In our research we have designed and developed software that controls our instrumentation and manipulates experimental data. I am allowing its wider use by the scientific community at no cost. The only restrictions on its use are (1) full attribution to its author is required, and (2) the source codes must not be further distributed without my express permission.
If you are interested in using these programs, please contact me at rowntree at uoguelph (dot) ca
Series Analysis : This is a compiled program that controls a Thermo (Nicolet) infrared spectrometer to acquire spectra, and manipulates these spectra in real time. The program was developed to facilitate surface science research, but it can be used in many other ways. The key strength of this program is that it allows spectral manipulation and analysis in real time, instead o the 'batch mode' used in the Nicolet 'Omnic' control software. It adjust baselines, allows selective referencing of data, and can acquire sample temperature data. It can be set to automatically collect a series of spectra, at fixed time intervals or fixed temperature changes on the sample. It saves data in readily exported formats for use in graphing software, and includes various integration options for intensity analysis.
TGO_Plotter : We purchased many Traceable Temperature and Humidity Loggers from Cole-Parmer . These great devices can log 64K Temp+Humidity data pairs, record 90 over/under alarms, all with adjustable delays between readings; the batteries can record for many months or even years! There is a free app (TraceableGO for Android or iPhone) to configure the devices via Bluetooth, and to download the results as a PDF listing file ... no graphs, just lines of text. The Humidity and temperature data aren't even on the same text line, or the same part of the document! They also offer a $subscription-based$ app (TraceableLIVE) that lets you download the data as a Comma Separated Values file. My Windows 64-bit TGO_Plotter can read the (free) PDF file, provide zoom/pan features on the plots, and can export the data to manipulate in XL, or whatever you prefer; see above for an example plot. My free program can be used for up to 250 datasets from an unlimited number of devices; for $30.00 (one month subscription cost of the TraceableLIVE app) you can work with the entire dataset that the logger can generate, also for an unlimited number of devices. Contact me for details.
OpenMCS : This is a software and hardware platform that creates a time-resolved multi-channel scaler (MCS). We developed this to perform time-of-flight analysis of our molecular beams; it is a ~$200 system that replaces a $10K commercial MCS, as well as providing an integrated chopper driver. Part of the hardware component is an embedded multi-core processor (Parallax Propeller) that controls a brushless DC motor in the vacuum system that turns a chopper wheel at a fixed (but controllable) frequency. This chopper creates short pulses of molecules that travel to the detector, with their time-of-arrival being set by their individual velocities and the chopper-detector distance. Another core of the embedded processor receives these detector pulses (one per particle), and records the number of particles that arrive in each time bin. Current time bins are 1 microsecond or greater in duration, with 6,000 bins being available. A key feature of our design is zero dead-time between bin time windows, ensuring that no particles are 'lost' in the counting process. The processor communicates the counts in each bin back to control program on the PC via a high-speed USB link for analysis and storage. Code on the embedded processor is written in SPIN and Assembler, while the program running on the PC is written in Delphi/Free Pascal.
If you are interested in using these programs, please contact me at rowntree at uoguelph (dot) ca
Series Analysis : This is a compiled program that controls a Thermo (Nicolet) infrared spectrometer to acquire spectra, and manipulates these spectra in real time. The program was developed to facilitate surface science research, but it can be used in many other ways. The key strength of this program is that it allows spectral manipulation and analysis in real time, instead o the 'batch mode' used in the Nicolet 'Omnic' control software. It adjust baselines, allows selective referencing of data, and can acquire sample temperature data. It can be set to automatically collect a series of spectra, at fixed time intervals or fixed temperature changes on the sample. It saves data in readily exported formats for use in graphing software, and includes various integration options for intensity analysis.
TGO_Plotter : We purchased many Traceable Temperature and Humidity Loggers from Cole-Parmer . These great devices can log 64K Temp+Humidity data pairs, record 90 over/under alarms, all with adjustable delays between readings; the batteries can record for many months or even years! There is a free app (TraceableGO for Android or iPhone) to configure the devices via Bluetooth, and to download the results as a PDF listing file ... no graphs, just lines of text. The Humidity and temperature data aren't even on the same text line, or the same part of the document! They also offer a $subscription-based$ app (TraceableLIVE) that lets you download the data as a Comma Separated Values file. My Windows 64-bit TGO_Plotter can read the (free) PDF file, provide zoom/pan features on the plots, and can export the data to manipulate in XL, or whatever you prefer; see above for an example plot. My free program can be used for up to 250 datasets from an unlimited number of devices; for $30.00 (one month subscription cost of the TraceableLIVE app) you can work with the entire dataset that the logger can generate, also for an unlimited number of devices. Contact me for details.
OpenMCS : This is a software and hardware platform that creates a time-resolved multi-channel scaler (MCS). We developed this to perform time-of-flight analysis of our molecular beams; it is a ~$200 system that replaces a $10K commercial MCS, as well as providing an integrated chopper driver. Part of the hardware component is an embedded multi-core processor (Parallax Propeller) that controls a brushless DC motor in the vacuum system that turns a chopper wheel at a fixed (but controllable) frequency. This chopper creates short pulses of molecules that travel to the detector, with their time-of-arrival being set by their individual velocities and the chopper-detector distance. Another core of the embedded processor receives these detector pulses (one per particle), and records the number of particles that arrive in each time bin. Current time bins are 1 microsecond or greater in duration, with 6,000 bins being available. A key feature of our design is zero dead-time between bin time windows, ensuring that no particles are 'lost' in the counting process. The processor communicates the counts in each bin back to control program on the PC via a high-speed USB link for analysis and storage. Code on the embedded processor is written in SPIN and Assembler, while the program running on the PC is written in Delphi/Free Pascal.