Thermo NSS Upgrades and Probe for EPMA

[John Donovan]

Whenever you update your Thermo NSS software, you *must* be sure to replace the API client DLLs (TEPortal.dll and socketdll.dll) with the ones from the new Thermo software. These files are found in the Thermo installation folder TE Portal after upgrading.

This file should normally be where Probe for EPMA can be sure to find it, usually the system folder (Windows\System32 for 32 bit OS and Windows\SysWOW64 for 64 bit OS when using the 32 bit software).

Always search your hard drive and make sure you do not have extra copies of the TEPortal.dll and socketdll.dll files anywhere else!

[John Donovan]

Whenever you update your Thermo NSS software, you *must* be sure to replace the API client DLLs (TEPortal.dll and socketdll.dll) with the ones from the new Thermo software. These files are found in the Thermo installation folder TE Portal after upgrading.

This file should normally be where Probe for EPMA can be sure to find it, usually the system folder (Windows\System32 for 32 bit OS and Windows\SysWOW64 for 64 bit OS when using the 32 bit software).

Always search your hard drive and make sure you do not have extra copies of the TEPortal.dll and socketdll.dll files anywhere else!

I've asked Thermo to install these TEPortal files automatically from their Setup.exe to the Windows system folder so everyone can access them and they said they would do that ASAP.

Update: Greg Fritz at Thermo tells me that this mod will be in the next release of their NSS installer.
john

[John Donovan]

Just FYI, we are still waiting for Thermo to update the TE Portal interface files automatically when PathFinder is updated, so in the meantime if you update your Thermo PathFinder, you still have to find the new teportal.dll and socketdll.dll files in the PathFinder folder, which is usually:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Thermo Scientific\PathFinder\TEPortal

and copy them to the Probe for EPMA application folder, which is usually:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Probe Software\Probe for EPMA

You can also copy them instead to the Windows SysWOW64 folder, but better to put them right in the PFE app folder. I'll bug Thermo again about making this more automatic.

[John Donovan]

An update on the installation of the TE Portal DLLs for on-line (and off-line processing) of EDS spectra for quantification of EDS elements integrated with WDS in Probe for EPMA.

Good news!

Today I uninstalled my previous version of Thermo NSS on one of my off-line re-processing computers (and deleted the old versions of the teportal.dll and socketdll.dll files from the SysWOW64 folder since I know they will need to get replaced).

Then I installed the latest Thermo Pathfinder software. All went well. One does get the warning at the very end that no EDS "front end" was found to update, but that is normal for an off-line computer that isn't connected to the Thermo SDD detector!

Anyway a couple of pointers on a new Thermo Pathfinder install. To my knowledge the only thing that actually needs to be done manually for the installation of the new Thermo Pathfinder software for off-line reprocessing, is to edit the NSSMachineSettings.ini file which is found here under the ProgramData folder (remember it is usually a hidden folder in Windows!) as seen here:



Then edit the IPAddress keyword for the "loopback" address (there's no place like home!) so the software knows that it is running without an actual EDS detector as seen here:



Now for best results (e.g., running the Pathfinder software in simulation mode) one should also make a shortcut on their desktop for the simulation interface app (which is still called SystemSIXSim.exe). This allows the Pathfinder software to run in simulation mode. I'm not sure this is actually necessary for off-line processing but it is fun to play with.



Then one just double-clicks the SystemSIXSim.exe shortcut to start that, then double-click the Pathfinder shortcut that the installers made which is also on the desktop and open a new or existing Thermo project.

Finally one starts Probe for EPMA and then one can start processing EDS spectra for quantitative analysis with WDS elements.

[John Donovan]

OK, this is interesting.  After I fired up Probe for EPMA I ran some integrated quant analyses and got some nice results for traces in my orthoclase standard as seen here:



But, but, but... I should not have been able to do this because I didn't manually copy over the teportal.dll and socketdll.dll files from the Thermo TE Portal folder to the Windows\SysWOW64 folder, as we have always done in the past (so Probe for EPMA and Probe Image can find the TE Portal interface)!

So how did it work?  Did Thermo install these files in the Common Files folder as we do for the ActiveX interface in the Remote app:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=88.0

Nope. I checked and there's no Thermo folder there.  Maybe they had the installer edit the system path, and yup, that's exactly what they did as seen here:



So, that's the good news. At some point in time Thermo modified the Pathfinder installer to edit the system path so other apps can easily find the TE Portal API interface. 

Thank-you Thermo!

Just as an aside, note that this quant utilized Si by EDS for the interference by silicon on Sr La (by WDS), and also utilized K by EDS for the interference by potassium (satellite II order) on Rb La (by WDS).