Download AutoPRO 6 Software - PIKE Technologies

PerkinElmer Spectrum
PerkinElmer Spectrum v5.x uses the OBEY programming system, which is based on Visual Basic.
AutoPRO5.0 is written using 32 bit code, whereas OBEY is a 16 bit language only. Because of this, the
OBEY software code cannot be embedded into AutoPRO5.0. When PerkinElmer Spectrum is chosen as
your FTIR software, an OBEY program called APPE.exe is used to collect the FTIR data. Communication to
APPE.exe is by means of Dynamic Data Exchange.
APPE.exe has four valid commands. These are:
1.
Init
2.
Back
3.
Sample
4.
Initialize sets up the OBEY Program to initialize the spectrometer and set basic parameters.
When this command is sent to APPE.exe, the program checks the AP5.ini file to find out the
current values of resolution, wavenumber limits, number of background scans, and filename to
save as. A background spectrum is collected with these parameters and saved to the spectra
directory.
When this command is sent to APPE.exe, the program checks the AP5.ini file to find out the
current value of the number of sample scans and the final file format desired. A sample spectrum
is collected with these parameters and saved to the spectra directory.
Close
This command closes OBEY and the APPE.exe program.
The following are some restrictions placed on AutoPRO by the features in the OBEY-programming
language:
•
Stored Background Files
When collecting spectra in OBEY, there is no capability for using a background file that has been
stored to a disk. There are several automated accessories that must use stored background files.
In order to circumvent this restriction, when a spectrum has to be ratioed to a stored background,
the spectrum is collected as a single beam spectrum. This spectrum is then ratioed to the stored
background file, and then saved to disk.
•
Long Filenames
The 16 bit OBEY programming language is not capable of handling either long filenames or long
directory names. In many cases, AutoPRO will be installed in a directory below Program Files. This
directory has a long filename and so spectra cannot be directly saved into the AutoPRO directory.
Similarly OBEY cannot handle backgrounds stored in a long directory name location or with long
filenames.
To circumvent this restriction, background files are collected into a file named BTmp.sp, and
stored in the Spectrum directory. Once the data collection is complete, and control is returned to
AutoPRO, this file is copied into the directory specified by the AutoPRO default Spectral Directory
with the filename Back001.sp, back002.sp etc.
P a g e | 76
PN 350-000070-02