The X-Ray image thread by Aurora - various electronics via X-Ray imaging

[Fraser]

Nice images Mike 

My unit shows the array panel edges and some noise when you reduce the ADU span to pull out more detail.

Your array looks to be very low noise 

I have yet to experiment with the cameras calibration in the service menu. It may just need the auto camera calibration routine to be run to update the fixed calibration data for the array.

I'll have to check it out but I need to work out what some of the calibration options mean first. The BIOPTICS camera appears to be quite a sophisticated beast when looking at the calibration menu.

Sorry I did not find you a 4" x 4" machine, but you may be interested to know that there have been no better units since I found yours. The source seems to have dried up at the moment. I think we got a great deal on these two units though at around £1K. I hope you can modify your unit to meet your needs.

Aurora

[mikeselectricstuff]

I'll have to check it out but I need to work out what some of the calibration options mean first. The BIOPTICS camera appears to be quite a sophisticated beast when looking at the calibration menu.

"Sophisticated" or maybe "Needs a lot of fettling to work well" perhaps....

[Fraser]

Indeed 

[MK]

The lenses contains PbO?

Alexander.

Some of the internal lenses might be calcium fluoride for dispersion control, that would also hinder x rays better than sodium silicate.

[LaserSteve]

I used to service CT machines. For humans, designers go out of their way to filter the X-ray spectrum from the tungsten anode.  You might try thin filter sheets of copper, nylon, and aluminum at the source to adapt the X-ray spectrum for better high contrast imaging. If HP has not done that already.    I spent more hours then I care to admit shaping and calibrating CT contrast materials

Just an idea.

Steve

[mikeselectricstuff]

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Meaning ?

Batteriser troll I suspect.

[Fraser]

I am a little bemused by the apparent posting by EEVBlog.

If Dave does not like this thread I will delete it but a PENIS picture is not what I would expect from Dave.

If it is a hack of Daves account, that is very worrying.

Aurora

[firewalker]

The user name is eevblag. It's a normal account.

Alexander.

[Simon]

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…………..„-* : : :„„--/ : : : : : : : '\
…………./ : : „-* . .| : : : : : : : : '|
……….../ : „-* . . . | : : : : : : : : |

Meaning ?

Batteriser troll I suspect.

No they would not be this stupid, it's mojo-chang

[Fraser]

Have just read the moderation report thread. The situation is now clear. A banned member making mischief.

I said I would not place a living creature in my MX-20 to cause harm to it. Well it looks like there is some pond life out there for which I will happily review my no harm policy 😆

Why graffiti this fun thread. Not the actions of a nice person at all.

Simon, I hope you can find a way to expunge this pond life from this forum once and for all.

Aurora

[ez24]

I said I would not place a living creature in my MX-20 to cause harm to it.

Good but can you explain why your machine would hurt something?  After all we all get x-rays at the doctors including my dogs.  I assume it has something to do with power?

Does this unit have a safety door that would prevent you from x-raying your foot?

thanks

[Fraser]

X-Ray generators used correctly are not unsafe. That is a fact.

I was not being serious about harming animals 

The issue of damaging living tissue does arise when high levels of X-Rays are use to irradiate the tissue using a long exposure. The scientist who first experimented with X-Rays lost both his hands due to ionising radiation induced cell damage. X-Rays are capable of doing harm if misused.

My MX-20 uses a maximum of 35KVp on the tube and you would have to work very hard to harm yourself with it 

My unit is intrinsically safe and has a door plus safety interlocks to prevent X-Ray leakage.

The MX-20 can be used to irradiate animals such as Rats and Mice to study the effects on their tissues. I would not do such however.

Also be aware that any animal placed in the MX-20 needs to be still so anaesthetic would be used and this always carry risk to the animal. The other way to get the animal to stay still is to kill it first

http://www.faxitron.com/life-sciences-ndt/pre-clinic-imagingirradiation

Aurora

[Fraser]

Yay !, Two nice new SCSI IV VHDCI cables have arrived for the Faxitron (I bought a spare cable)

They are a quality DEC product using Amphenol connectors. Normally around $100 each in the USA but I got the pair in the UK for £12 each    Very pleased as a male to male VHDCI cables are not that common at good prices.

Happy Days 

Fraser

[SeanB]

New in package, bought but never used, so all good for you Fraser. I would guess they came with some expansion box, but the existing unit it replaced already had cables, so they simply unplugged the old and plugged in the new drive.

[Fraser]

The auction said they were used. A very honest seller who obviously takes the view that old stock should not be sold as new. It was a pleasant surprise to receive new and bagged cables 

[Fraser]

For fans of this thread, an update.

I bought replacement camera data cables for my MX-20. Sadly I have yet to have a chance to test the unit with them as we are having a new kitchen. The poor Faxitron is buried behind piles of boxes and new appliances in the garage so access is a nightmare. Hopefully when I can get to it again I can take some more interesting images.

I took delivery of a new (to me) high resolution X-Ray machine yesterday. It uses a superb Hamamatsu X-Ray camera with 120mm x 120mm imaging area, like my Biovision camera in my Faxitron. It will be interesting to compare image quality between the two.

My wife was none too pleased to see a large white van turn up and another X-Ray machine appear from within it. It's the usual 'why do you need another' question....... My answer ..... You can never have too many high resolution X-Ray machines ! The kitchen installers were certainly impressed...... They think I am some sort of mad scientist.

More posts in this thread from me when life returns to normality !

