Embedded PC not responding - Waters Quattro Micro

Discussions about chromatography data systems, LIMS, controllers, computer issues and related topics.

102 posts
Quattro Micro is only supported on WIN7 with SCN805. There is a document at Waters to setup the ISS and FTP. You also need some files to be copied into windows directory.

SCN805 is a full install and is also available in IVD.
I have inherited an old Micromass/Waters ZQ and powered it up the other day (after a long down time). It does start up, beeps, but even after a long time waiting the workstation PC cannot ping/telnet/ftp to 64.1.1.2. It can ftp to itself (64.1.1.1) fine, thus I assume something is wrong with the EPC in the ZQ. Does anyone know if there is a battery or such in the ZQ that needs replacement after a long down time? Any other tips/tricks are very welcome!
Best,

Joris
Beep suggests the EPC is at least attempting to boot. Use a 9 pin null modem cable between the EPC com port and the host computer and observe the boot process via HyperTerm (9600/n/8/1-default conditions). You can lose the EPC BIOS settings which will require a graphics card and keyboard to reset EPC BIOS to correct parameters.
If you hear a beep after 2-3 minutes, and it repeats , this means you don't have proper setup for software on computer. if you're working on Windows 7, it's a little bit harder than XP. Go for Windows XP, and try to setup computer as instructed.
Thanks for the help!
The ZQ worked before with the PC that is attached to it. It is an old WinNT machine. The NIC shows solid orange (power) and blinks green. The ZQ beeps a few times directly after powering up and has green light for the load/inject switching valve, but even after a long time does not seem to communicate with the PC.
Could not find a serial cable around so waiting for delivery now to check the EPC bios settings. Thanks again.
Connected the serial to the backside of the ZQ and to COM1 of the WinNT PC. Opened up hyperterminal and connected to COM1. Switched on the power of the ZQ. The rotary vane pump refs for a second, the instrument beeps twice short and once long, and beeps twice again in 30seconds or so. Meanwhile nothing is showing up on the terminal on the PC...

Should i hook up the serial cable directly to the COM ports inside the ZQ (behind the right-side giant mainboard panel)?

What would be the most logical next step to troubleshoot?

Thanks!

Also, dr_bahram1977, would it be possible to share those instructions?
Thanks & Best!
On the ZQ, the EPC is somewhat behind the syringe PCB, if entering from the right hand side (A/D PCB side). Hook serial cable directly to the COM 1 port on the EPC and whatever COM port is available on the Host computer. Exit out of Masslynx, open a Hyperterm window with default port parameters and reboot the EPC while observing the term window. If the flash card (or EPC itself) is capable of booting you'll see a VxWorks response on Hyperterm. If necessary, hook a keyboard and graphics card to the EPC, and observe the BIOS boot as well as the initial VxWorks indicator (a number of ... across the screen).
if you hear beeps, and after few minutes it repeated, dont touch your ZQ. your problem is most likely with your PC. try to FTP to your host PC from another computer with this command.
"FTP 64.0.0.1"
then you can find if you can login successfully to your PC or not.
Thanks for the help!

Will try to connect to the workstation from another PC using a crossover patch cable. The IP of the workstation should be 64.1.1.1 right, not 64.0.0.1? The workstation can ping itself fine but maybe it got confused with two NICs in the PC (one for inside one for outside).

Meanwhile, will pursue both ways. Cannot hurt to diagnose the EPC by hooking it via serial to the PC. Since the EPC serial connector seems to be male, (but on the outside of the instrument female) i have to order another serial cable.

Thanks again.
We have a GCT which the EPC keeps rebooting. From this thread, we now know the problem. The EPC can't contact the host computer because the host computer has blown about 10 capacitors that filter the power to the CPU.

We have setup another computer with Windows XP and have installed IIS/FTP. We have Masslynx 4.0. Now we need the instructions on configuring IIS/FTP so the EPC can FTP to the host computer for it's OS. Am I missing any acronyms?
RBedell wrote:
We have a GCT which the EPC keeps rebooting. From this thread, we now know the problem. The EPC can't contact the host computer because the host computer has blown about 10 capacitors that filter the power to the CPU.

We have setup another computer with Windows XP and have installed IIS/FTP. We have Masslynx 4.0. Now we need the instructions on configuring IIS/FTP so the EPC can FTP to the host computer for it's OS. Am I missing any acronyms?

