Hi all
It seems that Isodat 2.0 will run happily on Windows XP (with all the latest patches) with the older GPIB cards (both the ISA and the PCI).  I have also run the GPIB using a USB port with National Instruments' GPIB-USB-B with success from a laptop as well as the normal computer running the IRMS.  There seems to be 2 obvious glitches with the software where one of which has already received a fix and those are:
1) The amplifier zero (measure) routine crashes.  A faulty .dll has been repaired and this bug is now gone and will be part of a post 1.35 service pack.
2) The Peak Center Offset routine hangs.  99.9999% of the users don't need this remnant of Isodat old. To be fixed later.

The driver for the ISA runs right out of the Isodat 2.0 install and the PCI driver for XP from NI is available on their website.

We have run close to 500 samples of EA (N2, CO2 and SO2) and TOC-Analyser in the last two weeks without a glitch (ISA GPIB card).  Reference injection from both the bellows and the ConFlo II-III run without a hitch either.  I think it is safe to say that you can go to Isodat 2.0 and run your samples.  There is a bit more of a learning curve with this version since you can now save GC (HP and THERMO-TRACEGC) methods (injector temperarures, flow etc..) as well as autosampler methods (yes with obvious names as a file).  You can mix and match any of these to an IRMS method.  Really nice stuff, no more front panel buttons to program. Also you don't need the game port anymore (see a previous posting from me about this).  If you don't have enough COM ports on the computer use a USB-COM port adapter to add as many as you need.

PS Beware of this, ease of use, if you use PLOT columns.  Rapid changes in pressure from EPC can destroy a $1200 PLOT column, read the warning sheet with the PLOT column for more info.

Gilles

Gilles St-Jean
U. d'Ottawa / U. of Ottawa
Sciences de la Terre / Earth Sciences
Laboratoires d'isotopes- G.G.Hatch -Isotope Laboratories
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-----Message d'origine-----
De : Stable Isotope Geochemistry [mailto:[log in to unmask]]De la part de David A. Mucciarone
Envoyé : 20 janvier 2004 14:09
À : [log in to unmask]
Objet : Re: [ISOGEOCHEM] Isodat 2.0


I recently had a conversation with Frank Trensch about upgrading a Delta plus to run the latest version of ISODAT under Win-XP. This is my understanding. If you want an optical interface you need to purchase a new Delta XP/353/etc. Those of us with Delta plus IRMS are stuck with NT until National Instruments provides either Windows 2000 or Windows XP drivers for either the ISA (probably unlikely) or the PCI interface cards (more likely). Frank mentioned that if this happens then there should be no/minimal/solvable problem running a newer version of Windows on the older Delta plus instruments.

To date folks have been able to run/use Win 2000 with the ISODAT-NT version but not controlling the instrument well or at all. They have been using it mostly to post-process data under Win-2000.

So we may be stuck for a while using Win-NT and ISODAT-NT until either someone out there works it out or until National Instruments provides a new driver. Something some of us have come to terms with on Finnigan instruments. Some of us have gone from Concurrent DOS to Real32 to Win-NT and perhaps XP running a multitude of ISODAT versions. For sometime I thought I would be stuck running Real32 so personally the Win-NT version is welcomed with the hope that I have it less than Real32.

Dave

At 05:52 PM 1/17/2004 -0500, you wrote:

I am considering this, as I don't care to be stuck with NT for the life of
my instrument, which is currently only 3 years old. Has anyone tried it?
What exactly does 'not stable' mean? A glitch every run or every 100 runs?
Every 100 would put it on par with NT ver 1.2 in my experience, and I lived
with for almost a year.

Is there any way of upgrading a Delta Plus to the optical interface? I know
the bulk of the electronics and controls are different between a Plus and a
XP and I don't want all that (well, I do, but I know that's not possible),
but It would be nice to have a simple optical interface for my Plus that
does what my GPIB does now.

I spoke to Frank Trensch on this matter also and I asked the very same
question. He said the only way to get the optical interface is to purchase a
Delta XP. It seems the electronics are completely different in the two and an
upgrade is not possible.
***********************************************************
David A. Mucciarone
Stanford University
Dept. of Geological & Environmental Sciences
Building 320, Room 118
Stanford, CA 94305-2115
650-723-0817 (O) 650-725-2199 (F)
http://pangea.stanford.edu/isotope/dam/sil_home.html
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