Summary of Contents for Ametek ORTEC EASY-NIM 928 Suite
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ORTEC ® EASY-NIM 928 Suite ™ High Performance, Multi-Function Nuclear Multichannel Buffer/Counter/Timer/Rate Meter Hardware Manual Printed in U.S.A. ORTEC® Part No. 932512 0114 Manual Revision A...
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NOTICE OF PROPRIETARY PROPERTY — This document and the information contained in it are the proprietary property of AMETEK Inc., ORTEC Business Unit. It may not be copied or used in any manner nor may any of the information in or upon it be used for any purpose without the express written consent of an authorized agent of AMETEK Inc., ORTEC Business Unit.
4......................... 22 ETUP FOR 3.4. MCB PROPERTIES IN MAESTRO (928 AND 928-MCB ONLY)................23 3.4.1. ADC Tab ............................23 3.4.2. About Tab ............................24 3.4.3. Status Tab ............................25 3.4.4. Presets Tab ............................25 PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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HARDWARE COMMANDS AND RESPONSES ......................41 5.1. COMMAND FORMAT............................41 5.2. ERROR CODES..............................41 5.3. DOLLAR RESPONSE RECORDS......................... 42 5.4. MCB COMMANDS ............................43 5.5. COUNTER AND TIMER COMMANDS (ALL MODULES EXCEPT 928-MCB)............54 PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY NIM™ 928 Suite SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS AND SYMBOLS This manual contains up to three levels of safety instructions that must be observed in order to avoid personal injury and/or damage to equipment or other property. These are: DANGER Indicates a hazard that could result in death or serious bodily harm if the safety instruction is not observed.
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® ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 932512A / 0114 PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
ORTEC® EASY-NIM™ 928 SUITE High Performance, Multi-Function Nuclear Multichannel Buffer/ Counter/Timer/Rate Meter INTRODUCTION The ORTEC Model 928 EASY-NIM instrument family offers a new approach to nuclear pulse counting and pulse height analysis for a variety of applications in nuclear science. The four EASY-NIM modules are: Combination multichannel buffer (MCB)/quad-counter/dual-timer ●...
In addition, it includes a section for the full Model 928 that discusses how the two hardware subcomponents are used together. Standard NIM Digital Bus (NIM/488), DOE/ER-0457T, U.S. NIM committee, May 1990; Standard NIM Instrumentation System, NTIS, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22161. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite INSTALLATION NOTE You must have Windows Administrator-level access to install ORTEC software applications. The EASY-NIM 928 operates only under 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, and Windows XP SP3. Installation is straightforward. Do not connect the 928 to your computer until C has been installed.
MAESTRO window. When you reconnect the 928 to its USB port — the same port to which it was attached when MCB Configuration was last run — you will have to reselect it from the Detector droplist on the MAESTRO Toolbar. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 2.6. TROUBLESHOOTING 2.6.1. MAESTRO Does Not Connect with the 928 If properly installed and functioning MAESTRO and/or Easy NIM software (or other C programs) cannot find ONNECTIONS and communicate with the 928, check for the following: NIM bin power.
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“Pulse” option: 1 μs wide pulse with rising edge synchronized to the rollover of a selected counter (n = 1, 2, 3 or 4). “Level” option: On overflow, output remains high until manually reset. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Timer Overflow n ● “Pulse” option: 100 ns wide pulse with rising edge synchronized to the rollover of a selected timer (n = 1 or 2). “Level” option: On overflow, output remains high until manually reset. CRM Alarm n Set high when count rate alarm is triggered (n = 1, 2, 3 or 4).
Figure 7 illustrates the main features of the counter readouts. 1) User-defined counter Friendly name; can be changed on the setup screen (discussed in the next section). 2) Counter value digital display. Maximum value is 4294967295, readable with user-written software. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 7. Counter Readout Features. 3) Alarming Counter/Rate Meter. The analog meter can be set as logarithmic or linear. The alarm threshold is variable and can be set to create a hardware alarm signal for external equipment (see the next section).
Counter input — A counter input can be used simply as a pulse counter, or can count any of the internal signals on the list. Gate input — The gate can be set as inactive (always on), connected to the interval signal from either of the timers, or controlled from any of the six front-panel inputs. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 11. Easy NIM Application Setup Screen. Reset input — Trigger a counter reset from (1) the Easy NIM main screen with the Software Individual Reset setting, (2) a “clear MCB spectrum memory” command from the MCB (Model 928 only) with the MCB Clear Command reset, or (3) a signal from any of the six front-panel inputs;...
