HEKA Elektronik EPC 10 USB, Hardware Manual, Page: 20 / 81

14 Installation
3.7 Calibrating the Hardware
It is advisable to re-calibrate the
Hardware
once or twice a year or whenever the frequency response of the
amplifier is not accurate or offset currents become noticeable.
Note: The calibration file contains the settings of the digital switches and controls of the amplifier.
These are unique to a given combination of amplifier and probe and cannot be used for another am-
plifier/potentiostat. Therefore, you have to re-calibrate the amplifier/potentiostat, when you replace
the probe! This is a big advantage of our
Hardware
, since you can use any probe with any ampli-
fier/potentiostat and replace a broken probe without having to send the amplifier/potentiostat in for
re-calibration.
Before starting the Calibration make sure that the Hardware has reached its operational temperature, since the
Calibration depends on temperature. We advice to let the
Hardware
warm up for 30-60 minutes after powering
it on. The Calibration procedure can be performed with any
Software
. In the program, go to the
Hardware
menu (e.g.
EPC 10 USB
or
PG 340 USB
) →
Test and Calibrate
→
Calibrate
.
The following Calibration procedure is exemplary for the
EPC 10
:
The
Software
will warn you that this procedure may take up to 10 minutes, depending on the speed of your
computer. Go ahead by clicking the ”Yes” button.
Then you are instructed to remove anything from the probe and shield its input: You can use the metallic cap
that came with your
Hardware
and put it on the BNC connector of the probe to shield it. Please make sure that
really nothing except the metallic cap is connected to the probe (the black GND pin jack should be free) and that
no BNC cables are connected to the inputs and outputs of the
Hardware
!
At the end of the Calibration , the
Software
will let you know, whether the Calibration succeeded or failed. If
it succeeded, the program will automatically generate a new calibration (scale) file (
SCALE xxxxxx.EPC
) and the
C-fast Lookup Table (
CFAST xxxxxx.EPC
). The files will be stored by default on the mainboard of the
Hardware
(EEPROM).
Note: To store these file on your hard drive of your PC please go to the
Hardware
menu
→
Test and
Calibrate
and change the default setting from
Scale from/to EEPROM
to
Scale from/to Disk
.
Note: It is not advisable to change the name of the files, because in that case you would have to
manually load the files during every initialization. It is very advisable to store the files only in the one
place.
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