Lab-Tools.com

Scientific Instrumentation and Software
for Industry and Academia

Lab-Tools Mk3 NMR Relaxation Spectrometer.

Here at Lab-Tools.com/Instrumentation
A newly developed highly compact precision NMR Relaxation Spectrometer has now been certified for international sale.
Suitable for Industry and University Laboratory use, this instrument is ideal for bench or field material science applications, for both liquids and solids - measure the physical NMR properties of your samples and materials right where you collect them !
Orders are now being taken, and will be fulfilled in order,
Please do contact us :
Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometer Contact Form

www.lab-tools.com - NMR Spectrometer Front Panel + NMR Spectrometer.

Suitable for Industry and University Laboratory use, this instrument is ideal for bench or field applications - measure the physical NMR properties of your samples and materials right where you collect them !

Based on array processor software and firmware in a compact readily available Linux based processor and Field Programmable Gate Array, with custom NMR low-noise receiver and a choice of NMR linear transmitter or NMR digital transmitter. Windows laptop or desktop for Graphical User Interface (GUI) NMR system control, data capture and display.

Standard 5mm diameter samples, which can be liquid, waxy, porous, polymer, ..., as long as they contain hydrogen or other convenient NMR active atoms. Preliminary results immediately, including NMR relaxation component fitting in the GUI, which gives information related to liquid purity, or oil / tar / wax / emulsion / rubber / polymer properties such as viscosity / stiffness / mobility.

Applications also to food freshness, rubber ageing, charcoal / biochar quality, wood / paper / cement characteristics and toiletries stability.

Digital NMR Receiver.
A Dual Channel NMR Receiver with ultra low noise pre-amplifier (~60 dB gain), 14 bit 125 MHz ADCs followed by digital down conversion and decimating filter is now available for purchase. These are in daily 24/7 use in the Lab-Tools NMR Lab.

www.lab-tools.com - instrumentation - NMR Digital Receiver

NMR Linear Transmitter.
A new NMR relaxation transmitter design, based on the latest surface mount devices, originally targeted primarily at liquids NMR, but now able to also make relaxation measurements on solid samples including polymers and even brittle ice.

Digital NMR Transmitter
The latest version of this, based on an extensively tested earlier version, is in the final stages of development.

NMR Ancillary Instrumentation.
The Precision DVM (see above right) and the Digital Scope / Transient Processor (see below) have been working 24/7 in the lab for a number years and are now ready for release.

Published Mk3 NMR Spectometer instrumentation papers :
Credit-card sized Field and Benchtop NMR Relaxometers using Field Programmable Gate Arrays.
J. Beau W. Webber, Pavel Demin, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 56, February 2019, Pages 45-51, DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2018.09.018

Biological, Medical and Nano Structured materials - NMR done Simply.
J Beau W Webber. Archives in Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology
1(4): 2019. ABEB.MS.ID.000517

Some of the papers prepared using previous generation Mk2 Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometers :
www.lab-tools.com/publications/Webber_JBW.html
Porous Publications: over 100 refereed papers + 70 conferences

Lab-Tools NMR Relaxation Spectrometer : Price on application.
NMR Relaxation Spectrometer: low-noise NMR ~60dB pre-amp, linear NMR transmitter, Red Pitaya FPGA for digital RF processing plus on chip dual-core Arm Linux computer; power supplies; an all in one HP i5 Window 10 computer with screen, software, firmware and GUI; and a basic NMR probe.
UK delivery and on-site installation TBD. The NMR magnet is extra, depending on experimental requirements, Please do also contact us for international orders and other options.

www.lab-tools.com - instrumentation - compact precision all-in-one NMR Spectrometer
Lab-Tools - Instrumentation - Compact precision all-in-one NMR Spectrometer

Lab-Tools NMR Relaxation Spectrometer - 2019-09-04.pdf
Lab-Tools NMR Relaxation Spectrometer - NMR Cryoporomety pore size measurement.pdf
Lab-Tools NMR Relaxation Spectrometer - Instrument.pdf
Lab-Tools NMR Relaxation Spectrometer - Example Measurements.pdf
Papers and Posters prepared using the Lab-Tools Mk3 and Mk2 Spectrometers

www.lab-tools.com - instrumentation - compact precision NMR Spectrometer - Mk3

Lab-Tools - Instrumentation - compact precision NMR Spectrometer - Mk3

Screen capture during measurement of FID and echo from 119mg Hexadecane liquid sample.
NMR Frequency ~ 24 MHz. 90 pulse : 5 us. NMR Frequency Lock : On.
Top graph : Displaying captured Single-Shots.
Bottom graph : averaged echo peak - polynomial fitted and equations solved to obtain peak amplitude.

www.lab-tools.com - instrumentation - Measurement of properties of PTFE
Lab-Tools - Measurement of the crystaline/amorphous properties of PTFE - compact precision NMR Spectrometer -v3

3 VIDEOS giving an introduction into the setting up and use of the Lab-Tools NMR Time-Domain Relaxation Spectrometer :

Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometer set up part 1 https://youtu.be/UTxjdIOmkBE
Assembling the NMR hardware, powering up.

Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometer set up part 2 https://youtu.be/Z3hvaKICiV0
Running the software and firmware, adjusting the NMR frequency and RF pulse widths.

Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometer set up part 3 https://youtu.be/uDdGkWZhz9U
Configuring measurement and auto-fitting of some NMR relaxation times

Papers prepared using these Mk3 Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometers :

Synergistic Effects between Hydrolysis Time and Microporous Structure in Poplar. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Sharath Kumar Ankathi, Wen Zhou, J. Beau W. Webber, Rishab Patil, Utkarsh Chaudhari, David Shonnard. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.201971512920-12929, July 2, 2019. DOI:10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b01926 Also Supporting Information.

Characteristics of biochar porosity by NMR and study of ammonium ion adsorption. W.C.Wong, J.B.W.Webber, U.O.Ogbonnaya. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Volume 143, October 2019, 104687 DOI:10.1016/j.jaap.2019.104687

Posters prepared using these Mk3 Lab-Tools NMR Spectrometers :

A Poster produced by Total Research and Technology Feluy (TRTF) for the recent EuroISMAR conference, using data from the prototype of the Lab-Tools Mk3 NMR Spectrometer :
ADVANCED NMR FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS: STRUCTURE, POROSITY, AND ACIDITY Andrey S. Andreev1, Pascal Scholzen1, Beau Webber2 1 Total Research and Technology Feluy (TRTF), Zone Industrielle C, B-7181, Feluy, Belgium 2 Lab-Tools Ltd.

www.lab-tools.com - instrumentation - Precision DVM

Lab-Tools - Instrumentation - 24bit Precision DVM
Download 1 page PDF document

Behind the scenes
Lab-Tools interface their NMR instrumentation using 3 different Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). This is an overview of how we design instruments in a modular manner.

Lab-Tools GUI to 3x FPGA using AplX from BeauWebber

Lab-Tools - Bespoke
In addition to off-the-shelf instruments, we can design new instrumentation, based on these modules or others, for you, so please do discuss with us new designs that you may interested in commissioning. Lab-Tools_Modules

Lab-Tools Instrumentation Modules:

USB Interfaced FPGA Master Module

This is the master module, that interfaces to the USB, and provides 80 high-speed interface pins to slave modules.
Uses credit-card-sized intermational CardStac form-factor module, holding an FTDI Morphic II FPGA :
On-board Altera Cyclone II FPGA, 50 MHz & 60MHz Clocks. Pre-written VHDL firmware for generating 120MHz, 10MHz, 1MHz, 1kHz and 1Hz sclocks.
Fast USB2 interface to PC : One USB link for both programming (less than 100ms) and also for high-speed data transfer (10ms for a 10kbyte block).
Does not also require an expensive USB Blaster, ideal for in-system use.
Also has a standard JTAG connector as an alternative programming method and for SignalTap probing (JTAG connector does require a USB Blaster).
Pre-written VHDL firmware skeleton providing USB interfacing between FT2232H USB2 interface and Bank / Address / Data busses to the sub-modules.
Slave modules to the same form-factor can be physically stacked with this master module, and their vhdl code slotted into the sub-module boxes.
Provides multiple header pins for IDC interconnection to external slave modules, with multiple earth and power pins.

Available with or without 4 gold-plated SMA screw connectors for coaxial cable connection, for fast logic data I/O or RF.

Without SMA Connectors : Order : L-T_Module_USB_FPGA_Cyclone-II

With 4x SMA Connectors : Order : L-T_Module_USB_FPGA_Cyclone-II+4xSMA

Dual-channel Low-Level RF input / Clock Recovery Module / Frequency Counter

Uses credit-card-sized intermational CardStac module form-factor.
Plugs into USB Interfaced FPGA Master Module.
2x gold plated SMA connectors for input.
4ns ultra-sensitive dual comparators.
Option of filter firmware in FPGA.

Option of frequency measuring firmware and software.

