Ressurecting a Tekmar 3100 to attach to my 6890-5973

[benhutcherson]

Maybe I'm crazy for doing this, but I've recently come into possession of a Tekmar 3100.

In a past life, my instrument was interfaced to a P&T, and I have a good understanding-I think-of how to plumb it to the 6890.

One small question-I'm currently running my 6890 on H2, although I have He at hand. Do I need to plumb He to the P&T as the purge gas, and if I do that is there any issue with continuing to use H2 as a carrier?

I THINK I have the correct cables to get it talking to the 6890, but I'm lost on how to actually control the P&T parameters. I don't have the remote control for the 3100.

It seems as though the TekLink software is my best option.

First of all, short of paying $150 for the copy available on LabX now, does anyone know where to find the software?

Second, has anyone run this with a newish version of Windows and a USB-RS232 adapter? If need be, I have a Windows 2000 box sitting here with an RS232 port on it, so can use that just to control the 3100. With that said, it would seem a lot easier if I could just control everything from the Windows 10 PC running the 6890...

[LALman]

Benjamin, I have the Tekmar 3000. Its got the hand held controller. It can be controlled just fine by interrupts from the 5973/6890 GC-MS under Chemstation D.02 or E.02. My system originally was installed with Win2KPro but I am using WinXPpro on both versions of chemstation now.

If you decide to do SIM-Scan mode you will need the 5973 fastscan side board and newer log amp board. The MS interface conroller might be needed or not depending on age of system. Geof at Great Lakes Technical Service knows.

As to Hydrogen as carrier gas. It works fine but not as your purge gas. Hot Hydrogen breaks down the brominated compounds. What I do is purge with UHP nitrogen from a dewar. I also use that nitrogen as make-up gs for my FID system and carrier gas for my other GC-MS when its not in use. I use the swagelok stainless 3-way valves to let me switch carrier gas for both my GC-MS systems.

I used hydrogen as P&T gas and ran for several months that way. But when I went back to helium carrier I saw an immediate 30-60% response increase for some of the chlorinated and brominated analytes. Its nearly as good as helium if you purge with nitrogen and run with hydrogen as carrier.
I use nitrogen as purge gas in any case because its cheap to just keep a dewar of LN2. I thought of just doing cylinders because of dewar rental but its less hassle and nearly the same price.

[LALman]

One last thought. Hydrogen will find every molecule of cruft in old lines and valves and give you background that can take a long time to dissipate depending on source.