Start/ready signal, 1100 vs 1200

[rnelson]

I have 8 model 1100 LC's and use TotalChrom for acquisition, so I have to use A/D converters.

I recently purchased 2 model 1200 LC's and assumed they would work exactly the same with respect to communication with the A/D box.

I connected the 1200's exactly as I had the 1100's connected and have run into many problems, mainly, they are NOT acting the same way. The main problem being the start and ready signals. More specifically, if the A/D box has already switched to "ready" when the Instant Pilot goes to look for that signal, the Instant Pilot never recognizes the "ready" signal.

I've tried too many things to list here, any ideas? Or is anyone using 1200's without Agilent acquisition software?

[attila01]

Hi rnelson,
One of our labs we control the Agilent instrument by analyst sw., and we had sart signal problems with the 1200 instruments. The LC sometimes could not started the Sciex MS system. The start signal was too short fort the MS, and the MS sometimes started, sometimes did not.
The Agilent Service Engineer soldered a 470 uF electrolytic capacitor in the start signal cable. The capacitor extends the length of the pulse so the mass spectrometer can see the start signal now.
An other important setting for the instant pilot is the "Backward compatible mode". For exact details of settings refer the User guide of pilot.
Last but not least, the firmware compatibility. Your 1200 system could a different firmware from the 1100. Is your AD box or your software compatible with the firmware of 1200? If no, the 1200 has an 1100 emulation firmware package if there is no other way for compatibility. Ask the software (or AD box) vendor first about the compatible firmware version for Agilent instruments, then the Agilent will supply you the proper version.
I hope this could help: A.

[rnelson]

I'm not having problems with the start signal, that seems to be working OK. My problem is with the ready signal. I'd like the 1200 to wait for a ready signal from my A/D. In one certain configuration, I can get that to work but then the problem becomes if the A/D goes to "ready" before the 1200 looks for this "ready", the 1200 never recognizes the signal.

My understanding of the backwards compatibility is that will make the Instant Pilot invisible to other controllers, but we aren't trying to control the 1200, only provide a ready signal.

I'm convinced the 1100 and 1200 are different with respect to using a ready signal, but can't get Agilent to admit it. I've proven the remote pin-outs are different. On the 1100, I have to use pins 1&7 to provide the ready signal, but the 1200 will not recognize 1&7 as a ready, I have to use 1&9.

Thanks for your ideas though.

rnelson

[unmgvar]

you could try going into emulation mode, it might work and you could have at least one instrument working in emulation mode until you solve the matter with the second one.

[PMDOC]

I know this problem. The agilent people talk about a "capacitor fix", which I haven't tried. But I made my way around it by manipulating the start signal. I am not at work right now, but it involved REPEATING a prolonged start pulse 50-100 times or so...After that it the API 4000 has not missed a start pulse...ever!

Btw...I had this problem with Agilent 1100, I haven't tried 1200.

Try to see if that works....if not give me a hint and I will get back with more detailed information.

[rnelson]

Thanks for the replies, my service person helped identify the problem.

During one of my troubleshooting tries, apparently I didn't wait long enough.

The autosampler will in fact wait on a ready signal on the remote line with the instant pilot configured to "no external synchromization". The difference from the 1100 is that the 1200 visibly shows the detector balance steps, then waits in pre-run until it gets the signal. The 1100 may act the same way, but you just can't tell it's waiting in pre-run mode.

Thought I would post the solution in case others have the same problem.

[tom jupille]

Yes, thanks for posting the solution. It may save someone else some grief.