User`s Manual
Contents
1. disconnect the unused ones r hl E bPAD Control Program O CL High Voltage Disconnect Volts 650 A Device Info Gain Coarse x2 X Refresh Fine meno ea Save Discriminator 162 CPS LLD onono E ULD aeee enes 36 23 Scan I Integral mode TTL output Pulse duration 2 5 psec v li Exit e C Range Response time Connected to bPAD with S N 04143016 Fig 6 Connected status 2 2 Main controls 2 2 1 High Voltage Set the high voltage by entering its value in Volts up to 1500 in the corresponding text box Consult the PMT manufacturer or the detector supplier for the recommended value Click on the Set button next to it and check that the red LED on the bPAD turns on The high voltage ramps up gradually taking up to 10 seconds to fully stabilize To turn the high voltage off simply set its value to zero 2 2 2 Gain The gain is set by means of two controls the Coarse Gain drop down box and the Fine Gain slider Select the desired base gain from the drop down box x1 x2 x4 or x8 then use the slider to make fine adjustments x1 x2 The total gain is the product of the two values Set the gain to a value that allows the energy range of interest to fall completely within the signal range of the device Alternatively you can set the gain such a way that you could easily convert between discriminator level and2. After a few seconds you should see the spectrum appearing left to right The measurement time is fixed to about 2 seconds per channel and running several sweeps will improve the spectrum quality considerably Fig 9 r 400 Start 3504 Clear Channels 40 60 Discriminator level Scan complete Fig 9 The Scan window showing the collected spectrum of a Cs 137 source 2 3 3 Ending a measurement The measurement ends automatically once the target number of sweeps has been reached If necessary you can end the measurement prematurely by clicking on the Stop button To start a new measurement make sure you delete first any data from a previous measurement by clicking on the Clear button 2 3 4 Setting the SCA window Once you have identified the energy window of interest in the spectrum you can click and drag on the graph to create the corresponding ROI The region created that way will appear in red color the spectrum in Fig 9 shows such an ROI around the Cs 137 gamma peak Simultaneously the LLD and ULD sliders on the Main Control Program window Fig 5 will automatically reposition themselves to reflect the new discriminators settings Likewise any changes to the LLD and ULD sliders of the Main window will update the ROI displayed in the Scan window accordingly If you are using the integral mode you will be able to drag only the LLD threshold To change an existing
3. ROI simply click and drag again the old one will get automatically erased 12
4. energy value for example to make the 100 to correspond to 1MeV Sometimes it may be necessary to change the high voltage of the PMT a few volts above and or below the manufacturer s recommended value as it also affects the tube gain Just be sure not to exceed the PMT limits 2 2 3 Discriminator settings Use the LLD Lower Level Discriminator and ULD Upper Level Discriminator sliders to set the desired energy window They both range from O to 100 representing the full signal span The bPAD outputs a TTL pulse for every detector pulse whose amplitude is greater than the LLD setting but lower than the ULD setting Click on a slider and use the mouse wheel to make fine adjustments to the corresponding discriminator level If the Integral mode option is checked the ULD control is defeated and the bPAD will simply output a TTL pulse for every detector pulse that crosses the LLD threshold 2 2 4 TTL output settings Here the duration of the TTL pulse can be set from the drop down box values range from 0 25us to 20us in 14 steps Set the pulse duration to the shortest value that allows reliable operation of the external counter system as too long a pulse length will have a detrimental effect on the maximum achievable count rate This function is available only to devices with hardware revision 1 4 and up produced after July 2014 firmware 2 0 1 and later the corresponding Ul controls will app
5. RI e GHTSPEC Control Program for bPAD bPAD and bPAD VR Single Channel Analyzers Version 2 0 RE 3 bPAD Control Program High Voltage Disconnect vots 660 t EE Device Info Gain AA Coarse x2 X Refresh Era e Save 162 CPS Start AO cea Se TO 23 Clear I Integral mode r Channels 128 5d Scale TTL output Pulse duration 2 5 psec ZI tpu Exit Scan complete User s Manual Niel September 2014 Table of Contents 1 installation ii A ati dae Ai las dis diate das 4 1 1 Installing the USB a A A Sev e A SE a a 4 1 2 Installing the Application cx nata tt Edita al dada iaa 5 2 Using th ApplicatiON cccononocoononnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnonononnnnncnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnennnnannnos 7 2 1 Starting the Program td ia A A A a A a aes 7 2 2 Main ControlScan i i a a e ae 8 2 2 1 High Voltages ienr one e 8 2 2 2 CO A A A 8 2 2 3 DISCrIMINAtOFSEINGS ici ala da 9 2 2 4 TIL Output Settings iii iio 9 2 2 5 Analog output settings bPAD VR only c cccccsccccecsssceceessececeesececeeaeeeeseseeeceesseeeceeseeeeees 9 2 2 6 COS a a A A TA 10 2 2 7 Device iO Matic id 10 2 2 8 Saving Seti dada 10 2 3 TOSCANA WIN Wi li ia 10 2 3 1 Setting thescale parameters los 11 2 3 2 Starting measureMm nt inane a ada 11 2 3 3 ANNE A 12 2 3 4 Setting the SCA WiNdOW id dt At ac d
6. aa 12 1 Installation 1 1 Installing the USB driver To install the USB driver 1 Connect the bPAD to the PC using the supplied USB cable 2 Windows will start the Found New Hardware Wizard Fig 1 e In Windows XP select the Install from a list or specific location Advanced option then click the Next button e In Windows 7 click on the Locate and Install driver software manually link x em ceri Update Driver Software bPAD BrightSpec USB How do you want to search for driver software gt Search automatically for updated driver software Windows will search your computer and the Internet for the latest driver software for your device unless you ve disabled this feature in your device installation settings Y Browse my computer ver tware Locate and install driver software manually Fig 1 Windows Found New Hardware wizard 3 When the next step window appears Fig 2 e In Windows XP select the Search for the best driver in these locations option and then make sure that only the Include this location in the search box is checked Then click the Browse button and use the directory navigator to select the USB Driver folder found in the distribution package e In Windows 7 click on the Browse button and use the directory navigator to select the USB Driver folder from the distribution package Make sure that the Include subf
