end of data The Start channel number of an ROI is the first channel starting with 0 that has the ROI set The Stop channel number is the first channel that does not have the ROI set 103 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 104 APPENDIX D FIRMWARE COMMANDS AND RESPONSES Communication with the Easy MCS consists of sending commands to receiving responses from the MCS through the CONNECTIONS software layer CONNECTIONS is used by all ORTEC soft ware and is available for other software development with our CONNECTIONS Programmer s Toolkit with Microsoft ActiveX Controls A11 B32 Use the DLL interface call MIOComm or the ActiveX control UCONN s Comm method to send commands to instruments and receive responses D 1 Command Format The commands consist of a command header that may be followed by numeric parameter values The header consists of a verb a verb and noun or a verb noun and modifier each separated by underscores Commands consist of a command header which may be followed
40. ET PASS LENGTH lt n gt Sets the pass length to n channels n can be any value from 4 to 65536 This command performs the same function as the Pass Length field in the Pass Control dialog Acquire Pass Control This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data SET PRESET PASS n Sets the pass preset to n passes n can be any value from 0 to 4 294 967 295 If O is specified there is no preset Performs the same function as the Pass Count Preset field in the Pass Control dialog Acquire Pass Control This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data SET RAMP lt f1 gt lt f2 gt lt f3 gt Sets the ramp parameters If all three values are specified a triangle ramp is selected Begin Mid End The three values then specify the ramp voltage in channel 0 lt f1 gt the middle channel of the pass lt f2 gt and the last channel lt f3 gt If lt f3 gt is omitted a sawtooth ramp is selected Begin End In that case lt f1 gt is the voltage at channel 0 and f2 is the voltage in the last channel See the Ramp Control dialog box Acquire Ramp Control for more information This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data 85 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 SET SCA LOWER lt f gt Sets the SCA lower level discriminator voltage to f volts f is a floating point number
41. Easy MCS advances from one channel to the next The pulse width is approximately 20 ns The output is short circuit protected and can drive impedances gt 50 Q SCA OUT A TTL output pulse for every SCA IN signal that occurs between the upper and lower discriminator thresholds The output rises from lt 0 4 V to gt 2 4 V as the SCA IN signal 8 931054C 1213 2 THE EASY MCS falls through the lower discriminator threshold The pulse width is nominally 250 ns The output is short circuit protected and can drive impedances gt 50 Q MIDPASS OUT This TTL output rises from 40 4 V to 242 4 V after half the channels in a pass have been scanned It returns to lt 0 4 V at the end of the pass If the number of channels in a pass is odd the MIDPASS OUT remains low for one more channel than it stays high The output is short circuit protected and can drive impedances gt 50 Q RAMP OUT Provides an analog voltage ramp from a digital to analog converter to drive external devices See Ramp Control for a description The output voltage range is computer adjustable from 0 V to 10 V with 16 bit resolution Minimum voltage step size is approxi mately 0 15 mV for any range Settling time is 2 us The output impedance is 100 Q short circuit protected 2 2 Rear Panel POWER INPUT The EASY MCA uses an ac dc adapter that connects to the instrument s 12 V DC connector USB High speed USB connector connects to the computer Easy MCS Multichanne
42. Easy MCS on TESTLAB1 MCS pci SMITH Cancel Easy MCS on Panel 2 Help Change Description or ID Renumber All Instrument Input System ID Close 121 1 RANDTPANEL2 5 Renumber New aie Cancel Description Fig 3 Change MCB Number or Description NOTE Remember that some applications use the instrument number to refer to a specific MCS or device e g the JOB file command SET_DETECTOR 5 Therefore you may wish to avoid changing an instrument s number so all defined processes will still operate You are now ready to run one instance of the MCS 32 software for each Easy MCS connected to your computer to a limit of 8 as described in the remainder of the manual 3 5 Attaching More Than One Easy MCS to the Computer Once the driver for one Easy MCS has been installed simply attach the new unit s toa USB port or powered hub on the computer You can attach as many as eight 8 Easy MCSs to a single computer REMINDER Be sure to run MCB Configuration every time you add new Easy MCSs or other ORTEC instruments to your system 3 5 1 Connecting to and Disconnecting from the Computer The USB connection allows you to connect Easy MCSs to and disconnect them from a USB port without shutting down the computer or USB hub If you disconnect the Easy MCS while the MCS 32 program is running simply close and reopen the MCS 32 program to re detect the instrument 13 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Soft
43. For external dwell you must enter channel numbers The Marker Informa tion Line is updated to display the marker position and display limits in the selected time units when the calibration dialog is displayed 2 Enter Time Channel values by typing the appropriate value into the Data Point section of the worksheet or by clicking the desired time or channel in the expanded display The chan nel number entered does not have to be an integer If you mark a set of channels and select M A Mariscotti A Method for Automatic Identification of Peaks in the Presence of Background and its Application to Spectrum Analysis Nuclear Instruments and Methods 50 309 320 1967 33 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 the Data Info command see Section 6 3 2 the calculated centroid will be entered in the calibration channel field 3 Once this value is displayed in the Time Channel field enter the calibration Value and units 4 Click the Enter button to add this calibration point to the MCS Calibration Table at the bottom of the Calibration Worksheet 5 Repeat this procedure for each calibration point The Polynomial group determines the calibration equation specify a Linear Quadratic or Cubic polynomial Two or more points are required for a linear fit a minimum of three points for a quadratic fit and four or more points for a cubic fit Calibration Worksheet 7 x W Calibration p
44. GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL You have now been introduced to the major aspects of acquiring viewing and analyzing data The next step is to save the data to disk 4 3 Saving and Retrieving Your Data 1 Savethe spectrum to disk e Select Save Data As from Save As the File menu This will open swn amp Que gt e mam the dialog shown in Fig 8 Dir 1300sTest Mcs H InternalClockTest Mcs e Name the file TUT1 To do Ihn 01 cs this type TUT1 in the File MA Sample1 ws d YE Samplet_rois Mcs name field then click the YE Sample Mcs Save button Your file TUT1 MCS will be saved in the default directory First E JI though the Sample Descrip Save as type Spectra y Cancel tion dialog will open so you can describe what s stored in the file You ll see this Fig 8 Save File TUT1 MCS description again when you retrieve the spectrum Include ROls v Include View e Enter Tutorial Data as the sample description Now it s time to retrieve your file 2 Switch to buffer mode e The buffer is simply a place where you can work with your data without tying up the MCS For example you can be running a long acquisition on the MCS and at the same time be analyzing old data in the buffer The buffer is completely separate and will retain any data you put there until you clear it overwrite it or exit the software e Click the Buffer radio button in the lower section of the sidebar The screen shoul
45. Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e Note that several things happened after you clicked on Start a The Start button was highlighted for an instant indicating that acquisition was taking place Since the dwell time was 1 us and the pass length was 1000 the acquisition lasted 1 us x 1000 or only 0 001 second b The Pass Count changed from 0 to 1 on the sidebar c No data were collected because there was no input You may have acquired a few counts if anything is connected to your instrument s DISC or SCA inputs e If you want to see it happen again click the Clear button Note that the Pass value changes from 1 to 0 Click Start again 2 The next step Select Input Control from the Acquire Menu Click the Acquire menu and select Input Control This will open the dialog shown in Fig 7 Input Control 3 Choose which input to use The Easy MCS has two different inputs a fast discriminator and a single channel Ll se analyzer SCA In general the fast dis Discriminator Los Rising Edge Falling Edge criminator is used to count pulses with C Ik Ohm fast edges lt 100 ns while the SCA is TUFITTTTY used to count slow positive pulses pulse indico widths from 0 5 us to 100 us For this 4 3 0V tutorial connect the Channel Advance output to the discriminator input so the Cancel discriminator will be used Fig 7 Input Control Dialog 4 Connect t
46. OI lt Delete gt or Keypad lt Del gt Delete and Keypad lt Del gt clear the ROI bits of all ROI channels contiguous to the channel containing the marker These accelerators duplicate the function of the Clear ROI button on the Toolbar and the ROI Unmark ROI command see Section 6 5 4 7 2 9 Taller Shorter lt t gt lt el gt The 1 and 1 keys decrease or increase the vertical full scale of the displayed spectrum so the peaks appear taller or shorter respectively The minimum is 16 counts full scale the maxi mum is 1024 million counts Each successive key press doubles or halves the full scale until the maximum or minimum is reached Whenever the maximum full scale value is reached the next lt 1 gt key press switches to logarithmic scale If the display is already in logarithmic scale the display switches to linear scale In either case the vertical full scale value is always shown on the Sidebar Note that if the number of counts exceeds the full scale value the data points will be displayed at the full scale value unless Wrap Mode has been selected see Section 6 6 9 2 These keys duplicate the lt F6 gt lt F5 gt keys 7 2 10 Shift Compare Spectrum lt Shift 1 gt lt Shift gt In Compare mode the Shift 1 gt or Shift 1 keys decrease or increase the vertical separa tion between the two spectra Each successive key press increases or decreases the separation by moving the spectrum read from disk The s
47. ORTEC Easy MCS with the MCS 32 A73 B32 Software for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows XP SP3 Hardware and Software User s Manual Software Version 2 2 Printed in U S A ORTEC Part No 931054 1213 Manual Revision C Advanced Measurement Technology Inc a k a ORTEC a subsidiary of AMETEK Inc WARRANTY ORTEC warrants that the items will be delivered free from defects in material or workmanship ORTEC makes no other warranties express or implied and specifically NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ORTEC s exclusive liability is limited to repairing or replacing at ORTEC s option items found by ORTEC to be defective in workmanship or materials within one year from the date of delivery ORTEC s liability on any claim of any kind including negligence loss or damages arising out of connected with or from the performance or breach thereof or from the manufacture sale delivery resale repair or use of any item or services covered by this agreement or purchase order shall in no case exceed the price allocable to the item or service furnished or any part thereof that gives rise to the claim In the event ORTEC fails to manufacture or deliver items called for in this agreement or purchase order ORTEC s exclusive liability and buyer s exclusive remedy shall be release of the buyer from the obligation to pay the purchase price In no event shall ORTEC be liable for special or consequential dam
48. S memory By design the MCS can accept multiple stop pulses in each scan The channel numbers in memory can be calibrated to read in terms of round trip flight time or in distance to the reflecting object Summing the spectra from multiple laser flashes improves the signal to noise ratio 1 4 A Closer Look at the Easy MCS An Abundant Choice of Time Ranges The Easy MCS employs a crystal controlled clock with 100 ppm accuracy and high speed digital electronics to achieve a wide range of accurate operating parameters With the dwell time per channel selectable from 100 ns to 1300 seconds and a scan length variable from 4 to 65 536 channels time scans can be selected ranging from 400 ns to 2 7 years No Dead Time Between Channels and Zero End of Pass Dead Time Easy MCS employs sophisticated digital circuits to eliminate the dead time between chan nels that is typically encountered in lower performance MCSs The result is absolutely no loss of counts and no double counting as the MCS advances from one time channel to the next Fast digital processing also ensures that there is no end of pass dead time before starting a new scan Versatile Counting Inputs Two different types of counting inputs make the Easy MCS adaptable to virtually any source of signals The fast analog signal input IN accommodates both analog and digital signals with pulse widths 23 5 ns and counting rates up to 150 MHz The input discriminator thresh old is computer adjusta
49. SPONSES SHOW_SEGMENT Always returns 1 on an Easy MCS Responses A001246 lt CR gt Segment 1 selected SHOW_SNUM Returns the serial number of the Easy MCS Responses F0022 The serial number of the current device 1s 22 SHOW_STATUS Returns system status information in the following format MXXXXXXXXXXY Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ZZZZZWWWWWCce where XXXXXXXXXxX is the pass count as returned by SHOW PASS command yyyyyyyyyy is the current channel as returned by SHOW CHANNEL Zzzzz is the active device mask as returned by SHOW ACTIVE wwwww is a status word with the following bits definitions 0 Acquisition is stopping at end of pass due to STOP and 1 Settings are consistent with data and ccc is the checksum SHOW SUMMATION Indicates whether the unit is in sum mode or replace mode If in sum mode new data are sum med with the old data when a scan is made If in replace mode new data replaces the old data when a new scan is made See also ENAB SUMMATION and DISABLE SUMMATION Responses FSUM lt CR gt New data is summed with old data FREP lt CR gt New data replaces old data SHOW_TRIGGER Reports if the external start signal is enabled or disabled See also ENABLE TRIGGER and DISABLE_TRIGGER Responses IF lt CR gt External start is disabled IT lt CR gt External start is enabled SHOW_ULSCA Returns the upper level threshold setting on the SCA See also SHOW_LLSCA and VERIFY_ULSCA Responses ULSCA 000000000
50. The Start Stop and MCS Buffer commands are active only in MCS mode Start e Stop Alt 2 Clear Alt 3 6 2 1 Start MCS gt Buffer Alt 5 The Start command initiates data collection in the selected Pass Control Alt P MCS You can also start the MCS with the Alt 1 gt accel input coniro Akii erator or by clicking the Start button on the Sidebar See Ramp Control At R Pass Control Section 6 2 5 for information on what takes Adjust Live Input place when you select Start SCA Sweep Fig 29 Acquire Menu 6 2 2 Stop Stop terminates data collection in the selected MCS The MCS can also be stopped with the lt Alt 2 gt accelerator or by clicking the Stop button on the Sidebar 43 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 If the MCS is not collecting data the Stop command is ignored If the MCS is collecting data the Stop command will stop acquisition after the current pass is completed The Stop button on the Sidebar flashes while this final sweep is completed If you then issue Stop a second time the current pass will terminate before completion 6 2 3 Clear Clear erases the spectral data and pass count This command will not operate on an active MCS You can also execute the Clear command with Alt 3 gt or by clicking the Clear button on the Sidebar 6 2 4 MCS gt Buffer This command transfers data and all pertinent information pass count pass length dwell
51. User Now select Services Job Control Click once on an existing JOB filename then click the Edit File button This will display the contents of that file in Windows Notepad You could overwrite the existing instructions with the above set of commands by saving the above commands to the JOB filename you just selected in the dialog Instead though save these new instructions to a new file named SAMPDATA JOB using the File Save As function do not use Save or the original file will be lost This new JOB file can then be executed in MCS 32 from the Services menu by selecting Job Control to display the Run JOB File dialog Select SAMPDATA JOB from the list of files and click Open 8 1 1 Improving the JOB This JOB file can be improved by adding a save step for each spectrum collected This is done by inserting the SAVE command in the JOB file The spectrum sample description is also entered here This sample description is saved with the spectrum and is printed by the REPORT command Note that the loop counter the in the JOB file text is used in the SAVE and DESCRIBE SAMPLE commands The new SAMPDATA JOB file is SET MCS 1 SET DWELL TIME 1e 6 SET PASS LENGTH 7500 SET PRESET PASS 1000 75 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 LOOP 10 CLEAR START WAIT FILL_BUFFER SET MCS 0 DESCRIBE SAMPLE This is sample SAVE PEAK MCS RECALL ROI PEAK ROI REPORT PRN SEI MCS 1 EN
52. _ULSCA 11 Response ULSCA 0000000000010 lt CR gt Closest legal value to 11 is 10 119 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 120 JOB see also Job sio orein iia 73 277 JOB loop counter o oo 75 Accelerator keys es vae m S rb 65 Keyboard Tap iau vd e ERR Rev 67 quick reference table 2o 66 FCG MOE er en 45 Acquire menu nr re 43 Adjust Live Input o o oooooo 47 AUTO button canina 32 o AA cbe EXEAT I Ev REN 46 Begin Mid End o o o 46 Calculate menu ae 49 Centroid ues v Ee WE eas So S EE EN 50 Clear ROI uscar xS er Rh 28 20 COMBINE 3e eben elisa 63 COMPARE 45e bu ARAS EO ER 63 Compare Data scort o Ee bein 40 Compare spectra cs rien 66 Configuration initial MCS configuration 12 Conector asignada eno 92 D ta cue y i AGUILAR So Se oie 50 Discriminator slope oo ooo oooooo 46 Discriminator voltage oo ooo ooo 46 Dwell time esca cttw es oh Se Rien 44 Exil oss ey passen Su ERRAT RS Ree 43 Expanded Display Window 27 File MENS PER 35 Full Display Window ooo oooooo o 27 sizing and moving esses 29 CITOSS ALCA fei ig spat y e SOR E Sok RP rat 50 Hardware Description oooooooooo o 58 Horizontal Scale sicot e RR Rev 61 Include ROIs 08 vcro G bun ok SCR 36 Include view sx sat eit ea oan Sha eee 36 Indexing Buttons LIB i
53. age returns specifying one peak per line in the following format lt Calibrated Value gt lt Name gt lt Factor gt where Calibrated Value is the location of the peak in the appropriate calibration units lt Name gt is the name of the peak 1t must be no more than 8 characters and lt Factor gt is a real number used to obtain a corrected net area in the Report function use a Factor of 1 0 for no correction All fields on each line are separated by spaces or tabs Extra spaces and tabs are ignored Since spaces are used to separate the items spaces are not allowed in the Name however all other characters are legal An underscore _ is a good substitute for a space The text file can be created by any programming text 1 e ASCII editor that does not put special codes in the text for example Windows Notepad The following is an example of a short library file 14 4100 ABC 123 31 8171 BCD 234 34 1936 CDE 345 36 4000 DEF 456 122 0630 EFG 56 136 4760 FGH 678 661 6600 GHI 789 802 0000 HIJ 890 1173 2370 IJK 901 1332 5010 JKL 012 2616 0000 KLM 123 ee oe cOOOOocccocccocOocoO 89 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 90 APPENDIX A SPECIFICATIONS A 1 Performance Maximum Counting Rate 150 MHz at the IN connector 1 MHz at the SCA IN connector Discriminator Thresholds IN and CHN ADV IN Software controlled and variable from 1 6 V to 3
