From chquay at MtHolyoke.edu Mon Jan 6 21:13:14 2003 From: chquay at MtHolyoke.edu (Charis Quay Huei Li) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 00:13:14 -0500 (EST) Subject: Problems with AFM Message-ID: Hello, I wasn't quite sure what the reporting procedure is; I hope this goes through. I wanted to let people know of a couple of problems I've found with the AFM and ask if you have found fixes. The first problem is that the computer frequently crashes in the middle of a scan, it seems at least once every session and sometimes several times if I am AFMing for a long time. Restarting the computer fixes this, but usually when the software is restarted it crashes the tip into the surface and it's a bit of a pain (and expense) to replace the tip. The other problem is with the Nanoscope software. Often files captured on the AFM computer cannot be opened offline even with software of the same version. Usually in McCullough (where we have the same problem) one opens/prints all the files one couldn't open in one's lab from the AFM computer when it's not in use. It is a huge pain, but at least the files can be accessed in a roundabout fashion. I tried to connect to the colour printer in my lab from afm2 (\\vanhouten\droste) but was told that access was denied. Does anyone know if this is a problem on the printer side (in which case please tell me which settings I need to change) or on the AFM side (in which case can an Administrator please, please change the settings on that computer)? It seems strange that this would happen since I was able to map to our data backup computer and dump files there. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks! Cheers, Charis. From chquay at MtHolyoke.edu Tue Jan 14 18:37:43 2003 From: chquay at MtHolyoke.edu (Charis Quay Huei Li) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:37:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: AFM Trick Message-ID: Hi guys, Many of you have been having the problem where after capturing an AFM image on DI software you cannot open it on another computer. I recently talked to Greg Koppel from Veeco. He says when you capture, the headers aren't correct for some reason. The fix is to 'browse' the files on the computer that you took the images with. The browse button is the one with nine multi-coloured little squares in the upper left corner in the offline mode of the Nanoscope software. So just go into offline mode on the control computer, select the folder with your unreadable files in it and hit browse and they will now be all readable on your office computer. Sounds like black magic but it works. This is easiest to do if the repository for your AFM files is networked; otherwise you have to copy MB's of files and take it to the AFM computer. This piece of info made my day. I hope it's helpful to you too. :-) Marc/Ali, do you mind letting the McCullough folks know? Thanks. Cheers, Charis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charis QUAY Huei Li Physics Department 650-725-2047 (L) Stanford University 650-853-0936 (R) Stanford, CA 94305-4060 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From mahnaz at snf.stanford.edu Wed Jan 15 08:56:23 2003 From: mahnaz at snf.stanford.edu (Mahnaz) Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 08:56:23 -0800 Subject: up date Message-ID: <3E2592B7.2752FFD4@snf.stanford.edu> Hello all, As most of you know, we are having some issues with the AFM2. Fortunately Hector was here yesterday and he looked in to the system here is part of his email to me which I like to share with you. ""I fixed the problem were the focal offset between LOCATE TIP and FOCUS SURFACE was too small. This forced users to manually drive the tip extremely close to the sample in order to make the imaging start. This is exactly what you do NOT want. Humans driving the tip down to their sample instead of the computer driving. The worst case scenario would be crashing the tip so fast that the safety mechanisms of stopping the moving parts would actuate after the scanner crashes too. Ouch! Out of commission for up to one month AFTER you cough up $9000. You've been down that road before too."" This problem may have been caused by the computer crashing, or a person changing the software parameters likely. At this moment in time, we do not have control over the computer crashing but if any body out there is playing with the parameters I like to ask to stop that as if any thing goes wrong with the system it will be a while for me to be able to fix it. I have always relied very heavily on Hector's expertise and he is not able to support me as much as he did so every one needs to use their best judgment when it comes to this tool. mahnaz