External scanning on Cameca SX100

[JakubHaifler]

Hi everyone.

Please, could anyone give me a short explanation, how external scanning works on Cameca SX100? Now, we have Cameca SX100, which is equipped with a new Thermo EDS system. We never had a physical connection between our SX100 and EDS (either old one or the new one), so that EDS was never able to take control over beam scanning, we used both systems separately. Now, we have acquired PfE and would like to enjoy all the functions. 

Our new Thermo EDS should, in principle, be able to control scanning to make line scans or distribution maps via Pathfinder. But, we are not sure, whether our SX100 would allow such external control. Does somebody know whether the interface of this external scan control is present in every SX100, or is that an auxiliary equipment? And how the physical connection between SX100 and EDS looks like?

Thank you very much. Jakub Haifler

[Gseward]

I hope someone can comment on whether ALL SX100s have the appropriate input/output.

Here I attach an image of where the signals are located on my SX100.
The signals are labelled in the attached pdf

Cheers,

Gareth
 

[Probeman]

Hi Jakub,
I would have thought that Thermo would have made these instrument and external beam scan connections when they installed your EDS systems! That should be standard operating procedure!   

On our SX100 the Thermo Pathfinder system can control the stage, column (mag and accel voltage), beam current and faraday cup (the last item which we don't use because during integrated WDS and EDS acquisition, the Thermo software interrupts the WDS measurement by inserting the faraday cup at the start of the spectrum acquisition) and also control the beam scanning for EDS spectrum imaging and analog signal scanning.

I think you'd better contact your Thermo service person and complain (loudly!)

[John Donovan]

It should also be mentioned that Thermo only provides the external beam scan control if it was ordered by the customer.  As for control of the stage and column, this is also a separate order item that is normally made during the EDS purchase.  Maybe it can be purchased separately at a later time if it was not ordered originally?

Maybe you should check your original Thermo order and see what it contains?

[JakubHaifler]

Hi John.

Thank you for your messages. Gareth has already given me many advices on the connection. We concluded that there would be capability of both, our SX100 and our Thermo EDS to communicate with each other if they were connected. I am not sure about the details of the deal with Thermo, I was not responsible for this. But we could check.

The reason why we were not surprised at the lack of the connection is that we never had the physical connection and the beam control taken by EDS system, not even when we had the original system, which was installed in 2003. For some reason we thought, Cameca did not allow else’s hardware to control their system and that the interface is lacking in our device. But it seems according to what I know from Gareth, that the board is there (before, we thought it’s not).
We have found a cable provided by Thermo with multispin connectors fitting probably to the EDS on one side and BNC connectors on the other side, which should probably aim towards the SX100. However, there is lacking a reduction between the board on SX100 and the cable.

So, with that cable alone, they probably could not make the connection when installing the new EDS. So, I do not know at the moment, whether this cables/reduction should have been provided by Cameca or by Thermo. Where do you have these parts from?

Thank you, Jakub.       

[Probeman]

You might also ask Thermo what the original order included. I think it's all encoded with your serial number found in the Pathfinder About dialog. When we put a Thermo system on our SX00 in Oregon, it included the cable for external beam control and the software modules for stage and column control.

By the way, Thermo licenses the Cameca driver from Probe Software to connect to SX100/SXFive instruments for stage and column control.  Since you already own Probe for EPMA this is one thing you will not need to purchase from Thermo, if you need to buy the stage and column modules for Pathfinder.

[JakubHaifler]

Thank you, John.

[sem-geologist]

Thank You, Gareth, for sharing the cable schematics. I was wondering what OPT1 (and ground for OPT1) pins are on that EDS header, Thanks To Your schematics I finally see what OPT1 is video-in signal. The header for connection looks the same on on our SX100, and SXFive as well.