54. ages Quality Control Before being approved for shipment each ORTEC instrument must pass a stringent set of quality control tests designed to expose any flaws in materials or workmanship Permanent records of these tests are maintained for use in warranty repair and as a source of statistical information for design improvements Repair Service If it becomes necessary to return this instrument for repair it is essential that Customer Services be contacted in advance of its return so that a Return Authorization Number can be assigned to the unit Also ORTEC must be informed either in writing by telephone 865 482 4411 or by facsimile transmission 865 483 2133 of the nature of the fault of the instrument being returned and of the model serial and revision Rev on rear panel numbers Failure to do so may cause unnecessary delays in getting the unit repaired The ORTEC standard procedure requires that instruments returned for repair pass the same quality control tests that are used for new production instruments Instruments that are returned should be packed so that they will withstand normal transit handling and must be shipped PREPAID via Air Parcel Post or United Parcel Service to the designated ORTEC repair center The address label and the package should include the Return Authorization Number assigned Instruments being returned that are damaged in transit due to inadequate packing will be repaired at the sender s expense and it will b
55. alling Edge Use Disc 50 Ohm C 1k hm Input E bar to activate it then use the 12 1 keys i The Discriminator input the BNC connec tor labeled IN accepts pulses that cross the Dis criminator Voltage When the Rising Edge radio button is marked the discrimi nator triggers when the input crosses the dis criminator voltage with a positive slope When the Falling Edge radio button is marked the discriminator triggers when the input crosses the discriminator voltage with a negative slope The discriminator voltage is set with the slide bar The nominal voltage of the discriminator level is displayed to the right of the slide bar To change the voltage drag the slide button left or right To make fine adjustments click the slide bar to the left or right of the slide button To make super fine adjustments click the slide bar to activate it then use the 12 1 keys Use the discriminator threshold to reject noise and smaller amplitude pulses while counting larger amplitude pulses 0 0000 9 9976 Discriminator Fig 31 Input Control Dialog 6 2 7 Ramp Control Ramp control provides an analog waveform synchro Ramp Control nized with the MCS sweep Use the Ramp Control Begin Mid command Fig 32 to set up the type of waveform 9 9994 i Style that will be used ELE e Bognera Begin Mid End The Style radio buttons determine the type of wave form The Begin End style generates a sawtooth w
56. and line for invoking MCS 32 is MCS32 EXE S file set L file lbr J file job M m All of the arguments are optional When the arguments are omitted certain defaults apply for the initial configuration and library as described below S file set Uses file set for the initial settings This can include a path specification Settings SET files can be created with the Save Settings As command under the File menu L file Ibr Pre loads the library file lib This can include a path specification J file job Begins execution of the job file job immediately This can include a path specification Mm Selects MCS m m can be an integer from 0 to 8 If m is 0 the buffer is selected otherwise the MCS number which corresponds to m is selected The default MCS is the lowest MCS present 99 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 100 APPENDIX C FILE FORMATS This appendix describes the file structure for the MCS spectrum data files and the ROI data files C 1 MCS Spectral Data Files MCS files contain the channel by channel contents of the MCS in 32 bit integer format The header is 256 bytes long and contains the following Byte offset 0 DO UU BW WN 40 44 48 52 56 60 61 62 63 64 65 128 129 Descriptor length 2 hhh H vyNO0O0oRDanN Bb Aa le eN Wore UW me LL ON Use Must be 4 0 Internal Trigger otherwis
57. ar REM Text This line is a comment remark and is ignored during command processing The REM command allows you to enter descriptive comments into JOB files or temporarily disable commands while testing a JOB file 82 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES REPORT filename Generates a paragraph style report in the selected file This command has the same function as File Report See Section 6 1 4 for a description of the report format The output can be printed on the printer PRN or sent to a disk file which can be used by other programs or printed later The loop count value can be included in the filename by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces in the filename RUN program Executes an application named program This is typically an EXE filename Note that the program will not run to completion before returning to MCS 32 unless it is run at higher priority or the WAIT program command is used see also the discussion of WAIT program on p 77 RUN MINIMIZED program arguments This command executes an application named program in a minimized window This is typically an EXE or PIF filename Note that the program will not run to completion before returning to the MCS 32 program unless it is run at higher priority or the WAIT program command is used SAVE d path file mcs This command which has the same function
58. ar isa 26 MOM s 51 Specifications 5 Sce ed e a les 9 Spectrum CODY 10 DUFTEN 4 sc aad cee perk ers ihn Gad 28 iva ewe PED ETE 28 SAVE Shashi n ge dubie debated 28 Stat ded ae rhs wage bend She ata as 43 Start DUMOM ss 31 START INPUT uti ia es 45 DOD Seq teeth piat we teed tn Seti ls 43 MON DUO e ee lala 31 SMP oss tet Save ee eae eee 51 A sic ovr b ed rd cete ds 52 122
59. ardware STOP CLEAR DATA CLEAR COUNTERS DISABLE DWELL EXTERNAL DISABLE TRIGGER ENABLE DISCRIMINATOR ENABLE SUMMATION ENABLE ACLEAR SET DISCRIMINATOR 1 4 SET DISCRIMINATOR LEADING SET DWELL ETHLD 1 4 SET DWELL 1E 7 109 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 SET LLSCA 1 2 SET PASS LENGTH 1000 SET PASS PRES 0 SET ULSCA 6 5 RESET Resets the MCS to the state just after power is applied SET DISCRIMINATOR voltage Sets the input discriminator threshold to the specified voltage Voltage has a maximum value of 3 0 and a minimum value of 1 6 Legal values between 3 0 and 1 6 occur nominally every 0 0015256 volts When an invalid value is specified the value is rounded off to the closest legal value and a warning message is returned See also SHOW DISCRIMINATOR SET DISCRIMINATOR LEADING Makes the input discriminator leading rising edge sensitive After this command is issued the counters will increment when the input crosses the threshold with a positive slope See also SHOW DISC EDGE and SET DISCRIMINATOR TRAILING SET DISCRIMINATOR TRAILING Makes the input discriminator trailing falling edge sensitive After this command is issued the counters will increment when the input crosses the threshold with a negative slope See also SHOW DISC EDGE and SET DISCRIMINATOR LEADING SET DWELL dwell Sets the dwell time to the specified value Dwell is in units of seconds and ex
60. art button to restart the acquisition e Click the Stop button once notice that it starts flashing e Click Stop again Now acquisition has come to a complete stop Notice that there is a step in the data where the pass was stopped This concludes the MCS 32 tutorial It has introduced you to just a few of the important features of the MCS 32 program You may wish to go to Chapter 6 which discusses all of the menu commands in detail 24 5 DISPLAY FEATURES This chapter explains the MCS 32 software s display features discusses the role of the mouse and keyboard covers the use of the Toolbar and sidebars discusses how to change to different disk drives and folders and shows how to use additional features such as Help 5 1 Screen Features Figure 10 shows the major screen features of MCS 32 1 MCS 32 Acquisition Start C 5 top za mp 1 Preset OFF Channel 0 PassLen 1000 Dwel 100 000 ns Clear Device select Cucst T C Buffer Graph settings Horiz 1 000 4 4 vet 2M x e Log Lin Auto ORTEC 1 11 2011 3 04 24 PM 0 0000 us 86 1000us Cnt 0 Marker at 18 1 us in Channel 181 Horz 8 0000 ps per Tick Vert Deca nts per Tick Fig 10 Main MCS 32 Screen Features 1 Title bar showing the source of the currently displayed spectrum This is either the MCS description the word Buffer if the buffer is selected or a file name if a
61. ary from channel to channel if the difference between start and mid is not a multiple of the number of channels in a half pass A similar constraint holds between mid and end If the mid parameter is omitted then a single line is drawn from the first channel to the last channel in the pass See also SHOW RAMP and VERIFY RAMP The SET RAMP command can be successfully executed independent of the pass length SET ULSCA voltage Sets upper level threshold on the SCA to the specified voltage Voltage has a maximum value of 10 and a minimum value of 0 Legal values between 10 and 0 occur every 0 002442 V Use VERIFY ULSCA to find the closest legal value to the desired voltage and then set the value with SET ULSCA If an invalid value is specified the value is rounded to the closest 111 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 legal value and a warning message is returned See also SHOW ULSCA The ULSCA voltage should always be greater than the LLSCA voltage for proper operation of the SCA SHOW ACTIVE Returns a 1 if acquisition is active or O if it is not active Responses C00000087 CR Acquisition is not active C00001088 lt CR gt Acquisition is active SHOW_ACTIVE_DEVICES This command is provided for compatibility with existing ORTEC MCBs In the Easy MCS it is identical to the SHOW_ACTIVE command Responses C00000087 lt CR gt Acquisition is not active C00001088 lt CR gt Acquisit
62. as Save As under the File menu saves the MCS or buffer to a disk file The disk filename in quotation marks can be any valid file name the drive d path path and extension mcs are optional If an extension is not supplied the default extension is automatically MCS Also the current drive and directory are used by default when the optional path specification is not supplied The loop count value can be included in the filename by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces wherever it appears SAVE ROI d path file roi This command which has the same function as Save ROI under the ROI menu saves in a disk file a table of channel numbers that have the ROI set for the buffer The contents of the spectrum are not altered by this operation The disk filename in quotation marks can be any valid filename with optional elements as described for the SAVE command The default extension is ROI The loop count value can be included in the filename by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces 22 wherever it appears This command fails if the buffer is not selected 83 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 SEND MESSAGE command This command is used to send NIM 488 commands to the MCS It can be used to perform any desired MCS operations The text mu
63. ass count reported as 4 294 967 294 G4294967295132 lt CR gt Pass count reported as 4 294 967 295 maximum value SHOW PEAK start chan number of chans This command returns the contents of the channel within the specified range with the largest number of counts The maximum possible value is 1 073 741 824 which is the maximum number of counts that can be stored in a 30 bit channel If the range is omitted the entire spectrum is searched Responses G0000000000075 CR Maximum count in a channel is zero G0000000001076 CR Maximum count in a channel is 1 115 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 G1073741824110 lt CR gt Maximum count is 1 073 741 824 G1073741824111 lt CR gt Maximum count is 1 073 741 824 SHOW PEAK CHANNEL start chan number of chans This command returns the number of the channel within the specified range with the largest number of counts The lowest number channel with the largest count is reported if more than one channel contains the largest number of counts Channel 65536 is the highest numbered channel If the range is omitted the entire spectrum is searched Responses C00000087 CR Maximum count was found in channel 0 C00001088 lt CR gt Maximum count was found in channel 1 C65534107 CR Maximum count was found in channel 65534 C65535108 lt CR gt Maximum count was found in channel 65535 SHOW_RAMP This command reports the current ramp op
64. asy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 951054C 1213 6 6 9 Preferences This displays the options available for selecting the screen colors and spectrum display options The submenu is shown in Fig 55 6 6 9 1 Points Fill ROI Fill All Use these functions to select the histogram display mode for both spectrum windows In Points mode the data are displayed as points or pixels on the screen in the colors chosen for Foreground and ROI under Display Preferences Spectrum Colors see Section 6 6 9 6 In Fill ROI mode the unmarked regions of the spectrum are displayed as points while the ROIs are filled from the baseline to the data point with the ROI spectrum color In Fill All mode all the data points are filled from the baseline to the data point with the Foreground and ROI spectrum colors Figure 56 shows a comparison of the three display modes Note that the point pixel size in the Point and Fill ROI mode illustra tions has been exaggerated to make them easier to see 6 6 9 2 Wrap Mode When Wrap Mode is selected data that exceeds the vertical scale are displayed as if the data value is the remainder when that value is divided by the vertical scale For example if the channel value is 1030 and the vertical scale is 1024 the data point is displayed as if 6 is the data value If Wrap Mode is not selected data points which exceed the vertical scale are displayed at the top of the screen
65. ation to the displayed spectrum To end the calibration procedure click Close Note that once a spectrum is calibrated the Toggle Calibration Toolbar button and Display Time Units command Section 6 6 3 switch the expanded display between calibrated units and either time units for internal dwell or channels for external dwell For example in internal dwell mode if the dwell time is 1 second and the pass length is 100 channels it will take 100 seconds for a single sweep each channel still represents one second 6 4 Services Figure 45 shows the Services menu Start JOB 6 4 1 Start JOB Library Sample Description Most of the functions under the various MCS 32 menus can Fig 45 The Services be automated by writing a JOB which consists of one or more Menu commands written in ASCII text see Chapter 8 for an in depth discussion and catalog of the commands JOBs allow you to easily perform repetitive tasks and or define initial conditions at MCS startup These files are given a filename extension of JOB To start a JOB or edit a JOB file select Services Start JOB to display the dialog shown in Fig 46 You can also edit JOB files in Windows Notepad or any other ASCII text editor To display the contents of a JOB file at the bottom of the dialog click once to highlight the file then click the Show Contents checkbox 55 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 T
66. atively the CONNECTIONS Programmer s Toolkit A11 B32 can be purchased and used to program the Easy MCS at the command level The use of ActiveX controls in A11 B32 makes program ming orders of magnitude easier with National Instruments LabVIEW Microsoft Visual Basic or Microsoft Visual C Inbit FullShot Screen Capture and Graphics Printing The Easy MCS package includes the Inbit FullShot Image Capture and Printing Utility With FullShot you can capture a whole screen a window or a portion of a window and save it in a variety of graphics file formats or send it directly to the printer See the accompanying FullShot user manual 2 THE EASY MCS Figure 1 shows the Easy MCS front and rear panels EASY MCS Fig 1 The Easy MCS 2 1 Front Panel 2 1 1 Inputs All inputs except the fast analog IN are supplied on the 25 pin D connector on the rear panel The MCS PCI OPT2 option offers convenient BNC connections to the D connector IN Fast analog signal input accepts analog or digital pulses up to 5 V in amplitude on a rear panel BNC connector Pulses are counted as they cross the discriminator threshold Computer selection of triggering on either positive or negative slope Threshold is computer adjustable from 1 6 V to 3 V in steps of 1 5 mV minimum pulse amplitude 30 mV Computer selection of either 50 O or 1000 42 input impedance dc coupled Minimum input pulse width is 3 ns at the discriminator threshold Maximum cou
67. automatically stops Selectable from 1 to 4 294 967 295 passes or OFF to disable Dwell Two displayed buttons permit selection of the Internal dwell time clock or an External channel advance input The Bin Width data entry box provides selection of a range of internal dwell times See Dwell Time in Section A 1 A data entry box permits adjustment of the external channel advance input Threshold from 1 6 to 3 V in 1 5 mV steps minimum pulse amplitude 30 mV A 4 5 Ramp Control Style Begin End Begin Mid End Two displayed buttons select either a single segment ramp or a two segment ramp The single segment ramp moves linearly from the specified starting voltage at the beginning of each pass to the specified ending voltage at the completion of each pass The two segment ramp makes a linear transition from the specified starting voltage at the beginning of the pass to a specified Mid voltage at the mid point of the pass It makes another 95 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 linear transition from the mid point voltage to the specified ending voltage at the completion of the pass Begin Mid End Three displayed slide bars select the begin mid and end point ramp voltages from 0 V to 10 V with 16 bit resolution A 4 6 MCS 32 Menus Many of these functions are also accessible from the toolbar the Sidebar and the spectrum window context menu File Allows saving and recalling of spectr
68. aveform while the Begin Mid End button gen 17995 Zenj erates a triangle waveform n Cancel 7 5800 0 4004 7 5800 Several examples of Begin End and Begin Mid Volts Volts Volts End waveforms are illustrated in Fig 33 Fig 32 Ramp Control Dialog When the Begin End Style is selected you must specify two voltages the voltage at channel 0 and the voltage at the last channel in the sweep The dialog displays two slide bars for setting 46 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS Begin End Waveforms Begin Mid End Waveforms Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 1 Pass 2 Fig 33 Example Ramp Waveforms these voltages To change a voltage click the slide button and drag the mouse up or down to the setting you want To make small adjustments click the slide bar above or below the slide button To make super fine adjustments click once on the slide bar to activate it then use the 12 1 keys The nominal voltage is displayed below the bar When the Begin Mid End Style is selected the voltage at the middle channel in the pass must be specified A third slide bar is displayed to specify this voltage A straight line will be drawn between the specified voltages however since the voltage is generated by a digital to analog convertor the waveforms will have a discrete appearance stair steps 6 2 8 Adjust Live Input This command opens a small dialog Fig 34 that allows E Adjust