Fraser

[Fraser]

My new high resolution X-Ray Machine 'as received' and sat in my garage awaiting commissioning.

She's a beauty. She may look like my other Faxitron Mx-20 but this is a later MX-20 DC12 digital camera version with the following improvements:

1. High Resolution C9732 Hamamatsu 120mm x 120mm flat plate array camera

2. USB interface between the camera and PC. No need for the bespoke PCI card interface that my other unit uses. The PC can be a laptop as a result.

3. New and improved Faxitron 'SR' control and Imaging software with auto exposure setting so no need to experiment with the KV and exposure times for best image.

4. Complete control of the Faxitron front panel from the PC and SR software.

5. XP Pro operating system rather than 2000 Pro

6. MSi Hetis 915 small footprint PC. I have purchased an MSi Hetis 945 Core 2 Duo as a spare, or possibly in place of the 915. The 945 offers much greater performance.

I also received all the manuals and software CD's for the system so I can install it on another PC Host if needed. An important file that was included on its own CD was the Hamamatsu imaging array defect map. Without this the SR software would not be able to correct for any array dead pixels.

This unit is ex medical lab use and is in excellent condition. It was in use until last month. I have been searching for the updated USB version of the MX-20 since buying the first unit. Fortune smiled on me and as this unit virtually dropped into my lap I could not resist. It will be great to have the auto exposure  capability that the the later SR software offers. Timing could have been better.... the kitchen replacement has filled the garage with kitchen kit so space for the machine was a challenge.

Next steps are:

1. Gentle clean of cabinets, trolley and X-Ray chamber.

2. Removal of any patient data from PC hard disk

3. Back-up of hard disk.

4. Full commissioning tests with radiation leakage survey using several different professional radiation survey meters that are designed for use with X-Ray energies below 30KeV

5. Conditioning cycles for the X-Ray tube to ensure it is ready for use. X-Ray tubes that have not been used for a while benefit from such conditioning.

6. Then......Let the fun begin 

I will post X-Ray images from this new Faxitron MX-20 as soon as I have the opportunity. The kitchen refit is taking precedence over all projects at the moment.

Fraser

[Fraser]

Some more information on the Hamamatsu imaging array used in the new MX-20......

My older MX-20 uses a Biovision imaging array that is made up of 8 separate rectangular panels. These are combined to produce the final image. There are unavoidable dead zones between the panels where edges meet, and the Faxitron 'DR' software has to correct for this. I am still seeing the perimeter dead zones on my images as I am pushing the sensitivity of the array to its limits. Normal exposures do not show such edge artifacts. I likely need to 'tune' the dead zone correction in the camera configuration settings for such challenging exposures, but I have not had time to do so. There are several pixel correction and panel misalignment tuning options offered.

The newer Hamamatsu C9732 imaging array is a single panel offering a resolution of 2400 x 2400 50um pixels over a 120mm x 120mm imaging area. It does not suffer the dead zones of the Biovision array.

The C9732 array is optimised for soft X-Rays at 17KeV, so is nice and sensitive, with excellent data depth of 14 bits per pixel communicated via USB 2.0.

Mike's MX-20 Hamamatsu array from the same series certainly produces excellent imaging so I am hopeful my unit will do similarly.

Looking forward to producing some test images on the new unit 

Fraser

[xrunner]

I like the name "Faxitron". Sounds like it means business. 

[Fraser]

In the context of X-Ray machines and output energy levels, the Faxitron MX-20 is a real pussycat...... a sheep in wolfs clothing    That is why I am happy to use it in a controlled, but domestic, situation.

Fraser

[Artlav]

My MX-20 uses a maximum of 35KVp on the tube and you would have to work very hard to harm yourself with it 

Actually, that might be worse.
Soft x-rays are absorbed by tissues rather than going straight through, depositing more energy inside.
There was a story about a garage tinkerer cooking his fingers by putting them in front of a 40KV tube for a second or two.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I also received all the manuals and software CD's for the system so I can install it on another PC Host if needed. An important file that was included on its own CD was the Hamamatsu imaging array defect map. Without this the SR software would not be able to correct for any array dead pixels.

Judging by mine I think it can generate this file itself by taking images with no subject.
The faxitron software doesn't seem fussy about hardware platform - I got mine running on a laptop with the generator control via a USB-RS232 converter
 

[Fraser]

Thanks Mike.

I found several Defect Maps on the hard disk. It appears each time a new version of the software was installed, a new defect map was created. I am not familiar with the SR software operation yet so will have to study it some more. Sadly the documentation does not include the service menu password. Hopefully such is not needed in normal use of the unit.

The MSi PC is PSU is fried (and possibly the Motherboard as well) so I am currently deciding whether to repair it or just transfer the software to the MSi 945 that is on its way.

Mike, can you remind me where the MAC address resides in the SR software please. 

Cheers

Fraser

[mikeselectricstuff]

Mike, can you remind me where the MAC address resides in the SR software please. 

Not sure I ever knew - it's a while ago but I think I ran it by spoofing the address of the machine it came on - I think the license key is a hash of the MAC.
Many ethernet drivers have a facility to override the hardware MAC in device manager->advanced options, and I'm sure there are utilities for any that don't.  A spoofable USB ethernet or possibly bluetooth dongle may also be a possible solution if the software will work if any MAC in the machine (as opposed to just the primary one) .

[Fraser]

Thanks Mike. I found your email from January 2015 detailing what you did. I will just replicate that process.

Cheers

Fraser