Date: Thu, 17 Feb 94 15:04:23 CST
Subject: remote control; xyz run bug; trace elements
From: johnf@ice

SX50 users:

A few things of interest:

1) some tips from Chris Capobioanco about running the SX50 remotely (e.g.,
helping users from your home), and about the xyzpos problem with
Quantiview;

2) some comments about REE and trace element detection levels plus the
offer of a Lotus spreadsheet from Maggie Piranian;

Also, I just received in the mail a letter and 6 page memo from Andrew
Davis discussing the new (3.0) software, and giving a list of reported bugs

and possible fixes (for some of the bugs). Andy also says that he will
have internet access by the end of February. I'd say that the users group
has begun to make some impact on Cameca.

===================================================================

Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 15:35:25 MST
From: chrisc@lpl.arizona.edu (Chris Capobianco x2816)
Subject: SX50 tips

Hi SX50 users,

Here are are a couple of tips about accessing and using
the SX50 microprobe remotely, i.e. over a modem or over
the ethernet via Telnet. Hope you find them useful.

Chris Capobianco (chrisc@hindmost.lpl.arizona.edu)

1.) You need a way to login to the Sun either over the
ethernet or using a modem. I will assume that everyone
can do this (if not I can post specific instructions, e-
mail me). Note, that when I say type "something" do not
type the quotation marks, but just the words enclosed
within the quotation marks. These commands are to be given
at the command line of your remote login to the Sun
computer associated with your microprobe.

2.) Here's a neat trick. You can control the microprobe
remotely through the "sxlocal" program on the Sun. This
is the program which produces the familiar blue and black
SX local window on the Sun screen from which you normally
give commands to the microprobe itself. However, you can
also run this program remotely.

2a.) First, since the microprobe cannot have two masters,
you need to "kill" the SX local window which is probably
present on the Sun screen. To do this, use the Unix
command "ps -agx" to find out the process number of
"sxlocal" currently running. If you are not logged into
the directory which is currently logged on at the
"Console" then you will have to "kill" the SX local window
as the superuser. To "kill" the SX local window type
"kill -9 xxxx" where "xxxx" is the process number of the
"sxlocal" program which you found by typing "ps -agx".

2b.) Now type "sxlocal /dev/ttya" carriage return and then
another carriage return,and then voila, you will have the
SX50 prompt and you will be able to give SX commands to
the probe, like "setup", "mov stag", "vac stat", "init",
etc. Also, if you type "stat local" you will get the
thumbwheels display right there on your remote screen.
All the SX commands are available to you, of course, those
which access M1 and M2 won't be of much use since you
still can't see the sample.

2c.) To quit from the "sxlocal" program and get back into
the Sun command line prompt type a "^P" (control P) and
the normal prompt should appear.

3.) We here at Arizona have been having problems with our
auto-analysis runs quitting before the whole xyzpos.dat
file has been run. This is annoying, especially since we
have not been able to track down the anomaly which is
causing the bomb-out. However, it is quite easy to
restart the "quanta" program remotely, here is how it is
done.

3a.) First you will want to check the label.cor files
which were run to see how many of the points in xyzpos.dat
were run. Then, unless you want to re-analyze those
points you will need to edit the xyzpos.dat file to remove
the already analyzed points. You can use the "vi" editor,
but who wants to, so what I do is download the xyzpos.dat
file to my remote computer edit it then upload back to the
Sun.

3b.) You will also need to upload a file which looks like
this:

quanta << ENDBATCH
N
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
ENDBATCH

That's an 8 line file which contains the input required by
the "quanta" program (you can, of course, modify the Y's
and N's to suit). When you upload this file to the Sun
give it some file name such as "do.quanta".

3c.) Now when you type "batch do.quanta" at your remote
computer logged into the Sun, it will execute "quanta" and
all the output that would normally be written to the
"quanta" window on the Sun screen will appear in a file
that is mailed to you. Note that the hard copy which
normally goes to the line printer will still be printed
there.

3d.) Running "quanta" in batch mode is quite handy if you
want to be able to see the data as it appears on the hard
copy, more or less, but from a remote site where you can
read your mail.

===========================================================


Date: Tue, 15 Feb 94 13:33:01 NST
From: maggy@microprobe.esd.mun.ca (Maggy Piranian)
Subject: Re: EMPA of REEs

sorry i didn't reply sooner. although I haven't done ree's, i do have data
for Zr, Zn, and Sr. for these i get 300ppm, 350ppm, and 230ppm
respectively, at 60 sec, 30 na. i would expect the det. lim. to be
considerably higher for ree's. i have a simple lotus spreadsheat that
takes count time, count rate on peak and b.g. and conc of standard and
generates a table of det. lim.'s as a function of current and count times.
matrix effects are not accounted for, but at least it gives you a ball park
idea. if you wish i can try to send you the spreadsheat so you can put in
your own data.
maggy@microprobe.esd.mun.ca