69. ay by the mouse The vertical coordinate of the data counts at the marker position is displayed to the right of center under the large spectrum The horizontal coordinate is displayed to the left of center under the spectrum The horizontal scale is expressed in time channel number Chan or any units selected during calibration of the horizontal scale The marker can be used to mark regions of interest ROIs and to read out peak centroids and gross or net peak areas within each ROI A 4 2 Input Control Use SCA Input Displayed button enables use of the SCA input See SCA and SCA IN Use Disc Input Displayed button enables use of the fast discriminator input See Discriminator and IN SCA Lower Upper Two displayed slide bars permit independent selection of the SCA lower and upper level thresholds from 0 to 10 V in 4096 steps See SCA IN Discriminator Displayed slide bar selects the Discriminator threshold from 1 6 V to 3 V in 1 5 mV steps for the IN connector Two displayed buttons select counting of the discriminator crossing on either the Rising Edge positive slope or the Falling Edge negative slope Two displayed buttons select input impedance 50 or 1 kQ See IN 94 931054C 1213 APPENDIX A SPECIFICATIONS A 4 3 SCA Sweep Control This control provides an efficient method for choosing the optimum SCA settings without resorting to an oscilloscope An SCA window with a width of 19 5 mV between upper and lower levels
70. be set above the ULSCA voltage for proper operation of the SCA SET PASS value Sets the pass count counter to the specified value This command is invalid during acquisition SET PASS LENGTH channels Sets the pass length to the specified number of channels The pass length must be gt 3 and 65536 This command is invalid during acquisition SET PASS PRESET value Sets the pass count preset to the specified value This command is invalid during acquisition SET RAMP start mid end Programs the shape of the ramp signal that comes from the ramp option start mid and end are in units of volts Legal values are between 0 and 10 with a step size of 0 6104 mV Legal values can be found by using the VERIFY RAMP command If an invalid value is specified it is rounded off to the closest legal value start specifies the output voltage of the ramp during the first time bin mid specifies the output voltage at the middle channel of the ramp and end specifies the ramp voltage during the last channel of the ramp If the pass length is even mid specifies the voltage at the lower channel number closest to the middle of the pass A straight line is drawn between the specified values to determine the settings between the start mid and end channels If the pass length is even and the slope of the ramp changes sign at the middle channel then the mid value occurs at both channels closest to the middle of the pass Ramp step size will v
71. ble from 1 6 V to 3 V in steps of 1 5 mV This facilitates the pre ferential selection of larger pulses for counting and the rejection of noise Triggering can be selected for either positive or negative slope to match pulses of either polarity For counting rates up to 1 MHz with positive analog signals Easy MCS offers the pulse amplitude selectivity of the SCA single channel analyzer input This input features two computer controlled discriminators whose thresholds can be set anywhere between 0 V and 10 V with 12 bit resolution Easy MCS counts only the analog pulses that rise above the lower level threshold without exceeding the upper level threshold This input is ideal for analog signals with amplitudes proportional to a measurement parameter such as the number of photons in a pulse Pulse widths from 0 5 us to 100 us can be readily accommodated SCA Sweep Mode The SCA Sweep mode makes the setting of the SCA thresholds quick easy and accurate In this mode the window width between the lower and upper SCA thresholds is held constant at 1 512 of 10 V while the computer repeatedly sweeps the position of the window from 0 V to 10 V in 512 equal steps In synchronism the MCS repeatedly scans from channel Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 0 to 511 while counting the SCA output The result is a display of the pulse amplitude spec trum present at the SCA input The mouse can be used to mark th
72. ble in the disk file created by SAVE ROI or Save ROI As under the ROI menu The data contents of the buffer are not changed by this operation The previous ROIs are cleared This command has the same function as Recall ROI under ROI This command fails if the buffer is not selected This command can be used in generating reports that look for specific peaks For example a calibration spectrum containing known peaks is run the spectrum is calibrated and the peaks are marked with ROIs The calibration is saved as spectrum file STANDARD MCS and as ROI file STANDARD ROI The command sequence is RECALL CALIBRATION STANDARD MCS RECALL ROI STANDARD ROI REPORT STANDARD RPT These commands report the values only for the peaks that were marked in the calibration spectrum As usual the loop count value can be included in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted RECALL SETTINGS file set Reads the settings from a disk filename and applies them to the selected MCS or buffer The disk file must be in the format created by File Save Settings As Any valid filename including the drive and subdirectory can be used This command has the same function as File Recall Settings The loop count value can be included in the above filename as in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces 420 wherever they appe
73. channels in that direction such that the marker is now in the center of the display 7 2 2 Next Previous ROI Ctrl gt gt lt Ctrl gt The Ctrl gt gt and lt Ctrl gt move the marker to the beginning of the next higher channel ROI and the end of the preceding ROI respectively of the displayed spectrum These functions are duplicated by the Find Previous ROI and Find Next ROI buttons on the Toolbar 7 2 3 Highlight Channels Left Right Shift gt gt lt Shift gt The lt Shift gt gt and lt Shift gt keys allow you to highlight a block of channels from the cur rent marker position to the left or right respectively This is the keyboard equivalent of high lighting a block of channels by clicking and dragging with the mouse You can then perform such operations as marking the highlighted region as an ROI and calculating the centroid of the region 7 2 4 Next Previous Library Entry Alt gt gt lt Alt gt These keys move forward or backward through the peak identification library to the next closest library entry Each button press advances to the next library entry and moves the marker to the corresponding energy Also instead of indexing from a previously identified peak the marker can be positioned anywhere in the spectrum and these keys used to locate the entries closest to that point If a warning beep sounds it means that all library entries have been exhausted in that direction or that
74. ct Normalize Marker Peak Search 10 Calibrate 2 8 Adjust Live Input AUD pops 90 peruan B0 ol A Y rol ACA a rA Y PX ec dp PS Sete we SOD sated ae OO ibo NES YI vs esse de O TE di UTE d TTE 42 931054C 1213 TABLE OF CONTENTS OE CIVICS vasos eed oid que dus desde aee cd SS dcc rp e es 55 GA T Statt JOB os ar ES bud sene Vim 55 OT E Bditing JOB Puce ain ie Sepe ox EX pP epe E ies 56 G4 TEMA ouo seio se es dore tane o Uta sa pe ext iq aie ius tps ra ie 57 6 4 3 Sample Description o pace epo EP Dea OPER HE acd ack ORE ee 58 ar ROI o Scene ein ce eels eh Sime 58 6 3 k RECA ROL Ei RS REESE eae bE ES 59 6 52 AVE ROLA Ss pete X hang he winners pied M hue teat OM elon haat on 59 60d Mat ROT ca hee ete wine VELA pee Le eee noe hale eet hee Lon a 59 0 5 CODAE ROL Rd oes exce 59 0 5 57 Unmark AW ROB a bx Eus ere rex ebbe pd stet en 59 6 6 Display ata ts a peto e Re nd edid un Ius Ree de Np ds 60 6 0 1 MOCSIBUEIGE A ORE De CEST bee te Eel Det hee ett er n 60 6 0 2 Select VIC Sec estancas koci s dea Sekt E tou eld 60 660 34 TIME UIS ruo dte Sea phe eoa e pase denke alus a cette doe pie UE E 60 G64 Shorter Taller qoid vae a Ad RISUS died d uS 61 0 60 52 AMONIO usa da SE ESA ebat im E 61 6 6 6 Logarthine dE A A oe 61 6 07 INJTTOWOLUWAdGE usb ber Pee ee aw eTERNUREVelEPSQPeXerttE E MEM 61 o oe Ia atardece
75. d change so that only 16 channels are displayed and all the data points are zero 3 Load TUT1 MCS into the buffer e To recall your spectrum file into the buffer select Recall Data from the File menu This will open the dialog shown in Fig 9 21 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 The main section of this dialog is a list of files box One of the files in the list should be TUT1 MCS Click the filename to highlight it Now notice that the sample description you just entered Tutorial Data is displayed in the bottom section of the dialog e Click the Open button to load the file The data Look in CQ User O ce E3 saved from the MCS will appear in the full and YH 1300sTest Mcs YE TUT1 Mcs YH InternalClockTest Mcs expanded displays VEMOS 01 Mes Y Sample1 Mcs e This was a very round H Sample _rois Mes about way to load the MCS ene data into the buffer it was a quick way to demonstrate Femme the Save Data As and Recall Data commands Files of ype Spectra z cea The faster and more direct M Show Description Lenath 1 000 Chns Dwel 100 00 ns ID MCSp 001 way to do it is to use the Ps data MCS gt Buffer command on the Acquire menu Fig 9 Recall retrieve File TUT1 MCS During normal operation as opposed to a tutorial you don t have to save the data to a file unless you wish to 4 Usethe MCS Buffer Comman
76. d type 1 which will overwrite the preceding value but don t yet click OK 931054C 1213 4 GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL 4 5 6 7 Pass Control Pass Length Trigger C 1000 E 4 65535 Channels Internal C Extemal Pass Count Preset Acq Mode Sum 1 OFF 4294967294 f Replace Dwell C Rep Sum Internal C External Bin Width Threshold Ej B Cancel Fig 6 Pass Control Dialog Set the Dwell Time to 1 us Click the Internal dwell radio button Next set the value in the box to 1 Finally select the time units from the list beside the Bin width field Click the down arrow to open the list and select u to set the range to microseconds Don t click OK yet Set the Acq Mode acquire mode to Sum If the Sum button is not already marked with a dot click it to mark it Set the Trigger to Internal If the radio button labeled Internal is not already marked with a black dot click it to mark it Click OK to accept these settings If you ve entered all of the fields correctly the Pass Control dialog will look exactly like Fig 6 If everything is correct click the OK button to accept the settings 4 2 Collecting Data At this point you have set the pass parameters for the acquisition You are now ready to start data acquisition and see what happens 1 Start data acquisition e The Start button is at the top of the sidebar Click it to start the acquisition 17 Easy MCS
77. d to transfer data from the MCS to the buffer e Clear the data in the buffer by clicking the Clear button just as you would do to clear the data in the MCS e Switch back to MCS mode by clicking the MCS radio button in the lower section of the sidebar e Select MCS Buffer from the Acquire menu e Return to buffer mode by clicking the Buffer radio button Notice that the data has been transferred It s now time to return to the MCS and do a few more acquisitions to explore the ways to abort an MCS 32 data acquisition 22 931054C 1213 4 GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL D 2 3 4 4 Aborting Data Acquisition in MCS 32 Enter a new round of data acquisition presets Click the MCS radio button to return to MCS mode Select Pass Control from the Acquire menu Set the Pass Length to 20 Set the Pass Count preset to 1000 In the Dwell Time section set Bin Width to 1 second the time unit from the list will be seconds s Click OK to close the dialog Clear the data and start an acquisition Now the sidebar display is changing more slowly because the time unit is 1 second instead of 1 microsecond Notice that the current channel displayed in the Channel field on the sidebar is incrementing slowly once per second Also each time the Channel value reaches 19 it returns to zero and the pass count increments Click the Auto button to scale the data You should be able to see individual points move as th
78. e External Trigger 0 Internal Dwell otherwise External Dwell Dwell units 0 2 us 1 2 ms 2 2 sec 3 ns Acq Mode 0 Replace 1 Sum 2 Replace then Sum 913 Format Dwell integer number of us Provided for compatibility with ACE MCS unrelated to Byte 4 Pass Length in channels integer 4 65535 Pass Count in passes integer 0 4294967295 Pass Count Preset integer 0 OFF maximum 4294967295 Start Time 8 characters 13 59 59 Start Date 8 characters 01311992 Marker Channel integer O to Pass Length 1 MCS number 0 255 Calibration Type 0 None 1 or 2 linear 3 quadratic 4 cubic Calibration units 4 characters amu Calib Coeff 0 Constant term floating point Calib Coeff 1 linear term floating point External dwell threshold voltage Reserved Reserved Replace then sum mode supported 1 supported O not supported Identification Byte Always AA Hex Programmable dwell threshold voltage Detector Description Length 0 63 Detector Description up to 63 characters Sample Description Length 0 63 Sample Description up to 63 characters 101 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Byte offset 192 193 194 196 198 208 209 210 214 218 222 226 227 240 244 248 Descriptor length l E hhh KR ONNK m of BW Use Linear Display Flag O Log else Linear Linear Scale 4216 counts 5232
79. e MCS advances from one channel to the next You are collecting exactly 1 count per channel You will notice that the Start radio button stays highlighted It will remain highlighted until the acquisition is completed With the current settings this will take 20 000 seconds 1000 passes x 20 channels pass x 1 second channel Since this exercise was introduced as a short tutorial it s time to abort the acquisition and move on to explore yet another aspect of the MCS 32 software Abort the acquisition Wait until the current channel is less than 10 then click the Stop button You will notice that the current channel keeps incrementing and the Stop button starts flashing If you now wait without clicking Stop again for the channel to reach zero again you ll see the mark in the Start button clear while at the same time the Stop button will stop flashing and will now display the mark dot 23 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e Here s what s taking place when you click Stop once this tells the MCS that you want to stop at the end of the current pass While this pass is finishing the Stop button blinks so you ll know the command was accepted When the MCS finishes this final pass Stop is marked indicating that acquisition has ended If you don t want to wait for the last pass to finish that is if you want to quit immediately 4 Abort the acquisition immediately e Click the St
80. e ate o aoe ates eMe ce ROE elec 70 VO Me iro TUM CR Co NAS 70 VOS e ru PTT MCN ET T T T E T oF 70 TrA MES ABUSE s etus ee mote Coe hte Aine Co eU QUE s a e me Cann US eot Pie Y Olek de 70 TIMES BUS as ox ERA eU ERE tu qid E E 70 T2 UNCON Keys ooverbwecte a ER MERE du RENE ps 71 TAAL MCS BUNCE A AA viet tesi 71 FAD Tallet SHOFIGE LA A E AA ROSE 71 7 4 3 Narrower Wider ges cc garter dries o RRE 71 TAA E O 71 NIE Pad KEYS mense no tanna E aa aa asa 12 Jesle E AA d e EEEE O EE RN aed oe 72 TSZ AMO NMantals vo aree it alta 12 TOS O peo edes entsdees ed eqs E ed edax gets lease ec T2 LIA Wider NAO WEE usu vee edd os peak e ies 72 JOBS A A Jc qot 73 8 1 JOB Programming Example ESA AA AAA De E ERI RC 173 S T T Improving the JOB A e one EE a etg 75 8 1 2 The RUN Command was tasa E te meee hs Cowie du 8 1 3 Controlling MCS 32 from Other Programs 0 0 20 ee ee eee 77 8 2 JOD Commands tier doe cls adas rp 78 9 LIBRARY PILES 4263405 house A EA A 8 So BUS 89 APPENDIX A SPECIFICATIONS 30 Se A eh ee ee Dare 91 PX cee Performancen NI OIE A 91 A Inputs and Outputs Votre REA es 92 Avo Blectucaband Mechanical sitiar ds EC Rd PES 92 A 4 Computer Controls and Indicators o ooooooooocorraronoonoooo s 93 AMA Sidebar Controls 24 29 p du ebrei E RE il 93 ix 2c pute Onteol io 2o Cus ce ele te Cp d e ce ae de te Eme e Shu 94 A 4 3 SCA DWOESDCOBEOL vs decer ds 95 A 4 4 Passe onttolsc cec snc epit tr dete t Ce oor ar E
81. e called a marker that highlights a particular position in the spectrum 6 Sidebar on the right side of the screen providing information on the current MCS presets and counting times the time and date MCS vs buffer mode and vertical and horizontal scale The MCS and Buffer radio buttons allow you to switch between modes The pairs of arrow buttons next to the vertical and horizontal scale readings are used to adjust the scaling The Auto button automatically sets the vertical scale of the expanded display 7 Horizontal Scroll Bar directly beneath the expanded display lets you scroll through the expanded display at any horizontal and vertical scale 8 Marker Information Line beneath the scroll bar showing the channel in which the marker is currently positioned and its calibration and contents The Display menu and Toolbar con tain a toggle that lets you switch between calibrated units and time units when running in internal dwell mode 9 Supplementary Information Line below the Marker Information Line used to show results of certain calculations display warning messages or post instructions during certain procedures 26 931054C 1213 5 DISPLAY FEATURES 5 2 Two Spectrum Displays The Full and Expanded Display Windows show respectively a complete histogram of the cur rent spectrum whether from an MCS or the buffer and an expanded view of all or part of the spectrum These two windows are the central features of
82. e lower and upper limits of a spectral feature in this display for selective counting in a subsequent MCS mode Once these limits are marked clicking the mouse on the Set SCA button in the display locks the lower and upper thresholds of the SCA into the exact settings that bracket the feature Improved Precision by Signal Averaging For any selected dwell time and memory length the data collected in each scan can either replace the data stored in memory or can be added to the data in memory The latter mode is useful for reducing statistical scatter Effectively it improves the signal to noise ratio by signal averaging For random noise noise that is not correlated with the Start trigger or the dwell time clock the signal to noise ratio improves in proportion to the square root of the number of scans added together Selection of a preset pass count programs the instrument to collect data for the desired number of scans or passes and then automatically stop data acquisition Once data acquisition commences the computer is free to run other software programs To permit repetitive data addition to high precision the preset pass count can be set to any value from 1 to 4 294 967 295 with a memory capacity of 1 073 741 823 counts per channel Versatile Scan Synchronization Easy MCS offers two methods for synchronizing the scans with the start of the events to be counted Either the start of a scan in the Easy MC S can provide the trigger for the
