Thanks for the replies to my question about servicing Acustar
gradient amplifiers, which are no longer supported by Bruker.
Of the the four responses, one was servicing the Acustars in their
Electronics shop, and is confident that it can be serviced by third
parties.
Two responders warned that the DC power supplies of the Gradients may
be hard to come by, as they are no longer made, and reccomend
replacing if possible.
One other responder had recently replaced their Acustar with a z-only
GAB board for a reasonable price.
I have myself in the meanwhile contacted MR Resources and they assure
me that they have plenty of parts to service Acustars in the future
(this is not meant to be an endoresement of this company over any
other similar company).
Below are my initial question and the detailed replies:
AMMRLers,
it looks we have some funding available to finally upgrade some of
our aging equipment. I would apprechiate the opinions of this
esteemed group on one point:
One of our Bruker spectrometers has an Acustar Gradient amplifier
which Bruker does not support anymore and recommends upgrading. My
question is has any of you serviced an Acustar through a third party
like
NMR Resources ? I hate to spend money on upgrading something still
perfectly functioning, but also don't want to find myseld dead in the
water whith no money left to replace, and find out there is nobody
there
to fix it.
***********************************************8
The Acustar amplifiers are quite amenable to servicing in the
hands of a capable engineer. Fortunately, it is indeed the case with
my electronics shop guys and that is why I feel optimistic about
repairing this piece of equipment. I personally have not dealt with
NMR Resources but it is of course a name that is known to us all. So,
I think you should certainly be able to get the occasional repair
done satisfactorily through such an outlet and not necessarily spend
the money for a new amplifier, if the old horse is still working its
way (but for the failed fans once in a while).
Just in case, if it is crunch time and you are out of luck in
getting hold of capable hands, please let me know and I can ask my
electronics shop.
**********************************
we replaced our Acustar a couple years ago with a GAB board (z only)
when the DC offset started wandering, taking our homogeneity with it.
(the z gradient in our probe apparently was not pure and so all
shims would change upon the offset changing.) It was well worth it.
Now our shims are rock steady over months. we would have to reshim
extensively periodically but no more. So, if you have any shim
stability issues, they may be caused by the Acustar.
THe only loss with the GAB was the ability to do3D shimming with our
old DMX console but that's not too severe. If you have a newer
console then you probably could still do 3D shimming using the RT
shims.
The GAB was relatively cheap. I forget but it was less than $10K,
maybe $5K....
************************************
What most often goes out on the Acustart is the DC power supply for
the gradient. I have heard these are hard to get. It might be worth
checking if you can find them on the open market, and have a supply
on hand, if you want to try to persist with the Acustar. If it were
me, I would buy a new z gradient amp.
****************************************
Hi Frank,
Here is my 2¢:
Even if you could find someone to service/repair the Acustar amps
parts could be difficult if not impossible to find. For instance one
of the power supplies is no longer made. Luckily I happen to have a
old Acustar that
I can scavenge parts from which I have done on
at least two occasions in the last five years. One could find
alternate parts that perform the same function and might work just as
well.
That is all I have to contribute. If you do happen to find someone
that can repair these amps I would appreciate it if you could share
that info.
)|(
(o o)
-------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo---------------------------
Frank Holger Foersterling, Ph. D.
Director of NMR laboratories
Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://hal.chem.uwm.edu/nmr/
(holger_at_uwm.edu)
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Phone:(414)-229-5896
Fax:(414)-229-5530
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Received on Tue Jan 19 2010 - 11:49:32 MST