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® ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 932512A / 0114 Figure 12. Counter Setting Lists. Figure 14. FIFO Contents Saved as Text File. Figure 13. FIFO Contents. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite CRM gauge — Unmark the checkbox to switch the analog dial from logarithmic scale to linear scale. Full scale — Select the maximum value to be displayed on the CRM gauge. 3.3.4.2. 928-MCB) IMER ETUP...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 18. Save Counter/Timer Settings File. Figure 19. Settings .INI File. 3.3.5. Example 1: Controlling a Group of Two Counters and One Timer (All Modules Except 928-MCB) This example explains how to gang two counters and one timer together as a group, configure the second counter to collect the overflow from the first, then set them up for simultaneous enable/disable/reset with the group control buttons on the lower right of the main screen.
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® ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 932512A / 0114 Figure 20. Creating a Counter/Timer Group. Figure 21. Results for Group 1 Data Acquisition. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 3.3.6. Example 2: Eight Counters Controlled by One Timer (All Modules Except 928-MCB) This example tells how to configure two 928s or 928-COUNT-4s to control eight counters with a timer from one of the 928s.
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Each of the four Counter Inputs is configured for the type of external signal on its respective BNC. ● To start, reset, and stop data acquisition, use the Group 1 Enable/Reset/Disable buttons on the first 928’s main screen. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 24. Setup for the Second 928. 3.3.7. Example 3: One 928, Four Tasks This example highlights the EASY-NIM 928’s versatility. Figure 25 shows one 928 configured for four separate tasks (which can be run concurrently if you wish): 1) A one-counter/one-timer group that also controls the counters on additional 928s.
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All counter Reset inputs are set to Input 1. ● All Enable inputs are set to Input 2. ● All Gate inputs are set to Always On to disable the Gate Input. ● PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 26. Task 1: Cabling Counter/Timer Group 2 To Control a Second 928. 3.3.7.2. ETUP FOR In Figure 25, Counter 2 and Timer 2 are ganged as Group 1, which is controlled by the Group 1 enable/disable/reset buttons on the main screen.
The Counter 4 Input is configured for the type of external signal on the corresponding counter input BNC. This example does not use the two Output fields. In addition, it uses no Gate input so we select Always On. ● PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 3.4. MCB PROPERTIES IN MAESTRO (928 AND 928-MCB ONLY) This section discusses the hardware setup dialog you will see in MAESTRO and other ORTEC C software (i.e., ONNECTIONS GammaVision®, ISOTOPIC™, etc.) when you click Acquire/MCB Properties..The MCB Properties dialog contains the controls for ADC setup and acquisition presets.
Acquisition Start Time and Sample description. In addition, the Access field shows whether the MCB is currently locked with a password (see the password discussion in the MAESTRO user manual); Read/Write indicates the instrument is unlocked; Read Only means it is locked. Figure 29. About Tab. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 3.4.3. Status Tab The Status tab (Figure 30) monitors the counters (four in the 928 and 928-COUNT-4, and two in the 928-COUNT-2). When you save a spectrum in the ORTEC file format, the counter values are saved in the file. .SPC Figure 30.
(MDA) for all of the user-specified MDA nuclides reach the needed value. Presets are expressed in Bq, and are evaluated every 40 seconds. In all spectroscopy applications except MAESTRO, the detector must be calibrated for energy. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Figure 32. MDA Preset Tab. The MDA presets are implemented in the MCB; that is, the entries you make on this screen are saved in the MCB memory and have no direct link to MDA methods selected in the analysis options for applications such as GammaVision, ScintiVision™, ISOTOPIC, etc.
ZDT mode has a unique feature in that it can store both the corrected spectrum and the uncorrected spectrum, or the corrected spectrum and the uncertainty spectrum. Therefore, supported MCBs allow you to choose between three ZDT Mode settings on the ADC tab under MCB Properties...: Off, NORM_CORR, and CORR_ERR. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite The following table shows which spectra are collected in the three possible ZDT modes. Mode Uncorrected ZDT Corrected ZDT Error Spectrum Spectrum Spectrum Off (ZDT Disabled) NORM_CORR (ZDT–LTC Mode) CORR_ERR (ZDT–ERR Mode) 3.5.1.
The CORR_ERR mode should be used whenever the counting rate might change significantly during the measurement time. In addition to the rapidly-decaying isotope ® Using our gamma-ray spectrum analysis software such as GammaVision or ISOTOPIC. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite example above, the CORR_ERR mode should be used when monitoring cooling water flow from a nuclear reactor. The CORR_ERR mode accommodates brief bursts of high-activity in the water flowing past the gamma-ray detector. Both the corrected and error spectra are stored in the resulting spectrum file.