83. e the sender s responsibility to make claim with the shipper Instruments not in warranty should follow the same procedure and ORTEC will provide a quotation Damage in Transit Shipments should be examined immediately upon receipt for evidence of external or concealed damage The carrier making delivery should be notified immediately of any such damage since the carrier is normally liable for damage in shipment Packing materials waybills and other such documentation should be preserved in order to establish claims After such notification to the carrier please notify ORTEC of the circumstances so that assistance can be provided in making damage claims and in providing replacement equipment if necessary Copyright O 2013 Advanced Measurement Technology Inc All rights reserved ORTEC is a registered trademark of Advanced Measurement Technology Inc All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners NOTICE OF PROPRIETARY PROPERTY This document and the information contained in it are the proprietary property of AMETEK Inc ORTEC Business Unit It may not be copied or used in any manner nor may any of the information in or upon it be used for any purpose without the express written consent of an authorized agent of AMETEK Inc ORTEC Business Unit TABLE OF CONTENTS Installation page 11 Tutorial page 15 Safety Instructions adi mole Eod d ec ia viii Cleaning Instructions css a s eie ota Bad
84. e units did not come from the file In addition an MCS calibration table MCT file is also generated which shows the calibration points selected during the import process 6 1 9 Export ASCII The Export ASCII command writes the displayed data to an ASCII text file with the default extension ASC When this command is selected a standard file save dialog opens Enter a valid filename consisting of an optional drive and directory a filename and an optional extension and click Save If the specified file already exists a message box opens asking you to verify the entry or cancel the operation Click Yes to overwrite the existing file A progress indicator at the bottom of the screen will track the duration of the save The entire spectrum is saved to disk The data format for the text file consists of a list of two element lines Each line is composed of the calibrated value floating point and the counts integer separated by spaces This is also the format read by the Import ASCII command Figure 28 shows the layout of an exported ASCII file 6 1 10 Exit This exits MCS 32 and returns to Windows If the buffer contains a spectrum that has not been saved a warning message is displayed to allow you to save Any JOBs are terminated If data acquisition is in progress acquisition will continue the hardware can continue data collection even if the software is not active 6 2 Acquire The Acquire menu is shown in Fig 29
85. ed in the MCS 32 software Threshold is adjustable from 1 6 to 3 V in 1 5 mV steps via the computer Minimum dwell time is 100 ns Minimum pulse width is 10 ns Minimum pulse amplitude is 30 mV Input impedance is 1000 Q to ground GATE IN Accepts a TTL input to prevent counting of the signals at the IN and SCA IN connectors When the GATE IN is 0 8 V counting is inhibited Counting is enabled when the GATE IN level is 22 V or when the GATE IN is not connected to signal source Input impedance is 1000 Q to 5 V TTL START ENABLE INPUT Accepts a TTL input to enable disable response to a START IN trigger When the START ENABLE INPUT is 0 8 V triggering is inhibited Triggering is enabled when the START ENABLE INPUT level is 22 V or when the START ENABLE INPUT is not connected to a signal source Input impedance is 5000 Q to 5 V START ENABLE INPUT must be at the desired level when the rising edge of the START IN arrives 2 1 2 Outputs All outputs are supplied on the 25 pin D connector on the rear panel The MCS PCI OPT2 option offers convenient BNC connections to the D connector START OUT This TTL ouput rises from 40 4 V to 242 4 V when a scan starts and returns to lt 0 4 V after 160 ns Useful for synchronizing external instruments with the start of the scan The output is short circuit protected and can drive impedances 250 Q CHN ADV OUT Channel Advance Output This TTL output rises from lt 0 4 V to gt 2 4 V when the
86. ed on network computers display the list of MCSs found allow you to enter customized instrument numbers and descriptions and optionally write this configuration to those other network PCs as described in the next section 3 4 1 Customizing the Master MCS List When MCS Configuration runs Configure Instruments Version 7 01 1t searches the computer and the SCC TUE comm network if any for MCSs then Easy MCS on TESTLABI MCS pci SMITH Cancel displays a master list of E s rau UMP instruments found Fig 2 Help You can change the instrument Renumber All numbers and descriptions by double clicking an instrument A entry in the list This opens the Change Description or ID dialog Fig 3 It shows the physical detector location read only and allows you to change the ID and Description When you close the dialog any changes you have made to an ID number or description will be written back to the corresponding MCS Complete details on assigning MCS numbers and descriptions are in the CONNECTIONS Driver Update Kit instructions Instr Input System Fig 2 MCS Numbering and Descriptions MCS Configuration will also locate and display any ORTEC spectroscopy units in your system To see only the list of MCS units in your system use the Select MCS command discussed in Section 6 6 2 12 931054C 1213 3 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Configure Instruments Version 7 01 Number amp Description Close
87. ee eee 23 5 DISPLAY FEATURES 4d on a ER A q A A aa 25 SUI MIU C EE 25 5 2 Two Spectrum Displays 1 ro Sy p PIECE a DO RES E VERE esos 27 2 95 The Toolbar aise ds 6 cop enean eaaa UR e RICE EE RR NOE E eon ELE E AAE a i 28 JA Usmo the MOUSE 4 aes nta e IS AS ES eei qu 29 5 4 1 Moving the Marker with the Mouse lessen 29 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 5 4 2 Sizing and Moving the Full Display Window 5 4 3 The Expanded View Right Mouse Button Menu 5 5 Buttons and Checkboxes 5 6 The Sidebar 5 6 1 Acquisition Section 5 6 2 View Section 5 7 About MCS 32 6 MENU COMMANDS OS Pie cis ee eee Ll 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 DNNDNAADAADA Recall Data Save Data As Print Data Report Compare Data Recall Settings Save Settings As Import ASCII Export ASCII 1 10 Exit 6 2 Acquire SUN 2 SUA S 2 4 Eso 12 6 22s NNNNNDDD AD 2 0 Delt 3 8 319 DODDDADADDOQIA DURU S Edf Ea OA Stop Clear osas MCS Buffer Pass Control Input Control Ramp Control SCA Sweep alculate Settings Data Info Uff Ua a mooth i go CN ea Subtra
88. en loaded and is used in such functions as Calculate Data Info and File Report for identifying spectral components according to cali brated peak channel value Refer to Chapter 9 for information on creating custom libraries that can be loaded with this command The Library function opens the file recall dialog shown in Fig 47 The default library file extension is LBR When the library file has loaded MCS 32 displays a status message on the Supplemental Information Line as shown in Fig 48 0 0000 Sec Sample Lbr 560 Bytes 20 Entries Look in User gt O Eg Ready Fig 48 Status Message Confirms Library File has Loaded File name Sample Lbr Files of type Library Files v Cancel Edit File Fig 47 Load a Library File To edit an existing library file click a filename to highlight it then click the Edit File button at the bottom of the dialog This will open Windows Notepad with the library file loaded see the example in Fig 49 Remember to save the edited file before exiting Notepad or the changes will be lost 57 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 B Sample Lbr Notepad SE File Edit Format view Help 4000 ABC 123 3000 BCD 234 5000 CDE 345 5000 DEF 456 6000 EFG 567 6000 FGH 678 7000 GHI 789 7000 HIJ 890 7000 IJK 901 8000 JKL 012 8000 KLM 123 8000 LMN 234 9000 MNO 345 9000 NOP 456 0000 OPQ 567
89. eraging Replace mode for single scan data Replace then Sum mode to circumvent reset dead time between acquisitions e Up to 1 073 741 823 counts per channel in single or multiple passes Automatic termination of data acquisition after a preset number of passes up to 4 billion Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e The start of the scan can trigger the experiment or the experiment can trigger the start of the scan e Includes a ramp output with computer adjustable sawtooth and triangular waveforms Software e Complete with MCS 32 operating display and analysis software for Windows 7 and XP SP3 e All functions are computer controlled e SCA Sweep mode for recording pulse height spectra and selecting accurate SCA windows e Spectra and instrument settings can be saved on disk and recalled for further processing e Software features include smooth sum strip compare and normalize spectra peak search report and user defined job streams e Horizontal scale calibration by least squares fitting to user defined units e A11 B32 Programmer s Toolkit available separately for ActiveX programming under National Instruments LabVIEW and Microsoft Visual Basic or Visual C NOTE The MCS 32 software does not support our legacy ACE MCS or MCS PLUS 1 2 Host Computer and Software Requirements The Easy MCS is completely computer controlled and can be operated with any suitable versio
90. escribing the button s E function Fig 11 Fig 11 Tool Tip 5 4 Using the Mouse The mouse can be used to access the menus Toolbar and sidebars adjust spectrum scaling mark and unmark ROIs locate spectrum library and ROI peaks select MCSs work in the dialogs every function in MCS 32 except text entry 5 4 1 Moving the Marker with the Mouse To position the marker with the mouse move the pointer to the desired channel in the Expanded Display Window and click the left mouse button once This will move the marker to the mouse position This is generally a much easier way to move the marker around in the spectrum than using the arrow keys and other accelerators although you may still prefer some keyboard functions for specific motions 5 4 2 Sizing and Moving the Full Display Window To resize the Full Display Window click and drag the sides corners or bottom edge To move it click the top edge and drag 29 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 5 4 3 The Expanded View Right Mouse Button Menu Figure 12 shows the right mouse button menu To open it position MCS Buffer the mouse pointer in the spectrum display and click the right mouse Pass Control button When the menu opens use the left mouse button to select Input Control from the list of commands Ramp Control Adjust Live Input Fig 12 Expanded View Menu All five commands are available
91. ettings Files y Cancel Fig 26 Recall Settings Dialog 6 1 7 Save Settings As This command saves the settings of the current MCS or buffer depending on which is selected The dialog Fig 27 has several checkboxes that determine the information saved in the settings file e Ifthe Colors box is marked the current screen colors are saved in the file e Ifthe Display box is marked the current settings of the Fill All Fill ROI Full View and Wrap Mode commands on the Display menu are saved 41 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e Ifthe Hardware box is marked Save As the Pass Length Pass Count sven OUe ef amp rkE Preset Dwell Time Sum Replace Mode Internal External Trigger Discrim nator SCA and Ramp Settings are saved e If the Calibration box is marked the current calibration is saved piene TIN rum Save as type Settings Files y Cancel Any or all checkboxes can be marked EE Ic nclude to control what is stored in the settings Colors iv Display M Hardware V Calibration file The default and recommended extension for a settings file is SET Fig 27 Save Settings on Disk 6 1 8 Import ASCII This command reads into the buffer an ASCII histogram I Sample2 Asc N MER data file created by the Export ASCII command MCS 32 Fle Edt Format View Help must be in buffer mode before the command is executed p 0064 0 0059
92. f a file extension is not provided the default extension Asc is appended to File This command is identical to the Export ASCII command on the File menu 79 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 FILL BUFFER Transfers the MCS data to the buffer This command has the same function as MCS Buffer under Acquire This command fails if the buffer is selected IMPORT D Path File Asc Imports the ASCII text file into the buffer Any valid filename including the drive and sub directory can be used If the drive and subdirectory are omitted the last directory used for importing data is used as the default If a file extension is not provided the default extension Asc is appended to File This command is identical to the Import ASCII command on the File menu This command fails if the buffer is selected LOAD LIBRARY lib Ibr Loads the specified library and duplicates the function of Library under the Services menu LOOP lt repetitions gt END LOOP This command pair executes multiple times all the commands between LOOP and END LOOP The number of execution times is specified by lt repetitions gt Each command must be given on a separate line A value of zero or a LOOP with no END LOOP statement executes once The loop count value can be included in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces the
93. f buttons below the Menu Bar provides convenient shortcuts to some of the most commonly used MCS 32 commands 3 12 28 The Recall button reads an existing spectrum file into the buffer MCS 32 must first be in buffer mode This command is the equivalent of selecting File Recall Data from the menu Save Spectrum copies the currently displayed spectrum to disk It duplicates the menu functions File Save Data As MCS gt Buffer copies the currently displayed instrument s spectrum data to the buffer This duplicates Acquire MCS gt Buffer To then view the buffer contents click the Buffer radio button on the Sidebar press lt F4 gt or lt Alt 6 gt or use the Display MCS Buffer menu command Show Marker Information reports the current marker position on the Supplementary Information Line This duplicates Calculate Marker and lt Alt M gt Mark ROI marks the highlighted block of channels at the marker position as an ROI This duplicates ROI Mark Peak and the Insert and Keypad lt Ins gt keys This command is available in buffer mode only Clear ROI removes the ROI mark from the channels of the peak currently selected with the marker This duplicates ROI Unmark ROI and the Delete and Keypad lt Del gt keys This command is available in buffer mode only Find Previous ROI and Find Next ROI move the marker backward or forward through the spectrum to the next closest ROI They duplicate Ctrl gt and Ctrl
94. feature of the com mand If absent a standard report is generated If equal to 1 the Data Only format of the command is generated If equal to 0 the standard format is generated QUIT Unconditionally terminates MCS 32 and returns control to Windows RECALL file mcs Reads a disk filename to the buffer The disk file must be in the format created by SAVE Any valid filename including the drive and subdirectory can be used If the file has calibra tion information the calibration parameters are used to set the calibration for the buffer This command has the same function as Recall File under the File menu If the buffer is not selected this command fails The loop count value can be included in the above filename as in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces 277 wherever they appear RECALL CALIBRATION file mcs or file set Loads the calibration parameters from the calibration data stored with a spectrum if an mcs file is supplied or the calibration from the settings file if a set file is specified This command can be used in generating reports that include library peak identification See the RECALL ROI command for an example of such a JOB file 81 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 RECALL ROI file roi Marks the ROI channels in the buffer to conform to the ta
95. file has been saved or recalled and not yet modified if a sample description has been entered for the file it will accompany the file name On the far right are the Minimize Maximize and Close buttons 25 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 2 Menu Bar showing the menu commands which can be selected with either the mouse or keyboard these functions are discussed in detail in Chapter 6 3 Toolbar beneath the Menu Bar contains buttons for 15 of the most commonly used MCS 32 commands 4 Full Display Window showing the complete histogram from the MCS memory buffer or file and indicating which part of the spectrum is now displayed in the Expanded Display Window The vertical scale is always logarithmic The expanded part of the spectrum is highlighted in a different color than the rest of the spectrum Clicking any part of the spec trum in this window will display that part of the spectrum in the expanded window the expanded window will be centered on the channel where the mouse was clicked The Full Display Window can be moved and sized see Section 5 4 2 5 Expanded Display Window showing all or part of the complete histogram In this window you can change the vertical and horizontal scaling and perform a number of analytical operations such as calculating peak information marking ROIs locating library peaks or calibrating the spectrum This window also contains a vertical lin
96. hat the full display in the corner still displays the entire spectrum The part of the full display visible in the expanded display has the same color background as the expanded display while the rest of the spectrum has a different color background Point and Click in the Full Display Window and click This causes the expanded display to move to the area pointed to in the full display Note that the marker channel changes at the bottom of the screen Try it a few times Point and Click in the Expanded View and click This moves the marker channel in the expanded display and changes the marker information at the bottom of the screen Highlight a range of channels e Click somewhere in the expanded display e Click and drag to the left or right across the spectrum Note that the marker width increases as you continue dragging the mouse across the screen e When you release the mouse button this set of channels stays highlighted You can now manipulate this block of channels such as marking them as a region of interest ROD or calculating their centroid gross area and net area Use the Data Info command from the Calculate menu e Click the Calculate menu and select Data Info e Notice that the Marker Information Line at the bottom of the screen is now reporting a centroid gross area and net area for the set of channels you just highlighted Since the spectrum is flat the centroid and net area aren t very exciting 931054C 1213 4
97. he CHANNEL ADVANCE Output to the DISC input With a 50 Q coaxial cable connect the BNC labeled Channel Advance Output to the BNC on the MCS PCT OPT2 Fan Out Cable that you installed on the Easy MCS Note that there is also a Channel Advance Input so be careful to connect to the correct BNC If you do not have a fan out cable you will need to make a wired connection between the appropriate two pins on the 25 pin D connector illustrated in Fig 60 page 92 18 931054C 1213 4 GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL 5 Select the Discriminator If the Use Disc Input button does not look pushed in or highlighted click it 6 Setthe Discriminator to Rising Edge Triggered The discriminator can trigger on rising or falling edges To select Rising Edge Triggered click the Rising Edge radio button until it is marked with a dot 7 Setthe Discriminator Voltage to 1 5 V e Since the Channel Advance Output signal goes from a low value of 0 8 V max to a high value of 2 V min use the Discriminator slide bar to set the threshold to 1 5 V e Click and drag the slider button toward the 1 5 V setting Note how much the voltage readout located to the right of the slide bar changes as you move the slider To make fine adjustments to the voltage click to the immediate right or left of the slide button To make super fine adjustments click the slide bar once to activate it then use the lt gt and lt gt keys e When the discriminator
