PeakSight 6.2 and Probe Image

[Probeman]

Last summer I updated from PeakSight 4.x to PeakSight 6.2.  Once I got the new software installed and configured properly on a new Dell Workstation (Win 7 Pro 64 bit), see here for the gory details:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=1037.0

everything seemed to work as expected, with one exception. And that was the WDS map acquisitions.  I could acquire video images, and even stage or beam maps using the VS1 or VS2 signals, but the WDS intensities in the x-ray maps were either 0 or very large integers.

However, last week I tried again, and this time I reviewed the probe setup dialog information in Probe Image and out of desperation checked the little checkbox titled "Newer SX100" as seen here:



And lo and behold it worked!  I now have nice looking x-ray maps!

Now the story of that little checkbox is that when Probe Software started interfacing to the first SXFive instruments (Adelaide and Madison), we found that the WDS data coming back from the instrument was in a slightly different format.  So that little checkbox was created to deal with what we thought was a change in the map acquisition hardware for the SXFive.

But apparently, it's not due to a change in the hardware, because the hardware on my SX100 instrument hasn't been changed, just the PeakSight software to was updated to v. 6.2, which by the way, contains updated firmware!

So, this little "Newer SX100" checkbox in the probe setup dialog in Probe Image is actually for when your firmware gets updated to the latest Cameca firmware.  Apparently this firmware is already updated for all SXFive instruments, but is also updated when going from v. 4.x of PeakSight to v. 6.2 on SX100 instruments also.

Mystery solved.   

[AndrewLocock]

Cameca is releasing PeakSight 6.4. Has anyone experienced any problems with this version with respect to Probe-for-EPMA or Probe Image? Thanks, Andrew

[Probeman]

Cameca is releasing PeakSight 6.4. Has anyone experienced any problems with this version with respect to Probe-for-EPMA or Probe Image? Thanks, Andrew

Hi Andrew,
I just learned from Cameca that the reason I cannot acquire x-ray maps in Probe Image *or* PeakSight (after I updated last summer to PeakSight 6.2 because I had to retire my old Cameca XP computer), is that the new firmware (which comes with PeakSight 6.2) is not compatible with my older SX100!

No one warned me and now I am stuck...   

Waiting to hear back from them on how the instrument can be modified to work with the newer firmware!
john

[AndrewLocock]

Hi John,
Thanks for the information/warning!
I will stick with PeakSight 5.1 for the time being, or until I hear that your system is functioning properly with 6.x ....
Thanks again,
Andrew

[Probeman]

Hi Andrew,
Depending on the "vintage" of your SX100, it might be OK.  Originally when I first reported these x-ray mapping issues to Cameca, they assured me that they had updated dozens of SX100s to PeakSight 6.2 and not seen any problems.   

Just for reference, the configuration page on my instrument looks like this:



I'm assuming the "Old" scanning board must be the issue, but I'm not sure.  What does your configuration page look like?
john

[AndrewLocock]

Hi John,
The General tab of the Configuration file for my Cameca SX100 is attached as: Capture.JPG
The most notable difference (to me) is that my file shows "Scanning | New", whereas yours shows "Scanning | Old".

I am still leery of moving to PeakSight 6.4.
Cheers,
Andrew

[Probeman]

Right.  If I had to guess I'd say you would be OK (with PeakSight 6.2 at least), because you have the "New" scanning board, but you definitely would want to confirm that with Cameca before you update!

Everything else worked fine with PeakSight 6.2, I just had to check the "Newer SX100" checkbox in Probe Image to get the intensities back OK.  But after the x-ray map finishes, the spectrometers won't move and the instrument has to be re-booted.   
john

[Probeman]

Ok, the saga of our PeakSight 6.2 upgrade is now complete.

The good news is everything in PeakSight 6.2 and Probe for EPMA/Probe Image seem to work great with our Cameca (late model) SX100 (#887) all running under Windows 7 Professional.  Whew!  It wasn't easy.

To reiterate: Because our IT group said we had to update to Win 7 or 10 to stay on the Internet, we bought a Dell Precision Workstation (always buy Dell Precision Workstations because they use tantalum capacitors on the motherboard that do not "pop" after a few years of continuous operation). But we had to upgrade to PeakSight 6.2 because our previous version (PeakSight 4.2) will not run under Win7. I believe that v. 5.1 of PeakSight is the first version of PeakSight that will run under Win7.

Anyway, after installing the PeakSight v. 6.2 software last year we discovered that the mapping functions in Probe Image and PeakSight no longer worked.  That is, the first WDS map set would be acquired, but then the WDS spectrometers would be locked up and the instrument would have to be restarted!   

Now our instrument in the Cameca Config app says that we have the New Spectro and New Stage boards, but that we have the Old Scanning board as seen in the above post.  But after Cameca got some debug logs from us, they determined that the problem was *not* with the Old Scanning board, but instead the problem was with our New Spectro and Stage boards!

Some of you may have gotten an email from Cameca about this time, because we did and they said we would need *newer* spectro and stage boards, which would cost $30K.   Of course we were stunned because how did they not know that we would need this board replacement when they sent us the new PeakSight 6.2?  So we wrote and said there's no way we can afford $30K, so they said they would give us a deal for $15K.  We said, we don't have $15K either and that this was their fault for upgrading our software without warning us it would break the instrument.

So then they said, OK we can send you replacement boards for $8K because the firmware just needs to be updated and then you can send us back the old boards. We said, how about we send you the old boards and you update the firmware and then send them back? They said, OK we can do that for $2K and we said it's a deal!  OK, so we would be down for a week or two, but maybe I should get an award for saving the university $28K!   

Anyway, we removed the old boards, shipped them to Cameca and after about two weeks they shipped our boards back with updated firmware and and, voila, they worked. 

Now we are all good running PeakSight 6.2 on our SX100 under Win7. Thank-you Cameca!

I just thought you all should know the final episode of our Win 7 and PeakSight 6.2 upgrade story.