Installing and Controlling Thermo Scientific Devices
Thermo Finnigan aQa Mass Spectrometer: Installation

Device Type:

Single quadruple Mass Spectrometer

Device Driver:

Thermo Scientific: Thermo Finnigan aQa MS

Supported Hardware Options:

No special options available.

 

What is required?

License:

Timebase Class 1 + MS Control

Connection:

 

Hardware
Prerequisites:

A free RS-232 port is required for control.

Control Panels:

MS_FULL_SCAN.pan
MS_LC_PDA.pan
MS_LC_UV.pan
MS_SIM_MODE.pan

Hardware Installation

Device Connection:

aQa data acquisition cannot be started from Xcalibur software. Therefore, you must connect the Inject-Output-Signal of the LC Autosampler to the Thermo Finnigan aQa user interface IN1 remote input. (Use the black and red wires of the 3-wire cable that is shipped with instrument.)

 Tip:

Control the aQa Mass Spectrometer using the TDAT card. In the PC BIOS, reserve the IRQ5 for this ISA card. In addition, also reserve DMA 1 and 0x300-0x307 as I/O address, if required by your BIOS.

 

Software Installation

For information about the software installation requirements for data acquisition, refer to How to: Installing and Configuring Mass Spectrometers  Installing MS Components.

Install the Device Driver in the Chromeleon Server Configuration. (For more information about the program, refer to Software Installation and Communication  The Server Configuration Program.)

  1. Start the Chromeleon server.

  2. Start the Server Configuration program.

  3. Add the mass spectrometer to the timebase. Select Add Device on the Edit or context menu, and then select Thermo Scientific from the Manufacturers list box and Thermo Finnigan aQa MS from the Devices list box.

  4. The following settings are required:

On the General tab page, select the port to which the mass spectrometer is connected. In addition, disable the Demo Mode.

Do not change the settings, that is, the number of channels installed, on the Installed Channels tab page.

The Error Levels tab page classifies the severity of any errors that occur. It is generally not necessary to change the default settings.

  1. To control the mass spectrometer, connect one of the following Control Panels in the Chromeleon client to the corresponding timebase: MS_FULL_SCAN.pan MS_LC_PDA.pan, MS_LC_UV.pan, or MS_SIM_MODE.pan.

Application

For information about the commands and properties supported by the aQa mass spectrometer, refer to Commands and Tips for Thermo Scientific Devices  Thermo Finnigan aQa Mass Spectrometer in the User Help section.

Further Information

 Tip:

For more installation details, refer to the manual for the instrument.