Are there Labview vi s for controlling Mac 5000 controller for Ludl Stage ?

[mmkabir]

Hi,

I am trying to developing tiling features - step wise movement along x, y direction and taking images in each step - for the stage of my microscope. Microscope is Olympus IX 71, Stage - Ludl Mac 5000 controller, Hamamatsu EMCCD camera. I am looking for some vi's which can be used for the stage movements. Does anyone have anything of that sort ?

Mahfuz

[AG@Amfax]

Hi mmkabir,

As far as I'm aware NI only support a certain range of camera's as there are a huge variety of cameras on the market this is understandable. The have a industrial camera advisor tool which shows the available camera files for use in LabVIEW with their IMAQdx functions. If your camera is not supported you could always contact tech support and see if they are able to help.

[mmkabir]

Actually I am looking for some vi s that can make the stage move in step wise manner. I would need to take tiles of images. I want the stage to move certain no of user specified steps in the x direction and take images in each step. The no of x and y steps should be user specified.

I have already got the camera vi s so that is not a concern at the moment.

Mahfuz

[Cameron-T]

There are not any VI's designed to interact exclusively with the Mac 5000 controller. You can, however, give it serial commands in LabVIEW using the commands found in the User's Manual. The thread below, I think, deals with a similar issue of sending the serial commands. You may use it for reference. I know it has helped others when using Mac controllers.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Instrument-Control-GPIB-Serial/Serial-Commands/m-p/567032#M25236

[mcduff]

You can try the attached VIs. I wrote them quite some time ago, but they did work. (They can probably be improved also!) These should get you started with basic commands, you will have to modify to do a raster scan.

Cheers,

mcduff

[mmkabir]

I was looking if any one has actually has created something like thaf before. Currently I use a Zeiss LM 710 microscope for imaging tiling whose Zen 2010 software has that feature incorporated in it. My goal is to have it developed for the system that was mentioned.

[mcduff]

I do not understand your question. The vi's provided can control the MAC 5000 through either a serial or USB port; I believe I did make a USB raw driver when using the MAC 5000. NI gives pretty good directions on how to do this. You would have to use the vis in your own program, but the main communication vis are written, just put then in a couple of for loops for your x&y raster; then add the camera to this and your program is complete.

If you are looking for a complete solution to your specific problem without having to program anything, then maybe look for a LabVIEW programmer to hire.

Cheers,

mcduff

[mmkabir]

Thanks for your inputs. Actually I have only recently started using Labview, so my knowledge is pretty limited. If I were to develop the system I would have to go through some basics related to it. Could you suggest how I should go about doing that ?

Mahfuz

[mcduff]

There are tutorials online, check http://www.ni.com/white-paper/5054/en

You can also go through the examples that ship with LabVIEW. Search the discussion boards for tutorials.

Good luck.

Cheers,

mcduff

[mmkabir]

Hello,

I made a vi through which i intend to communicate with the Basic serial read and write vi of labview. I have used the call by reference feature and i have referenced the basic vi as a strict reference. The idea is that my user will input a length and that number will be converted to a string, appended to another string that says 'Move x' and send the resultant string to the basic vi. There the write command will send this string to the Mac 5000 controller, and the controller will move the stage by that amount. But the vi does not seem to work, giving an error code 1003. Can anyone suggest any reason for that ?

Mahfuz