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* Jack,


I have the same setup you have; JEOL 8600 with the Geller automation.  A few years back the stage would periodically run away.  If the joystick was moved just a little, the stage would start moving in one direction and not stop.  The problem turned out to be a noisy joystick and the oddity of Microsoft windows XP.  There is a calibration in the Windows software which allows you to calibrate the joystick.  This calibration determines the minimum and maximum signal that will come from the joystick and how far and fast to move the stage based on that signal.  However for some unknown reason, Microsoft windows will recalibrate the joystick if it got some noise that is outside of the limits of the original calibration.  This causes the calibration to be off-center, and as a result, the true center value of the joystick ( 0 volts) is interpreted as a positive signal in one direction, and therefore the stage just keeps moving in that one direction.

We replaced the original joystick with one from:
CH Products
970 Park Center Drive
Vista, CA

It was a USB, Hall effect sensing, four button model.  It cost about $250, but the problem completely went away, not one run-away in four years.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Peter McSwiggen






On Jun 9, 2011, at 10:30 AM, jack hietpas wrote:

JEOL Probe Users Listserver

Moderator: Ellery Frahm, [log in to unmask], Electron Microprobe Lab, University of Minnesota

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*

Hello Everyone- at Syracuse University, we a JEOL 8600 Superprobe.  We are having difficulties with the joystick, the stage gears like to slip (at times several mm) when moving the stage with the joystick.  Whenever we let the computer move/control the stage (i.e. overnight runs) we don't have a problem, so it seems likely that the joystick is the problem.  I was wondering if anyone knows were we could purchase either a new one, or a new used one?  The joystick has a male USB connection, which connects directly to the Dell computer (running Geller software).  We do have a joystick from a JEOL 733, but it has a male 15-pin D-sub connection, has anyone had experience with D-sub to USB converters? These cost only ~$20 on amazon.  Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

-jack