TestMatrix Matrix COM Server

[John Donovan]

A test program, TestMatrix.exe, is provided with the Matrix.msi COM server installation which can be used to test the various matrix correction routines in Matrix.exe. The Matrix.msi installer is available here:

http://www.probesoftware.com/Update.html

Note that under Window 7 you will likely have to edit the executable properties by right clicking the Matrix.exe file (usually installed to the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder under Windows 7) and then clicking the Properties menu, then click the Compatibility tab and select "Run as Administrator" as seen here:



Then when you run TestMatrix from the Start menu you will see this after you click the Do Matrix Correction button:



Note the polynomial alpha factors calculated in the Matrix COM server window and the quantitative results in the TestMatrix window. The full TestMatrix code is provided so you can see how to create your own quantitative correction applications in VB, Excel or Matlab. Note that both off-peak and MAN backgrounds are supported along with quantitative spectral interference corrections.

But why you might ask. Because we can not only select 10 different ZAF or Phi-rho-z analytical expressions to calculate k-ratios for our alpha factors (not to mention empirically measured k-ratios on standards), just as we can in the CalcZAF and Probe for EPMA applications as seen here:



but we can also utilize Penepma Monte-Carlo derived k-ratios for these alpha factor calculations using the following COM call:



The Matrix COM server documentation is available here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=63.msg238#msg238

[John Donovan]

The latest TestMatrix installation msi package now contains the complete source code for compiling TestMatrix.exe. Previous versions did not have the TestMatrix.ico, TestMatrix.rc and TestMatrix.res files.

Download here:

http://probesoftware.com/Update.htm

[John Donovan]

We suspect our Matrix Correction COM server isn't used all that much (compared to our Remote Automation Interface COM server for creating custom applications for controlling your EPMA instrument), but we wanted to make a quick note that we recently fixed a COM reference problem in the latest (v. 12.2.8 ) TestMatrix application (and VB6 source code) that is provided with the Matrix.msi file, which can be downloaded here:

http://www.probesoftware.com/ftp/V11/Matrix.msi

So you if you already utilize our Matrix Correction COM server, or would like to, you should download the above Matrix.msi installer and run it.

As a reminder, the Matrix COM server allow one to create custom applications that can perform not only matrix corrections, but also MAN background and spectral interference corrections based on element setups saved from the Probe for EPMA  Analyze! window to the element setup databases (Setup.mdb for standard intensities, Setup2.mdb for MAN intensities and Setup3.mdb for interference correction intensities).

One can write custom application code for matrix, background and interference corrections using Visual Basic (which can now freely available to all), but also from any OLE container that supports VBA syntax such as Excel, Matlab, LabView, etc.

Here is an example of the TestMatrix app mentioned above:



Note that we also now load (before the COM connection is attempted), a quick instructions dialog as seen here:



Note that it is often necessary (depending on the OS and one's system settings) to run the TestMatrix.exe application (as administrator) the first time after running the Matrix.msi installer. This is done by simply right clicking the TestMatrix.exe file in the Matrix application folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Probe Software\Matrix Correction) and clicking the "Run as Administrator" menu. Once this is done, the application can be restarted by simply double-clicking it or a shortcut. This may be necessary because COM application register themselves automatically on startup, and again, depending on your system settings, you may need to do this once to register the COM server.