Description
Because of drifts of internal components over time, placement of instruments in various environments, and slight differences in cable and cell geometry, your potentiometer's measurements may change. Calibration "resets" the potentiometer's response to a signal. An overview about what calibration means in Gamry Instruments' Framework™ software is here.
To Calibrate
Instructions for using the Gamry Instrument Manager (GIM) window to calibrate are here.
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We recommend returning your instrument to our factory every two years for a complete recalibration. We sell new potentiostats with our System Assurance, which includes a factory recalibration. |
Types of Errors
There are three major kinds of errors that may accumulate:
DC performance
DC performance is an offset error. That is, the error is created by a slight, constant DC bias in the system. DC performance tends to drift over time and with temperature shifts. Users of Gamry Instruments' potentiostats can correct for this type of error with the DC Calibration function. For reproducibility with very low currents, there is a low-current DC Calibration function.
Gain performance
Gain error is an error in slope or amplification of a signal. This type of error is dealt with in our engineering and design of potentiostats. We use precision components when we build potentiostats and correct for residual gain error with the initial factory calibration.
AC performance
AC error is a variation across a frequency range in response to a signal. Usually this error appears when different cables or cells are used. Even placement of cables in the laboratory can change the AC performance of your system measurably. The initial factory calibration compensates for a certain amount of AC error, but a change in placement or size of cell cable can shift the cable's capacitance.
Users of Gamry Instruments' potentiostats can correct for this type of error with the Cable Calibration function. If you are doing high-impedance measurements (for example, on insulating coatings), you can also correct for minor variations in cables' capacitances caused by slight differences in manufacturing.
Auxiliary Electrometer (AE) Calibration
There is a special Framework function for those with Auxiliary Electrometer (AE) functionality.