How can I control the GC/MS programming by ourselves

Question

We have a new project that need to integrate many other sensors and instruments with GC-7890B/MS-5977B.

We need control all this intruments and read/merge the results.

But Agilent do not open the protocol to the third party(TCP/IP or RS232).

Is there any way to do this work? Thank you!

martinp · Accepted Answer

I have been working with this kind of automation and programming for more than 25 years. The tool I use for solving the programming is LabVIEW from National Instruments. I work in the chemistry labs, and all applications that I have set up also need full control of Valco Valves, block valves, Eurotherm T-controllers, thermocouples etc etc. A lot of various RS-232 and/or RS-485 protocols. Analog/digital signals in/out is typically handled with cDAQ hardware from National instruments. Regarding integration of analytical control of the GC-MS, here's my experiance; the 7890B GC has input control port, that you can use for simple control of starting analysis via triggering a start-signal. What you start then is analysis in a sequence ready to be run. In my case, this was not good enough, as we work with high throughput, and one test using three GCs in parallell might start thousands of analysis in one single test. The problem here, is that if one single triggered analysis fails and hangs, the rest of the test is lost for that GC. That was not good enough for us. So I started using the EZChrom software (by Scientific Software back then), cause that had an ActiveX interface that let me take 100% control of the GC software from LabVIEW. With that solution I can from LabVIEW monitor the progress of the analysis, and if one hangs, I can abort it, and continue, only loosing one single analysis. I also have full control from LabVIEW what GC-method I use, the name of the result-file etc etc. I have also of course full control of all other process data, and can easily integrate analytical analysis with the process data. I have no experience with the GC-MS combination you are referring to. Only automation of pure process MS (Pfeiffer etc). After Agilent aquired the EZChrom software some years back now, the OpenLab system comes in two flavors, and one of them is the EZChrom version (the other is Chemstation). The first years of this platform was a true nightmare for me, as Agilent used loong time before they were able to handle that automation interface, and during that period implemented several nasty bugs. But today it seems to be working ok with the current version, which I'm using on several projects/platforms right now. So, in short, to solve your problem, you need a programming tool that can read all your input/output signals, and also take control of the analytical. In my humble opinion, the best choice is LabVIEW, of course. But you also need an expert to do the job, as this task is not something you can do without several years of LabVIEW and automation experience. If you have budgets to do so on your project, you need to get in contact with somebody that can run this automation project for you. I work in this business myself, and if you're interested in continuing the discussion with me, please let me know. best regards from Martin Plassen

ryoboyle · Answer

Thank you. I have added tags to this post to increase visibility. If you are attempting to develop your own software then I recommend that you reach out to your local Agilent branch ( Contact Us | Agilent ). They might be able to provide you with the Instrument Control Framework for the Agilent Instrumentation you have.