ERROR in JeolGetCounts: Counting on motor 3 has timed out

[dawncruth]

Hi all,
The topic says it all. My JEOL 8530 periodically stalls and PfE throws this error:
ERROR in JeolGetCounts: Counting on motor 3 has timed out. Please make sure the instrument is operating properly.

Thankfully the cup was in and not blasting away at a glass sample (or any sample for that matter). It is annoying and seems to be resolved by restarting PfE. Upon restart, the spectrometers seem to behave normally.

Any thoughts about the actual problem and potential fixes?

[John Donovan]

Hi all,
The topic says it all. My JEOL 8530 periodically stalls and PfE throws this error:
ERROR in JeolGetCounts: Counting on motor 3 has timed out. Please make sure the instrument is operating properly.

Thankfully the cup was in and not blasting away at a glass sample (or any sample for that matter). It is annoying and seems to be resolved by restarting PfE. Upon restart, the spectrometers seem to behave normally.

Any thoughts about the actual problem and potential fixes?

It means that Probe for EPMA never received a count completed message from the instrument more than 100 seconds after the counting time passed. I would re-start the JEOL instrument electronics:

https://smf.probesoftware.com/index.php?topic=1288.msg10021#msg10021

If the problem persists you should contact your JEOL engineer.

PS: PFE automatically inserts the Faraday cup if this count timeout error is seen.