98. he MCS 32 CD navigate to the CD drive and open Setup exe If one or more security dialogs ask if you wish to continue installation select the install anyway option to start the installation wizard Click Next and follow the wizard prompts Existing instruments i e units configured before this upgrade do not have to be powered on during this part of the installation procedure but must be powered on before running the MCS Configuration program discussed in Section 3 4 NOTE Youcan enable other device drivers later as described in the CONNECTIONS update instructions 3 3 Connect the Easy MCS to the Computer With the computer powered on connect the Easy MCS to a high speed USB port on the com puter or to a powered hub attached to the computer A series of found new hardware messages 11 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 will be displayed When this operation is complete you are ready to run the MCS Configuration program so the MCS 32 software can communicate with the Easy MCS 3 4 Run the MCS Configuration Program to Build the List of Available MCS Units From the Windows Start menu enter mcs in the search programs and files box then click the MCS Configuration search result or open the Windows Start menu and click MCS 32 then MCS Configuration The MCS Configuration program will locate all powered on ORTEC MCSs attached to the local computer and to any power
99. height without overflowing the display It also toggles the vertical scale of the spectrum display between the automatic and manual modes This function is duplicated by Keypad lt gt and the Auto button on the Sidebar 6 6 6 Logarithmic Logarithmic toggles the vertical scale of the expanded display between the logarithmic and linear modes This function is duplicated by Keypad lt gt and the Log radio button on the Sidebar To switch out of automatic vertical scaling mode click the Automatic Taller or Shorter menu command or the Auto button or Lin radio button on the sidebar 6 6 7 Narrower Wider Narrower and Wider increase and decrease the horizontal full scale of the Expanded Display Window by a factor of two so that the peaks appear respectively narrower and wider The number of channels in the expanded display is shown in the Horz field on the Sidebar These functions are duplicated by the lt F7 gt lt F8 gt and Keypad lt gt Keypad lt gt keys and the arrow buttons beside the Horz field 6 6 8 Center This function forces the marker to the center of the screen by shifting the spectrum without moving the marker from its current channel This function is only required when moving the marker with the mouse The keyboard functions for moving the marker automatically shift the spectrum to center the marker when the marker travels past the end of the current expanded display Center is duplicated by Keypad lt 5 gt 61 E
100. herever they appear DESCRIBE SAMPLE description Accepts a 63 character description of the sample being analyzed This description is saved with the spectrum using the SAVE command function and is included in the REPORT printout The loop count value can be included in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces wherever it appears ENABLE AUTOCLR Enables the AutoClr function of the Easy MCS for sum then replace mode see Section 6 2 5 When enabled i e in sum then replace mode the first pass replaces the data in memory then additional passes are summed with the data in memory as in sum mode ENABLE DISCRIMINATOR Enables the Discriminator Input on the MCS and disables the SCA Input This command performs the same function as clicking Use Disc in the Input Control dialog box This command fails if the buffer is selected ENABLE SCA Enables the SCA Input on the MCS and disables the Discriminator Input This command performs the same function as clicking Use SCA in the Input Control dialog box This command fails if the buffer is selected EXPORT D Path File Asc Exports the viewed spectrum to an ASCII text file It is valid both for the MCS and buffer Any valid filename including the drive and subdirectory can be used If the drive and sub directory are omitted the last subdirectory used for exporting data is used as the default I
101. ig 16 About MCS 32 32 6 MENU COMMANDS This chapter describes the MCS 32 menu commands and their associated dialogs The acceler ator s 1f any are listed on the menus to the right of the command they duplicate Also the underlined letter in the menu item indicates a key that can be used together with the lt Alt gt key for quick access in the menu So for example the Select MCS dialog under Display can be reached with the key sequence Alt S Alt D gt The ellipsis following a menu selec tion indicates that a dialog is displayed to complete the function Finally a small arrow following a menu selection means this item has a submenu File Recall Data Save Data As Print Data Report Compare Data Recall Settings Save Settings As Import ASCII Export ASCII Exit Acquire Start Alt 1 Stop Alt 2 Clear Alt 3 MCS gt Buffer Alt 5 Pass Control Alt P Input Control Alt 1 Ramp Control Alt R Adjust Live Input SCA Sweep Calculate Settings Data Info Dbl CIk Sum Smooth Strip Subtract Normalize Marker Alt M Peak Search Calibrate 33 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Services Start JOB Library Sample Description ROI Recall ROI Save ROI As Mark ROI Insert Unmark ROI Delete Unmark All ROIs Display MCS Buffer F4 or Alt 6 Select MCS Ctrl Fn Time U
102. ined in the MCS pick list The selected instrument name or the buffer is shown on the Sidebar These keys duplicate the function of the MCS pick list on the Sidebar and the Select MCS command under the Display menu However be aware of which instrument numbers are avail able when using the function keys An error message will appear if the selected instrument is invalid In systems with more than eight instruments use Display Select MCS or the MCS pick list on the Sidebar 71 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 7 5 Keypad Keys 7 5 1 Log Linear Keypad lt gt Keypad lt gt toggles the active spectrum window between logarithmic and linear vertical display This is duplicated by the Log and Lin radio buttons on the Sidebar The vertical scale can also be controlled with the Taller Shorter commands Keypad lt gt lt gt the 1 and 1 keys and lt F7 F8 gt 7 5 2 Auto Manual Keypad lt gt Keypad lt gt switches the spectrum window between automatic and manual vertical full scale see the discussion in Section 6 6 5 This is duplicated by the Auto button on the Sidebar and Display Automatic 7 5 3 Center Keypad lt 5 gt Keypad lt 5 gt forces the marker to the center of the screen by shifting the spectrum without moving the marker from its current channel This is duplicated by Display Center For more information see Section 6 6 8 7 5 4 Wider Narrower Ke
103. inor ActiveX control interface 105 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Macro error codes o Success Power up just occurred Battery backed data lost For macro code 129 syntax error or 131 execution error the following apply 132 Invalid Command Micro error codes 106 po Sees OOOO Input already started stopped Preset already exceeded Input not started stopped Parameter was rounded for decimal numbers 128 No sample data available 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES D 3 Dollar Response Records SHOW commands respond with a dollar response record The valid dollar response records for each command are discussed in the command catalog The following list provides the general form of each dollar response record for the MCB API In this list lower case letters represent numeric values The letters ccc always represent an 8 bit unsigned checksum of all characters on the record up to but not including the checksum characters and CR represents the ASCII carriage return character Response Description Axxxccc lt CR gt XXx is an 8 bit unsigned number Cxxxxxccc lt CR gt XXXXXX is a 16 bit unsigned number Dxxxxxyyyyyccc lt CR gt XXXXX and yyyyy are 16 bit unsigned numbers Exxxxxccc lt CR gt XXXXX is a 16 bit alarm mask F ssss lt CR gt SSSS is a variable length ASCII character sequence no checksum is sent with this rec
104. ion is active SHOW_CHANNEL Returns a response that indicates in which channel data are currently being acquired The command is only valid when acquisition is started Responses C00001088 lt CR gt Collecting data in channel 1 C01762103 lt CR gt Collecting data in channel 1762 SHOW_CONFIGURATION Returns a record that indicates the hardware configuration of the unit The record contains information about the memory size and the number of segments always 1 for the Easy MCS Jaaaaabbbbbddddd00000 65 zeros here for total of 75 zeros 00000ccc where aaaaa represents the number of channels in the MCS always 65536 for the Easy MCS bbbbb is the number of segments always 1 for the Easy MCS ddddd is the current pass length and ccc represents the record checksum SHOW_DEVICE There is only 1 device in the Easy MCS so the command always returns 1 Responses A001246 lt CR gt Device 1 selected SHOW_DISCRIMINATOR Returns the input discriminator threshold and the status of the discriminator If the discrimi nator is enabled the header on the response will be DISC_ENA If the discriminator is dis 112 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES abled the header will be DISC_DIS The threshold is returned as a signed 13 digit floating point number See also SET_DISCRIMINATOR and VERIFY_DISCRIMINATOR Responses DISC_ENA 0000000001 6 lt CR gt DISC_ENA 0001 5987793 lt CR gt DISC_ENA 00002 9987793 l
105. is set to 1 5 V click the OK button to close the dialog You are now ready to run another experiment 8 Clear the data and start another acquisition e Click the Clear button followed by Start This time you should get some data e Look at the Marker counts at the bottom center of the screen There should be 1 count in the marker channel e Click the Auto button in the lower section of the sidebar This changes the vertical scale to 16 so you should be able to see exactly 1 count in every channel This makes sense because you are counting the edge that indicates we are moving from one channel to the next It s now time to collect more data by acquiring more than one pass 9 Select Pass Control from the Acquire menu e Click the Acquire menu and select Pass Control This will open the dialog shown in Fig 6 19 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 10 11 12 13 14 15 20 e Set the Pass Count Preset to 1000 then click OK Clear and start Click Clear then Start e This time the pass count should go to 1000 and there should be 1000 counts in every channel Click the Auto button to scale the data in the Expanded Display Window Reduce the horizontal scale to 62 n the sidebar click the down arrow beside the Horiz field until the value is 62 This zooms in on the data so that there are only 62 data points displayed across the screen e Notice t
106. is swept from 0 to 10 V as the MCS scans through a pass length of 512 channels The resulting histogram displays the pulse height spectrum presented at the SCA Input By using the cursor to mark a region over the feature of interest in the spectrum and clicking the mouse on the Set SCA button the SCA levels are automatically set at the upper and lower limits of the selected region This is a quick and accurate method for setting up the SCA for a conventional MCS scan A single pulse height scan lasts 5 to 20 seconds depending on the speed of the com puter To improve the counting statistics in the histogram scans are automatically repeated until the acquisition is stopped or the SCA levels are set A 4 4 Pass Control Acq Mode Sum Replace Rep Sum The alternatives for data acquisition are selected via three displayed buttons See Acquisition Modes in Section A 1 Trigger Internal External Two displayed buttons control whether the Start Output from the MCS will trigger the external instruments for the start of each scan Internal Trigger or a Start Input from the external instruments will start each scan External Trigger Pass Length Data entry box with up down arrows for adjustment selects the number of chan nels in a single pass scan from 4 to 65 536 with ramp output active or inactive Pass Count Preset Data entry box with up down arrows for adjustment selects the number of passes that will be executed before data acquisition
107. l 0 0054 The data format for the text file consists of a list of two d CH element lines Each line is composed of the calibrated value 0 0040 floating point and the counts integer separated by spaces dre tabs commas or semicolons see the example in Fig 28 n d The number of channels read into the buffer is equal to the 0 0021 ae 0 0017 number of lines in the text file 0 0014 0 0011 0 0008 If the buffer contains data that have not been saved a warn n du ing message opens Click Yes to execute the Save Data 0 0000 As command No to continue the import operation and err Cancel to return to the main display with no action Ark 0009 A standard file open dialog opens displaying a list of bea ASCII text files Select a file and click on Open A progress PE indicator at the bottom of the screen will track the progress 0014 of the importation Fig 28 Format of Exported ASCII File When the text file has been read successfully the descrip tors Pass Dwell Time etc will be set to default values for the buffer since descriptors are not saved by the Export ASCII command The Acquisi tion fields on the Sidebar are grayed to indicate that the values did not come from an actual 42 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS acquisition The calibration curve is fitted as a linear quadratic or cubic fit depending on the number of channels in the file The calibration units are set to to indicate that th
108. l Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 10 3 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Installing the Easy MCS and the MCS 32 software takes just four easy steps You must have Windows administrator access to install ORTEC software 1 Install the accompanying CONNECTIONS Driver Update Kit Part No 797230 being sure to select the USB based instruments family on the install wizard s Instrument Setup page 2 Install the MCS 32 software v2 2 or higher 3 Connect the Easy MCS to the computer 4 Run the MCS Configuration program to build the list of available ORTEC MCSs 3 1 Install the CoNNECTIONS Driver Update The first step is to install the accompanying CONNECTIONS Driver Update Kit Part No 797230 according to its instruction sheet p n 932721 Be sure to read the update kit s instructions thoroughly They explain how to install CONNECTIONS enable disable the drivers for your ORTEC instrument s use the MCS Configuration program s optional command line arguments and share ORTEC instruments across a network On the install wizard s Instrument Setup page be sure to select the USB based instruments family Otherwise the Easy MCS will not be able to communicate with the computer and MCS 32 software At the end of installation you will be directed to restart the computer After restart return here to continue software and hardware installation 3 2 Install the MCS 32 Software Insert t
109. legacy PCs Format 1 BEEP freq duration This format produces an audible tone at a pitch of freq Hertz lasting for duration milliseconds Format 2 BEEP ID This format produces a sound based on a system event See the following table ID Event 0 PC Speaker Beep 1 Default Windows Beep 2 Start Windows 3 Asterisk 4 Exclamation 5 Critical Stop 6 Question 7 Exit Windows Format 3 BEEP lt String gt This format plays a WAV file or any event defined in the Windows Registry For example BEEP TADA WAV plays the TADA WAV file and BEEP Question plays the sound associated with Question CLEAR Clears erases the data and the pass count for the selected MCS The presets are not changed This command has the same function as the Clear function under the Acquire menu The command would logically be preceded by the SET_MCS command as follows SET_MCS 1 CLEAR 78 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES CLEAR ROI Erases the ROIs in the buffer The command is only valid when the buffer is selected DESCRIBE HARDWARE description This command accepts a 63 character description of the system This description is saved with the spectrum using the SAVE command function and is included in the REPORT print out This command is only applicable in the buffer The loop count value can be included in any text by typing three question marks in the text where the loop count is to be inserted The loop count replaces w
110. les internal starting of passes See also ENABLE TRIGGER and SHOW TRIGGER This command is invalid when acquisition is in progress 108 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES ENABLE_ACLEAR Enables the AutoClr function of the Easy MCS When enabled any data in memory is replaced with the new data on the first pass then additional passes are summed as in sum mode This is the replace then sum mode See also ENABLE_ACLEAR SHOW_ACLEAR and ENABLE_SUMMATION ENABLE_DISCRIMINATOR Enables Discriminator input and disables the SCA input See also DISABLE_DISCRIMI NATOR and SHOW_DISCRIMINATOR ENABLE_DWELL_EXTERNAL Enables External Channel Advance signal and disables the internal dwell time clock See also DISABLE_DWELL_EXTERNAL and SHOW_DWELL This command is invalid when acquisition is in progress ENABLE SUMMATION Places the MCS in sum mode In sum mode new data is summed with the old data when a scan is made In replace mode new data replaces the old data when a new scan is made See also SHOW SUMMATION DISABLE SUMMATION DISABLE ACLEAR and ENABLE _ ACLEAR ENABLE TRIGGER Enables External Start signal and disables internal starting of passes See also DISABLE TRIGGER and SHOW TRIGGER This command is invalid when acquisition is in progress INITIALIZE Simulates a power down power up cycle with loss of battery backed up memory Sets the MCS as though the following commands had been issued and also resets all internal h
111. lick Default NOTE Thecolors on this palette affect only the Expanded and Full Display Windows The colors of the remaining features on the screen must be changed using the Windows Control Panel which will also of course affect the appearance of all other Windows applications on this computer 64 7 KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS This chapter describes the MCS 32 accelerator keys The keys described in this section are grouped primarily according to location on the keyboard and secondarily by related function 7 1 Introduction Table 1 provides a quick reference to all of the MCS 32 keyboard and keypad functions These accelerators are also illustrated in Fig 59 and discussed in more detail in the remainder of the chapter The accelerators are available only in the MCS 32 window The Title Bar must be highlighted with the active title bar color as set up in Windows Control Panel In addition the active cursor or input focus must be in the spectrum window Similar to other Windows applications the input focus can be switched between MCS 32 and other applications by clicking the Windows Taskbar pressing Alt Tab gt or if the inactive window is visible pointing with the mouse at some spot in the inactive window and clicking The multi key functions such as Alt 1 or Shift gt gt are executed by holding down the first key e g Alt Shift or lt Ctrl gt while pressing the key that follows the sign
