Installation
Software:
The instrument will be controlled by an IBM PC with Windows
95/98/NT/Me/2000/XP operating system. A free serial port or a USB port is required for communication between the instrument and the computer.
Refer to your Windows User Manual to be familiar with Windows operation.
To install the software, insert the software CD-ROM. You can run
"SET####.EXE" on the CD-ROM directly to extract the files and the files will be automatically copied to the hard drive. The default directory is C:\CHI. It is very important to use it for the program and configuration files. The C:\CHI directory is used for the automatically generated configuration file (*.cfg). When the program starts, it will always look for the existing configuration file in C:\CHI directory. When the program ends, it will save the configuration file to the C:\CHI directory. If the program can not find C:\CHI directory, the configuration files will be spread everywhere. Next time the program starts, it will not be able to use the configuration file for customized setting by the user. Once the files have bee
n copied, you can use Windows Explorer or File Manager to find the executable file "CHI####.EXE" in the C:\CHI subdirectory (or folder). Double click the filename to start the program.
The installation just copies all the files to the C:\CHI directory. After installation, you should find CHI####.EXE (executable program), CHI####.HLP (help file) and some test data files (*.BIN) in the C:\CHI directory. It is safe to delete any files in the C:\CHI directory later.
In the CD-ROM, you can also find the electronic version of the User’s Manual and the USB Driver.
Hardware:
The system hardware installation is also easy and simple. After unpacking the instrument, you should check the power lines. The A.C. voltage was preset in the factory and is indicated in the serial number label on the back panel. If the A.C. voltage is correct, connect the instrument to the power through the power cord.
Communication between the instrument and PC is through RS-232 serial port or USB port. However, you can only use one of them. The default is the serial port. If your computer has a free serial port (9-pin male connector), it can directly communicate with the instrument. You do not need to install extra
software. If your computer does not have a serial port, you can use USB port for communication. However, you need to change the jumper position inside the instrument and install software.
If you use serial port for communication, connect the Com Port 25-pin connector at the rear panel to the serial port of your PC. The cable is a 9F-25M serial cable (comes with the instrument). You may need to set the software to a proper port. The default is COM 1. This setting can be altered through the System command under the Setup menu. You don’t have to worry about the baud rate. After you alter the setting, please exit the program and restart the program.
It is important to have a computer with a free serial port. Most computers specify one or two serial ports. However, they might be used by mouse and fax/modem. Usually
COM 2 is not free. It is recommended to use computers with PS/2 mouse. Since PS/2 mouse does not use com port, you will have COM 1 as a free com port, and you can still have the fax/modem card installed. PS/2 mouse is very popular nowadays.
If you have the serial port, we suggest you not to worry about the USB. The USB is really a USB-Serial adapter. It is a true USB, but it converts the USB to serial port by using the software provided by the USB chip vendor. It is therefore provide no specific advantages over the serial port. The reaso
n we put it there is because some computers (such as notebook computers) may not have the serial port.
If you can not locate a free serial port on your computer, you can try to use USB port to communication. In order to do so, you need to change the switch setting inside the instrument and install the driver software. Figure 2.1 shows the switch position and how to set the selection.
Figure 2.1 Serial port or USB port switch selection. A littler above the 100-pin processor chip, as pointed by the arrow, there are 6-pin holes (two rows and three columns) for contact block. Wire-jumpers are used for setting. The default switch setting is at the left position for RS-232 serial port selection. If you change the setting by switching to the right position, the selection is the USB port.
In the later portion of this chapter, the USB driver software installation is described in detail.
If you consistently get "Link Failed" message, try other computers. The instrument we delivered was turned on for a week and tested. Nearly in all the cases, the "Link Failed" message is caused by the computer serial port problem.
The unreliable data communication could be due to some background tasks that generate interrupt. The serial port data communication is based on interrupt. For some reason Microsoft Windows makes the priority of interrupt for serial port lower and lower.
Other devices, such as disk access, screen saver, virus scan, internet connection, etc, will all generate interrupt that could interfere with the serial port data communication. Please turn off the screen saver, disconnect internet connection, disable virus scan program, and try again.
You should also not use network card. Network will generate background interrupt that interfere with the data transfer between the PC and the instrument. You should disconnect the connector to the network card.
If you consistently get Link Failed message after all the efforts, please try USB as the communication port.
Once the instrument and PC can communicate, you can connect the electrode leads to the rear panel. The clip with green cover is for the working electrode, the white one is for the reference electrode, and the red one is for the counter electrode. The black one is a sensing electrode. Please check the Appendix of this User’s Manual for description of 4-electrode configuration and the sensing electrode usage.
The Cell Control on the rear panel can be used to control purge, stir, and mercury drop dislodge. It is also used to control external adapters, such as CHI200B Picoamp Booster, CHI680 Amp Booster, CHI684 Multiplexer, etc. Please see the Appendix for more information.
If you have a Pine Instrument AFMSRX Rotator for RDE, it is possible for the instrument to control the RDE with the instrument (Model 630C/650C/660C only). Two banana jacks on the rear panel will
provide a voltage of 0 - 10 V, corresponding to a rotation rate of 0 - 10,000 rpm.
You are now ready to use the instrument.