For hardware module only : Order : L-T_Module_CardStac_Clock-Recovery

For hardware module + Low Pass Filter Firmware and Software : Order : L-T_Module_CardStac_Clock-Recovery+LowPassFilter

For hardware module + Frequency Counter Firmware and Software : Order : L-T_Module_CardStac_Clock-Recovery+FreqMeasure

Available with optional firmware and software :

For non-UK mainland or VAT-free orders, please E-mail me at Dr. Beau Webber .

FPGA_PC
Interfacing a circuit in an FPGA to a PC

A new firmware interface for USB interfaced instrumentation.

Based on the Lab-Tools FPGA Modular Firmware Skeleton for multiple instruments. There are some YouTube videos of it in action.
Full details of this Firmware and example use GUI.

This VHDL firmware and GUI code distill 30 years of experience interfacing computers to the real-world. Data is transferred to and from the FPGA at the full USB2 rate of 480 MBit.s^-1 (60 MByte.s^-1).

www.lab-tools.com - Interface a circuit in an FPGA to
a PC

www.lab-tools.com - FPGA Modular Firmware Skeleton
for multiple instruments.

A freely available binary only download is available for testing purposes :
Free Download - 2.5MByte, Version 0.95. Note you will first need to download and install the APLX Support Library from MicroApl . If you run Norton: their Insight/Sonar programs were complaining. Now : "The Symantec Insight Dispute team has reviewed your recent submission to the Insight Dispute Submission form Webpage form "FPGA_interface_demo_2012-05-13_TF." In light of further investigation and analysis Symantec is happy to remove this detection from within its products."
Excellent pricing options for source code installations, to allow you to use this code for your own applications, are available for both personal use and commercial use.

Lab-Tools Transient Averager Modules
Transient Capture / Average / Process

A new Lab-Tools module nearing the end of development is a USB2 interfaced analogue transient averager module, with on-board FPGA for averaging and signal processing. Based on a coherent, stacking credit-card CardStac module form-factor, and on the Lab-Tools FPGA Modular Firmware Skeleton for multiple instruments.

Features :

2 channel 13 bit Digital Scope.
FPGA for on-board signal processing.
USB2 for fast data transfer and fast programming.
Single-ended or differential I/O,
gold plated SMA connectors.
2 x I/O Digital Triggers,
gold plated SMA connectors.
Tiny credit-card sized module.

Applications :

2 channel 13 bit 1 M sample.s^-1 Transient Capture.
2 channel 13 bit 1 M sample.^-1 Hardware Transient Averager
(firmware and software included).
2 channel 13 bit 1 M sample.^-1 Transient Data Processor
(custom firmware and software by agreement if needed).
NMR and MRI data capture.
Ultrasonics data capture.

www.lab-tools.com - Transient Capture / Average /
Process .

USB2 interfaced Transient Capture / Average / Process module.
Download 1 page PDF document

Precision Logging DVM, with Averaging, for Thermocouple Voltages.

FPGA+DVM

DVM-Thermocouples

DVM_Front-Panel

5 Differential channel 24bit DVM with averaging, logging, FPGA, and USB2 interface.

Download 1 page PDF document

Applications :

24bit Precision Intelligent Digital Voltmeter.
Thermocouple Data Averaging amd Logging.
NMR Sample and Control Temperatures.
High precision for NMR Cryoporometry.
Averaging USB Thermal Data Logger
Temperature Measurement and Control.
Capability for Ratiometric measurements.

Features :

Full USB2 data transfer rate.
Modular and extensible.
Programmable over USB bus.
Modular firmware available.
International Cardstac form factor
Standard FTDI USB interface chip. .
Digital Temperature Control outputs.

This module is primarily intended for the highest precision 5 channel differential logging of thermocouple voltages, using an external cold-junction reference.
Can also be adapted for 10 channel single-ended use, and for ratiometric use with strain-gauges etc.

Up to 6 additional optional gold plated SMA connectors may be specified on credit-card sized form-factor.

For extra capabilities, additional DVM boards or boards with other function may be added to the stack.
FPGA Modular Firmware Skeleton VHDL code is available for implementing multiple instruments.

FPGA Co-processors:
Lab-Tools FPGA Binning Co-processor for Apl

An example single-function USB2 interfaced FPGA co-processor has now been produced by Lab-Tools.
This implements a binning algorithm in a field programmable gate array, that for large data sets runs significantly faster than a single i7 processor.

This video describes an example USB2 interfaced FPGA co-processor for use with the array processing language Apl.
This co-processor implements a single scientific algorithm : Binning. As such it is an example of what can be achieved using field-programmable gate array co-processors with Apl.
The FPGA module used is the Morphic II, available from FTDI. This module has the advantage that it does not require a USB Blaster to program it.
Software, firmware and modules are also available from Lab-Tools Ltd., who are also developing a series of credit-card sized interface and data I/O modules to interface with them.
The FPGA co-processor is accessed and controlled from AplX, a version of the array processing language Apl, from Micro-Apl.

