Latest version changes for Probe for EPMA (and CalcImage) v. 13.8.3

[John Donovan]

Hi John
Really like the new graphics, they look snazzy. I also like that the sample numbers don't sit on each other in the MAN box. Is there a reason I can't zoom in on areas with the mouse click/drag box on the MAN review window now? I can still do this on the Plot window fine, just don't seem to be able to do it in the MAN box...

cheers

Hi Ben,
Thank-you!

Indeed. I never thought anyone would want to zoom there, but sure- why not add zoom to the MAN plot?  It's a few lines of code and a button for "zoom full".

[John Donovan]

Hi John
Really like the new graphics, they look snazzy. I also like that the sample numbers don't sit on each other in the MAN box. Is there a reason I can't zoom in on areas with the mouse click/drag box on the MAN review window now? I can still do this on the Plot window fine, just don't seem to be able to do it in the MAN box...

Hi Ben,
The latest version of Probe for EPMA (v. 11.3.3) has zoom capability in the MAN fit plot dialog as seen here:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.msg4069#msg4069

[John Donovan]

I added an Output All button as seen here for the thin film output:



This feature then automatically selects each multi-voltage acquisitions with the same name and exports the k-ratios and film geometry for thin film quantification.

This will greatly speed up thin film reprocessing I suspect.

[BenjaminWade]

Hi John
Really like the new graphics, they look snazzy. I also like that the sample numbers don't sit on each other in the MAN box. Is there a reason I can't zoom in on areas with the mouse click/drag box on the MAN review window now? I can still do this on the Plot window fine, just don't seem to be able to do it in the MAN box...

Hi Ben,
The latest version of Probe for EPMA (v. 11.3.3) has zoom capability in the MAN fit plot dialog as seen here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.msg4069#msg4069

Awesome, thanks. I find it handy if I can zoom in to the lower Z end of the spectrum to see how good the fit is when you are dealing with low level elements and using MAN.

[Probeman]

Hi John
Really like the new graphics, they look snazzy. I also like that the sample numbers don't sit on each other in the MAN box. Is there a reason I can't zoom in on areas with the mouse click/drag box on the MAN review window now? I can still do this on the Plot window fine, just don't seem to be able to do it in the MAN box...

Hi Ben,
The latest version of Probe for EPMA (v. 11.3.3) has zoom capability in the MAN fit plot dialog as seen here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.msg4069#msg4069

Awesome, thanks. I find it handy if I can zoom in to the lower Z end of the spectrum to see how good the fit is when you are dealing with low level elements and using MAN.

I understand.

Or what I do is to analyze a low Z pure oxide that is not used in the MAN fit to check for zero.  In others words, a blank standard.   If the blank matrix is similar to one's unknown, then it is a robust check.

What is your matrix?
john

[John Donovan]

In version 11.4.0 of Probe for EPMA I modified the MAN dialog to automatically load all MAN elements for all keVs in the run.  This way, combined condition samples using MAN backgrounds now get handled automatically.  Thank-you Anette!

Here you can see that I've removed the "Re-Load" button and associated takeoff and keV controls and added a column for KeV:



Note that both the element takeoff and keV are now stored in the MAN table so one can have different curves for the same element setup at different keVs.

I also added a new keyword to the Probewin.ini which defines the Thermo NSS version number.  The program will assume v. 3 of NSS but warns you the first time in case someone out there is still using NSS v. 2.x. Thank-you Ken.

I also (again thanks to Ken) now check if a point deleted in an unknown sample is being used for any blank corrections, and if so it forces a re-calculation of the blank sample on the next analysis.

[John Donovan]

Anette made a comment about the Plot button in the Automate! window and I took a look and decided I could plot up position samples up much better with the new library.

Attached below (be sure to login to see attachments) are some screen shots of the new position plot graphics.

[Probeman]

I just made a slight change in the nominal interference calculation code to add the effect of lower resolution at lower sin thetas in the Gaussian peak width calculation.

Please check the on-peak and the off-peak nominal interference calculations in the Standard Assignments and Elements/Cations dialogs (respectively). So update PFE and let me know if you think the nominal interference calculations are more accurate now.

Basically the code wasn't catching the Ti Ka interference on Cs La at low sin thetas on a PET crystal and so this new code should handle these situations better.

[John Donovan]

All,
I have been forced to make a change to the code that I did not want to do.  It only affects Windows XP (or older) computers running the software when connecting to the instrument (it will not affect running PFE off-line for reprocessing data), but still a hassle and I apologize in advance for your trouble.