Peak Uncertainty Stops acquisition when the statistical or counting uncertainty of a user-selected net peak reaches the specified value. Nuclide MDA Stops data collection when the value of the Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) for a user-specified MDA reaches the specified value. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite 4.2. COUNTER/TIMER/RATE METER (ALL MODULES EXCEPT 928-MCB) Maximum Counting Rate 200 MHz. Number of Counters 4 (928 and 928-COUNT-4) or 2 (928-COUNT-2). Number of Timers 2 (928 and 928-COUNT-4) or 1 (928-COUNT-2) Count Capacity 32 bits.
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● Reset Input can be configured to be connected to any one or all of the following: Any one of the front-panel TTL signals. The Software Individual Reset from software control. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite The MCB Clear Command signal (allows timer to be synchronized to MCB acquisitions). Group n Reset (n = 1 or 2) resets all timers or counters and timers in the specified group. Enable Input Timer must be enabled to count.
Sample changer support (SET/SHOW_OUTPUT, SHOW_INPUT) One-button acquisition (ENA/DIS/SHOW_TRIG_SPEC, MOVE) Nomadic (likely to move between opens) Local app data (SET_DATA_APP, SHOW_DATA_APP) Software-retrievable serial number (SHOW_SNUM) Power management commands Battery status support (SHOW_STAT_BATT) Software-selectable AMP polarity (SET/SHOW_GAIN_POLAR) PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Meaning Support for flattop optimization (ENA/DIS_OPTI) Stoppable AutoPZ (STOP_PZ_AUTO) Network support (e.g., DSPEC) ® Multi-drop serial support (e.g., MicroNOMAD Software-selectable DPM address (SET_DPM_ADDR) Multiple devices (e.g., 919) Software-selectable ADC gate mode (SET_GATE...) Beginning of 2nd word Software-downloadable firmware Time histogramming functions available (e.g., 9308)
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Zero Dead Time functions available (DSPEC-series, ASPEC-927) DSPEC Plus-style Insight triggering (LIST/SET_TRIG_SAMP) ® Multiple inputs per connection (for example, OCTÊTE Plus) Hardware count-rate meter (SH_CRM) Multiple ZDT modes (SET/SHOW/LIST_MODE_ZDT) Multi-nuclide MDA preset MCS Replace then Sum Mode (SET_RPLSUM) PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite Meaning Programmable external dwell voltage capability NO Peak Preset feature (M CA and OASIS) Programmable pulser (OASIS) Programmable Vacuum/HV interlock (OASIS) Programmable Current/HV interlock (OASIS) Explorable Stabilizer (LIST_GAIN_ADJU, LIST_ZERO_ADJU) Programmable input impedance (MCS) Advanced shaping-time feature has no CUSP (digiDART, DSPEC jr 2.0, DSPEC Pro) Selectable HV rise-time (SET/SHOW/LIST_HV_RISE) (SBS-60) Explorable ADC GATE settings (LIST_GATE, SET_GATE n)
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SET_DISPLAY is NOT used to select ZDT data view (requires Bit 93) ID Reports (DO_ID, SHOW_REPORT, SHOW_REPO_LINES) Has neutron detector (SHOW_CRM 2 returns valid number) — — — — — — — — — — — — Extended feature mask available (SH_FEAT_EXT) PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite HARDWARE COMMANDS AND RESPONSES Communication with a Model 928 consists of sending commands to and receiving commands from the MCB. Use the DLL interface call MIOComm or the ActiveX control UCONN’s Comm method to send commands to instruments and receive responses.
8-bit unsigned checksum of all characters on the record up to but not including the checksum characters, and <CR> represents the ASCII carriage return character. Response Description $Axxxccc<CR> xxx is an 8-bit unsigned number $Cxxxxxccc<CR> xxxxxx is a 16-bit unsigned number $Dxxxxxyyyyyccc<CR> xxxxx and yyyyy are 16-bit unsigned numbers PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite $Exxxxxccc<CR> xxxxx is a 16-bit alarm mask $Fssss...<CR> ssss... is a variable length ASCII character sequence (No checksum is sent with this record) $Gxxxxxxxxxxccc<CR> xxxxxxxxxx is a 32-bit number $IT<CR> True response to a SHOW command (no checksum) $IF<CR>...