7. ear disabled if the device does not support the functionality 2 2 5 Analog output settings bPAD VR only Use the radio buttons to select which signal to output via the additional analog connector e Select Amplifier pulse to output the shaped detector pulse e g when feeding an external Multi Channel Analyzer e Select CPS Level to output a voltage level O to 2 5V proportional to the count rate e g when connected to the recorder of a High Performance Liquid Chromatography HPLC system When CPS Level is selected the Range drop down box allows setting the sensitivity of the voltage output the value represents the count rate corresponding to the max scale Likewise the Response time drop down box allows selecting the reaction time of the instrument to count rate variations This function is supported only by bPAD VR devices the corresponding UI controls will appear disabled otherwise Also LPAD VR devices with firmware version earlier than 1 2 4 do not support adjusting the response time and have a reduced set of CPS sensitivity ranges a firmware upgrade for such devices exist 2 2 6 CPS value The main window also shows the estimated CPS value which is refreshed continuously while the device is connected For better accuracy a counter or rate meter should be connected to the TTL output of the bPAD 2 2 7 Device information Clicking on the Device Info button brings up a window wit
8. h information about the connected device Fig 7 F m p m E j Product name bPAD Manufacturer BRIGHTSPEC Serial number 04143018 Firmware version 2 0 1 Production date Friday October 10 2014 AA Fig 7 Device information dialog 2 2 8 Saving settings Once you have setup the bPAD parameters to match your measurement requirements you can save them into the device s permanent memory using the Save button That way they will be automatically restored the next time the power is applied without having to use a PC again Otherwise the changes made to the settings will remain active only while the power is applied to the device and will be lost once the power is removed 2 3 The Scan window The Control Program includes a pseudo PHA mode to aid in setting the bPAD parameters especially the gain and discriminator levels In this mode the software slides the single channel window across the 10 whole input range and constructs in such way an energy spectrum By using this spectrum it is possible to identify the energy range of interest and set the boundaries of the SCA discriminator accordingly This represents a vast improvement over the blind methods used with traditional SCAs The spectrum obtained by this method does not have the quality of one obtained with a conventional MCA This is due to the limited number of channels employed the degraded integral non linearity inherent to thi
9. icon to start the installation Then follow the instructions on the screen Click this button to install bPAD Control Program software to the specified destination directory C Program Files x86 bPADCP Change Directory Exit Setup Fig 4 Starting the installation 2 Using the Application 2 1 Starting the program To start the application click on the Windows Start button then go to Programs BrightSpec folder and click on the bPAD Control Program entry The main screen will appear Fig 5 7 ml amp bPAD Control Program A a ae High Voltage Coma L Volts Device Info Gain Coarse x1 Ne Fine laummoorsonouncnn lu Discriminator Integral mode Pulse duration c O Range Response time Not connected Fig 5 bPAD Control Program main window Attach a detector to the bPAD and connect it to the PC using the supplied USB cable wait for the green LED to turn on and click on the Connect button of the application Upon successful connection the status bar will show the serial number of the device and the controls high voltage gain LLD and ULD will reflect the current device settings Fig 6 On the bPAD the green LED should stay on and flash during communications Make sure there is only one bPAD device connected to the computer as the current software version does not support selecting from multiple devices If necessary
10. olders box is checked and then click Next E Update Driver Software bPAD BrightSpec USB SCA Browse for driver software on your computer Search for driver software in this location E BrightSpec bPAD USB Driver y Browse Y Include subfolders gt Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer This list will show installed driver software compatible with the device and all driver software in the same category as the device Ee Fig 2 Browse to the distribution driver folder 4 Windows will proceed to copy the USB driver 5 In Windows XP if the installation asks for the libusbO dll proceed as before but this time select the x86 folder under the USB Driver 6 When the installation is complete click Finish to close the Wizard 1 2 Installing the Application To install the bPAD Control Program application 1 Goto the bPADCP distribution directory and run the Setup exe program When the main setup screen appears Fig 3 click on the OK button bPAD Control Program Setup B Welcome to the bPAD Control Program installation program pS Setup cannot install system files or update shared files if they are in use Before We that you dose any applications you may be running Fig 3 bPAD Control Program Setup screen 2 In the next window that appears Fig 4 click on the computer
11. s method the characteristics of the SCA electronics and inaccuracies in determining the CPS value In the other hand the quality has proved to be more than enough to identify the peaks produced by different radionuclides and setup the energy window accordingly Clicking on the Scan button of the Control Program opens the pseudo PHA Scan window Fig 8 oi E 10 i Clear Channels 128 v Scale C Lin Log Auto v Sweeps Counts T T 40 60 Discriminator level Fig 8 The Scan window 2 3 1 Setting the scale parameters The spectrum can be displayed in either Linear or Logarithmic mode The selection is done with the two radio buttons to the right of the graph area The Y scale limit can be set to automatic or to a fixed value with the listbox below the radio buttons The changes to the scale parameters can be done whenever a measurement is active or not 2 3 2 Starting a measurement Before starting a scan select the desired number of channels and sweeps The more the channels the better the resolution but the longer the measurement time and vice versa In practice the default value 11 of 128 channels will already give satisfactory results Similarly the more sweeps the better the spectrum accuracy but the longer measurement time Bring the detector close to your reference or calibration source and then click on the Start button to begin the measurement
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