Chromatography Forum

Greetings,

Recently on local lab donated a (working) HP 5890 series II to our high school. I have the task of getting it up and running.
I have work with them in grad school, but they were set up and ready to go.
This brings me to several questions that I would like help with:
1. Is this a feasable unit for a High School setting?

2. What are some issues that I will be dealing with when setting this unit up?

3. Is there some inexpensive software out there?

4. Do I need to keep the auto sampler on it? (My guess would be not)

5. If it is only used a few times a year, what kind of upkeep is needed?

Any other tidbit of information would really help.

Thanks in advance!

1. Is this a feasable unit for a High School setting?
5890 units are out of factory support, but they are very reliable and long lasting. We have three currently in use here plus one working unit in the warehouse.

2. What are some issues that I will be dealing with when setting this unit up?
Decent supply of appropriate gases.

3. Is there some inexpensive software out there?
If your system already contains computer circuit boards for the HPIB, that's good. You might want to buy some "legacy" Chemstation software for your computer. Your computer, unless it comes with it, will need an HPIB card (e.g. #82341).

4. Do I need to keep the auto sampler on it? (My guess would be not)
No, it can be lifted off and the Method changed to Manual Injection, easy.

5. If it is only used a few times a year, what kind of upkeep is needed?
Not much.

Just keep it as a museum piece.

Problems I see – ECD detector has to be registered with Federal Gov., as it is radioactive.
If FID, then you need H2 – don’t think your principal will let to keep H2 cylinder in HS, or in fact any compressed gases.

The GC itself shold be fine - especially if you can draw on some input from the donors when it comes to troubleshooting.

Gasses might be an issue - but you can replace cylinders with generators if you have either the money to buy them, or donors that could provide them.

It would be sad to see a great opportunity to do some real chromatography in a school lab founder for want of gas !

Peter