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The second item has a mode number of 1, and so on. Response: MODE_ZDT NORM_CORR CORR_ERR Mode 0 stores the normal and corrected spectra. Mode 1 stores the corrected and the error spectra. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite RESET No function in the EASYNIM 928. This command has been included for backward compatibility. SET_DATA start, chans,value If the optional start and chans parameters are included in this command, the range of channels specified by start and chans is loaded with value.
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EASYNIM-928. Setting a peak preset to 0 counts disables the preset. The peak preset can be set to from 0 (disabled) to 2147483647 counts. See also CLEAR_PRESETS and SHOW_PEAK_PRESET. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite SET_ROI start_chan,number_of_chans Sets the ROI flags for the specified channels. This command can be used multiple times to set ROI flagswithout affecting previously set flags. ROI flags specify channels within a device that are considered for ROI integral and ROI peak presets.
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Reports the current mode of operation of the ADC gate input. See also SET_GATE_OFF, SET_GATE_COINCIDENT, and SET_GATE_ANTICOINCIDENT. Responses: $FOFF<CR> Reports the ADC gate is off or ignored. $FCOI<CR> Reports the ADC gate is in coincident mode. $FANT<CR> Reports the ADC gate is in anticoincident mode. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite SHOW_INTEGRAL [start_chan,number_of_chans] Reports the sum of the specified group of spectral data channels. If start_chan and number_of_chans is not provided, SHOW_INTEGRAL reports the sum of all channels in the currently selected window that have their ROI flag set.
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$D0100000050078<CR> Next ROI group starts at channel 1000 and is 50 channels long. $D0215000150086<CR> Next ROI group starts at channel 2150 and is 150 channels long. $D0000000000072<CR> No other ROI groups to report. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite SHOW_OVERFLOW_PRESET Reports the state of the overflow preset. Responses: $IT<CR> Overflow preset enabled. $IF<CR> Overflow preset disabled. SHOW_PEAK This command returns the contents of the ROI channel with the largest number of counts. An ROI channel is a channel that has the ROI flag set.
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Bit 5 Optimization since initialization (0=normal, 1=needed) Bits 6–7: Unused Bit 8: Amplifier automatic PZ (1=Auto PZ in progress, 0=normal) Bit 9: Optimization (0=normal, 1=in progress) Bits 10–14: Unused Bit 15 (MSB): Reserved PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite SHOW_TRUE Reports the contents of the true-time counter in units of 20 ms (50 ticks/s). See also CLEAR_COUNTERS and SET_TRUE. Responses: $G0000000000075<CR> True time reported as 0 ticks. $G0000000001076<CR> True time reported as 1 tick (20 ms). $G4294967295132<CR>...
1 to 2. Sets all group counters and/or timers to zero. RESET_COUNTER n1 n1 is the counter index from 1 to 4. Sets the counter to zero. RESET_TIMER n1 n1 is the timer index from 1 to 2. Sets the timer to zero. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite SHOW_COUNTER_CRM Returns the values for four counters, formatted as: COUNTER_CRM n1 n2 n3 n4 where n1 to n4 are 10-digit numbers. SHOW_FIFO_VAL n1 Returns the current value of the FIFO in a $G record where n1 is the index of the counter or timer, defined as follows: Counter 1 Counter 2...
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Counter 4 Overflow Level (must be Reset) Timer 1 Overflow Level (must be Reset) Timer 2 Overflow Level (must be Reset) Timer 1 Interval Timer 2 Interval CRM Alarm 1 CRM Alarm 2 PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite CRM Alarm 3 CRM Alarm 4 Group 1 Reset Group 2 Reset Group 1 Enable Group 2 Enable SET_TIMER_CONFIG n1, n2, value Sets the timer configuration where n1 is the timer index (1 or 2) and n2 is the timer configuration index (1 to 6) followed by the corresponding value code.
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START_COUNTER n1 n1 is the counter index from 1 to 4. START_GROUP n1 n1 is the group index from 1 to 2. START_TIMER n1 n1 is the timer index from 1 to 2. PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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® 932512A / 0114 ORTEC EASY-NIM™ 928 Suite STOP_COUNTER n1 n1 is the counter index from 1 to 4. STOP_GROUP n1 n1 is the group index from 1 to 2. STOP_TIMER n1 n1 is the timer index from 1 to 2.
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Easy NIM software Power group control............10 NIM bins..............1 installation ..............3 specification............35 main screen ..............8 Specifications............. 31 saving and recalling settings........14 Troubleshooting ............5 setup (Instrument Settings) screen ......10 ZDT mode .............23, 28 PROPERTY OF AMETEK, INC. – ORTEC ®...
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