computer controlled microscope

hemmel · ‎07-20-2005

hi i'm trying to build a labview routine to interface with an ADAPTEC SCSI card which is connected to a microscope. i would like to control the motorised sample stage and other functions. this may be product specific, so if it helps it is an IR-30 microscope from JASCO. i wanted to know if anyone had attempted something like this before and if they could give any any advice on where and how to start. some help would be really appreciated

PNHorn · ‎07-21-2005

Hi Hemmel, Do you know what type of signals the SCSI card gives out and accepts? If you can find out what signals do what to the microscope then it shouldn't be too hard to send and receive and interpret those signals. Many 3rd party instruments and peripherals have LabVIEW drivers which you can install and then you just have a set of VI's which you can add into your code and it takes away all of the low level coding and leaves you with a simplified API. If you can find a driver to do this then it will make your life a lot easier. If you can let me know what signals you have then we will be in a much better position to advise on exactly how you can control the microscope. I look forward to speaking with you soon. Best regards, Peter H. Applications Engineer. NIUK.

Bob_Y. · ‎07-21-2005

What are you doing with this system?

I have been working on a team that just developed an automated microscopy system. It uses a digital camera to take images and a three stage controller for positioning. It was designed for taking samples from an item for study. The system was precise to about 1 or 2 micrometers.

We used a Nikon DXM1200 for camera/microscope and Newport LTA-HS actuators to move the stages via NI's PCI-7344 Motion Control Card.

If you would rather buy than develop, he is selling copies of the system (source code included for a fee).

If you have any questions, either about our system or yours, you can contact me at boby@distek.com

Thanks,

Bob

Bob Young

DISTek Integration, Inc. - NI Silver Alliance Partner

hemmel · ‎07-26-2005

Hi guys. Thanks very much for your prompt responses. The microscope system has already been bought so I can’t really persuade the department to invest any more money or time in developing a new one. The only option that I really have is to try and find ways to control the existing one in the ways I want to. I’ve been doing some more research on this. I’ve tried to contact the company for information on the source code for their software which controls the microscope. They seem quite reluctant to help. They sent me enough to locate the .dll file or library in which resides all the functions which I want to be able to call from labview to operate the system the way I want to. Having read the online info about using the calling to other libraries function in labview, it appears I need the names of the functions as they appear in the library and their arguments. This is the information that I don’t have. I’ve tried to probe into their software with Microsoft Visual C++ but I wasn’t very successful in finding the function names.

In terms of learning more about the signals that go in and out of the SCSI card, how would I do this?

I also found out that the company hasn’t produced any labview drivers for their instruments. So I’ll have to do this the hard way! Again, any help would be much appreciated.