Gamma Spectrometry Forum

Impulse code completely refactored

This version has been a major rewrite, I initially set out to make a few small changes to speed up the program and make it less demanding on the CPU, but as things go, one thing led to another and I ended up refactoring the whole thing, to the point where my wife now hates Impulse 😱. I could spend more time testing and looking for bugs, but I'm sure some of you guys will find them and let me know.

Main Changes

1) All settings are stored in global variables and saved to _settings.json and _user.json every time a change is made.
2) The old hidden SQL settings file has gone, so you may need to re-enter your details and API-KEY (sorry)
3) Everything associated with impulse is stored in ~/impulse_data_2.0
4) There has not been any change to the json data files so you can safely transfer your old spectra to the new folder.
5) Impulse now remembers all settings from prior run when you open it
6) I have added a new feature with Isotope flags
7) During recording data is now saved to memory and only written to json once every 60 seconds or when stopped

Help: Please report any bugs 🐞 found ASAP so I can fix them.

PC and Mac Version Here:
https://github.com/ssesselmann/impulse/releases

Hi Steven,
I am really looking forward to test it during my vacation time :-)
if you plan to add more points for energy calibration (example 5-10 as in PRA) it will become almost perfect ;-) (if not already)
thanks
Marco

Marco,

It is important to know the difference between the calibration points in PRA and in Impulse.

PRA uses an interpolation algorithm between calibration points, which is linear between each point.

IMPULSE uses three calibration points and applies a second order polynomial function.

\[ax^2 + bx + c \]

This produces a smooth curve which follows the non linearity of detectors quite closely, especially if you choose calibration points close to the beginning, middle and end.

The values of the function is displayed in the top left hand corner.

Steven

AH!! :-)
so it makes a LOT of sense. I thought it was a simple interpolation and in that case more points you have better is.
a second order polynomial is anyway the minimum: it is very difficult if not impossible to have a precise calibration on all the spectrum with a second order.
maybe introducing in the next version an higher order polynomial like for example in BQ???

just a suggestion! what you have done with the software is already great, but if you want topush more this I think a precise option for calibration is an important factor.

thanks
Marco

Impulse Version 2.1.2 is becoming better and more stable. In this version I have continued to improve efficiency and corrected severa bugs. I also created a new page layout on tab3 3D spectrum page allowing for a bigger spectrum.

• Fixed count rate problem

• redesigned 3d page (tab3)

• Moved export to csv to tab2 and fixed it.

• various efficiency improvements

• Finally managed to codesign and notorize app with apple

Users are finding bugs and I am fixing them as fast as I can, so we have a lot of new releases.

To keep it all in one place I am now releasing all new versions on Github.

https://github.com/ssesselmann/impulse/releases


Steven

Impulse users and others still on the fence,

Latest version 2.1.4
Impulse Version 2 is in the polishing stage , now fixing less critical issues and annoyances, this means I am not planning any major changes for a while, instead I will be focusing on incremental improvements making Impulse more fun and intuitive.

Sometimes fixing one thing can break another, as happened in the last version, suddenly I noticed spectrum publishing was no longer working after I changed a seemingly unrelated thing, anyways this is now fixed.

Download
Yesterday I compiled Impulse v2.1.4 for both Mac and Windows: https://github.com/ssesselmann/impulse/releases

Good news for Apple users
I finally managed to code-sign and notorize Impulse, which should allow Mac users to open Impulse without Apple warning you that the app might destroy the world 🌎 😱

Report
Enjoy Impulse, help me make it better by letting me know what frustrates you (🤬 / 😀)

Steven

Just released impulse v2.1.6

https://github.com/ssesselmann/impulse/releases

Steven

Just uploaded Impulse 2.1.7 👍

Get it now while it's hot 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

https://github.com/ssesselmann/impulse/releases

PS: Can someone please test it on Windows 7. and let me know if it works. 🙏

I dug out an older laptop that runs Windows 7. After charging the battery I hooked up a GS-USB-PRO with a NaI detector. First I used PRA to verify that a spectrum could be obtained. This was successful. Then I tried using Impulse 2.1.7. Alas, it did not run. The message below was received.