Chromatography Forum

Hi, seeking some help and advice.

we have an older mass spec (Micromass platform LC) and are looking to get it up and running.
However we dont have the original PC that accompanied it.

There isnt a lot of information as to how to interface this to a computer available and so I am hoping someone out there knows a bit more about it.

what i have found so far involves embedded Pc's or TDAT cards, neither of which i can seem to find too much about , or more importantly source.

If anyone has any info they think would be useful, it would be greatly appreciated.
many thanks in advance...

Micromass was taken over by Waters, you might want to check out their site or contact a representative of theirs.

sadly, our previous dealings with them ended on a sour note, and so they arent really an option.

thanks anyway though.

No details about your country ? If UK there are loads of ex VG/Fisons/Micromass people around who could help. You are right , the Platform used a TDAT card which usually gets left in the old PC and chucked. Depending on vintage an early Platform would be 20 years old, is this the most economic and practical MS to get running again ? TDAT cards were all ISA slot with very slow data transfer rates. It is possible to get PCI slot cards from later models

I guess in answer to the question, is the most economical and practical mass spec to resurrect, it is what we have, and unless there are others available for next to nothing it is likely to be all we ever have.

other things of note. we are located in the U.K not far from e=what used to be the Micromass centre of the universe at Manchester. though it does seem like we are just a little too late to be catching up with anyone who had the insider knowledge of these instruments. We have the software, manuals and licences, but information on the interfacing of computer to mass spec seems to be a little sketchy in the manuals, I think its it just taken as read that the connections are already there...

if anyone knows of an expert in these type of instruments, please let us know, as it seems both knowledge, and interfacing hardware are extremely hard to come by.
thanks

http://massspectech.com/contact-us/find-us/

They should be able to advise

Talk to Ray at mass spec detectives as a source for TDAT card. Note you'll need an appropriate cable as well. Suggest nothing higher then MassLynx 3.5 on this older system and manually install the driver for the TDAT

I also recently picked up a Platform II cheap at an auction. Appears to be well maintained. I scrounged up a TDAT card on Ebay for $250 and a copy of MassLynx 3.5 for $100. I have a copy of the owner's manual and parts manual from Waters, so let me know if I can help.

Have to ask... Where were you lucky enough to find a copy of masslynx 3.5 have been searching around for ages. We have 4.0 but as stated earlier in the thread 3.5 is what we need and the tdat card driver. These things seem pretty difficult to locate....

Actually, it is Masslynx 3.4 and not 3.5

I got the TDAT card (ISA) from Mass Spec Detectives on Ebay. They were asking $1000, but I offered $250 and they accepted.

probably worth an ask, since things are going pretty badly in the hunt for software.

does anyone have, or know where I can lay hands on an early copy of masslynx preferably 3.5 or 3.4.
I am UK based, if it helps to know that.

any help would do, even just a pointer in the right direction

many thanks...

Send me an email at joshk at vom.com and I'll see what I can do.

Instead of a TDAT maybe you can use/find and EPCAS?

I bought a micromass quattro ultima (QQQ) with EPCAS computer and PC running Masslynx 4.1 for $5K last year. The mass spec was built in '99 and runs fine on the newer Masslynx 4.1 software. As a matter of fact, since I only have the PC, I need to make a clone of the harddrive just in case something happens, but I haven't had a chance. Anybody have experience with that?

Check here to see if your instrument is compatible with Masslynx 4.1...

http://www.waters.com/webassets/cms/lib ... 1421en.pdf