Knowledgebase

The Legacy NIDAQ device drivers used with the Pine AFCBP1 Bipotentiostat typically work without any problems when they are installed from an account which has administrative privileges and when the AfterMath or PineChem software applications are run from an account which has administrative privileges.

Problems are encountered, however, when normal user accounts are used to install NIDAQ or to run the AfterMath or PineChem software applications. Typically, customers at large organizations with central control of computing resources are the first to encounter these problems (because such customers do not have access to the administrative accounts on their laboratory computers).

There are ways to overcome these problems if a person with an administrative account is available to assist with the initial installation of the NIDAQ device driver. This article describes Pine's recommendations about how to install AfterMath and NIDAQ in an environment where everyday users will not have access to an administrative account.

Installation of AfterMath, PineChem and/or the NIDAQ device drivers should ALWAYS be performed using an account with administrative privileges.

Installation is generally a simple matter of downloading the appropriate software (or using an installation CD-ROM), and then running the “setup.exe” file in the installation package. See the AfterMath Installation Guide or NIDAQ Installation Guide for more information.

Instructions for downloading NIDAQ are provided at the end of this article.

After the main installation using an administrative account has been completed successfully, the next step is to make sure that all users (both administrators and non-administrators) have access to the folders in which the National Instruments applications were installed. These folders are all typically located within the parent folder “C:Program FilesNational Instruments” (see below).

Note that the following steps should be performed while you are still logged into an administrative account.

Locate the parent National Instruments folder (see below):

Go to the Properties dialog box associated with the parent folder (see below):

Select the “Security” tab, click on the group called “Users”, and then check the box to allow “Full Control” over the folder (see below):

Click the “OK” button after making the changes described above.

At this point, log out of the administrator account and then log into one of the normal user accounts. Launch AfterMath from the normal user account. After a few seconds, AfterMath should detect the presence of the AFCBP1 bipotentiostat connected to the system.

The required NIDAQ device driver (for the interface board) may be downloaded directly from the National Instruments web site.