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Our application experts share the best practices for OceanView 2.0 spectroscopy software and answer your questions on saving projects, building schematics and more. Watch the videos, or scroll down for a list of the most common questions answered by our Tech Support team.
Ocean Insight's Lab Services Manager, Yvette Mattley and Senior Application Scientist, Derek Guenther, walk through the new OceanView 2.0.
The second part of OceanView 2.0 Webinar Series covers The Wizard and the Power of the Schematic.
Q: Which spectroscopy software is required to operate my spectrometer?
A: Our current spectroscopy software is called OceanView. OceanView operates on 32- and 64-bit Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. The software can control any Ocean Insight USB-based technology spectrometer.
Click to download OceanView Installation and download the Operation Manual.
Q: Which software is required to operate the NanoQuest MEMS-based spectral sensor?
A: NanoQuest software, which can be download from the Software Downloads web page.
Q: Which software is required to operate the NeoFox-GT fluorometer?
A: NeoFox Viewer is the operational software for this instrument. Download it from the Software Downloads page.
Q: When making irradiance measurements, which mode should I use when comparing two scans?
A: Relative mode. Measurements taken with a single spectrometer are accurate relative to one another, even if the spectral shape is uncorrected. That means you can take the ratio of one emissive measurement to another and get an accurate change in the percent signal as a function of wavelength.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: Relative irradiance mode is needed when comparing measurements taken by different spectrometers, when determining the spectral shape, or when looking for peak location and shifts. Absolute irradiance mode is needed to quantify the amount of light.
Q: How do I create a LabVIEW VI using OmniDriver and COM?
A: Here’s what we recommend:
Q: I can’t locate the MSVCR71.DLL. Now what?
A: OceanView is written in Java. Java has a somewhat contentious relationship with Microsoft Windows. Not everything always gets installed everywhere it needs to be all the time.
Never to fear! The simplest solution is just to copy (not move) MSVCR71.DLL from C:\Program Files\Ocean Optics\OceanView\oceanview\_jvm\bin to C:\Windows\system32. A full troubleshooting procedure follows:
The MSVCR71.DLL file is designed as a standard part of Windows. It should be in the following places (or the equivalent location in your system):
32-bit: C:\Windows\system32\MSVCR71.DLL
64-bit: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcr71.dll
Check to see if the file can be found in the appropriate location for your system. If it’s not, this suggests a problem with Windows. Possibly, it was removed by uninstalling some software.
If the file is where it is supposed to be, we suggest copying it into the following locations:
C:\Program Files\Ocean Optics\OceanView\oceanview\_jvm\bin
C:\Program Files\Ocean Optics\OceanView\oceanview\bin
This should allow the DLL to be found more easily by Windows.
If you do not find the file in the location specified, please copy it from another computer with the same operating system into the specified location.
Q: When installing OceanView/OmniDriver/SpectraSuite/Overture on my Windows 8/8.1 PC, I get the error message “The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.” How do I address this?
A: Windows 8 has a “driver signature enforcement” feature that is enabled by default. You may need to disable it.
Q: Can I use OceanView software on tablet computers?
A: Yes. OceanView will run on tablets with Windows operating systems from XP and beyond except for Windows RT, WinPhone and CE. It will not run on tablets run by ARM processors.
Q: Why can’t OceanView version 2.0.5 find my remote (i.e. Ethernet, Wi-Fi) Ocean FX or Ocean HDX spectrometer?
A: To enable quicker USB spectrometer discovery, remote device probing (i.e. Ethernet or Wi-Fi) has been disabled by default as of version 2.0.5. To enable, go to the OceanView device manager, uncheck “Exclude remote device probing", and check “Automatically connect to devices” and “Automatically connect to remote devices.”
When OceanView is opened after doing this, it will scan for remote devices. If the device has not yet been configured for Ethernet or Wi-Fi, please see the Ethernet or Wi-Fi initialization instructions in the corresponding spectrometer’s operating instructions.
Q: What is the order of operations for spectral calculations in Ocean Insight software?
A: Please follow these simple steps for spectral calculations:
Note: If you change the Integration Time, Averaging or Boxcar Smoothing, you must take a new Dark (Bias) subtraction. This is done while the Linearity Correction is enabled.
Q: How do I uninstall OceanView software?
A: If you need to uninstall OceanView, be sure that all directories are completely removed. There is one location where user settings and preferences get stored, and sometimes newer (often beta, pre-release) versions of OceanView may be confused by the older settings in user directories.
Those user directories can be located and manually removed as follows:
Windows XP: The User Directory is found in the following path: C:\Documents and Settings\userdir_oceanview-name, where name is your username on the PC. The user directory to be deleted is “userdir_oceanview-name.”
Windows 7: The User Directory is found in the directory under your username. To get to this directory, go to the “Start” button and select your username in the top of the right side of the menu. This location translates to C:\Users\name. The user directory to be deleted is “userdir_oceanview-name.”
Windows 8.x: The User Directory is found in C:\Users\. The user directory to be deleted is “userdir_oceanview-name.”
Q: Will legacy software like OOIBase32 still work?
