Re: [micro-manager-general] Problem with Lumencor Spectra, MM-Autoshutter and short exposure times

[Austin <adv...@gm...>]

Hi Wolfgang,

	You might look @ this code for getting the image to show up - https://micro-manager.org/w/images/1/12/Image_snap_example_2.bsh <https://micro-manager.org/w/images/1/12/Image_snap_example_2.bsh>

Re the Lumencor, yes this is likely a delay in the comms time between windows issuing the command on the usb->serial line and the box actually responding. have you checked whether the lumencor has a delay property in the MM configurator? If it doesn’t, a somewhat ugly solution would be to add a “demo shutter” and then place a delay there. 

Austin Blanco
Advanced Research Consulting Corporation
e. au...@au... <mailto:au...@au...>
w. www.advancedresearch.co <http://www.advancedresearch.co/>
c. 510.708.2995








> On Jan 28, 2016, at 3:33 PM, Wolfgang Keil <wk...@ma...> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I am operating a Lumencor Spectra X light engine and an Andor Zyla 5.5 CMOS camera with MicroManager 1.4.22 on Windows 7 64bit.
> I am taking stacks programmatically, and I have the setup configured as recommended on the MM website,i.e. such that I have different ConfigGroups for the different channels, which each channel having one LED enabled. 
> I assume the AutoShutter then operates on the Spectra-State property, setting it to ‚1' before acquiring an image and to ‚0' afterwards. 
> 
> Here is the the problem: For exposure times smaller than around 15ms, the command 
> 
> gui.snapAndAddImage(acqname, frame-1, j,i,k)
> 
> doesn’t seem to wait long enough for the SpectraX to have the shutter opened before taking a picture. This results in only a horizontal stripe of the camera chip being exposed and the upper and lower part being completely or partially unexposed. 
> The exposed stripe gets smaller the smaller the exposure time. At 2ms, essentially no part of the chip is exposed. Above 20ms, the entire CMOS chip gets exposed but it’s still uneven.
> The same problem arises, when I take images via the ‚Snap‘ button in the GUI. In live mode, when the LED is ON continuously, this doesn’t happen obviously. 
> 
> I tried to circumvent the problem by disabling the auto-shutter and doing something like
> 
> // Disable LED first
> core.setProperty("Spectra", "Cyan_Enable“,“0“);
> // Open Spectra’s global shutter
> core.setProperty("Spectra", „State“,“1“);
> 
> // Take image: 
> core.setProperty("Spectra", „Cyan_Enable","1");
> core.waitForDevice("Spectra");
> gui.snapAndAddImage(acqname, frame-1, j,i,k);
> core.setProperty("Spectra", "Cyan_Enable","0");
> 
> This solves the stripe issue, but obviously leaves the LED on for much longer than the exposure time (usually around 90-100ms) and since I am dealing with living specimens, this is no good solution. 
> I guess, the solution could be something like 
> 
> core.setProperty("Spectra", "Cyan_Enable“,“1“);
> core.waitForDevice("Spectra");
> core.snapImage();
> core.setProperty("Spectra", "Cyan_Enable“,“0“);
> core.waitForDevice("Spectra");
> // Get the image from the camera
> img = core.getImage();
> 
> but I don’t know how to pipe the ‚img‘ that I get from the getImage() into an acquisition window. 
> Any hints or better solutions?? 
> 
> Thanks!
> Wolfgang
> 
> 
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> 
> -----------------------------------------
> Wolfgang Keil
> Center for Studies in Physics and Biology
> The Rockefeller University, New York City
> 
> wk...@ma...
> +1 646 247 6660
> -----------------------------------------
> 
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