Testing
The instrument was tested before it was shipped. The “*.bin” files that come with the disk are the data actually acquired with the particular instrument you received .
To test the communication between the computer and the instrument, start the software and turn the instrument power on. Use the Hardware Test command under the Setup menu. If a “Link Failed” message appears, you should check the connection and the port setting. You can use System command under the Setup menu to see if the port setting matches the port in use.
If the hardware test results appear on the screen, the communication is working. You may watch the hardware test results and see if everything is okay.
If you want to see if the system will run experiment properly, you can use a 100K ohm resistor as a dummy cell. Short the reference (white) and counter (red) electrode leads, and connect the 100K ohm resistor between the red/white clips and working (green) electrode clip. Select the potential rang
e between 0.5V to -0.5V through the Parameters command under Setup menu. The sensitivity can be set at 1e-6A/V. Run the experiment through the Run command under the Control menu. You should see a straight line with current from –5e-6A to +5e-6A.
To test the software performance, you can open a data file through the Open command under the File menu. There are test data that come with the software. These are
the actual test results of this particular instrument. To open the file, select the file and click OK button, or you may double click the filename. After you read the data, you can display or process the data. Try all the commands under the Graphics and DataProc menus. If you don’t feel comfortable about the changed data, you can reload the data through the Open command again.
Some Useful Tips
If you are familiar with Windows applications, you may not have any problem to use the instrument. Most of the following tips are for users who do not have much experience with Windows. However, some of the tips could be helpful to every one.
1.You should get familiar with the toolbar (a bar with many buttons under the main menu bar). The to
olbar provides quick access to the most commonly used commands. To know the meaning of the command buttons, click the button and read the comments at the left-lower corner of the screen.
2.To select multiple filenames for multiple file printing, overlay or parallel plots, click the first file name you want to select, drag the mouse down while holding the left button, you will select successive files. If the files are scattered in the directory, you can select them by holding the Ctrl key while click each filename.
3.If you see that the Y axis title is in wrong direction, you can use the Font command under the Graphics menu to change the rotation angle of Y axis for printing.
4.To select a file or a technique, you can double click the item. It is equivalent to click the item and then click OK.
5.To change the parameters, you can use the TAB key to go through each items. The text in the edit box will be highlighted. You can directly type the new text. Sometimes, it is much more convenient and faster than using mouse click and drag.
6.The internal noise of the instrument is quite low. The most common and most serious noise source
is the line frequency (60 Hz or 50 Hz). There are analog low-pass filters to reduce noises. At a scan rate of 0.1 V/s, the automatic filter cutoff setting is at 150 or 320 Hz. The line frequency will pass and noise appears. At a scan rate of 0.05 V/s, the cutoff frequency of the filter is 15 or 32 Hz. The line frequency noise can be effectively reduced. The line frequency noise can be reduced if the sample interval is set at multiples of the period of power lines. For small signals and relatively fast experiments, faraday cage is strongly recommended.
7.To display data in different ways, use the Graph Options command under the Graphics menu. Check Page 6-1 of this manual for available data display formats.
Installing USB driver under Windows If you have the serial port, we suggest you not to worry about the USB. The USB is really a USB-Serial adapter. It is a true USB, but it converts the USB to serial port by using the USB driver software provided by the USB chip vendor. It is therefore provide no specific advantages over the serial port. The reason we put it there is because some computers (such as notebook computers) may not have the serial port.
On the other hand, the USB-serial port driver software may not be perfect. We tried all the computers that has USB port in our office, they all seem to work, but when it is not working, besides the installati
on instructions, we really do not know how to further diagnose and support it, since the software is not provided by us, we have no control on it.
If you still want to go for it, please set the USB/Serial selection switch inside the instrument (please see Figure 2.1) and following the following instructions to install the USB driver software.
(1) Find the CP2101 USB driver software on the software CD-ROM.
(2) Double click the file CP2101.EXE, the following dialog box will appear:
Click “Unzip” button to unzip the files to c:\CP2101 (by default) or other folder.
(3) Go to c:\CP2101 (or other folder), you will find a “SETUP.EXE” file. Double click this filename, a
following dialog box will occur.
Click “Install” button will start installation process. Wait long enough time until the installation is completed.
(4) Connect USB cable (type A-B) from your computer to the instrument. The first time you make the
connection, the computer will prompt new USB device found and will automatically look for the driver and further install it. Please wait until this process is completed.
(5)This USB device is really a USB-Serial Port Converter. Under the instrument software, it treats this
jumper2device as a serial port. You need to find what port number is assigned to this device. Please select C
ontrol Panel (from your computer Start menu at the lower-left corner) -> Performance and
Maintenance -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager-> Ports (COM & LPT). You will see the following information:
In this example, USB is assigned to COM5. This number may vary with different computers. It may varies even with the same computer sometimes (quite rarely). You need to use the System command under the Setup menu to set the com port number.
In the future, if you see “Can not open comport” error when you start the program, please check Device Manager again and see what com port number is assigned. If the com port number assignment is changed, you need to set the com port number in the program accordingly. If you do not see CP2101 icon under the Ports (COM & LPT), please make sure if your instrument is turned on and the USB cable is connected properly.
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