I am considering the computer up-grade of a Bruker AM console using the
Tecmag/Powermac hardware and software system. I am interested in hearing
from anyone who has done such an upgrade to determine:
1) Ease of installation
2) Ease of use
3) Satisfaction of vendor support
4) Overall satisfaction
The following responses were received:
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I am the NMR technician here at U of Tenn. Knoxville. Let me preface
my comments by pointing out that I have been paid by TecMag in the
past to do installations for a few of their customers who bought the
upgrade for JEOL instruments. So my opinions might be somewhat
colored by that!
Having said that...
1. I have not done an installation on an AM console. However, from
what I have heard, I suspect that it's much easier than the JEOL
installation, which I have done (several times). The JEOL
installation is a bit peskey. There are a number of wires to
solder.
2. MacNMR is wonderful intuitive software. Very easy to learn and
use.
3. Vendor support from TecMag is excellent. There is also a TecMag
users email list.
4. We have one TecMag unit here that has been in operation for about
4-5 years. We have another brand new one, which I haven't had time
to install yet. Our overall satisfaction has been very high.
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I can't respond directly right now, but we are in the process of
upgrading
an AC type console with a MacSpect, and this will be done in about a
month, so I will be able to tell you more then. I guess my opinion is
that
this is a pretty reasonable way to upgrade low field instruments (300 MHz
and under), but it seems like a complete console replacement is better
for
higher field instruments where additional capabilities might be nice
(e.g.
gradients).
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We recently upgraded our Bruker/IBM AF-300 spectrometer(which is similar
to
an AM) with a Tecmag Macspect 3 station and a PowerMac 500/100. I'm
pleased
with the upgrade. Installation took us about one week to get all of the
problems ironed out. We were able to collect 1H spectra within the first
couple of hours of installation, however, the output from the Tecmag
pulse
programmer wasn't high enough to turn on our decoupler gate. This was
something that Tecmag customer support had encountered only once before
so
it took us a couple of days to solve the problem. Another problem we
have
experienced was that the computer would stop collecting data after a
couple
of hours of a long run. Apparently noise or something causes an
interrupt
in the PCI card that interfaces the computer with the MacSpect station.
Tecmag customer support suggested I turn off virtual memory, which solved
the problem.
Overall, I'm satisfied with the upgrade. The graduate students all have
had
positive comments about the change. We are able to train new users in a
fraction of the time it took to get them up to speed on the old system.
Some things I don't like about the software include instrument shimming
using either the lock signal or the FID. It's just easier to shim using
the
buttons and dial on the SCM pad.
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We have the MiniSpec upgrade for a Bruker WP-200 console.
The upgrade was a dog to install. The documentation was there but quite
difficult to use. Fortunately I have an engineer that resolved cabling
problems, but we still had a difficult time getting all the software
configuration parameters set correctly.
Once installed, though, we have really liked the upgrade. The software
is versatile and easy to use. Support has been good.
Overall, we are very happy about the upgrade. Hopefully Tecmag has
improved
their installation procedures a bit to avoid some of the trouble we had
from recurring.
Bottom line is that installation only happens once, but the use of the
upgrade has been great. Our system is used in an undergraduate lab;
if your are looking at doing research, use some care in selection of
the upgrade. You may want to not be limited, e.g., in data set size
or some other limitation that is inherent with the less expensive
upgrades.
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My name is Jan Wolber and I'm a student at the University of Bayreuth in
Germany. In our group we are doing NMR on gasss-forming materials. Our
equipment consists of two Bruker spectrometers. For one of them, a Bruker
CXP which used to be controlled by an ASPECT 2000, we bought a Tecmag
upgrade and a Powermac earlier this year.
As to the software, we are quite saisfied with Tecmag's MacNMR. It is
very
easy to handle, and for instance writing pulse programs is really
straitforward. Another advantage is the possibility of using AppleScript
to write macros which perform measurements automatically, such as a T1
measurement with a given list of delays. Personally, I hadn't known
AppleScript before working on the Tecmag system, and I learnt it quite
quickly.
In principle, the installation of the Tecmag device was not a problem. I
wasn't involved in ordering the system but I think if you tell Tecmag
what
kind of spectrometer you have and what your requirements are (for example
we got a fast ADC with dwell times as short as 200ns for recording broad
deuteron spectra in solids) they will ajust their design accordingly.
Together with the system we got a short installation manual telling us
how
to connect the various cables to the new device. That could be done
without any soldering or building adapters because the Tecmag system was
equipped with those 'burndy' connectors which Bruker uses.
We have had only one serious probelm so far. Our ADC was not working
properly. First we discovered that two capacitors onn the ADC borad had a
low-pass filter effect on our spectra (that was especially evident when
doing deuteron NMR on solids). However, that could be resolved by
simply removing those capacitors. Then sometimes the FID was not recorded
or transmitted to the Mac correctly, we got some strange spikes in on
cannel superimosed on the NMR signal. As we had no idea how to deal with
that problem and as Tecmag has no representative in Germany Tecmag sent
us
a new board. By the way, they had improved the design of their ADC boards
in the meantime. After replacing the ADC we had no problems any more.
In general Tecmag was quite halpful to us. Communication was mainly done
via fax or e-mail, but we always got an answer quickly when we had some
question. I think that buying the Tecmag upgrade was worth it, especially
if one compares it with the old ASPECT.
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We have a Tecmag which upgraded a GE machine so I won't go into 1). This
is a good cheap way to go if this will be part of a single research
group.
If this is going to be a departmental instrument where everybody in
principle has access to it, it is going to be a lot of work on somebody's
part. My experience is the scripts that you may be used to on UNIX based
machines to make it easy for the casual user are few. They provide a few
via apple script and in principle a lot can be done with apple script,
but
I suspect you (or somebody) will have to learn apple script if this is to
be a departmental machine. Otherwise, for people who know NMR, it's a
wonderful machine. Also, it's a wonderful teaching tool for those who
are
learning NMR. It lays everything out for you. Furthermore, very little
is
calculated for you. You need to get the phases and tables and pulse
lengths right. I think that this is a wonderful way for students to
really
learn NMR.
The support from Tecmag has been fantastic (although they probably groan
every time I call). Note though that we have not had any problems with
the
GE portion of the spectrometer. We have a Bruker AMX 400 which we have
had
a lot of problems with. With this upgrade, you should check with Bruker
and Tecmag as to who will support the Bruker portion of your new
spectrometer.
Over all, we are satisfied. It is much better than what we had. One
recommendation, spend the money to get a large monitor (19" at least) for
the Mac on the spectrometer. It will save you from scrolling the screen
around while writing pulse sequences.
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