Sometimes, during long behavioral sessions, it is advantageous to turn off the laser between trials to minimize damage while keeping the microscope scanning. To do this without introducing any additional noise that may influence the behavioral state we use the Pockels cell. Scanbox now allows one to blank the laser by sending a command over the network. The following piece of code will, for example, turn the laser on and off every 2 sec.
open_sbserver % open connection to Scanbox server
while true
send_sbserver('L0'); pause(1); %blank laser
send_sbserver('L1'); pause(1); % turn it back on
end
And the laser power will be modulated without any interruption in the operation of the microscope:
Scanbox 
Sounds like a 8 kHz resonant scanner 😉
I’m wondering, is this normal operation, or do you use any further measures to dampen the 8 kHz noise during experiments?
Yes, the scanning mirrors are enclosed. One can still hear resonant mirror, but at a much lower loudness compared to an open system. We should measure it.