PicoQuant GmbH HydraHarp 400 Software V. 3.0.0.1
3. Hardware and Software Installation
3.1. General Installation Notes – Read This First
When handling the HydraHarp 400 system, be sure to avoid electrostatic discharges, especially when
connecting cables. Before connecting any signals, carefully study the maximum ratings given in section 8.3.1.
The HydraHarp software version 3.0.0.1 works with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1
1
. In order to use the HydraHarp
software with the HydraHarp 400 hardware, a device driver must be installed. The HydraHarp 400 is a USB
‘plug and play’ device, this means the necessary resources and drivers are allocated automatically by the
operating system. Windows will automatically recognize when such a device is connected and load the
appropriate driver. The software setup for the HydraHarp 400 installs the driver so that upon connecting the
device it is readily available for the Windows plug&play device management. This requires that the software
setup is performed before connecting the device. Dependent on your version of Windows you may be
prompted to confirm the final driver installation upon connecting the device. Some older Windows versions
verbosely warn about drivers not being validated by Microsoft. You can safely ignore these warnings.
On some Windows versions you may need administrator status to perform the software setup and de–
installation. For the driver installation, it is needed in any case. Installing as Administrator has the benefit that
you can install the software for use by all users on that computer even if they have limited access rights. The
HydraHarp software will maintain individual settings for each user in the Windows registry. When switching
between users with sessions still running in the background you cannot run the HydraHarp software in multiple
sessions at the same time.
The HydraHarp software 3.0.0.1 is also suitable for 64-bit versions of Windows, where a suitable 64–bit device
driver will be installed. The HydraHarp software as such runs as a 32–bit application on WOW64.
Important Note for Software Version 2.0 and higher
Software versions 2.0 and higher require a firmware update of the HydraHarp device if it was purchased before
August 2012 and was not upgraded to new firmware since then. The HydraHarp software can perform this
update when it is first started.
The firmware update requirement has consequences that you must observe:
1. Once the update is performed you will no longer be able to use any HydraHarp software prior to version 2.0.
2. Custom software you may have written for file import of 1.x versions will require minor adaptions.
3. You will no longer be able to use custom software based on HHLib.dll prior to version 2.0.
4. Custom HHLib-based software you may have written for 1.x versions will require minor adaptions.
5. After the update you may need small CFD adjustments for any known good setup.
6. In case of a power failure or computer crash during the update the device may become inoperational.
7. Reverting to old firmware or repairing a disrupted update requires a return to factory and may incur costs.
Also note: When the firmware update has been performed the device must be switched off an on again in order
to become operational with the new software.
Important Note for Version 3.0 and higher
Software version 3.0 and higher uses a new file format with the file name extensions *.ptu for TTTR mode
files or *.phu for histogram data files. The idea of this new format is to place individual header data items not
in a strict file position and order but to “tag” the items by name, so that future additions do not harm existing
software. The new file format will therefore be “future proof” in terms of maintenance and compatibility across
new versions. The downside for now is that users who wrote their own data import routines for older formats
will need to adapt them to the new format one more time. This should be quite easy by means of demo code in
various programming languages provided as part of this release. For the first time this also includes a demo for
LabVIEW. For backward compatibility version 3.0 can still read (but not write) the previous format version 2.0.
1 Trademarks of Microsoft Inc.
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