Write me and E-mail.Maybe we can help you too.
bahram111 at yahoo dot com
I have a strange situation with our Micro. A few days ago it was running well and had just finished an acquisition. Suddenly for no apparent reason the power died. The switch was still in the on position but everything shut off. I cycled the power and now I can't communicate with the instrument. Or rather the instrument can't communicate back. I am able to ping, telnet, and ftp successfully. After spending several hours on the phone with Waters tech support they suggested it might be a dead epc. After playing around in telnet the tech then thought it just might be a faulty cable. I replaced the cable today with no improvement. I tried hyperlink but nothing shows up on boot. I find it strange that all commands are successful but the instrument can't be controlled. Any ideas out there?
KShaffer wrote:
I have a strange situation with our Micro. A few days ago it was running well and had just finished an acquisition. Suddenly for no apparent reason the power died. The switch was still in the on position but everything shut off. I cycled the power and now I can't communicate with the instrument. Or rather the instrument can't communicate back. I am able to ping, telnet, and ftp successfully. After spending several hours on the phone with Waters tech support they suggested it might be a dead epc. After playing around in telnet the tech then thought it just might be a faulty cable. I replaced the cable today with no improvement. I tried hyperlink but nothing shows up on boot. I find it strange that all commands are successful but the instrument can't be controlled. Any ideas out there?


DO you ping 64.1.1.2 or 64.1.1.1 ?

if you are able to telnet 64.1.1.2 then EPC is not dead.

check for your pc connection icon near clock.

if you connect micro it directly to pc, it should be disconnected when micro is off.
when you turn it on, after 1 minute, it should change to connected. if it disconnects again and connects and repeated this, it's another problem.
listen for epc reboot and boot sounds too. you can hear a melody for successful boot up fro EPC.
reboot sound could be heard as beep too.
Sorry for resurrecting the oldish topic, but I have exactly the same problem as described earlier.

Due to the permanent failure of workstation's HDD, I cannot establish the connection to the ZQ instrument (constant rebooting of its EPC), on a new computer with WinXP SP2 (clean installation). I have followed the instructions in the previous posts, and I'm pretty convinced that I'm unable to set the ftp server properly (I managed to install IIS with FTP option, but have no knowledge to proceed with the settings). Also, i've done the "hosts" thing, set the IP address in the network card settings to 64.1.1.1, but cannot ping 64.1.1.2 or ftp to that address.

So, the help of more knowledgeable members would be greatly appreciated. Forum member Jorg (bunnahabhain) has prevously offered the set of instruction of how to set-up ftp server in the "for dummies" form:). If such document is still available, my address is srdjanstef@gmail.com

Thanks in advance for yotr help
I am having similar connectivity issues. I have read the entire thread and have tried most of the suggestions: My system is a Quattro Micro API. I have a computer with MassLynx 4.0 that was being used with a ZQ. I set the Ethernet card to a static address of 64.1.1.1. I checked the hosts file and the epc entry exists with a value of 64.1.1.2. I set up IIS with an address of 64.1.1.1, cleared the check boxes, and set the path to c:\. I created a "micromass" user account in Windows with administrator privileges and set the password to analysis. I am able to ftp on the workstation using the micromass user name and password, and I am able to download scripts.txt rom the Vxworks directory. When I ping the epc using 64.1.1.2 I get threee time outs and one response, with a return time of 1ms, which is very short. When I ping epc using the -t parameter it give several responses, then multiple time outs, then a response for every five time outs. I put a monitor and keyboard on the epc and I can see it boot up, and it loads Vxworks and pauses for a while, then reboots. The epc boots continuously, and I suspect it gets a response at a certain stage of the epc boot cycle. There is a subfolder in the Masslynx directory named "ZQ", and when I looked at the ini file and it had entries pointing to the masslynxZQ/vxworks directory for the s1,s2, etc files so I changed the entries to look for the files in the Masslynx/VXworks directory; I believe the files in the ZQ directy are instrument specific; I'm not sure if the files in the VXworks directory are also set up for the ZQ. I don't have Masslynx installation media, so I can't do much. I had Acquity console on the system, and it used 192.168.0.1, so there may be a file somewhere with a Waters DHCP server address that is incorrect. I uninstalled the Acquity console, and I don't have the DHCP server configuration utility any more. That's about it- I apologize for the very long description... Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
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