Technical Support

Support is normally provided free of charge. For special situations, for example writing special application software software and on site installation a consultancy service is available and we are happy to discuss this with you. Dataquest Solutions aim to provide an honest advice! If we feel that our hardware is not suitable for a particular application we will use our experience in the data acquisition field to make further recommendations.

Installation help - Spectrum cards

Dataquest Solutions strive supply systems that install without problem. However here is some general advice that may help. Remember that an unexpected results/signals, or indeed nothing at all, can be for a number of reasons not necessarily due to a fault.

1. Ensure your hardware connections are all tight, both the cables and the cards themselves. PCI boards in particular may seem seated, but are generally a tight fit, so look closely and ensure the edge connector is sitting well down and level in the slot.
   
   *PLEASE REMEMBER TO ALWAYS TAKE ANTI-STATIC PRECAUTIONS WHEN HANDLING THE BOARD, BY ELECTRICALLY GROUNDING YOURSELF TO EARTH, OTHERWISE STATIC ELECTRICITY COULD DAMAGE COMPONENTS!*
   
   
2. Does the problem exist on all channels? Try swapping to another channel.
   
   
3. If you have another signal connection cable try this.
   
   
4. For Spectrum hardware it is recommended that you install the Sbench software that came on CD with the hardware - and run a test with this. This is a very useful cross check both for software and hardware problems. Use the Sbench oscilloscope screen to observe a test signal.
   Does it give the expected result?
   Use an AC signal which has been verified by secondary bench equipment e.g. oscilloscope. (NOTE: The Spectrum PCI.248 and 258 models have jumper selectable AC coupling for blocking DC signals). Ensure you set the gain range to encompass the maximum voltage you are likely to see. A factor that can often cause strange results is an input signal with a floating ground. This can cause an input voltage to drift beyond the boards range. For example it could also be that the ground of the power supply to your signal generating equipment is sitting at a very different voltage level to that of the acquisition hardware! If you are using 50 ohm input impedance setting, ensure your signal is not being pulled low by this load.
   
   
5. Should the card be working but you are achieving unreliable results please install the latest drivers. These are freely available (with a history of any bug fixes) from the maunfacturers site at:-
   
   http://www.spec.de/driver_download.html

Portable Solutions - PCI Docking Stations

Frequently asked questions and answers about PCI Docking Stations

Docking Station problems may relate to an unsuccessful install, manifesting itself as the inability of the computer system to see the installed card. For XP/2000 check in the MS Windows Control Panel - Device Manager, see if your card is showing. If it is but it has an exclamation mark "!" showing adjacent to it, try installing a simple PCI card e.g. Ethernet card. Is the problem still there? If so it is a PCI card compatibility problem. If the PCI card does not show look at the PCMCIA adapters in the same window, is there a "!" next to this? This indicates an incomplete driver install or a rare incompatibility problem to your notebooks system. If a re-install fails to help, try another Notebook PC if available and compare. If problems continue contact DataQuest solutions for help, (see link at the bottom of this page)

Portable Solutions - PCI-Express Docking Stations

Frequently asked questions and answers about PCI-e Docking Stations

PCI Express Docking Station should not require addtional drivers except for those for your installed card. Only under XP can Docking Sation drivers be occassionally required. This requirement will be manifested by the inability of the computer system to see the installed card. Check in the MS Windows Control Panel - Device Manager, see if your card is showing. If an exclamation mark "!" showing adjacent to the PCMCIA adapters load the free drivers which follow:-.

Installation method of XP drivers for PCI-Express Docking Station (4 Kbytes).

Drivers for PCI-Express Docking Station. Windows XP only (200 Kbytes), Vista and MacOS X supported without additional driver.

Please feel free to contact us for further help on any of the above

Returns

Returns procedure and associated terms and conditions. Returns documentation .PDF (121KB)

And for further help....

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