Wish List for PFE Features

[John Donovan]

5. Love the re-standardization feature but I am missing one option. Usually, I standardize first, acquire a few unknowns to check that everything is ok (trust issues here with both machines and humans) and then send off the whole batch. I would like a re-standardization at the end and also after x hours. When choosing "Acquire standard samples (again)" and "Re-standard interval" it gives me an error message and wants me to add "Acquire standards" but I don't want to re-standardize at the beginning of the batch again, so I ask for either the error message to go away or adding that option. The biggest improvement would be IMO to have a re-standardize automation with the options "every x-hours" and "at the end". This would also improve the usability because I used to find the re-standardize option a bit ambiguous in wording.

Yeah, I think I understand.

It sounds that you want to be able to acquire interval standardizations, but without having to acquire an initial set of standards also, correct?

[Anette von der Handt]

Hi John,

exactly. I often have already acquired the initial set of standards and would like to use the re-standardize function in the following run as well. Having the option to choose Re-standardize after x hours and at the end independent of the first standardization would be extremely helpful.

Edit by John: Ok, that shouldn't be too hard... I can probably do that this weekend.  Did my responses to your other wishes (above) work?

That is, starting here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.msg1015#msg1015

[Anette von der Handt]

2. The option that an email is send when automation is finished. I have a couple of people sitting in a different building across campus and with the winter as it is here, I am sure they would appreciate this option. Ideally this option would be checked/unchecked in the analysis options rather than acquisition options (or elsewhere), so that I don't need to create a new acquisition sample just for triggering this option.

Also already done!

Simply enter an email address and check this box here in the Acquisition Options dialog from the Acquire! window:



The cool thing about this feature is that it not only informs you if an error has occurred during the automation (e.g., blown filament), but it also sends you a progress report every 8 hours and also sends a final notice email when the automation is complete!   

Note that you can optionally set the default address in the Probewin.ini file, but the smtp server and other essentials must be specified in the probewin.ini file as follows:

[general]
SMTPServerAddress="smtp.uoregon.edu"      ; email server address for error messages
SMTPAddressFrom="epmalab@uoregon.edu"
SMTPAddressTo="epmalab@uoregon.edu"
SMTPUsername="epmalab"

The application will prompt you for the password when required. Obviously you will need to enter your own smtp server information in your own Probewin.ini...

How's that sound?

Excellent. I will definitely use that. However I would suggest then to modify the description to remove the word "error" as it is clearly so much more.

[John Donovan]

Excellent. I will definitely use that. However I would suggest then to modify the description to remove the word "error" as it is clearly so much more.

Yes you are correct, I will fix that this weekend also. But just FYI you can get additional information on each control by "hovering" the mouse cursor over the control in question, for example see this:

[Anette von der Handt]

Yes, I use and like the mouse-hover- tips but in my version there is no additional mouse-hover information. Actually, the function is blanked out - the "Email notification box is also greyed out. I guess I have to put in the accurate SMTP etc notes in the probewin.ini file first which I haven't done yet because I thought it only reports errors  . The F1 Help file here also gives no additional information FYI.

[John Donovan]

Yes, I use and like the mouse-hover- tips but in my version there is no additional mouse-hover information. Actually, the function is blanked out - the "Email notification box is also greyed out. I guess I have to put in the accurate SMTP etc notes in the probewin.ini file first which I haven't done yet because I thought it only reports errors  . The F1 Help file here also gives no additional information FYI.

Yes, I noticed that there was no info in the help file under Acquisition Options, but the info for specifying the SMTP settings are there in the configuration file pages.

http://probesoftware.com/download/PROBEWIN.pdf#page=41

Thanks for the "heads up", I will add some additional info this weekend.

[Philipp Poeml]

4. This one may already exist and then I would be grateful to know how to do it - namely the option to update the sample set-ups. I am very often using the sample set-up option and usually have 3-4 different set-ups for a run that differ in their element setup but also the acquisition conditions. I quite often have to change some minor detail in the probe conditions like the beam diameter or the image shift and right now I am re-creating new acquisition samples for each set-up, read in the new conditions each time, re-save them as a new sample set-up and have to re-apply them to the position. (Or could I forgo all that by force current column conditions? Would that then be applied to digitized sample set-ups?).

Hi Anette,
There is an easier way!  Just create an empty sample for each sample setup you want to use (do not acquire data to it).

So if the sample (setup) has no data, simply make the additional changes to that sample (setup) from the Analyze! window (Count Times, Analytical Conditions, Calculation Options, whatever) by selecting that sample (setup) and click the appropriate button for the sample changed desired and the Automate! window will automatically include those changes in the next automated acquisition.

Essentially it is best to think of a sample setup as simply a "pointer" to an empty sample which contains certain specific elements and acquisition and analysis options. If you make changes to the sample being "pointed to", the next acquisition using that "sample setup", automatically utilizes those changes in the next acquisition.

