A blog on the repair, operation and calibration of surface analysis systems and components including electron spectrometers, sputter ion guns and vacuum related hardware. Click on the Index tab below to see a list of all posts. Visit our website at http://www.rbdinstruments.com
A new feature has been added to AugerScan – the option to automatically mark all the peaks of a particular Auger element when marking the primary peak. With this feature you can mark an element’s primary peak and AugerScan will automatically mark the rest of the element’s peaks and select the primary for atomic concentration.
An Example Using Copper (Cu1)
AugerScan – Marking multiple peaks for copper (Cu1)
In the example above, we’ve selected the carbon (C1), oxygen (O1) and copper (Cu1) peaks. AugerScan automatically marked the additional copper peaks (Cu2, Cu3, and Cu4). When performing an atomic concentration calculation, only the Cu1 peak is selected.
You can of course easily change which peaks are selected for atomic concentration by clicking the “Markers” command from the “Edit” menu. You can also remove selected markers from peaks using this dialog.
AugerScan – Marker Selection Dialog
To turn this feature on/off, choose the “Options…” command from the “Data” menu, and select/deselect the checkbox labeled “When Marking and Element, Mark all of its Peaks”.
AugerScan – Marking all Peaks Option
(This feature was originally developed for CMapp, RBD’s software for the microCMA Compact Auger Analyzer)
AugerScan and AugerMap are “legacy” software applications originally developed for Windows 95 and 98, however they have been and continue to be updated for bug fixes, additional features, and operating system compatibility. Both applications (and the systems they run) are still going strong and support Windows 7 – 10.
While many customers are still content running their RBD-upgraded PHI systems on Windows XP (or 95-98!), Microsoft no longer supports those operating systems, making upgrading the OS or replacing those PCs inevitable. There are a few areas where the transitions is not as smooth as we’d yet like, and those are driver support and the legacy help system.
Drivers
RBD provides drivers for older Windows XP systems as well as drivers that are fully compatible with Windows 7 – 10. However, none of these drivers are currently digitally signed. Depending on your operating system, providing the rights to run unsigned drivers may be necessary upon installing the drivers and/or running the software.
Some of the errors you may encounter are cryptic, such as the following sometimes seen when installing unsigned drivers on Windows 10: “The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalog file”.
Thanks for the clarity, Microsoft!
The good news is that you should only have to take care of the issue once, not every time you are running the software. The bad news is the methods are different for each operating system version, and even different for the same exact operating system depending on the date it was installed and the PC BIOS.
For most versions of Windows, disabling driver signature enforcement can be accomplished easily by one of these methods.
For Windows 10 PCs that were installed (not updated) with build 1607 (Anniversary Edition), the Secure Boot feature of the BIOS must be turned off.
Help
The original Help system (largely unchanged since Windows 3.1) was phased out in Windows Vista. The context-sensitive help – also known as “what’s this?” or “right-click” help cannot be replaced (this was the information you would typically see for each field in a dialog box, for example). However, for Windows Vista through 8.1, Microsoft does provide separate downloads for the legacy help system; it’s just no longer installed in the operating system.
You can find most of those files on this Microsoft support page (scroll down to “Resolution”) For security reasons, Microsoft no longer supports this help format at all in Windows 10, and there are no third-party solutions available.
However, we’ve translated most of RBD’s help to HTML for both AugerScan and AugerMap. In each case, simply unzip the file to a convenient folder and run “index.html” in your browser.
When the 32-095 X-ray source control is not working properly there are some easy possible solutions that you can check before sending the unit to RBD Instruments Inc. for repair.
If the problem is that one filament works but the other one does not, then you should check the fuses located on the filament power supply board inside the 32-095 X-ray source control in the back left hand corner of the unit. (The other possibility is that the x-ray source filament is open.) With the 32-095 power off, slide the unit out and remove the cover, then measure the resistance on the fuses. Usually it is easiest to just completely unplug the 32-095 and remove it from the electronics rack.
The fuses are 5 amp slow blow and are shown in the board layout figure below.
Filament power supply board fuses
The next most common problem is instability in the controller or flashing digits on the digital panel meter. These can be caused by high AC ripple on the +/-15V or +5 V supplies on the local power supply board which is located in the front left hand side of the 32-095.
The figure below shows the layout of the local power supply board and the location of the +/-15V and +5V supplies.
local power supply board layout
The picture below shows the points where you measure the +5v supply. To measure the +5V supply, connect your test clips to the pins as shown in the picture below. Turn on the 32-095 power and then measure both the DC and AC voltage using a DVM. The correct value is +5.0 V DC (+/- 100 mV) and the AC ripple should be less than 10mV. If the +5V supply has a problem the DC will be more like 4V and the AC will be 1 to 2V. Power supply board problems are usually caused by bad capacitors.
32-095 local power supply board +5V
The pictures below show the test points for the + and – 15V supplies. The correct voltage values are + and – 15.0V (+/- 200 mV) and the AC ripple should be less than 20mV. If the DC voltage is low and the AC ripple is high then the supply has a problem.
32-095 local power supply board -15V
32-095 local power supply board +15V
The figures below show the +5 and +/- 15V local power supply board schematics.
5V schematic
15 V schematic
Below is a table that lists common problems and possible solutions. Sometimes the problems are easy to fix, but often the problem may be a hard to find bad capacitor, diode or integrated circuit.
Problem
Possible solution
No current on one filament
Bad power supply board fuse, open filament on source
No filament current but fuse is OK
Bad PIC 645 regulator
Unstable operation
Bad capacitor on local power supply board
If the problem is not an easy fix then RBD Instruments can repair your 32-095/96 x-ray source control and also provide you with a loaner unit to use while we are repairing yours.
Additional test info:
04-500/548 X-Ray Source Filament Test
The following information is helpful in testing the condition of the filaments in 04-500 or 04-548 15 kV dual anode X-ray sources and in troubleshooting the 32-095 X-ray source control.
X-Ray Sources
On the big filament connector on the source, pins A and B (filament 1) and C and D (filament 2) should have less than 1 ohm of resistance. All pins should be open to ground.
The HV connector (anode) should be open to ground. Check that with the X-ray high voltage supply OFF and the HV cable to the source disconnected.
32-095 Test
Follow the 32-095 Outgas/Activate procedure in the 32-095 manual.
To bench check the 32-095, short pins A and B on the Pressure Interlock connector, and pins A and E on the Pump Control connector.
You can use two large paper clips as dummy loads when testing the filament current. Put the clips on the end of the cable or on the filament connector on the back of the 32-095.
