[OpenSPIM] transmitted light

[Veli-Pekka Ronkainen]

Hi Tim and others,

We use ScopeLED G180 Series RGB LED light source, a fiber light guide and a basic collimator for transmitted light illumination. It is a convenient solution, but not very cheap. The light source can be controlled directly by µManager (color, intensity and shutter), and if you use µManager multidimensional acquisition (MDA) and channels tools, the bright field imaging can be automatically integrated to time lapse, z-stacking etc. fluorescence experiments. However, on-off cycling and intensity modulation responses seem to have some delay when the device is controlled via USB. Typically it doesn't matter, but it can be a problem if BF and fluorescence channels have to be imaged in a rapid sequence, e.g. in fast time lapse experiments.

RGB color modulation is a nice "extra" feature, since a user can select an appropriate BF illumination color depending on the band pass wavelength of the used emission filter, and use a very little amount of narrow bandwidth light for TL imaging.

Regards,
Veli-Pekka Ronkainen
Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu
Finland


From: openspim-bounces at openspim.org [mailto:openspim-bounces at openspim.org] On Behalf Of Feinstein, Timothy N
Sent: 2. syyskuuta 2015 15:29
To: openspim at openspim.org
Subject: [OpenSPIM] transmitted light

Hello all,

Has anyone found a convenient solution for transmitted light illumination that can be controlled Micro-Manager? On the one hand you can use a handheld flashlight (torch), which works but is not something you can program.  On the other hand you have collimated light sources from e.g. Thorlabs.  Those do the job but they seem excessively powerful and expensive for what should be a pretty basic task.  I went searching for cheap USB-powered lamps that can be controlled through a software interface rather than a physical switch but those seem strangely hard to find.  As it stands I might put a DIY LED bulb in a cheap 'collimator' like the one below and link it to uManager through an arduino.

http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/38/V02-1702EN-107315.pdf

Even so I feel like I must have missed a simpler option.  Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks and all the best,


Tim

Timothy Feinstein, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
University of Pittsburgh Department of Developmental Biology

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