I think this is a really important feature!!!! This deserves a paragraph in the Users Reference Guide.

So, what about Anette's wish number 3?

[John Donovan]

3. An option in the analysis window that only acquired samples are shown (similar to the plot window). I often have to create new acquisition samples to change the conditions for different sample set-ups and it gets messy quickly.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.  Do you mean an option so you only see samples with data (no asterisk)?

I'm waiting for her to answer my question above... did I miss a response somewhere?

[John Donovan]

I think this is a really important feature!!!! This deserves a paragraph in the Users Reference Guide.

It is documented!  Here is how I found it:

1. I hit the F1 key in the main PFE window.
2. I clicked the Search tab in the Help file.
3. I entered "sample setup" and <enter>
4. The 4th item (Load Sample Setup) listed had this (I didn't look at the others):

[Anette von der Handt]

3. An option in the analysis window that only acquired samples are shown (similar to the plot window). I often have to create new acquisition samples to change the conditions for different sample set-ups and it gets messy quickly.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean.  Do you mean an option so you only see samples with data (no asterisk)?

I'm waiting for her to answer my question above... did I miss a response somewhere?

No, I missed your answer, sorry. Yes, that is exactly what I meant: only samples without asterisk.

[Dan R]

John-
I would like to see a way of setting up maps in probe image using chain acquisition in the automate window. Is this in the works?
Dan

[John Donovan]

I would like to see a way of setting up maps in probe image using chain acquisition in the automate window. Is this in the works?

Hi Dan,
It is a good idea and it is "in the works" as you said.  In fact here's the checkbox that you will use to browse to a specific .PrbAcq Probe Image acquisition file and this will get run after the point analyses and standards have finished.

[Philipp Poeml]

I think this is a really important feature!!!! This deserves a paragraph in the Users Reference Guide.

It is documented!  Here is how I found it:

1. I hit the F1 key in the main PFE window.
2. I clicked the Search tab in the Help file.
3. I entered "sample setup" and <enter>
4. The 4th item (Load Sample Setup) listed had this (I didn't look at the others):

Ok, agreed. It is there. Is it also in the PDF? Anyway, I did not know about it and I find it a really useful thing to know.

Thanks
Philipp

Edit by John: no worries, it is not always easy to find everything but it is usually documented.

[Probeman]

Basically, I have now run into a couple of situations where, after acquiring a bunch of data with off-peak backgrounds, there have a been a few elements where an MAN background would likely have been more suitable, but for several other elements, the off-peak backgrounds were fine. Possibly showing my ignorance of how the MAN backgrounds actually work, but it would be hugely helpful to be able to apply the MAN correction to just a few select off-peak elements in post-processing rather than the whole set.

Hi Owen,
Sorry, but not at this time. Other than first specifying which elements are off-peak and which are MAN (or just making all off-peaks corrected using MAN as you described above), your choices for post processing are limited to one of the many off-peak options as seen here:



I assume by "a few elements where an MAN background would likely have been more suitable" that you mean that there was an unexpected off-peak interference?

Of course one may find an unexpected off-peak background interference occasionally, but generally an initial spectrometer wavescan (after all elements have been peaked properly), run on a suitable sample, will reveal most off-peak interferences as discussed in this post:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=30.msg271#msg271

It is nice that PFE allows one to automatically acquire a wavescan for all element "regions of interest" with a single acquisition even if one has 15 or 20 or more elements in the run.

If you still get an off-peak interference you can try using the "Low Only" or "High Only" off-peak backgrounds, which essentially ignores the offending off-peak intensity. If the slope is large and a single off-peak won't suffice, then try either the "Slope Low" or "Slope High" off peak background options.

Ideally perform these background fit evaluations using the wavescan sample as described here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=68.msg246#msg246

Another possibility that you might find very powerful is the "multi-point" background which allows the application to acquire multiple background mesurements on each side of the peak as described here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=56.0

Note that the multi-point off-peaks can also be treated as normal off-peaks in post processing...

2) A very quick one - could ZAF factors be added to the output options in Plot?

Easier would be to use the Output | User Specified Custom Format Output menu as seen here:



The nice thing about this "user specified format output" is that the output options you select are remembered the next time the run is re-opened, so you don't have to remember yourself!   

[Probeman]

...the reason I asked about having them in plot is that having it would be a nice teaching function, i.e. I can have students acquire some test data, and then can quickly (and graphically) show them how the ZAF factors change for a given element in samples with different matrices. But if this is a pain to code, no problem. Thanks!

Everything is "a pain" when you're the one doing the programming!     But seriously, if you are looking for teaching resources for matrix corrections, you might start with this post:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=126.msg1124#msg1124

I will also try to post how I use CalcZAF to teach about matrix corrections  as soon as I get a chance... ok, here's the link:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=239.msg1126#msg1126