Leaked pictures show knobby is almost ready

Leaked pictures surfaced on-line this past Friday indicating that the much anticipated release of Knobby is expected very soon. One Scanbox user that preferred not to give his name welcomed the news: “Finally, as someone trained in patch clamp, I never liked the 3D mouse.  Turning heavy knobs that move smoothly… yes, that feels different!” The new…

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Adding an SLM path for optogenetics

As promised, there has been some progress in adding an SLM path for optogenetics to the microscope and things are looking good… We are now calling on potential users to provide input into the features that they would need/want in a GUI interface, as this may impact how useful this addition will be to our own…

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TTL synchronization

The simplest way to synchronize external stimulation with the microscope data collection is for the user to generate a TTL signal that is HIGH when the stimulus is on and LOW when it is off. This signal should be split and connected to the TTL1 input of Scanbox and the AUX1 input of the Alazartech card…

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Verify the trigger!

You may encounter a situation where shortly after focusing and/or grabbing Scanbox quits and asks you to “verify the trigger”.  If this happens proceed as follows: First, if  you hear the resonant mirror starting to work (meaning you hear the 8khz tone) when you press focus or grab, skip to the next step below.  Otherwise, make sure…

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Using the quadrature encoder to track locomotion

Scanbox allows you to acquire the position of a rotating platform at each frame of the microscope.  To do so, you need a quadrature encoder to be mounted on the axis of your platform.  We use the US Digital HS-360-IE-S, but any quadrature encoder will do as well. The encoder needs to be wired to an Arduino…

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