[micro-manager-general] Questions from Beginner Device Adapter Developer

[Christian R. <chr...@du...>]

Hello,
My lab is considering using micro manager to control a microscope (ImageXpress Pico) that is not currently supported by micro-manager. I have investigated how to build a device adapter using the documentation on the micro-manager website and reviewed several micro-manager scripts such as MMCore.cpp, DeviceBase.cpp, as well as the Arduino device adapter. My c++ is a bit rusty, but I understand much of what I read in these scripts. The questions I have are more fundamental.
-What information should I have on my microscope (if any) before beginning to create a device adapter, besides the individual hardware components within the microscope?
-Does micro-manager support microscopes that are connected to a computer via ethernet instead of serial ports?
- If our microscope comes with drivers, how do we or should we attempt to create a device adapter that communicates with the driver dll? If so, are there any previously-built device adapters that could be used as an example for how to write this functionality?
-As a beginner to device adapter creation, what general software knowledge should I possess before attempting to create a device adapter (understanding of how DLLs work, for instance)?
Thank you,
Christian