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APIcom - Frequently Asked Questions Many APIcom performance problems can be avoided by upgrading to the latest version, as well as updating your operating system. TAPI only supports the latest release of APIcom and cannot support problems associated with an operating system or other software application. The latest version of APIcom is available at no charge. I cannot see any checkboxes in the DAS configuration window. APIcom runs on all 32-bit Windows operating systems (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000). However, display control for these checkboxes was implemented after Windows 95 and NT 4 were released and some common DLL system files need to be upgraded. Work-around: With APIcom 3.2 and higher, you are able to select a channel or individual parameter by right-clicking on the channel/parameter and choosing "select channel" or "select parameter". Recommended solution: This problem has been seen on early Windows 95 and NT 4 installations. Please verify the installation version of your operating system (OS) by selecting START - RUN and typing "WINVER". This will give you the OS version number. Please upgrade your system to run Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (which may require some other service packs to be installed first, such as SP 4 or higher on Windows NT 4). To get the latest upgrades for your Windows operating system, please visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and click on PRODUCT UPDATES. This should check your current installation and suggest appropriate upgrades. Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher can only be installed alone, i.e. without any other upgrades. It is a good idea to upgrade your system with critical updates and service packs first, then with Internet Explorer. Always back up your system before upgrading. The latest version of APIcom does not read my old configuration files and DAS scripts. APIcom was substantially improved in version 3.x, where we introduced significant new functionality for the DAS system. Unfortunately, the structure of script files had to be changed to include this new functionality and APIcom 3.2 and higher may not be able to read configuration and DAS script files from earlier versions. We believe that the advantages of the new functionality outweigh the inconvenience of reconfiguring the program. Fortunately, the DAS editing capability of APIcom makes it much easier to create new scripts as compared to creating new scripts in the instrument via front panel buttons. We suggest to download the latest DAS settings of any instrument and then to edit it before sending it back to the instrument. TIP: Saving DAS scripts / settings on disk helps in archiving and documentation and minimizes the possibility of accidentally overwriting existing scripts. My DAS scripts / calibration sequences won't upload to the instrument. There are several possible reasons: (a) Most likely explanation: The serial cable is of bad quality, the serial baud rate is too high, or the flow control is turned off. In all those cases, it usually looks like the script uploads fine but then returns an error at the end. Try again 2-3 times and if it won't work, try these:
Incompatible firmware. Whereas the front panel functionality (ability to see the front panel, push buttons and access all instrument functions like operating the actual instrument) should run with all of our firmware versions, part or all of the DAS functionality is only supported by our newer firmware and software library revisions. To find out if that is the case, please check your firmware revision and library revision, both of which are accessible on the front panel by selecting SETUP-CFG. TAPI may be able to issue a new PROM with more recent firmware or you may be able to trade in your CPU board for a newer version. Click here to see a list of compatible configurations and click here for upgrade options. (c) Script has syntax error. This usually occurs when the script was created in a text editor or in APIcom without getting the current DAS script and instrument configuration first. We suggest to download the current DAS configuration from the instrument, then to save it on disk, then to alter it before uploading it back to the instrument. This will ensure that the user gets the latest configuration and DAS entries. Note that DAS entries may change with firmware revision, older firmware may not have some of the newer parameters and vice versa. (d) Limitation in the number of records. There is a limitation of the number of records that a DAS can hold. That number is somewhere around 8000 records, but may vary substantially depending on the number of channels, parameters in a channel and also the precision of each parameter, firmware revision, CPU board revision etc. An approximate range is 5000 to 12000 records. Older CPU boards with small RAM memory do not hold as many data records as newer CPU boards with 128 kb RAM. However, APIcom allows to upload scripts with a total number of records that exceeds the allowable maximum (which is the sum of all (number of channels x number of parameters)). When done via the front panel, the system checks if the maximum number of records is exceeded and rejects settings that will not fit into the RAM. If any channel is edited and the maximum number of records in all channels is exceeded, the instrument does not display an ENTER button. The number of that current channel has to be reduced in order to display the ENTER button and finish the channel configuration. This can also be used to check if a script, which was uploaded to the instrument, contains too many records. Simply edit any channel (preferably the one with the largest number of records) and see if the ENTER button is displayed when editing the number of records. (e) If changing the number of records still won't allow to upload a script, create a script in the instrument in question, then download it with APIcom, save it to disk and try to upload it without alteration. If that works, work your way up in the number of channels or make only small changes, then try again to upload etc. Try to find out if this is a firmware / RAM limitation or an APIcom incompatibility with old firmware. The "APPLY" button in the COM-port settings dialog is always grayed out This is a bug in Microsoft's standard COM-port dialog box, the button is always grayed out and does not have any functionality. I cannot download the DAS settings or any data even though the instrument and APIcom seem to work fine. Make sure that the instrument is not in DAS EDIT mode while you are trying to download the DAS settings or any data. APIcom cannot do so while the instrument's DAS is being configured / edited. When the instrument is in EDIT mode, APIcom will show "Downloading data..." but there will be no progress bar and APIcom will return to its original state without action. The APIcom display does not update after I delete a channel or sequence On rare occasions, the Front Panel Window may not get updated properly to reflect the true state of the instrument's display. This can happen, for example, if you change a setting in the instrument and the RS-232 command that pressed the button returns the display contents before the instrument updates its own display. For example, deleting a channel takes a few seconds until the display returns to normal, hence APIcom will continue to display "Deleting data channel" while the actual instrument display returns to normal. The work-around in these cases is either to wait until the periodic front panel update kicks in (set by default to 10 seconds) or to press any of the buttons to refresh the display. Ideally, the user would press a button that does not have any functionality in this menu, but, of course, not seeing the menu properly makes it difficult to decide which button to press. Button number 8 is a save choice, it will usually return to a higher menu level. In the case of deleting a channel or sequence, button #3 does not have a function. Be aware that setting the periodic front panel update time to less than 5 seconds may cause problems when operating with slow modems and multiple instruments. See user manual section Global Options for an explanation of this. |
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Terms and Conditions - (PDF) e-mail us: api-sales@teledyne.com Copyright © 2008 Teledyne Technologies Incorporated. All rights reserved. Teledyne API • 9480 Carroll Park Drive • San Diego, California 92121-5201 • USA |
