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Hardware Requirements
- Minimum requirement is Thorlabs Multiphoton Essentials Kit (either MPM-SCAN or MPM-2PKIT) specified as ScanImage Compatible (very important!). Such a system will include a suitable ScanImage 4.1 Workstation.
- Thorlabs system also includes an 1 Alazar ATS-9440 high-speed digitizer board and 1 National Instruments (NI) PCIe-6321 board
- ScanImage 4.1 requires at minimum one additional NI X Series board - typically another PCIe-6321, i.e. for total of 2 NI boards.
- If ScanImage 4.1 will control both a Pockels cell (for laser power control, flyback blanking) and a piezo controller (i.e. for volume imaging), then another X Series board, is required - typically a another PCIe-6321 is required, i.e. for total of 3 NI boards.
- NI board used by Thorlabs should be named 'Dev1' in the Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX).
- NI board(s) used by ScanImage can be named as desired.
A good practice is to name the board(s) 'si4' and (if applicable) 'si4-2'
Wiring Instructions
- Use this wiring diagram
- Frame Clock Terminal connection is required
- Connection of Self Trig Source and to Self Trig Destination Line connection Terminal (on all SI4 NI boards) is required
- Connection of Frame Trig Out from Thor ECU to Frame Clock Terminal connection (on all SI4 NI boards) is required
- Shutter, Pockels, Piezo, and External Start Trig connections are all optional
- Connection of Line Trig In to Line Clock Terminal connection required only to board controlling Pockels (if using Pockels)
Software Installation
- Create a ScanImage folder at desired path location (suggestions: C:\Program Files\ScanImage or C:\My Documents\Matlab\ScanImage). Location is hereafter referred to as <ScanImage>.
- Extract ZIP file into selected folder, adjusting name as desired to fully describe version. This creates a version folder <ScanImage>\<Version Name>
- Launch Matlab and select Set Path... from the File menu
- Press the button Add with Subfolders... and, when prompted, select the directory <ScanImage>\<Version Name>. This adds the ScanImage installation contents to the top of Matlab search path.
- Start ScanImage by typing scanimage4. You will be prompted to create or identify a Machine Data File. See next section for discussion.
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On first startup of ScanImage 4.x, you will be prompted to create or select a Machine Data File (MDF). Choose to create one, selecting desired folder location, e.g. 'C:\DATA\CONFIG\SCANIMAGE'.
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Key things to set:
primaryDeviceID: Set to Specifies NI device name for primary ScanImage NI board, e.g. 'Dev2'
extFrameClockTerminal: Typically leave as default, 0, signifying PFI0
trigSelfTrigSourceLineID: Typically leave as default, 0, signifying P0.0
trigSelfTrigDestinationTerminal: Typically leave as default, 2, signifying PFI2
trigSelfTrigSourceDeviceID: Typically leave as default, '', signifying to use primaryDeviceID board
%%Thorlabs Devices Section
si4'. All counter channels (0-3) are utilized by ScanImage 4.1 on this board.
extFrameClockTerminal: Specifies PFI terminal (e.g. 0 for PFI0) on which Frame Clock from Thor ECU is connected to all SI 4.1 NI boards.
trigSelfTrigSourceDeviceID: Specifies NI device name (e.g. 'si4') for board on which ScanImage self-trigger signal is generated.
trigSelfTrigSourceLineID: Specifies digital output line on Port 0 (e.g. 0 for P0.0) on which ScanImage self-trigger signal is generated.
trigSelfTrigDestinationTerminal: Specifies PFI terminal (e.g. 2 for PFI2) on which all SI 4. NI boards should be connected to the ScanImage self-trigger signal source line.
%%Thorlabs Devices Section
apiCurrentVersion: Set to '1.4'. This is only valid option supported as of ScanImage 4.1.Select the API version being used – right now valid options are: '1.1' (for 32-bit/2 channel systems) and '1.2' (for 64-bit/4 channel systems)
Other Configuration
- ScanImage 4 expects the Thorlabs LSM and PMT configured XML files to be located in the same folder as the Machine Data File.
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