Dear Finnigan instruments networkers,

at the Stable Isotope Laboratory of the Council for Geoscience
(Geological Survey) in Pretoria we have a 12 year old MAT 251
gas-source mass-spectrometre which is controlled by a a 12 to 16(?)
year old Apple IIe computer with the appropriate Apple Basic
software.

When lately the printer of this system, the "Imagewriter", broke down,
i.e. at any print statement stopped, went off line and halted the data
acquisition process, we replaced it with a 486 PC from the stocks of
our data-tech department.

This PC is connected to our LAN and in this way serves the data
acquisition and networking the data, if necessary, using the PC and
the Apple IIe as a "dual booting system". That is, after a few hours
trying to find the proper connections for the serial cable and to get
the settings in the Windows 3.11 Terminal program right.

Maybe, a similar solution is thinkable for other labs, wich are
perhaps, like us, not in a position to acquire the latest Finnigan
software update.

best regards,

Uwe Horstmann


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Dr. Uwe E. Horstmann
Council for Geoscience
P/Bag X112
0001 Pretoria
South Africa

Tel.: +27 12 841 1361
Fax.: +27 12 841 1278
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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