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Appendix D -- I/O Connections for the PCI4 -- The Cell Connector
We strongly recommend that you use an earth grounded Faraday shield whenever you are measuring small
currents. See Chapter 5 for a discussion of Faraday shields.
The Cell Connector
The Cell Connector is a 9 pin female D shaped connector on the Potentiostat Card. This connector is used to
connect the PCI4 to the electrochemical cell being tested. Normally you make your cell connections using the
cell cable that Gamry provides you. See Chapter 3 for a description of how the cell connections are made
using the standard cell cable.
The metal shell of this D connector is connected to the computer's chassis (earth) ground. This is the source of
the chassis ground (earth ground) contact in the cable.
In a few cases, you will find the standard cell cable is inadequate for your needs. You may find that you need
to modify a cell cable or make a special purpose cable. By far, the easiest changes involve modifying a standard
cell cable. We can sell you an extra cell cable for this purpose. If you do need to make a completely new
cable, the pin out of the cell connector is given in Table D-1. We recommend that you use shielded cables for
all the cell connections. Coax cable is preferred. Connect the shield of the coax to the pin shown in Table D-1
on the PCI4 end, and leave the shield open on the cell end. Make sure that all pins are isolated from each
other.
Cell cables longer than 3 meters may result in degraded instrument performance. Increased noise and
decreased stability both can occur. However, with most cells, the instrument will work acceptably with an
extended cell cable, so our advice is go ahead and try it. As a rule, you should not attempt to use current
interrupt IR compensation with cell cables longer than 5 meters.
6-10
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