Spectrometer Oriel Mir 8000 Instrumentation

[Paeline]

Hi people,In our lab, we are currently using a FTIR spectrometer manufactured in 1998 : Oriel MIR 8000. Kind of old stuff.Anyway, we would want to get back the raw data from the spectrometer, and calculate the Fourier Transform ourselves (with Labview obviously).We assume that the FFT is processed by the software provided by Oriel after the raw signal is acquired by a special acquisition card Oriel also provided. But we don't have any idea about where to got the raw signal from the spectrometer and how does it looks like...I have been searching around quite a lot but it seems that not a lot of people tried to develop something with this instrument.It would be great if someone knows something about that all.Thanks !Pælín

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

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[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Paeline:
My foggy memories of over 3 years are coming back. The card I spoke of was within the MIR housing on a backplane with some other cards. What I thought was an ASIC is actually an EEPROM. Regardless, I still think you need to run the instrument with the Oriel software and the card that resides in the PC. You should be able to locate leads coming from the detector module to get access to the raw detector signal. I think these went to a pre-amp module that piggy-backed to the A/D card on the instrument's backplane. I do not have the entire set of schematics, just the A/D card. If it helps, I have attached that file. Seeing that the instrument was at it's end of service life (a USB based setup replaced it) and the EEPROM is essentially a 'black box'- without the code no secrets are being given away here.


ir_main.pdf:
http://forums.ni.com/attachments/ni/170/345667/1/ir_main.pdf

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

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[Paeline]

AnalogKid2DigitalMen : Thanks a lot for the help.I had a look at the Labview Library, and actually I was able to see a lot of interesting VI for our projects when opening the library with Labview 8. Are these VI from Oriel or from an independent developer ?Anyway, we have more troubles now. I tried to upload the library on our old computer which drives the spectrometer with the Oriel software.When opening the library with Labview 6, it is opening a whole VI (Oriel Instruments MIR 8000) in which I guess contains all the VI from the library. I am right ? Isn't it possible to open each VI separately with Labview 6 ?Another thing is that we first succeeded in getting some interferometer with the VI, but when trying to get the same spectrum with the Oriel software, the spectrometer goes crazy.Now we are unable at all to make any ZPD adjustment or whatever, neither using the VI neither the original software.Did you also had troubles when using the VI, if you did ? We are wondering if it is basically a hardware trouble or a software one (like if running both the VI and the software messed it all up).:smileymad:

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Paeline:
Like I said, I never have used them. I think they came from Oriel, they may have subcontracted the developement of them, somewhat poorly written with a lot of variables and sequence structures upon further inspection. You should be able to open up individual vi's within the library. Looks like Oriel Instruments MIR 8000 is the top level main vi.
Regarding improper operation of both the vi's and the Oriel software, have you tried shutting off all hardware and the PC and powering everything back up? That's about all I can suggest. I apoligize for any inconvenience, I would not foresee this happening but have never used the vi library before and not sure if any documentation is included anywhere.
-AK2DM