Category: device automation
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ARCLED 8 Channel LED Engine
I’m happy to announce a new product made by ARC. Over the years I’ve worked with a large number of illuminators, from mercury excitation lamps to laser combiners. I’ve tried to combine the best traits of a light source into this device, while ignoring some of the super-awesome features that drive costs up. Key to…
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DIY Syringe Pump
Interesting little project. Not sure the money pans out considering how much time it would take to build, but if one wanted to learn mechanical control, this would be a good way to dive in! https://www.drdflo.com/syringe
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Cooling a Pt Grey Camera
I’ve been working with Pt Grey (now FLIR) cameras for a few years now, and one nagging question in the back of my mind has been whether or not it is possible to cool them via external means. There are basically 3 categories of cooling when it comes to low light cameras: no cooling whatsoever…
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Data Logging in the Cloud
I’ve been working on a project which requires data logging from a mobile device over several days. I came across a neat site which supports simple uploading and view/export of data, from numerous sources. It’s called thingspeak.com. Once you have data loaded into a channel, there an excellent tool which supports the execution of Matlab…
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A serial monitor that works in Win7x64!
David Biggs at KB Imaging LLC put me onto this serial monitoring software, called SUDT Accessport . I’ve used it a bit for some work on the triggerscope, and it works very well! You can watch data transmitted between USB emulated serial ports, under RS-232, and it will output the communication in either ASCII or HEX.…
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How to use external triggers on scientific and industrial cameras
Controlling a camera from an external trigger can be very useful. External triggering provides greater timing accuracy, direct control over exposure duration, and remote operation from TTL devices. This is a prime reason I made the Triggerscope controller, so I though it would be useful to explain how this works and what you can do…
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Acquisition Speed Comparison of MetaMorph, NIS Elements, Micro-Manager
How fast can a typical imaging system really run? What factors affect this? While most research might not require rapid sequential capture, almost all experiments can benefiet from tight exposure/illumination timing, yet few microscope users are aware of timing delays injected into experiments by the control software they are using. So how much delay is…
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Sub $2 microcontroller solution
I’ve been working with Arduino boards a lot lately, and they are great. But some elements of the arduino can be even better. What is an Arduino? An Arduino is a breakout board for the Atmel “ATMega” series of microcontrollers. These microcontrollers allow for high speed measurement of analog and digital signals, as well as…
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Countdown to a Revolution in Microscopy – Day 3
Every so often I will get the chance to cook up some code for one of the usual software scope control packages. But these days, I spend most of my time in programs like Fusion360, Fritzing, and the like. So I guess this is how I feel when using the typical scope control software. How…
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Nikon nSIM wins #5 in TheScientist’s 2011 Best and Brightest
Here’s a short video review of the top 10 innovations in 2011. Some really cool technology here! Top 10 Innovations of 2011 from thescientistllc on Vimeo.