Portable Shift Register

Features

• Small size for portability and ease of installation
• Battery or mains operation
• Complete support, including bias, for standard neutron detectors
• A powerful communications package to facilitate robust external control over a serial port
• A C-library to simplify creating external control programs in computers or controllers

Description

The Portable Shift Register (PSR) is a battery operated, self contained, neutron coincidence counter. Developed for those applications not adequately addressed by commercial packages, the PSR provides in-plant measurements to demonstrate compliance with regulations (domestic and international), in-plant process control, and in-field environmental monitoring/safeguards measurements. It also performs all measurements made by previous neutron coincidence counter instruments developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Exclusive of the carrying handle, the portable PSR electronics package measures 8 x 10 x 20 cm and contains the circuit boards, battery, and bias supply. The PSR may optionally be purchased as an ac-powered bench top instrument as well. The PSR provides a combined set of hardware and software tools for neutron coincidence and multiplicity counting. These tools cover the range of applications from portable to battery operated, to remote and unattended, to installed in-plant. The PSR processes incoming signals from standard neutron detectors to count neutron signals and coincidences, and determine multiplicities. It also provides low and bias voltages for the detector, resident control and storage of data, and firmware to control the interface with an external controller. The system also contains a software library that provides an interface between the basic package and user programs written in high-level languages for external computers or controllers.

The PSR utilizes a standard RS-232 serial interface and command set and protocol, compatible with currently used instruments as well as existing user programs. A library written in Microsoft C is available with the PSR to make writing the user programs’ hardware and interface parts very simple. Also included is a software tool kit that is very powerful, versatile, and easy to use for developing and implementing the hardware and interface parts of application-specific software. The PSR can be reconfigured to be an intelligent peripheral in the evolving miniature and modular multi-channel analyzer family of instruments.