USING THE OPTICAL ACTIVITY / INDEX
INSTRUMENTS DATA ACQUISITION
SOFTWARE WITH AA-10 MODEL
POLARIMETERS
1) The “Data Acquisition Software” available from
Optical Activity Ltd allows you to collect readings
from your AA-10 polarimeter with serial output on
a PC, and, if you wish, generate a spread sheet
listing the data. (Older AA-10s with parallel
outputs are not suitable.)
A USB cable and RS 232 to USB adapter are
supplied with the Data Acquisition Software.
Before connecting the polarimeter, the software
must be loaded onto your PC. Operating system
requirements: Windows XP or later. First insert
the USB adapter disc; it should auto-run; if not
manually run “setup.exe”. Then install the Data
Acquisition Software, which is on the second disc,
in a similar way.
Connect the PC (via the USB adapter) to the 9
way D data output port on the right hand end of
the AA-10 (or the 9 way D data output port,
depending on which model of AA-10 you have).
The first time you use the Data Acquisition
Software you will see the message “Instrument
not found, check connection”; click OK and go to
Setups on the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Choose Set PORT/instrument and select the
COM port to which the AA-10 is connected. To
find out which COM port the polarimeter is
connected to, go to Device Manager in Control
Panel and look at the list of COM port
connections.
There are two main options for using the Data
Acquisition Software to collect data;
(i) The PC can either “listen” for data – a
reading is sent from the polarimeter every
time the PRINT key is pressed – refer to
section 3)
OR (ii) The PC can request data from the
polarimeter – refer to section 4).
2) To select “listen” or “request” mode:
Choose Options on the menu bar at the top of the
screen and Request instrument reading?
No tick against ON is “listening” mode.
A tick against “ON” is “request” mode.
With the AA-10, using request mode, you must
then tick ESC D (the other request options are not
suitable for use with an AA-10).
Data Acquisition Software Instruction for use with AA-10 polarimeters, Issue Date August 2011
3) OPERATION IN LISTENING MODE
To start listening to the polarimeter, click on
START. Then, when the AA-10 print key is
pressed, the reading and scale indicator are sent
to and displayed on the PC. The PC indicates the
total number of readings in this set. You can
scroll through the readings by clicking on the up or
down arrows; the number of the reading currently
displayed is also indicated.
When you have completed your set of readings,
click on STOP. (Note: the menu bar is inoperable
until you press STOP.)
To save your data, select FILE from the menu bar
and Save file; you can create a new file or append
data to an existing file. Follow the on-screen
instructions. (Note: You must have Microsoft
Excel® loaded on your PC before you opt to
create an Excel® spread sheet. If you choose to
create and display an Excel® file, the spreadsheet
may be displayed behind the Data Acquisition
Software page; minimize to view your results.
Screen size can be set under Options/Screen.)
The Data Acquisition Software automatically sets
up the Excel® spread sheet headings; if you want
the software to set up your spread sheet, you
MUST make sure that the first reading sent in any
one set is a typical reading (not, for example, an
error message or zeroing message) otherwise the
headings will not be correctly set for typical
readings. Also, you must not change settings in
the middle of a set of readings, otherwise the
headings will be confused.
If you select not to create an Excel® spread
sheet, the data is saved as a read only text file
which can be viewed with, for example, Notepad,
and as a csv (comma separated variable) file.
These read only files are always created along
with any Excel® files you choose to save.
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 5.4) Options/Echo input to serial printer: if this
option is set to yes, data sent to or requested by
the PC is also output to a SERIAL printer
connected to a USB port on the PC (you must use
Setups/Set PORT/Serial printer to tell the program
which COM port the printer is connected to).
5.5) Options/File saving/Clear input data after
saving: if this option is ticked, the PC displayed
data will be deleted after data is saved, making it
ready to start at 1 for a new set of data. If this
option is not ticked, the PC will carry on adding
4) OPERATION IN DATA REQUEST MODE
data to the existing set after saving.
Click on “Get Instrument Reading”. Make sure the
If you try to EXIT or close the Data Acquisition
polarimeter has stabilized before requesting data
Software without saving your data, you will be
as the result is sent immediately.
prompted to save the data before closing.
Scrolling though your data, saving your data and
5.6) Options/GLP Messaging: As the AA-10
creating a spread sheet are then exactly the same
does not provide GLP (Good Laboratory Practice)
as for Listening mode (see section 3)).
messaging within the polarimeter, this option can
be set to NO to prevent the operator having to
5) OTHER OPTIONS identify GLP headers when saving data. Any GLP
messages you need to store, for example time
5.1) Sample Numbering: The Data Acquisition and date and sample identifiers, must be added
Software can be set to either manually ask the from the PC.
operator to add a sample number to your stored
data, or automatically number readings,
incrementing by 1 each time data is recorded.
Choose Setups from the menu bar and under
Sample Numbering tick either on or off and either
manual or automatic.
5.2) Sample reference: You can use the PC to
add a sample reference identifier to your stored
data. The “Reference” can contain any keyboard
character up to 25 characters. Choose Setups
from the menu bar; under “Sample reference” tick
on or off. PC will pause and ask you to type in the
reference each time data is sent or requested.
5.3) Time and Date: To add time and date to
your stored data, choose Setups from the menu
bar and under “Add time and date” tick yes. The
time and date recorded is the current time and
date from the PC settings.

Data Acquisition Software Instruction for use with AA-10 polarimeters, Issue Date August 2011 Page 2 of 2