Raspberry Pi

Lab-Tools' is adding the simple credit-card sized Linux computers "Raspberry Pi" to the list of instrumentation in the design stable. These may offer very compact ways to host some of the other more advanced Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) instrumentation that Lab-Tools develops. These boards may also speed the implementation of other highly compact designs such as the multi-processing Adapteva Parallella.

So Lab-Tools has implemented a good set of technologies that are now up and running on the Raspberry Pi credit-card Linux computer :

SSH + SCP : control the Raspberry Pi from a text window on a Windows lap-top, transfer files.

TightVNC : control the Raspberry Pi from a copy of the Raspberry Pi graphical desktop, on a Windows lap-top.
A page of technical notes to describe how to configure a Raspberry Pi with SSH + SCP + VNC, to do the above, is at : www.lab-tools.com/instrumentation/tech-tips/RaspberryPi-HowTo.html
Lab-Tools also sells a fully up-to-date 4 GByte SD card for the Raspberry Pi, based on the Raspbian "wheezy" distribution with hardware floating point, but fully configured as above, with SSH + SCP + VNC. £10 plus postage plus VAT.

Apache + PHP + SQL: Serves active web pages, with optional Database Server.
Lab-Tools also sells a fully up-to-date 4 GByte SD card for the Raspberry Pi, based on the Raspbian "wheezy" distribution with hardware floating point, but fully configured as above, with SSH + SCP + VNC + Apache + PHP + SQL. £15 plus postage plus VAT.

The first Raspberry Pi has just been configured as an active web server : URL - (this address may change soon). Useful web-server applications will be added to this in the near future.

To order, email me - Dr. Beau Webber - so I can decide on postage, then use the PayPal box below.
www.lab-tools.com - Raspberry Pi Web Server.
Raspberry Pi - Apache Web Server with SSH + VNC control windows on PC laptop.

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Coming Soon:

Nearing the end of design and prototype development is a range of high performance USB interfaced signal generation / digital scope / transient recording / transient averaging modules, with optional RF and low-noise pre-amp stages.

Applicable to a wide range of instrumentation, including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Ultrasonics, capturing and processing decoded Optical information, or just general laboratory or school digital interfacing :

USB Direct Digital Synthesizer : frequency agile / sweeping: 0.001 to 150MHz, 14 bit, optional dual-channel for quadrature (real:U & imaginary:V) signals

USB Averaging Analogue Data-Capture for Digital Scope / Transient Recorder / Transient Averager uses and Digital RF : Dual Channel, 2x 0 to 65MS.s^-1, 12 bit.

USB Averaging Analogue Data-Capture for Digital Scope / Transient Recorder / Transient Averager uses : Dual Channel, 2x 5 MS.s^-1, 12 bit, ± 1V input range.

USB Averaging Analogue Data-Capture for Digital Scope / Transient Recorder / Transient Averager uses : Dual Channel, 2x 1 MS.s^-1, 13 bit. Software-selectable input ranges : ± 10 V, ± 5 V, ± 2.5 V, 0 V to +10 V.

USB R.F. Digital-Receiver, with direct digital sampling of the RF, quadrature 32 bit digitally controlled oscillators, three stages of FIR filtering, digital output gain scaling, followed by optional signal processing and Transient Recorder/Averager stage: 0.1 to 32MHz (below Nyquist), 12 bit.

Optional additional front-end pre-amp module : very low noise : sub-nanovolt.Hz^1/2, 120MHz bandwidth.

Optional data processing algorithms in firm-ware uploaded to a 80k gate FPGA over the USB interface, in less than 100 ms, so they can be re-loaded on the fly to 'morph' the function of the unit.

Optional data processing algorithms in high-level array-manipulating languages.

If you have specific requirements that can be best encompassed at the design stage, please contact me regarding them : Beau@Lab-Tools.co.uk

Example instrumentation constructed using similar Lab-Tools modules

Multi-module USB interfaced R.F. instrument for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) research :

Novel NMR 1D-Imager

The R.F. processing is implemented in VLSI devices, the I.F. processing in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device, and the A.F. processing in the PC using an Array Programing language.
Note: The RF modules are Export Controlled devices.

Please contact me if you would like a copy of an existing design, or would like to commission the design and construction of a new piece of laboratory apparatus or software.

E-mail : Dr. Beau Webber
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