Hello!
Eventually, I got the F-4500 to run with an old Windows XP PC and a Windows 11 laptop running a Virtual Machine with Windows 2000. Below is a short description of how I did that:
Windows 11, Virtual Machine running Windows 2000
The operation is possible in a Virtual Machine running Windows 2000 on my laptop (HP EliteBook 830 G5 running Windows 11 Education Version 10.0.22631 Build 22631). To install a VM running Windows 2000 in Oracle VM VirtualBox, I loosely followed the instructions given herein: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0071.html. Notably, the installation of Windows 2000 in the Virtual Machine worked (surprisingly) smoothly!
In Windows 2000 (VM), several programs were installed:
- FL Solutions: I installed the program from four executables which I had on a CD-ROM (those were probably copied there from several diskettes which we own as well).
- DAEMON Tools Lite: This program was required for installing the NI-488.2 2.4.0 ISO file.
- NI-488.2 2.4.0: Note that, albeit not tested thoroughly, version 2.5 did not work right away.
For convenient installation, access to a folder on the PC running the VM by Windows 2000 in the VM was obtained by VM menu bar: Devices: Insert Guest Additions CD Image (the folder eventually appeared as “Hitachi on ‘VBoxSvr’ (Z:)” in My Computer (Win+E) on Windows 2000 (VM)).
Following successful installation of FL Solutions and NI-488.2 drivers, the GPIB connection was configured. Therefore, I followed the instructions in the “User’s Instruction Manual for F-2500/F-4500 Fluorescence Spectrophotometer”)! That said, the procedure slightly deviated from the illustrated description in the manual. First, I used a GPIB-USB-HS adapter, not the PCI-GPIB card. Second, the driver version (NI-488.2 2.4.0) I used may have been different to the one described by Hitachi (version not specified). Third, the installation description may have applied to Windows XP rather than Windows 2000. In particular, the necessary programs are not accessible via the Device Manager in Windows 2000 (neither are they in Windows XP running NI-488.2 2.4.0 though, again indicating that Hitachi describes a different version of NI-488.2). That said, one can use NI Measurement & Automation to configure the GPIB connection:
- Change “I/O Timeout” to 3 sec
- Release the check mark at “Automatic Serial Polling” and select “Assert REN when SC”
The interface properties can be changed using the program GPIBConf that can be found in the installation folder of the National Instruments software. In the specific case of my installation in the VM, this is under “C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-488.2\Bin”.
- Select “DEV1” of “Device Name” and change DEV1 to FL. Change “I/O” of “Timeouts” to 3 sec and “Serial Poll” also to 3 sec. Select “Readdress” and then click OK.
Following similar instructions, the fluorometer was set up to work with an old Windows XP PC
Notably, the Windows XP PC is connected to the fluorometer using a PCI-GPIB card (perhaps the card shipped with the Hitachi fluorometer). Otherwise, the setup is practically identical.
I hope this helps someone!
Kind regards!
Juergen Pfeffermann
Institute of Biophysics
Johannes Kepler University Linz
