Category: programming

  • Mac OSX Serial Terminal for ARC

    Mac OSX Serial Terminal for ARC

    I’ve long wanted to build a terminal and testing application for my products. Using the exceptional QT Creator, I was able to cook one up in a relatively short period of time! This application was built using the QT Terminal example program, so it will work for the ARC Triggerscope 2, 16, and Triggerscope 3 […]

  • LED, laser, or other PWM control using Triggerscope

    LED, laser, or other PWM control using Triggerscope

    It appears that more and more people want to use PWM control for illumination devices from Micro-Manager and other imaging software. PWM may be used for any number of applications, from high speed pulsing of an LED, or a laser, in order to reduce phototoxicity or just to control brightness, or to drive a DC […]

  • Computational imaging continues to grow in microscopy

    Computational imaging continues to grow in microscopy

    The Waller Lab recently had a demo announcement of their awesome implementation of computational imaging. They have some examples on their lytro page, which look really cool! This got me thinking about the last 10 years or so, and how the combination of image capture with control over input and output image fields, has grown into a […]

  • Shutter Configuration of TTL devices in Micromanager

    Shutter Configuration of TTL devices in Micromanager

    I made this video to show how to use both a state device shutter object and a group shutter object in micro-manager. Hopefully others can make use of it! [youtube width=”600″ height=”365″ video_id=”nnYqcER-7ZI”]

  • Build a Stratux in 10 minutes! (ADS-B)

    Build a Stratux in 10 minutes! (ADS-B)

    As the 2020 FAA mandate for ADS-B comes upon us, more aircraft are using the ADS-B system. Additionally, weather transmission via towers is a major free source of in-flight weather info. Having recently picked up a new iPad, and subscribing to FireFlight, I decided it was time to add the ability to see ADS-B traffic, […]

  • Dynamic Mirror Reflection Angles using Fusion360

    Dynamic Mirror Reflection Angles using Fusion360

    SO I’ve been working with AutoDesk’s Fusion360 for a while now, and have found it to be an exceptional tool for diving into CAD. If you’ve considered CAD before, but have been scared off by the learning curve, I recommend checking it out. One of the important functions of a truly parametric CAD program is […]

  • Optical Design comes to the iPad!

    Optical Design comes to the iPad!

    Over the past 5 years, almost every project I’ve worked on has required some level of optic design. In many cases, simple designs suffice. For example, projecting an LED can be accomplished at a basic level with an aspheric condenser. But when designs require flat fields, especially corrective elements, or apochromatic performance, it’s time to leverage commercial […]

  • Experimental FM transmitter using Raspberry Pi 2

    Experimental FM transmitter using Raspberry Pi 2

    If you have an extra Raspberry pi around and want to try something fun, you can use the GPIO on the pi to transmit at FM frequencies. For the rPi v1 you can use this link for instructions. For Raspberry Pi2 I found a great application which can be run from the command line, called […]

  • Acquisition Speed Comparison of MetaMorph, NIS Elements, Micro-Manager

    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 […]

  • Sub $2 microcontroller solution

    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 […]