112. lues into the dialog or Cancel the dialog They do change however as soon as you click OK 6 2 6 Input Control Selecting Input Control opens the dialog shown in Fig 31 This command is available in both buffer and MCS mode even if the MCS is acquiring data However for the MCSs that are acquiring data and in buffer mode the settings can t be changed The Use SCA Input and Use Disc Input buttons determine which input is used When Use SCA Input is on highlighted the SCA input is activated When the Use Disc Input button is highlighted the fast discriminator is activated for the BNC connector labeled IN The SCA input accepts pulses that fall between two levels For the signal to be accepted the signal must start at a voltage less than the lower level rise to a voltage that is between the lower and upper levels then return to a voltage less than the lower level The lower and upper levels 45 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 are set with the Lower and Upper slide bars Input Control in the SCA section of the dialog The nominal voltage of the levels is displayed to the right of each slide bar To change the voltage point at the slide button click and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the voltage you want To make small adjustments click the slide bar to the left or right of the button To make super fine adjustments click the slide Rising Edge F
113. n of the MCS 32 software communicating via CONNECTIONS v7 1 or higher The Easy MCS con nects via a USB port and can be used on any computer running runs on any computer running under Windows 7 and XP SP3 1 3 What is a Multichannel Scaler An MCS records the counting rate of events as a function of time When a scan is started the MCS begins counting input events in the first channel of its digital memory At the end of the preselected dwell time the MCS advances to the next channel of memory to count the events This dwell and advance process is repeated until the MCS has scanned through all the channels in its memory A display of the contents of the memory shows the counting rate of the input events versus time In repetitive measurements where the start of the scan can be synchronized with the start of the events multiple scans can be summed to diminish the statistical scatter in the recorded pattern The MCS can also function as a multiple stop time spectrometer In a typical LIDAR applica tion the MCS scan is started when a laser emits a brief flash of light The light photons are reflected back to the detector located near the laser as they encounter objects at various distances in the line of sight The resulting stop pulses generated in the detector are counted as input events by the MCS Thus a spectrum of the number of photons versus their round trip flight 2 931054C 1213 1 INTRODUCTION times is recorded in the MC
114. n Point Polynomial 880 73 Time jo ps 8 C s Cubic y Apply Value 0 0100 272 Sols tales Restore diig ero Slope Enter Zero EF uE MCS Calibration Table 21 Data Points Show Graph M Channel Value Delta 0 00 0 01 0 0000 512 00 2 02 0 0173 1024 00 8 58 0 0333 1528 nn 197 n nnz1 Time us Vert LOG Log C Lin Auto DRTEC 10 0000 1 7 277 1 18 2011 8 07 00 AM Horz 10 0000 per Tick Vert Decade counts per Tick Fig 44 The Calibration Worksheet and Graph 54 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS In addition you can force the intercept slope or quadratic terms of the polynomial to zero by marking the appropriate checkboxes The MCS Calibration Table shows the list of calibration points entered If MCS 32 success fully performs the polynomial fit with the calibration points in the MCS Calibration Table the Delta field of the table shows the goodness of fit This value is calculated as Delta Value 100 0 Desired Value Calculated Value Desired Value MCS calibration tables can be saved to or recalled from disk The default extension for these files is MCT The Recall button displays a standard file recall dialog from which you can open a previously stored table The Save button displays a standard file save dialog To undo the calibration and start over click the Restore button Click Clear to clear the calibra tion and use Apply to apply the calibr
115. n to stop the SCA sweep when enough data have been collected to adequately define the pulse height spectrum se lio AA als me ela a SCA Sweep SCA Sweep Stat C Stop 5 Channels 159 to 197 Set Range weep 7 Voltages 3 1047 to 38467 Set SCA Channel 82 Range Oto 510 Clear Device select cms T H Buffer 1 MCS 32 Sample1 Mcs Graph settings Horiz 512 4 4 Vet 128K x Log Lin Auto 0 0000 Volt 31047 Volt Cnt 0 9 6000 Volt e ORTEC 1 18 2011 Horz 0 8000 Volt per Tick Vert 10 000 counts per Tick 75510 AM Drag Marker to select Lower and Upper SCA Fig 36 SCA Sweep Display voltage range set by clicking and dragging marker with mouse 48 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS In Fig 36 a signal with an amplitude of approximately 5 V has been fed into the SCA input The spectrum peak collected has been marked in reverse video by clicking and dragging the mouse from one side of the peak to the other The voltage range of this marked region is reflected in the Voltages field in the dialog note that the Channels and Voltages fields in the SCA Sweep dialog will update in real time as you click and drag the mouse These SCA voltages correspond to the upper and lower limits of the region marked on the peak To set the SCA levels to these voltages click the Set SCA button The SCA sweep will run faster if the range of sweep volt ages is limited To do this
116. nderstand them fully before attempting to use this product Cleaning Instructions DANGER Opening the cover of this instrument is likely to expose dangerous voltages Disconnect the instrument from all voltage sources while it is being opened WARNING Using this instrument in a manner not specified by the manufacturer may impair the protection provided by the instrument Cleaning Instructions To clean the instrument exterior e Remove loose dust on the outside of the instrument with a lint free cloth e Remove remaining dirt with a lint free cloth dampened in a general purpose detergent and water solution e Do not use abrasive cleaners CAUTION To keep moisture out of the instrument during external cleaning use only enough liquid to dampen the cloth or applicator viii NOTE We assume throughout this manual that you are thoroughly familiar with Microsoft Windows usage and terminology The convention used in this manual to represent actual keys pressed is to enclose the key label within angle brackets for example F1 For key combinations the key labels are joined by a within the angle brackets for example Alt 2 gt ix EASY MCS 1 INTRODUCTION The ORTEC Easy MCS converts your computer into a powerful multichannel scaler MCS or multiple stop time spectrometer With dwell times from 100 ns to 1300 s a memory length of 65 536 channels and input counting ra
117. nits Taller F6 or Up Arrow Shorter F5 or Dn Arrow Automatic Keypad lt gt Logarithmic Keypad lt gt Narrower F7 or Keypad lt gt Wider Keypad lt gt Center Keypad lt 5 gt Preferences gt Points Fill ROI Fill All Wrap Mode Full View Graticules Toolbar Colors Help Help Topics Fl How To Use Help About MCS 32 Expanded View Right Mouse Button Menu MCS gt Buffer Pass Control Input Control Ramp Control Adjust Live Input 34 931054C 1213 6 1 File The File menu is shown in Fig 17 These commands are available for both the MCS and the buffer with the exception of Recall Data which is only available in buffer mode 6 1 1 Recall Data Switch to buffer mode before using Recall Data This function read a spectrum file created by the MCS 32 Save Data As com mand into the buffer The buffer must be selected first The buffer is sized to conform to the pass length of the recalled spectrum If the buffer contains data that have not been saved a warning dialog opens first asking if the data should be saved Click Yes to perform a Save As No to continue with Recall and Cancel to return to the main display with no action 6 MENU COMMANDS Recall Data Save Data As Print Data Report Compare Data Recall Settings Save Settings As Import ASCII Export ASCII Exit Fig 17 File Menu The Open dialog Fig 18 shows the list of a
118. nsforms the data in the buffer by dividing the data in each channel by the pass count and rounding that value off to the closest integer see Fig 42 This command changes the pass count to 1 Subtract Each Channel will be divided by 116146 Ok to Normalize coca Fig 42 Normalize Fig 41 Enter the Subtraction Constant 6 3 8 Marker Marker reports the current marker position on the Supplementary Information Line near the bottom of the display see Fig 43 By default the marker is reported at the center of the channel The marker position is displayed at a much higher precision than on the Marker Information Line In the external dwell time mode the marker posi tion is displayed in channels In the internal dwell time mode it is displayed in time If the spectrum 16 0000 amu 18 0106 amu is calibrated the marker position is also displayed Marker at 18 0106007495 amu or 7 35 ps in Channel 1 470 f A Horz 1 0000 amu per Tick Vert Decade counts per Tick in calibrated units In all three cases the closest p p channel number is also included on the Supple mentary Information Line Fig 43 Results of Marker Command If a region is selected with the marker the width of the region is displayed in time or calibrated units instead of the single marker position 52 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS This command is duplicated by the Alt M accelerator and the Marker button on the Toolbar 6
119. nting rate is 150 MHz SCA IN 1 MHz window discriminator single channel analyzer accepts linear signals from 0 V to 12 V for counting SCA input is dc coupled with a 1000 O input impedance Minimum input pulse width is 500 ns The upper and lower level thresholds are independently adjustable from 0 V to 10 V in 4096 steps via the computer A signal that rises above the lower level threshold without exceeding the upper level threshold will be counted as it falls below the lower level threshold Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 START IN Accepts a TTL signal to start the scan on the next clock edge after the falling edge of the transition from 42 5 V to 0 V is detected on the START IN In the Internal Dwell mode the next clock edge is obtained from the 50 MHz internal time base For the External Dwell mode the next clock edge is obtained from the External Channel Advance Input The START IN edge is ignored during a scan or when disabled by the Start Enable Input Input impedance is 1000 Q to ground Minimum pulse width is 10 ns STOP IN Accepts an external TTL input rising from 0 to 2 5 V to stop scanning at the end of the current scan Minimum pulse width is 10 ns Input impedance is 5000 Q to ground CHN ADV IN Channel Advance Input Accepts an analog or digital pulse to cause a chan nel advance when the signal crosses the threshold with a positive slope provided External Dwell has been select
120. o run a JOB select a JOB filename and click Open Once a JOB is started most menu func tions will be disabled grayed to prevent interference with JOB as it runs The JOB filename will be displayed on the Title Bar In addition a JOB control dialog in the upper left corner of the display window will show the current status current line number of the JOB This dialog includes a Cancel button so the JOB can be aborted Look in CQ User amp er E3 Sample1 Job zm Sample2 Job Bl sample Job File name Samplet Job Files of type JOB Files Cancel Iv Show Contents SET PRESET PASS 1000 E dit File Fig 46 JOB File Selection and Execution If an error is encountered in a JOB file an error message will indicate that an error has occurred and will display the offending line of the JOB file 6 4 1 1 Editing JOB Files To edit a JOB file from the Start JOB dialog whether or not Show Contents is activated select a file from the list and click the Edit File button This will open Windows Notepad with the JOB file loaded NOTE When editing is complete the file must be saved in Notepad select Save or Save As under the File menu for the changes to be effective When Notepad is closed File Exit the newly edited file will be shown in the Start JOB dialog s Show Contents list box 56 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS 6 4 2 Library A library stays resident in memory after it has be
121. ontal size of the window as measured in pixels In this case where the number of channels shown exceeds the window size all of the channels cannot be represented by exactly one pixel dot Instead the channels are grouped together and the vertical displacement corre sponding to the maximum channel in each group is displayed This maintains a meaningful representation of the relative peak heights in the spectrum For a more precise representation of the peak shapes displaying all available data 1 e where each pixel corresponds to exactly one channel the scale should be expanded until the number of channels is less than or equal to the size of the window NOTE The marker can be moved by no less than one pixel or one channel whichever is greater at a time In the scenario described above where there are many more memory channels being represented on the display than there are pixels horizontally in the window the marker will move by more than one memory channel at a time even with the smallest possible change as performed with the and lt gt keys If true single channel motions are required the display must be expanded as described above 27 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 In addition to changing the scaling of the spectrum you can change the colors of the various spectrum features e g background spectrum ROIs using the Display menu commands 5 3 The Toolbar The row o
122. or different from the background see Display Preferences Fill All Section 6 6 9 1 The Compare spectrum is offset from the starting spectrum and can be moved up and down incrementally with the Shift 1 gt and Shift 1 accelerators In addition the vertical scale of both spectra can be simultaneously changed with lt 1 gt lt gt Note that the Compare spectrum s ROIs if any were saved with the file are not marked in this mode 40 931054C 1213 6 MENU COMMANDS Figure 25 is taken from Fig 24 In this illustration the starting spectrum is displayed in color 1 the Compare spectrum is shown in color 2 the starting spectrum s ROIs are marked in color 3 and the portion of the starting spectrum that exceeds the Compare spectrum is indicated by color 4 These colors called Foreground Compare ROI and Combine respectively are chosen on the Colors dialog discussed in Section 6 6 9 6 Press Esc to leave Compare mode 6 1 6 Recall Settings This function restores settings saved by the Save Settings As function When the Recall Settings function is selected a standard file open dialog opens Fig 26 The recalled settings Fig 25 Spectrum apply to the current MCS or buffer depending on which is Colors in Compare selected at the time Recall Settings is performed Mode Look in O User E ak E3 Ed Easy MCS 01 Set File name Eas MCS 1 Set Files of type S
123. ord Gxxxxxxxxxxccc lt CR gt XXXXXXXXXX is a 32 bit number IT lt CR gt True response to a SHOW command no checksum IF lt CR gt False response to a SHOW command no checksum Jxxxxxyyyyy ccccCR Response to SHOW CONFIG command MXxxxxxxxxxx ccccCR Response to SHOW STATUS command Nxxxyyyzzzccc lt CR gt XXX yyy and zzz are 8 bit unsigned numbers D 4 Command Catalog This section lists each Easy MCS command with a description of its operation The descriptions include a list of any unusual responses that may result Though syntax and communication error responses may result from any command in practice these error responses rarely occur on systems with reliable communication hardware running debugged software The commands are listed in alphabetical order each starting with a command prototype line Uppercase letters numeric digits blank space and special symbols such as the underscore and comma 13 in the prototype line are literal text to be sent to the MCB exactly as it appears Lowercase letters in the prototype line represent numeric values as described in the accompanying text and should not be sent literally to the MCB but should be replaced by an appropriate numeric value In this section the term lt CR gt represents the ASCII carriage return character decimal value 13 and the character _ represents the ASCII underscore character decimal value 95 107 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and M
124. ovides selection of the colors used for the various features in the displays Toggles marker information display between calibrated units and time units in internal dwell mode or channels in external dwell mode Displays or hides grid lines in the expanded display 96 931054C 1213 APPENDIX A SPECIFICATIONS A 5 Optional and Related Equipment MCS PCI OPT2 Fan Out Cable This cable converts the 25 pin D connector on the Easy MCS into a separate BNC cable connection for each input and output signal This option is strongly recommended A11 B32 CONNECTIONS Programmer s Toolkit with ActiveX Controls Write you own special software to control the Easy MCS from LabVIEW Visual C or Visual Basic 97 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 98 APPENDIX B MCS 32 COMMAND LINE STARTUP From the Windows Start menu type mcs in the search programs and files box then click the MCS 32 search result or open the Windows Start menu and click MCS 32 then MCS 32 Fig 61 fa MCS 32 PIU E Fulshot 9 PMCS Configuration E MCS 32 User Manual Fig 61 Starting MCS 32 However you can also run it in command line mode with or without the arguments described below In Windows 7 enter the command line and any arguments in the search programs and files box In XP use the Run dialog on the Start menu B 1 Command Line Options The form of the comm
125. pectively the Narrower Wider and Shorter Taller com mands on the Display menu see Section 6 6 and their accelerator keys lt F7 gt lt F8 gt and lt F5 gt lt F6 gt The Log and Lin radio buttons switch the expanded display between logarithmic and linear scaling These buttons duplicate the function of the Logarithmic toggle on the Display menu see Section 6 6 and the Keypad lt gt key 31 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 The Auto button switches the Expanded Display Window from a logarithmic vertical scale to a linear scale that is automatically adjusted so the largest peak in the current display is at its maxi mum height without overflowing the display In addition it centers the marker in the expanded display Auto also toggles the vertical scale of the spectrum display between the automatic and manual modes This function is duplicated by Display Automatic and Keypad lt gt 5 7 About MCS 32 Figure 16 shows the About MCS 32 About MCS 32 dialog under the Help menu The infor mation on this dialog will be useful should you need customer support MCS 32 provides the capability of collecting time spectra analyzing the results and generating reports using the ORTEC EASY MCS or MCS pci products MCS 32 for Windows Model amp 3 B32 Version 2 20 This product is licensed to Client Advanced Measurement Technology Inc Copyright 2011 ORTEC All Rights Reserved F
126. pectrum from disk can be moved below the first spectrum if 1t has fewer counts 7 2 11 Wider Narrower Keypad lt gt lt gt Keypad lt gt decreases the horizontal scale of the Expanded Display Window so the peaks appear wider while Keypad lt gt increases the horizontal scale making the peaks look narrower The horizontal and vertical scale values are displayed on the Sidebar These functions are duplicated by lt F7 gt lt F8 gt 7 2 12 Screen Capture lt PrintScreen gt The lt PrintScreen gt key captures the entire monitor display to the Windows Clipboard where it 1s available for use in other applications such as word processors Windows Paint etc 69 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 A typical usage would be to set up the display as desired for the snapshot you may wish to use Display Preferences Spectrum Colors to select black or white for all areas rather than colors since they produce clearer printouts then press lt PrintScreen gt Start the desired graphics or word processing application Copy the image from the Clipboard with Ctrl V or Edit Paste refer to the documentation for the graphics or word processing program See the accompanying FullShot manual for other screen capture and screen printing methods 7 3 Keyboard Number Combinations NOTE Only the keyboard numbers will function in the following combinations The keypad number keys will not perfo
