Dear All,
I am relatively new to controlling microscopes via Micro-Manager and am looking for a bit of help. I have a scanning confocal microscope (based on IX81 Olympus system), and I have successfully been able to control things like the microscope stage and objective carousel, however I cannot seem to acquire images.
I am assuming that this comes down to the fact that I don’t have a camera attached but rather 4 separate PMTs. Is it possible to acquire data from PMTs as if they were cameras? I checked micro-manager’s list of supported hardware and there didn’t seem to be anything there. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
To provide some context, I am attempting to automate some experiments I am doing. Currently our system comprises of a source meter, lock-in amplifier, automatic syringe pump, and an arduino, all of which are controlled through Python. I know it is possible to control micro-manager through Python also, the only missing component is my ability to obtain images! 
What is your computer interface to the PMTs (i.e., what kind of card samples the PMTs and translates voltages into pixel values)? Micro-Manager has support for BitFlow cards that interface with 4 PMTs in a device adapter named “TwoPhoton”. I have no experience with this equipment myself. Also, Mark Tsuchida (now at Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison) has been working on more general Open Source support for scanning approaches. Not sure if he is on this forum.
Hi Nico,
Thanks for your reply. I am not sure on the card as I haven’t dug into the hardware much yet, as I haven’t really been sure what to look for in the first place.
The system is an old Olympus FV1000 system (Scan unit is FV10-SU, detector is FV10-FD). Apologies if any of my questions are stupid, but I assume that it is the PC - FV10-SU connection that I am interested in? Does the card that converts voltages to pixel values sit inside the scan unit or in the PC?
I will give the hardware a closer look when I am back in the lab on Monday - thanks again for your help and suggestions!
Having checked the hardware I can say that it seems to be a standard Olympus system. The capture card is an Olympus FV10-PCB/FV10IF-PCA AQ8689. Any ideas on whether this would be supported by Micro-Manager, or how I could proceed?
Sorry for the late reply. I do not know how to proceed. Usually, proprietary confocal systems are black boxes without documentation or access, and I am afraid that is the case for this Olympus as well. Hope to be proved wrong though;)