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Products and services

GAA Custom Engineering, LLC provides both contracting services and products available for purchase. We currently have a number of products in development and we are interested in developing solutions to your unique problems.

If you have an instrumentation problem please contact us, we are happy to discuss the details and map our capabilities to your problem. We can provide consulting services or if the solution to your problem results in a product we can market then we will invest our own resources to develop and fabricate.

You will not find a company in the technology business more transparent than GAACE. All of our technical data is available to you even if you do not purchase our products. All software and firmware are available on our github account here and all of our technical data can be found on our goggle drive at this link. We are providing this data to allow you to understand our products and make changes if needed and as insurance should we stop offering products you need. We hope the community will honor our technical developments and buy products from us, we don’t think you could build these system on your own cheaper that we can! Also we hope this technical data will give you information that may help you solve a unique problem that you may be dealing with.

GAACE is interested in OEM opportunities and if you feel our products could help you market a capability we are happy to build solutions specific to your needs and change labeling etc. as per your needs.

Our operating costs are very low so we can offer consulting services at a very competitive rate. There is no job to small to capture our interest so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Contracting services

GAACE has worked with a number of research and development institutions under contract. In this case in technical information is not shared and GAACE is happy to sign non-disclosure. Our rates are very competitive and we offer decades of development experience we can bring to your problem.

    • Rates, $80 per hour
    • No minimum
    • Free estimates
    • Design and development
    • Analysis and reporting
    • Fabrication and testing
    • Troubleshooting

Products

GAA Custom Engineering, LLC (GAACE) produces a line of RF/DC power supplies that are designed for Mass Spectrometry research applications. The platform is called MIPS (Modular Intelligent Power Sources). This platform is design to allow the researcher to mix and match modules to configure a system as needed for their specific application. Here you will find a list of the available modules and pricing information. You will also find a description of how these systems can be used and in applications areas, you will find references to papers and patents that will provide more technical background.

The heart of the MIPS system is a powerful ARM processor used to control the hardware, monitor its status, and communicate with the user and or host-controlling computer. MIPS systems are customizable to your specific application and can be easily expanded as your control needs expand. Below is a list of the MIPS systems key features:

  • RF and DC voltage sources to drive multi-poles, funnels, and ion optics
  • Digital inputs (8) and outputs (16)
  • Pulse Sequence Generation capability. Time dependent voltage profiles can be generated. These sequences can contain voltage profiles and digital output pulse sequences.
  • Internal or external clock options
  • Internal or external trigger options
  • USB host computer interface allows full control of all parameters
  • Simple front panel user interface with color graphics interface
  • A maximum of 4 RF drives can be controlled by one MIPS system
    • 500KHz to 5 MHz range depending on load
    • Up to 500 Vp-p depending on load
  • DC voltage generation
    • Up to 16 total output channels, 8 per board, can be added to one MIPS system
    • +- 50 volt board with programmable +- 50 volt offset allowing +- 100 volt control capability. 5-milliamp output current capability per channel. This supply can accept an external float input to offset all 8 of these supplies based on the float voltage provided.
    • +- 250 volt board with programmable +- 250 volt offset allowing +- 500 volt control capability. 5-milliamp output current capability per channel. This supply can accept an external float input to offset all 8 of these supplies based on the float voltage provided.
    • +- 750 volt board with programmable +- 750 volt offset allowing +- 1500 volt control capability. 3-milliamp output current capability per channel. This supply can accept an external float input to offset all 8 of these supplies based on the float voltage provided.
  • FAMIS bi-sinusoidal driver
  • Two channel high voltage power supply suitable for ESI source voltage generation.
  • Two channel filament control module.
  • Inlet heater options.
  • MIPS communicates with a host computer using USB, Ethernet, or WiFi. We have developed an application that runs both on PCs and MAC computers. This app is written in QT and all source code in on my github account. Install files are on my google drive along with install instructions.
  • We are developing an iPad app to allow full control of MIPS from an apple tablet.

MIPS systems are available from an al-a-cart menu where you mix and match modules to configure your system. These systems are powered from 110VAC or 220VAC and represent the original MIPS product.

How to configure a MIPS system:

All MIPS system require a MIPS controller, you can view this controller as the “mother board” where modules are added to build your desired configuration. There are some guidelines to keep in mind as you configure your system:

    1. )MIPS controller is required for all systems.
    2. )A maximum of 4 modules can be added to one system.
    3. )A maximum of 2 of the same type modules can be added to one system.
    4. )Depending on the modules selected the chassis size may need to be increased from the standard.
    5. )The system is shipped in 12”x12”x5” chassis by default.
    6. )19” rack mount option.
    7. )Systems with 4 modules may need a larger enclosure or the rack mount enclosure.

GAACE has developed additional products to support Mass Spectrometer based research.  Below is a list of the items currently available:

    • FET switch. This device will switch between two user supplied voltages using fast FETs. The switching rise and fall times are under 10 nS. This switch is designed to drive high impedance loads.
    • FET pulser. This device is designed to drive BN gates in ion mobility applications. This system will communicate using WiFi to allow floating the device at high voltages. The trigger signal used a fiber optic cable to provide isolation.
    • Digital IO isolator. This module isolates 8 digital signals and allows you to drive digital signals from MIPS to a system floating at a high voltage.

All of the products described on this page are listed on our price list that you can download at this link. The pricelist is updated prior to this web site so don’t hesitate to call if you find new products not described on the site.

Click here to see application examples of our MIPS systems.