127. ponential nota tion is permitted Dwell has a maximum value of 65535 and a minimum value of 5x10 Legal values between the minimum and maximum values may be determined by using the VERIFY DWELL command The value can then be set with SET DWELL If an invalid value is specified the value is rounded to the closest legal value and a warning message is returned See also SHOW DWELL ENAB DWELL EXT and DISA DWELL EXT SET DWELL ETHLD voltage Sets the external dwell threshold The value of voltage can be a floating point number between 1 6 V and 3 0 V Legal values occur between these limits nominally every 0 0015256 volts When an invalid value is specified the value is rounded off to the closest legal value See also SHOW DWELL ETHLD SET INPED number Sets the input impedance Number has only 2 valid values zero and 1 Zero sets the input impedance to 50 2 1 sets the input impedance to 1 kO See also SHOW INPED 110 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES SET LLSCA voltage Sets lower level threshold on the SCA to the specified voltage Voltage has a maximum value of 10 and a minimum value of 0 Legal values between 10 and 0 occur every 0 002442 volts Use VERIFY LLSCA to find the closest legal value to the desired voltage and then set the value with SET LLSCA If an invalid value is specified the value is rounded to the closest legal value and a warning message is returned See also SHOW LLSCA The LLSCA voltage should not
128. pped STOP has no effect This command has the same function as Stop under the Acquire menu It fails if the buffer is selected STRIP lt factor gt file mcs Strips the disk spectrum from the spectrum in the buffer and stores the results in the buffer The disk and buffer spectra must be the same size The disk spectrum can be scaled up or down by factor a constant or if factor is zero by the ratio of the pass counts of the two spectra This command fails if the buffer is not selected 86 931054C 1213 6 JOB FILES WAIT lt seconds gt Suspends execution of the JOB to wait until either the active MCS stops counting in the case where the lt seconds gt argument is not included or for a fixed number of seconds which can be fractional Note that the wait for end of acquisition form of the command 1 e no argument suspends the JOB indefinitely if there is no pass preset that can be satisfied 1 e if acquisition proceeds indefinitely WAIT program Suspends execution of the JOB to wait until the named program stops execution If the program does not stop the JOB does not continue 87 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 88 9 LIBRARY FILES Library files are used to provide names for specific features usually peaks in the spectra Library files have a very simple format consisting of a series of text lines terminated by carri
129. r to wld viene pa aot rated bleed eru tcu acres ay 61 6 60 94 Preferences iaee aot Re IR ac Ue Reo vt DP RIO e TR ha nate us 62 6 6 9 1 Points Fill ROFE Fill All 2 EU A ar S 62 6 6 9 2 Wrap Mode averte dise do EU RICE RR UNE recae delo 62 0 095 EU VIEW io dee tento e dedu SEDA 62 6 6 9 4 A ot eee Meda be puede fue tue cee ee 63 00030 TOGIDAE S o as be eee ete eee de tadas 63 6 06 96 EOS EA cate d eo bende ue oy add eb dido dis 63 Te KEY BOARD FUNCTIONS uio posts Bab dee ths RES e e 65 MA aro co A S ot et due to dase A RU Ee e Sve even SR ews 65 7 2 Marker and Display Function Keys sie pee Ue Ae 65 7 2 1 Next Previous Chameleon 65 zz NEU PEE IDU ROLD ecran aea eds ade wh ese Mn NE 68 7 2 3 Highlight Channels Left Right oscar yd 68 7 2 4 Next Previous Library Entry ascos eus cede Mes HOOP de Ree en 68 T23 First Last Channel oo oue Sie REN eS iUeUEEuUNRSRRESD AS 68 7 2 6 Jump 1 64 Screen Width uu oett ao aah PUER E e CR M CEU PERI ES n 68 Tu T Inserts boa ode ELO ECC babet v ame mau ied es 69 7 2 8 Unmark ROLL uh eec ee ex ERU ROSE ERE RR eGR RARE eet 69 ES Taller Shorter e eene ER npo tra de TRANI EADEM re eai ee Lo eis t 69 1 2 10 Shift Compare Pecuaria s 69 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 TA LT Wider Narrower oo sed sm eS ES I ad Dee QA SAA 69 1212 Sereen Capture A dale aeter Mt b b RR RR ea aede 69 7 3 Keyboard Number Combinations ici a A PE 70 DOE ES DE Ceu e
130. rate Fig 37 Calculate Menu Peak Search Sensitivity Calculation Settings XA More Peaks Less Peaks Cancel Fig 38 Set the Peak Search Sensitivity 49 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 951054C 1213 6 3 2 Data Info This command calculates a centroid gross area and net area for the region selected with the marker To select a region click and drag the mouse across the desired set of channels in the expanded display Alternatively this calculation can be performed on an ROI by double clicking the ROI This automatically selects the region marked by the ROI and performs the Data Info calculation Figure 39 shows how the results of the Data Info command are displayed on the Marker Information Line The marker value changes to the centroid and a gross and net count are displayed If the spec trum is calibrated the cen troid is reported in calibration units If the spectrum is not calibrated the centroid is reported in either time internal dwell time mode or channels external channel advance mode Also if a library file has been specified see Section 6 4 2 MCS 32 searches the library for the value that most closely matches the calculated centroid and Centroid 18 0229993968 amu Gross 129 238 Net 129 130 666667 Cnts reports the name associated with that Horz 1 0000 amu per Tick Vert Decade counts per Tick value on the bottom line of the screen Adjusted
131. rm these functions 7 3 1 Start Alt 1 gt Alt 1 starts the acquisition in the selected MCS Any presets desired must be entered before starting acquisition This accelerator duplicates the Start Toolbar button the Start command on the right mouse button menu and Acquire Start discussed in Section 6 2 1 7 3 2 Stop Alt 2 gt Alt 2 stops acquisition in the selected MCS This duplicates the Stop Toolbar button the Stop command on the right mouse button menu and Acquire Stop discussed in Section 6 2 2 Acquisition stops at the end of the current pass To stop before the end of the pass issue the Stop command twice 7 3 3 Clear Alt 3 gt Alt 3 clears the displayed instrument s histogram data and its descriptors real time live time etc This accelerator duplicates the Clear Spectrum Toolbar button the Clear command on the right mouse button menu and Acquire Clear discussed in Section 6 2 3 Stop acquisition before executing the Clear command 7 3 4 MCS gt Buffer Alt 5 gt Alt 5 copies the histogram data from the selected MCS to the buffer along with its descrip tors e g live time real time and displays the spectrum in a new window This duplicates the MCS gt Buffer Toolbar button and Acquire MCS gt Buffer discussed in Section 6 2 4 7 3 5 MCS Buffer Alt 6 gt Alt 6 switches the display between the histogram of the spectrum in the selected MCS and the spect
132. rnal dwell time The value of f is a floating point number that may take on any value from 5 x 10 to 65535 If an invalid dwell time is specified the MCS will roundoff the value to the closest legal value This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data 84 931054C 1213 8 JOB FILES SET INPED number Sets the input impedance The value of number has only 2 valid possibilities zero and 1 Zero sets the input impedance to 50 Q 1 sets the input impedance to 1 KQO SET MCS number This command selects the active MCS or the buffer The MCS number can be 1 to 8 accord ing to the MCS configuration or O for the buffer SET MCS without an argument is used to switch to the previously selected MCS If an MCS that does not exist is selected no change is made This command for values 1 to 8 has the same function as Ctrl F1 through Ctrl F8 For value 0 or no argument this command duplicates the buffer selection capabilities of the MCS Buffer toggle under the Display menu F4 Alt 6 gt and the MCS and Buffer radio buttons on the Sidebar SET MODE ACQUIRE n Sets the acquire mode to Sum if n is 0 or to Replace if n is not 0 Performs the same function as the Acq Mode radio buttons in the Pass Control dialog Acquire Pass Control Valid pass lengths with ramp control enabled are 4 65536 This command fails if the buffer is selected or the MCS is acquiring data S
133. rum in the buffer The buffer will have the memory size of the spectrum that was last transferred from MCS or disk file The Sidebar indicates whether the buffer or a particular MCS 70 931054C 1213 7 KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS is currently displayed and shows the presets for the displayed data This duplicates F4 and Display MCS Buffer see Section 4 6 2 7 4 Function Keys 7 4 1 MCS Buffer lt F4 gt The lt F4 gt key switches between the display of the data in the MCS and the data in the buffer It duplicates the function of lt Alt 6 gt and Display MCS Buffer see Section 7 3 5 7 4 2 Taller Shorter lt F5 gt lt F6 gt These keys decrease or increase the vertical full scale of the displayed spectrum so the peaks appear taller or shorter respectively They duplicate the function of the 1 and 1 keys The vertical scale value is always shown on the Sidebar 7 4 3 Narrower Wider lt F7 gt lt F8 gt F7 increases the horizontal scale of the Expanded Display Window so the peaks appear nar rower while F8 decreases the horizontal scale making the peaks look wider The horizontal and vertical scale values are displayed on the Sidebar These functions are duplicated by lt F7 gt lt F8 gt 7 4 4 Select MCS Ctrl F1 gt through Ctrl F8 gt These keys open a new window and display the spectrum for the specified MCS n where n 1 to 8 corresponding to Ctrl Fn gt in the order that the instruments are def
134. s Dwell time reported as 10 2 us Dwell time reported as 9 9800 ms Dwell time reported as 10 ms Dwell time reported as 10 1 ms Dwell time reported as 4 98 s Dwell time reported as 5 s 113 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 DWELL 0000000005 04 lt CR gt Dwell time reported as 5 04 s DWELL 0000000002480 lt CR gt Dwell time reported as 2480 s DWELL 0000000002500 lt CR gt Dwell time reported as 2500 s DWELL 0000000002501 lt CR gt Dwell time reported as 2501 s SHOW DWELL ETHLD Returns the current value of the external dwell threshold in voltage See also SET DWELL ETHLD Responses ETHLD 000001 400575 External dwell threshold is currently set to 1 400575 V SHOW INPED Returns the current input impedance value See also SET INPED Responses F50 lt CR gt Input impedance is currently set to 50 Q F1000 lt CR gt Input impedance is currently set to 1000 2 SHOW INTEGRAL start_chan number_of chans Reports the sum of the specified group of spectral data channels for the currently selected device If start chan and number of chans is not provided SHOW INTEGRAL reports the sum of all channels Responses G0000000000075 lt CR gt Integral reported as 0 G4294967294131 lt CR gt Integral reported as 4 294 967 294 G4294967295132 lt CR gt Integral reported at least 4 294 967 295 maximum reportable value SHOW LLSCA Returns the lower level threshold setting on the S
135. se cates a Roe Nal e e a ee 68 ROD 2 sich fey eck ws Fut ass Boh eres RC 68 Input control Ls casta vite aban oA REN 45 Inputs 25 pin D connector inputs 7 8 IN AA an 7 InstallaflOm sot A 11 Job COMO ius ortus rU agentes TER 55 CXAMPIC pants s orte RS da 73 Ile aoo re Thus e eae is ere 73 loop counter Lose ise ma 75 programming td ds 73 TUN Ai ehem o DAS Nr M was 56 Job Commands 45 0 28 08 AE RSS 78 JOB Piles pr ates OO RSS ht 73 78 Keyboard COMMANGS ote ua b poA P RES TER 65 Maras oett 67 quick referen es oes RR Ve ide 66 Linear scales avita vd ao ey ee 28 20 Logarithrcales ovd Ree RR YS 61 Logarithmic scale vomitar Re 28 20 Lower level voltdSe o io RR AES 45 Mark ROL 4522 sees eR odes 28 59 Mark isen pi media ul i a e E 26 moving with the mouse 29 MCS Configuration ius oe ee 12 MESIBU uci o Io ee aes 60 NIC van 26 ACUE d eave te so RUE LARA daba 43 Calculate co eor m ERE Ex 49 DISpIay vos s oL LESER a 60 Elle 3 03 dicbus NER UE el vp bur ur drag 35 Menit Baro uestes aee VES 26 menu commands less 33 right mouse button ooo ooo ooo o o 30 ROL oops 58 DEVICES Ss AS 39 MOUSE s ats d FCU RC DARE OR d 20 moving the marker o oo ooo o 29 Right mouse button menu 30 Net area ad sies a Pb RN AER PUES 50 INOUMANZE 2 Levit Bee wes E PRU VERS 52 Outputs 25 pin D connector inputs 8 9 P ss control
136. sesede dx be Rasen RV ER 44 Pass count preset a cedes x ses 44 Peake Search o uos b P oes BARROS 39 Pin out diagram o ooooooooooomooo o 92 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 Ramp control re e acie va AG Mus cy ada Raa aS 50 Ramp OpUODo os 45 4 cae bee as 46 SUM DUON alta idad 45 Recall Data xo a EM 39 Title Dak 15 gis bei ee Ec Sb 25 36 Recall ROL sa EMI 59 Triangle waveform stats 46 Recall Scale EM es AN A dele aad Sp be ed 45 Region of interest sx isa Ea A 35s ibid rS ERE lee ebbe 15 Replace EM 45 Unmnak All ROIs stas is er 59 Replace button sins ria EROR 45 Unmark ROL 2 yeso S US ELA t 59 Repo ot te ee dos e e glare bas 37 Upper Level voltage sitios 45 Right mouse button menu 30 Vertical Auto Scale qeria 28 29 RUI E teh ede alah Gas 53 58 68 Vertical Scale sores ie EM eae 27 61 69 72 Cl bs eos 28 29 69 linear is rs e Nb 28 29 b A PP RR 28 logarithms h s tai SEES 28 29 ROLM e oco tov edu US SERES DOs Wrap mode dl e de 62 Sample description eiii stas 36 Save PES a ao dt td 37 Save Data AS ese gula 36 Save ROLAS sata elas 59 Save Sellgs AG 54 ra e ds 41 Sawtooth waveform erario 844 eeu es 46 SEA its ihe e OUS ERIS eR 45 Scaling autoscales 5 555 53 4 dra 8 28 20 linear poe ied A S es 28 29 Screen Captures A ERE es 69 Select MOS isis 60 Services MENU Siana eo EROS 55 SEMNE MT MET e e aa e a Get lc ls 41 Show Full View ita e ds 62 Sideb
137. st be in the syntax expected by the MCS If the response from the MCS does not end with a command accepted message this command will exit with error Specific MCS commands and syntax are described in Appendix D Following is an example of using this command to set the date in the Easy MCS to March 3 2000 SET_MCS 1 STOP SEND_MESSAGE SET_DATE 3 3 00 SET_DISCRIMINATOR_EDGE lt n gt If lt n gt is 0 the discriminator is set to rising edge triggered If lt n gt is not zero the discrimi nator is set to falling edge triggered This command performs the same function as the Rising Falling radio buttons on the Input Control dialog Acquire Input Control This command fails if the buffer is selected SET_DISCRIMINATOR lt f gt Sets the discriminator level to lt f gt volts The value of lt f gt may be a floating point number between 1 6 V and 3 0 V This command performs the same function as the Discrimi nator slide bar on the Input Control dialog Acquire Input Control This command fails if the buffer is selected SET DWELL ETHLD f gt Sets the external dwell threshold F can be a floating point number between 1 6 V and 3 0 V SET DWELL EXTERNAL Sets the dwell time to external The SET DWELL TIME command switches the MCS from external to internal dwell This command is only valid when an MCS is selected and is not acquiring data SET DWELL TIME lt f gt Sets the dwell time to lt f gt seconds and selects inte
138. sy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 e Replace Sum Data acquisition operates in the Replace mode on the first pass and then switches to the Sum mode for subsequent passes This eliminates the need to clear memory between acquisitions and reduces the end of acquisition dead time when alternating data acquisition between two units of the Easy MCS Maximum Counts Channel in a Single Pass 1 073 741 823 counts Dead Time Between Channels There is no dead time between channels 1 e no counts are lost at the time of channel advance The event is always counted in exactly one of the two adjacent channels End of Pass Dead Time There is no dead time between passes during an acquisition 29 66 Ramp Output Linear ramps with begin mid and end of pass voltages computer selectable from 0 to 10 V with 16 bit resolution and a 2 us settling time A 2 Inputs and Outputs All inputs and outputs except the fast negative analog Not Used Channel Advance Output e NIM IN re supplied on the 25 pin D connector on stat ouput O c p the front panel Detailed information on the inputs and Midpass Output 3 ey outputs are supplied in Sections 2 1 1 and 2 1 2 Channel Advance Input ls 55 Ground respectively mua O Ground Not Used 6 Ground TTL Start Enable Input O G d We strongly recommend you use an MCS PCI OPT2 Sir inb id Fan Out Cable to convert this connector into BNC SCA
139. t CR gt DISC_ENA 00000000003 0 lt CR gt DISC_DIS 0000000001 6 lt CR gt DISC_DIS 0002 4987793 lt CR gt DISC_DIS 00002 9987793 lt CR gt DISC_DIS 00000000003 0 lt CR gt SHOW_DISCRIMINATOR_EDGE Disc Enabled Threshold 1 6 V Enabled Threshold 1 598779 V Enabled Threshold 2 998779 V Enabled Threshold 3 0 V Disc Disabled Threshold 1 6 V Disabled Threshold 2 49878 V Disabled Threshold 2 998779 V Disabled Threshold 3 0 V Returns the discriminator edge leading or trailing that is counted See also SET_DISCRIMI NATOR_TRAILING and SET_DISCRIMINATOR_LEADING Responses FLEAD lt CR gt FTRAI lt CR gt SHOW_DWELL Discriminator is leading rising edge sensitive Discriminator is trailing falling edge sensitive Returns current dwell time setting as a 13 digit floating point number See also SET_DWELL and VERIFY_DWELL Responses DWELL 0000000000000 lt CR gt DWELL 00000001e 007 lt CR gt DWELL 00000002e 007 lt CR gt DWELL 000002 4e 007 lt CR gt DWELL 00009 960e 006 lt CR gt DWELL 00000001e 005 lt CR gt DWELL 00001 02e 005 lt CR gt DWELL 00000 0099800 lt CR gt DWELL 0000000000 01 lt CR gt DWELL 00000000 0101 lt CR gt DWELL 0000000004 98 lt CR gt DWELL 0000000000005 lt CR gt External dwell time enabled Dwell time reported as 100 ns Dwell time reported as 200 ns Dwell time reported as 240 ns Dwell time reported as 9 960 us Dwell time reported as 10 u
140. t CVM CROIRE head b 95 BRAS E AAA pier ke Re WERE eR OU me Red 95 A 4 6 MCS 32 Menus zu aree kr ae ne GRE S NUI RU emt CR RR baka P Ld e OR 96 A 5 Optional and Related Equipment 2229 AA A S EE 97 931054C 1213 TABLE OF CONTENTS APPENDIX B MCS 32 COMMAND LINE STARTUP 00000 cece eee 99 5 1 Command Line Options 02 482d ieee p R ie 99 APPENDIX C FILE FORMATS ra tenn RES cade an eae 101 CT MES Spectral Data Files a varices berate Ee oso heme sack eee aa 101 EO NL dere 103 APPENDIX D FIRMWARE COMMANDS AND RESPONSES sess 105 DA Command Format i922 ar MLB ER E mace E ES Ma Reka ee REESE AUS 105 D2 Error CodeS E AS AAA AAA 105 D Dolar Response Record Lai E IE SAA A oe 107 DA Command Catalogs e me DEOR cac eo Prati ERR a o feet ias 107 DEX A A ue ek annals A a d qr Gatch NOR NU ROUES MADRE TREAT UE 121 Safety Instructions and Symbols This manual contains up to three levels of safety instructions that must be observed in order to avoid personal injury and or damage to equipment or other property These are DANGER Indicates a hazard that could result in death or serious bodily harm if the safety instruction is not observed WARNING Indicates a hazard that could result in bodily harm if the safety instruction is not observed CAUTION Indicates a hazard that could result in property damage if the safety instruction is not observed Please read all safety instructions carefully and make sure you u
