Mutli-channel data acquisition

[ScottHorn]

I'm looking for hardware/software recommendations for data acquisition packages. I'm basically trying to replace around 20 old chart recorders with a pc based system. The current system consists of around 20 UV detectors hooked up to an almost equal number of older strip chart recorders. The chromatography being done is low resolution, prep/process scale low pressure affinity chromatography. A peak may be up to 30 minutes wide, and an entire log (chart) may be 2-3 days long. Most chromatography packages I've looked at are geared towards higher resolution chromatography with much shorter run times. Also, most don't support the 20 simultaneous channels and time bases that I need.

My ideal software package would resemble SRI's Peaksimple program, in that it is simple, straightforward, and easy to customize. However, this software only supports 4 simultaneous channels and 6 inputs total. The "Labjack" is a good example of the kind of AD converter I need, but there is little software support for it, and I don't have the time or experience to write my own. I've found other AD boards and modules that support the number of channels I need, and come with software, but they all seem to have ranges in the tens of volts, with low resolution, whereas the signals I'm looking at are 0-1V, millivolt resolution is necessary.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to some more "industrial" or "process" oriented chromatography software/hardware that would fit this application?

Thanks
Scott Horn

[Schmitty]

Have you looked at National Instruments (NI) yet?

We used to use one of their AD boxes connected to a PCI card, so we could simultaneously collect UV data in Analyst whilst also collecting the MS data. Once we figured out how to collect the UV data in Analyst without the AD, we stopped using it. They have many different AD boxes that support multiple channels.

Now that I look back at their website, I see they also have software available.

Currently we have 80-100 UV detectors collecting data simultaneously to an Empower server, but I doubt you need to make that kind of investment to achieve the same result.

[varossf]

Hi, let me see what i can do in EZChrom, as the max number of channels per run is 99, well exceeding your 20. But you need A/D converters for all the channels as well and that might come at a cost.

[varossf]

Hm, with the EZChrom software i was able to add at least 14 channels with the hardware configuration i have. contact your local Agilent sales guy.

[Paulhurleyuk]

Also take a look at Chromeleon. Their UCI-100 has 8 ADC channels and you can have multiple UCI's per system. I'm not sure of the maximum number of channels per system (or timebase in Chromeleon speak) but I'm sure Dionex would happily tell you.

I'm sure I've seen a paper on someone that was using Chromeleon to monitor several chromatography systems that were running continously over 3-5 days an injection. just can't find the citation at the minute...

Regards,

Paul.

[dianne1982]

hi, this is a very helpful topic. kep it up.

[Peter Apps]

If you only want data acquisition maybe you could use a data logger such as are used to monitor temperatures, humidity etc. These come with dozens of channels, a variety of inputs, and store data on board. Your peaks are tens of minutes wide, so you can characterise them with a data point every minute, download to excel, plot it out and it will look just like a "proper" chromatogram.

Peter