Multiparameter Multichannel Analyzers / Questions and Answers

I have a customer trialling the MCA4-1 and he has asked if we can do repeat counts that store the result after each count.

Yes you can select "Sequential cycles" and specify a number of cycles. Then a series of measurements is executed, each terminated by a preset, and the spectrum is sorted into a twodimensional array. Together with the tag bit option it is possible to switch to the next cycle without deadtime when tag bit 0 toggles, see in the manual on page 41:

If Sequential mode is selected, there is an option “next cycle with tag 0 toggle”.

This enables to acquire very short measurements synchronized to an external signal without any deadtime, for example to acquire PIXE images. See in the readme.txt at Server version 1.62 about a DLL that can be called at every cycle switching to do fast evaluations. An example named hvcycle.dll is part of the shipped software, the source code is part of the DLL software interface.


Another possibility is to use a script like the supplied loop.ctl. Together with the "Save at Halt" and "Auto increment" options in the data operations dialog a series of acquisitions can be executed and the results saved into files with incremented names. As a simple example you can define one of the programmable toolbar icons as "onstop start" and click this icon. Then define a suited preset and start the acquisition. Each time when the preset is reached, the acquisition is stopped and restarted.

Multiparameter Multichannel Analyzers, Multichannel Analyzers