ProSpect (Canberra) quick guide

[pietkuip]

ProSpect is not soundcard software. It is the Canberra interface to their Osprey tube base. I could not find an easy introduction for my students, so I made a quick screen recording on how to get the system running and calibrated. Maybe more people are interested.
https://play.lnu.se/media/t/1_lugrljkz/18347822

[brehwens]

Neat video Pieter! I have been quite eager for some time now to test some "pro" software and see if quantification can be done to a higher standard than with the free software now available.

Us amateurs work usually with (very) low count rates, so I don't see the hardware side (soundcard sampling) being the main limitation. In my view, it is more the software that is limiting the capabilities, but then again what can we ask when it is all enthusiast-developed.

As someone who wants to quantify Cs137 thouhg, I am interested in what else is out there...

[luuk]

Dag Pieter,
Nice video and very interesting software I should try that someday.
I own an Osprey with the original Nais 2x2 stabilized detector, and use the Canberra Genie 2000 software with it, that to works great to.
Do you use also the stabilized detectors or just the osprey with a standard 14 pins detector?
Groet,
Luuk

[pietkuip]

Dag Luuk! I use a standard detector (3" NaI (Tl), Teledyne). This is in the lab, we are not getting out into the field or into some nuclear reactor, so it is usually sitting at a stable temperature in our basement. We got the ProSpect software with it. I am missing some features. For example, it does not seem to have background subtraction, or overlays of spectra; students need to export their data do do that. And it does not do multitasking, like a pulse-height spectrum simultaneous with multi-channel scaling. But it can take series of spectra, and make a nice colourful spectrogram. I will post one here.

Hej Karl! We bought one of these as a kind of benchmark. The ordinary basic nuclear lab will run on soundcards. I will post comparisons when I get the new GS-Pro that I ordered. You are right, count rate is not an issue. But I am curious about the low-energies (noise levels).

[Sesselmann]

ProSpect is not soundcard software. It is the Canberra interface to their Osprey tube base. I could not find an easy introduction for my students, so I made a quick screen recording on how to get the system running and calibrated. Maybe more people are interested.
https://play.lnu.se/media/t/1_lugrljkz/18347822

Pieter,

After watching your nice video, it inspired me to try the same with PRA and Gammaspectacular, so I quickly rigged up my old 3 x 3" Alpha spectra and a GS-2000-PRO to make the following recording. Note my 3" detector does not have brilliant resolution, it's somewhere around 9% from memory, and I also don't have any shielding to fit the 3" detector, but I preferred to use the 3" as it would have similar response to your detector.

PRA does not use a rolling average to smooth out the peaks, so the spectra look a little hairy at first and smooth out over time.

Enjoy..

https://youtu.be/9av2uIV8PQo

[Sesselmann]

Pieter,

Just for comparison I did this Na22 spectrum with a GS-1515 1.5" detector. The 511 peak and the 1275 peak are clearly visible, but the sum peak is barely visible, even in log scale. This run was done in my simple PVC cylinder with a 1" blanket of lead shot as can be seen from the XRF peak.

Na22 with GS-1515

na22-1515.png (36.24 KiB) Viewed 17352 times

[pietkuip]

Steven, the difference with my spectrum depends on the distance and the size of the detector. My sample was lying on the 3" NaI crystal, so there is a good chance that the nuclear gamma and one of the annihilation photons are both absorbed. The Osprey can deal with the count rate. The sum peak quickly goes down in relative intensity when the distance is increased a bit.

[rodorr]

Pieter,

I realize this is a rather old post but it would be nice if I could view this video. The link takes me to the video but it never plays, I just get a spinning wheel of cheese. Is there a newer link that works?. I just obtained a Canberra Lynx unit and a video regarding the operation of the ProSpect software would be helpful. I have been using both the ProSpect web interface and the demo of the ProSpect software but the demo is soon to run out and the software cost around $1700 US. I would rather use the Genie 2000 software but that cost an arm and a leg.

Thanks,
Bob
WA7ZQR

[Sesselmann]

Bob,

The video is still working fine for me.

[rodorr]

Steven,

What OS and browser are you using?

Thanks,

Bob