The bottom line is that if you are running XP or older and update PFE (to v. 11.8.7) and try to connect to your instrument, PFE will prompt you for a new registration code and you will have to send that to me (or your probe software support person), and I (or they) will generate a new unlock code for you.  For general ease of use please utilize the copy button in the Registration dialog to send me the code so typos are kept to a minimum. You should probably wait to update PFE until you think I (or your probe software support person) are awake and able to respond to email.  If necessary of course you can call probe software directly by phone and we can get you up and running immediately.

For reasons that I am sure are reasonable to Microsoft but a mystery to me, when a 32 bit app asks what operating system it is running on, Windows 8 and Windows 10 report that the operating system is Win NT and Win XP, respectively. This causes a problem for where to store the copy protection file as the system folders in new operating are now generally off limits to apps.

So I've had to "bit the bullet" and change the code to always store the copy protection file in a place where all operating systems can write it.  This means the common app data folder and unfortunately this means that Win XP or older systems will require a new registration number to connect to the instrument.

Again I apologize and hope this doesn't cause too much trouble for those still running Windows XP (or older) operating systems.
john

Remember, if you have Probe Image, you'll need to copy the new xline.dll file to the Probe Image common app data folder:

Windows XP (and older):

C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Probe Software\Probe for EPMA
C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Probe Software\Probe Image

Please note that these folders may be "hidden" and will need to be made visible using the folder options...

[John Donovan]

The latest versions of PFE, CalcImage, etc. have improved performance- up to 10x faster for many operations. Please update using the Help menu and let me know what you find on your computer(s).
john

[John Donovan]

The latest version of PFE now loads the Bruker and Thermo maximum high energy cutoff and throughput defaults from the Probewin.ini file.

For a Thermo EDS the keywords in the [hardware] section would look like this:

MaxEnergyArraySize=6
MaxEnergyArrayValue1="5"
MaxEnergyArrayValue2="10"
MaxEnergyArrayValue3="20"
MaxEnergyArrayValue4="40"
MaxEnergyArrayValue5="80"
MaxEnergyArrayValue6="0"

MaxThroughputArraySize=11
MaxThroughputArrayValue1="200"
MaxThroughputArrayValue2="400"
MaxThroughputArrayValue3="600"
MaxThroughputArrayValue4="800"
MaxThroughputArrayValue5="1000"
MaxThroughputArrayValue6="1600"
MaxThroughputArrayValue7="2000"
MaxThroughputArrayValue8="3200"
MaxThroughputArrayValue9="4000"
MaxThroughputArrayValue10="6400"
MaxThroughputArrayValue11="0"

Note that a value of "0" (zero) means auto mode. For quantification of EDS spectra I would suggest keeping a fixed throughput for both the standards and unknowns. I talked with Keith Thompson on this and he said yes, one should use the same time constant for both standards and unknowns, but he mentioned that they have found that quantification works surprisingly well, even when the throughput is set to auto.  Just not quite as well.

For Bruker use this setup:

MaxEnergyArraySize=4
MaxEnergyArrayValue1="10"
MaxEnergyArrayValue2="20"
MaxEnergyArrayValue3="40"
MaxEnergyArrayValue4="80"

MaxThroughputArraySize=4
MaxThroughputArrayValue1="275"
MaxThroughputArrayValue2="130"
MaxThroughputArrayValue3="90"
MaxThroughputArrayValue4="60"

If these keywords are missing from the Probewin.ini file, the above values will get loaded automatically. The only reason for having these keywords explicitly in your Probewin.ini is perhaps just in case you wanted to customize the list by leaving some values out to force some user behavior.
john

[John Donovan]

All,
Probe for EPMA version 11.9.5 has additional performance improvements.

Ready to download now from Help menu.
john

[John Donovan]

The latest version of Probe for EPMA now includes a new text control in the Acquisition Options dialog, for the user to specify the "nominal" dead time of the EDS system as seen here:



By "nominal" we mean the approximate EDS dead time in percent. The default is 50% and please note that this text control cannot be edited in demo (simulation) mode as the Penepma based Monte Carlo EDS "acquisition" has no dead time!

This nominal dead time value is stored in your current probe run MDB file, but is only utilized to estimate the acquisition time for the EDS system.
john

[John Donovan]

The latest version of Probe for EPMA (v. 11.9.9) now includes updated CalcImage presentation output scripts, which are compatible with Surfer v. 14.

[John Donovan]

Thanks to a suggestion from Paul Carpenter, the latest version of Probe for EPMA now reads the specified formula parameters from the standard database and loads them automatically, if this is the first time that standard number has been loaded into the current run.  This applies to both the New Sample Setup dialog and also the Automate! window.

If the standard has already been loaded, the program utilizes the formula parameters of that previous standard sample number in the current run.

The idea being that, for example, some may want to have the number of cations set to 3 or the number of oxygens set to 4 for olivine standards.  Then when the standard is subsequently "analyzed" from the Analyze! window, one can more easily ascertain the quality of the standard acquisition.