The Spectral Engine II does not work with a TN5500. It may be possible to hack the 5500, but it is difficult. We do not guarantee the SEII to work in this case, and we do not provide support for the modifications. The issues and minimum requirements are described below:

1. The 5500's pulse processor, ADC, and software must be fully operational and functioning properly. The 5500 is orphaned technology; there are many such systems out there whose proper operation cannot be verified. The reason the 5500 system must be used in normal fashion, in parallel, and simultaneously with our system is that the Noran software must properly communicate with the 5500 ADC. The ADC controls the baseline stability in the 5500 system. It cannot be controlled manually, and it cannot be controlled by our board. Only the Noran software can do this.

2. The 5500 must be tapped in a specific place, between the pulse processor card edge connector and the backplane into which it connects. Unless a special bridge-card is designed and built to do this, it is very difficult or impossible to tap the pulse processor correctly, unless you have expert knowledge of the 5500's design, construction, and operation, and make significant modifications to the 5500's circuitry.

3. The 5500 outputs a pulse which is a negative-going negative voltage for lower energies and a positive-going positive voltage for higher energies. In other words, 0 volts does not equal 0 keV as for all other pulse processors. Our ADC measures unipolar positive-going voltages only, and so is incompatible with this scheme. This is quite unusual, in that a pulse of zero volts (that is, no visible pulse) corresponds to a positive x-ray energy. Special analysis of the pulse shape is required to measure anything at this positive energy, and a special additional communication link must exist between the pulse processor and the ADC to acquire the data. Our board does not provide this low level function. If you change the baseline of the pulse externally, the pulse is still negative-going and positive-going, depending on the x-ray energy, and our board is not designed to analyze this circumstance. If you change the baseline of the pulse internally, all pulses can be made positive-going, but in this case you have forced the baseline outside of its operating range, and the baseline stability cannot be maintained. This is not a good way to proceed, and will almost certainly make the 5500 operate incorrectly.

For retail customers with 5500s, we require that a new pulse processor be installed .