141. tal image in half the memory This limits the memory length available for counting events to 32 768 channels when the ramp is active e External Trigger Mode In the external trigger mode a positive TTL logic pulse delivered to the Start Input will initiate the scan in the Easy MCS The scan can proceed based on the internal dwell time clock in the Easy MCS or the channel advance can be implemented by supplying pulses to the Channel Advance Input Using the internal dwell time the scan starts on the first edge of the internal 50 MHz clock following the rising edge of the Start Input pulse When the external channel advance is used the scan starts as the rising edge of the first channel advance input pulse crosses its discriminator threshold subsequent to the rising edge of the Start Input The external channel advance input includes a computer controlled discriminator threshold selectable from 1 6 V to 3 V in 1 5 mV steps This discriminator permits adaptation to a variety of signal sources at the external channel advance input The minimum interval between external channel advance pulses is 100 ns Quick Access to Multiple Spectra The MCS 32 software allows you to view either the spectrum being acquired in the Easy MCS memory MCS mode or you can transfer the contents of the MCS memory to the MCS 32 software s buffer window buffer mode The full power to display and manipulate can be applied to the spectra in either of these memories Spec
142. tance in the preceding example the Easy MCS will start the acquisition before the filter is changed The way around this is to add a WAIT command immediately after the RUN command RUN MOVEFILT EXE WAIT MOVEFILT EXE The JOB file will now suspend execution until MOVEFILT EXE exits 8 1 3 Controlling MCS 32 from Other Programs In the preceding example MCS 32 ran another executable to control the system A different method of operation is to run MCS 32 from another control program In this situation a user written program would set up the hardware for the acquisition then run MCS 32 with a com mand line that immediately starts a JOB to perform the acquisition Using the QUIT command as 77 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 the last line of the JOB would cause MCS 32 to exit at the end of the acquisition and return to the control program For example if you use the MAESTRO MCA Emulator software you might write a JOB that runs MCS 32 then returns to MAESTRO after the acquisition See Section B 1 for information on the MCS 32 command line 8 2 Job Commands In the following descriptions a variable filename or text is enclosed in and a variable number is enclosed in lt gt anything enclosed in square brackets is optional BEEP freq lt duration gt or lt ID gt or lt String gt This command functions for computers without a sound card typically
143. tes up to 150 MHz the Easy MCS has the flexibility to handle a wide variety of counting and timing applications including Time resolved single photon counting Phosphorescence lifetime spectrometry Atmospheric and satellite LIDAR Laser induced chemical reactions Scanning mass spectrometers Time of flight spectrometry Scanning X ray diffractometers Mo ssbauer experiments The Easy MCS connects to your computer via a high speed USB 2 0 interface and one com puter can control up to eight units The accompanying MCS 32 software allows you to manipulate all controls and spectral data from your computer or across a network Multiple Easy MCS units can be run at the same time with corresponding multiple instances of the MCS 32 program 1 1 Easy MCS Features Hardware e Small footprint instrument connects to the host computer via high speed USB Dwell time selectable from 100 ns to 1 300 seconds per channel Number of channels per scan selectable from 4 to 65 536 Accepts counting rates up to 150 MHz at the fast analog input 1 MHz single channel analyzer input with computer controlled upper and lower level discriminators independently adjustable from 0 to 10 V Computer adjustable discriminator thresholds on the fast analog input and the external channel advance input Zero dead time between channels absolutely no lost counts and no double counting at channel boundaries Noend of pass dead time e Sum mode for signal av
144. the MCS 32 screen All other windows and most functions relate to the spectrum windows The Full Display Window shows the entire data memory of the MCS as defined in the configuration In addition it has a marker box show ing which portion of the spectrum is displayed in the Expanded Display Window The Expanded Display Window contains a reverse color marker line at the horizontal position of the pixel representing the marker channel This marker can be moved with the mouse pointer as described in Section 5 4 1 and with the 2 and lt PgUp gt lt PgDn gt keys Note that in both spectrum windows the actual spectrum is scaled to fit in its window as it appears on the display Also since both windows can be resized it follows that the scaling is not always by powers of two nor even integral multiples Therefore MCS 32 uses algorithms to scale the window properly and maintain the correct peak shapes regardless of the actual size of the window The vertical scale in the Full Display Window is always logarithmic In the Expanded Display Window use the menus right mouse button menu accelerator keys and Toolbar to choose between logarithmic and linear scales change the horizontal or vertical axes and select which region of the spectrum to view Depending on the expansion or overall size of the spectrum all or part of the selected spectrum can be shown in the expanded window Therefore the number of channels may be larger than the horiz
145. time etc from the selected MCS to the buffer The MCS Buffer function can also be performed by pressing Alt 55 6 2 5 Pass Control This command opens the dialog shown in Fig 30 appears This function is available in both buffer and MCS modes even if the MCS is acquiring data However for the buffer and for MCSs acquiring data the current settings can t be changed Enter the number of channels to use for MCS acquisition in the Pass Length field The minimum pass length is 4 and the maximum is 65536 The Pass Count Preset entry field is used to enter the number of passes to collect With this preset condition the MCS stops counting when the pass count reaches this Pass Control Pass Lenath z 1000 E 4 65535 Channels gt Pass Count Preset 1 a OFF 4294967294 Dwell Internal C External Bin Width Threshold 1 Fig 30 Pass Control Dialog Trigger ntemal C External Acq Mode f Sum C Replace C Rep Sum Cancel value To turnoff this preset enter 0 zero or the word off the MCS will then collect data until the Stop command is issued In the Dwell section select either Internal or External For internal dwell enter the dwell time in the Bin Width field then open the adjacent drop down list and select the time units If you select external dwell the Channel Advance input on the MCS is used to provide the signal that causes the MCS to move from one channel to the
146. tion setting The commands responds with a data record containing an ASCII header and two or three floating point values The header speci fies whether the ramp is in two point or three point mode When in two point mode only two floating point values are returned while three floating point values are returned in three point mode In three point mode the first floating point value specifies the ramp voltage at channel 0 the second value specifies the ramp voltage at the middle channel of the pass the lower middle channel for even pass lengths and the third value specifies the ramp voltage at the final channel of the pass A straight line is drawn between channel O and the middle channel and the middle channel and the ending channel There are a maximum of 65 536 unique set tings for the ramp In two point mode values are returned for the first and last channel in the pass and a straight line is drawn between them If the custom ramp mode is selected no data record is returned Example Responses RAMP 3 0000000000000 00009 9993896 0000000000000 CR Ramp starts at O V peaks at the middle channel at 9 99939 V ends at 0 V RAMP 3 00009 9993896 0000000000000 00009 9993896 lt CR gt Ramp starts at 9 9939 V reaches a minimum of 0 V at the middle channel returns to 9 9939 V in last channel RAMP 2 0000000000000 00009 9993896 CR Ramp starts at 0 V and peaks at the last channel at 9 99939 V 116 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RE
147. tra can also be saved as disk files for later recall into the buffer window and processing Full and Expanded Displays Reveal Quantitative Details Two views of the selected spectrum are displayed The box in the upper right hand corner always shows the full spectrum A region selected and marked on this small display is expanded in the larger display for better resolution of details Using the mouse you can move a marker through the spectrum to a feature of interest Simultaneously the computer displays the horizontal coordinate for the channel designated by the marker position and the number of counts recorded in that channel By default the horizontal coordinate is displayed as the channel number in the external dwell time mode In the internal dwell time mode the default horizontal coordinate corresponds to the selected dwell time The horizontal scale can be easily calibrated in user defined units through least squares fitting to a linear quadratic or cubic function In that case the marker position reads out in the calibrated units Once the system is calibrated you can quickly toggle back and forth between the default and calibrated units The marker also serves to paint regions of interest ROIs on the spectrum Commands under the Calculate menu then trigger the computer to display the centroid of the ROI the gross total counts in the ROI and the net counts above background in the region Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 3
148. trol returns to MCS 32 An error code appears in the Start JOB dialog as described in Section 6 4 1 8 1 JOB Programming Example A common operation that is ideal for a JOB file is the collection of many consecutive sample spectra without user intervention This process can be described as follows 1 Set the MCS parameters such as dwell time 2 Start the acquisition 3 Wait for acquisition to stop 4 Integrate a spectrum peak 5 Record the peak area 6 Repeat this for the required number of samples By looking at the list of steps above and the explanations below the necessary commands can be determined The first step in the process is to set the MCS parameters and clear the data SET MCS 1 SET DWELL TIME 18 65 SET PASS LENGTH 7500 73 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 SET PRESET PASS 1000 CLEAR Note that only the Dwell Time Pass Length and Pass Preset were set We will assume that the other parameters Disc Voltage Acq Mode etc were set before the JOB was started Now start the acquisition and wait for completion of the pass preset START WAIT During this time the display manipulation keys and mouse are active so the spectrum can be studied while data collection takes place Now move the spectrum from the MCS to the buffer and select the buffer for the computational step FILL_BUFFER SET_MCS 0 In the next step the peak of interest is being marked by
149. tting closest to a specific value The VERIFY com mands allow you to test for the closest valid setting without changing the setting The soft ware remembers the actual setting prior to the VERIFY test and resets that original value after the test Example Command VER DWELL 230e 9 Response DWELL 000002 4e 007 CR Closest legal value to 230 ns is 240 ns VERIFY LLSCA value step This command is used to determine the valid SCA lower level setting close to a specific value For the use and operation of a verify command see VERIFY DWELL Examples Command VER LLSCA 6 Response LLSCA 00006 0009766 CR Closest legal value to 6 is 6 0009766 Command VER LLSCA 1 Response LLSCA 0000000000000 CR Closest legal value to 1 is 0 118 931054C 1213 APPENDIX D COMMANDS AND RESPONSES VERIFY RAMP value step This command is used to determine the valid RAMP settings For the use and operation of a verify command see VERIFY DWELL Examples Command VER RAMP 6 Response RAMP 00005 9997558 lt CR gt Closest value to 6 is 5 999756 Command VER RAMP 11 Response RAMP 00009 9993896 lt CR gt Closest legal value to 11 is 9 99939 VERIFY ULSCA value step This command is used to determine the valid SCA upper level setting close to a specific value For the use and operation of a verify command see VERIFY DWELL Examples Command VER ULSCA 6 Response ULSCA 00006 0009766 lt CR gt Closest legal value to 6 is 6 000977 Command VER
150. um data files to from the computer disk Permits comparison of a spectrum on disk with a spectrum in the Buffer memory Allows saving and recalling the instrument settings Selects regions of the spectrum for printing Creates reports describing acquisition conditions and the contents of all ROIs for printing or filing on disk Includes the functions for exporting or importing the data in ASCII format Acquire Offers menu selection of the Start Stop and Clear controls live adjustment of the thresholds and selection of the MCS or Buffer memory Provides access to the SCA Sweep mode and the display panels for Pass Control Input Control and Ramp Control Calculate Includes an automated peak search and offers calculation of the centroid gross area and net area of a peak within boundaries selected by the marker Provides Sum Smooth Strip and Normalize operations on the spectrum Implements linear quadratic or cubic calibration of the horizontal scale in user defined units via least squares fitting Allows subtraction of a flat background to extract small peaks from a high background Services Provides menu access to user defined Job programs the Library Files for peak identification and the Sample Description ROI Provides menu access to recalling saving marking and unmarking regions of interest ROIs Display Offers menu selection of all the functions listed under View Allows coloring of the ROI areas and or the entire spectrum Pr
151. vailable MCS files in the current directory Look in O User e E3 Y 1300sTest Mcs Y InternalClockTest Mcs YERMCS_01 Mcs ETA Y Samplel_rois Mcs Vi sample Mcs File name Sample1 Mcs Files of type Spectra Cancel Iv Show Description Lenath 10 000 Chns Dwell 5 00 ns ID 0914 001 s background at 8 x 10E 8 torr Fig 18 Recall Spectrum Dialog Note the Show Description checkbox on the lower left of the dialog Use this to display the sample description format and spectrum size of each file without having to open it 35 Easy MCS Multichannel Scaler and MCS 32 A73 B32 Software 931054C 1213 When the spectrum has been read successfully by this function the descriptors pass count dwell time etc are obtained from the file for the buffer and the filename is displayed in the Title Bar If the spectrum file has calibration information this is used to set the calibration for the buffer This command is duplicated by the Recall Data button on the Toolbar 6 1 2 Save Data As This command writes the displayed spectrum to disk The Save Spec trum File dialog Fig 19 opens when Save As is selected Enter any valid location and filename in the File name field The file exten sion is MCS The following are stored in the MCS file with the data pass count dwell time pass length pass count preset input control settings acqui Save in O User z j ex E3 Dix 1
152. vertical scale so peaks appear larger Move marker to higher channel Move marker to lower channel Ctrl Jump to next higher ROI Ctrl gt Jump to next lower ROL lt Shift Highlight channels to the right lt Shift gt Highlight channels to the left Alt gt gt Jump to next library entry Alt gt Jump to previous library entry lt PageUp gt Jump to higher channel number in 1 64th screen width increments lt PageDown gt Jump to lower channel number in 1 64th screen width increments lt Home gt Jump to first channel of the full display lt End gt Jump to last channel of the full display lt Ctrl Fi gt Select MCS 1 i 1 to 12 in pick list order lt F4 gt or Alt 6 Switch between displaying selected MCS and buffer F5 or 1 Increase the vertical scale so that peaks appear smaller F6 or 1 Decrease the vertical scale so that peaks appear larger F7 or Keypad Increase the horizontal scale so peaks appear narrower F8 or Keypad c Decrease the horizontal scale so peaks appear wider Keypad or F7 Increase the horizontal scale so peaks appear narrower Keypad lt gt or F8 Decrease the horizontal scale so peaks appear wider Keypad lt 5 gt Center Expanded Display Window on cursor Keypad lt gt Switch to logarithmic vertical scale Keypad lt gt Switch to auto vertical scale Insert or lt Ins gt Mark the highlighted area as an ROI Delete or lt Del
153. ware 931054C 1213 Intentionally blank 14 4 GETTING STARTED MCS 32 TUTORIAL This chapter is a short tutorial to help first time users It tells you how to Set up an acquisition Collect data Store spectra to and retrieve them from disk Abort a data acquisition This tutorial assumes that your Easy MCS and MCS 32 software have been installed as described in Chapter 3 4 1 Preparing To Acquire Data The first step is to start MCS 32 and prepare the hardware for acquisition 1 Start MCS 32 2 From the Windows Start menu type mcs in the search programs and files box then click the MCS 32 search result or open the Windows Start menu and click MCS 32 then MCS 32 Fig 4 g MCS 32 GCC len Fulshot 9 gt MCS Configuration E MCS 32 User Manual Fig 4 Starting MCS 32 The startup screen for MCS 32 will look similar to Fig 5 Note that the program starts in MCS mode i e live monitoring of an MCS instrument by default See Section 5 2 for a discussion of the horizontal and vertical scaling Stop any current acquisition and clear the data Check the Stop radio button in the upper section of the sidebar on the right of the screen If it is not marked with a black dot the MCS is collecting data Click the Stop button until it is marked this shouldn t take more than two clicks e Next click the Clear button near the middle of the sidebar This clears any data in the MCS
154. ypad lt gt lt gt Keypad lt gt decreases the horizontal scale of the Expanded Display Window so the peaks appear wider while Keypad lt gt increases the horizontal scale making the peaks look narrower The horizontal and vertical scale values are displayed on the Sidebar These functions are duplicated by lt F7 gt lt F8 gt 72 8 JOB FILES An MCS 32 JOB file consists of one or more lines of ASCII text representing a series of com mands that can automate most of the functions described earlier in this manual This chapter gives the details of the commands including required syntax A JOB file can be executed with the Services Start JOB dialog or by including the name of the JOB file on the command line when MCS 32 is first started e g MCS32 JDEMO JOB JOB files are used for the following types of functions 1 Performing a repetitive task such as running a sequence of experiments without user intervention 2 Defining initial conditions at startup this is useful for preloading presets for a specific experiment although a settings SET file can serve the same function see Section 6 1 7 MCS 32 can run repetitive loops Furthermore the current loop count can be included as a vari able in any string including filenames program parameters and text Data can thus be stored with unique filenames and labeled with unique descriptions If an error occurs in running a JOB file file execution stops and con

ORTEC Easy-MCS and MCS-32 User Manual, Software v2.2 931054C

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