A: In theory, yes, but only on 32-bit Windows operating systems up to Windows XP. This limits your options considerably, and it not a good choice for most customers. In fact, customers should be aware that we no longer support software purchased before June 30, 2017.
Q: Where do I find the password for software installation?
A: With OceanView and newer software, you received a software product key via email at the time of purchase and on your order acknowledgement. If you misplaced this or have an earlier version of our software, contact us via chat or info@OceanInsight.com with this information:
OceanView password
To recover your software key, please provide us with:
Note: If you’re using the OceanView 10-day free trial, the software begins working upon installation. If you decide to purchase OceanView, you will receive your software key as described above. With the software key you can activate OceanView by choosing Help/Licensing from the trial version software, then entering your product key and clicking the “Activate” button.
OmniDriver/OmniDriver + SPAM password
To recover your password, please provide:
SpectraSuite password
To recover your password, please provide:
Note: SpectraSuite purchases made prior to June of 2009 used a different SpectraSuite password and will not work with any SpectraSuite versions compatible with 64-bit Windows and Mac OS X 10.6 and newer.
Q: How do I extract data from a ProSpec file without SpectraSuite?
A: Here are a few basic steps to help you make sense of your data:
Q: Can I use a 32-bit version of OceanView or SpectraSuite software on my 64-bit Windows operating system?
A: No. The 32-bit Windows versions of OceanView and SpectraSuite software are set up for use with the 32-bit ezusb driver. There is no way to configure 32-bit OceanView or SpectraSuite software to work with 64-bit Windows device drivers or with a 64-bit Windows operating system*. You will need to use a 64-bit Windows version on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
*Note. With some programming languages, it is possible and sometimes necessary to use a 32-bit Windows version of OmniDriver or OmniDriver+SPAM on a 64-bit Windows operating system.
Q: How do I control my USB spectrometer from OmniDriver and MATLAB?
A: If you want to use MATLAB® from MathWorks to directly control your USB spectrometers, reading and post-processing spectra from .m files, you’re in luck: MATLAB and OmniDriver are old friends.
OmniDriver includes a file in OOI_HOME called OmniDriver.jar, which provides the complete class structure of OmniDriver to any program that can utilize Java JAR files — including MATLAB! Calling the OmniDriver Wrapper can be as simple as this:
>> javaaddpath('C:\Program Files\Ocean Optics\OmniDriver\OOI_HOME\OmniDriver.jar'); >> wrapper = com.oceanoptics.omnidriver.api.wrapper.Wrapper(); >> wrapper.openAllSpectrometers(); >> spectrum = wrapper.getSpectrum(0); >> wavelengths = wrapper.getWavelengths(0); >> plot(wavelengths, spectrum); |
Please note: If MATLAB is having trouble finding the native USB device drivers, something like this:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError at com.oceanoptics.uniusb.USB.<init> (USB.java:20) at com.oceanoptics.omnidriver.features.USBImpl.<init> (USBImpl.java:62) (blah blah blah) at com.oceanoptics.omnidriver.api.wrapper.Wrapper.openAllSpectrometers (Wrapper.java:507) Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to load any native library for USB. Tried base filenames: NatUSB_64, NatUSB_32, NatUSB at com.oceanoptics.uniusb.UniUSB.<clinit>(UniUSB.java:75) |
This indicates that MATLAB’s JNI (Java Native Interface) can’t find the .DLL (or .so or .dylib for Linux and Mac) “native libraries” that OmniDriver uses to talk over USB on each operating system. Unfortunately, there is no way to dynamically “re-point” MATLAB to look at a new path after MATLAB launches (this is not the same as CLASSPATH, nor is it the same as LD_LIBRARY_PATH).
Fortunately, you can follow a quick and simple procedure to update MATLAB’s JNI path between MATLAB sessions:
To learn more about matlabroot, see these links (valid at writing):
To time operations in MATLAB, use this:
% initialize spectrometer wrapper = com.oceanoptics.omnidriver.api.wrapper.Wrapper(); wrapper.openAllSpectrometers();
% set integration time to 1 millisec (1000 microsec) wrapper.setIntegrationTime(0, 1000);
% take 10,000 spectra time_start = datestr(now,'dd-mm-yyyy HH:MM:SS.FFF'); for i = 1:10000 spectrum = wrapper.getSpectrum(0); end time_end = datestr(now,'dd-mm-yyyy HH:MM:SS.FFF');
% display the time it took display(time_start); display(time_end); |
Q: Why can’t my computer locate the drivers when I install the Windows version of OceanView/OmniDriver/OmniDriver+SPAM/SpectraSuite/Overture software?
A: When you install the Windows version of our software, the driver installation works a little differently for some spectrometers.
After you install the software, attach your spectrometer to the computer. The “Windows Found New Hardware” wizard will open, but may not find the device driver. Here’s what to do:
Note: Upon completion of the steps above, you may encounter the error message, “The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.” You can address that issue in this FAQ. [Link to the FAQ above about installing OceanView/OmniDriver/SpectraSuite/Overture on my Windows 8/8.1 PC, and getting the error message “The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.”]
Our world-class experts are available to help find answers to your toughest questions.