I have a M205A stereoscope that I would love to control via Micromanager. I have my digital camera working through the uManager, but I’d love to also gain control of the motorized focus for stacking.
I read a few posts in the archives about the same desire, but I did not see any evidence for a good solution.
One person seemed hopeful, writing:
The answer is probably yes, if you want to control stuff like focus and zoom. Leica uses an ascii based protocol via virtual serial port for this, and they have apparently not changed that protocol for years.
I’d very much enjoy hearing from anybody that has been successful at controlling the focus or zoom function.
Erik,
Thank you for your interest in this problem!
The good news for me is that I’ve been able to control the Leica camera and Marzhauser stage (Blue Oasis controller) using Micro-Manager. This means that I can execute an x-y stitch. The only thing left for me to figure out is control of the Z-axis, for which the motor and controller are integral to the M205A stand. I can control the Z-position using a Leica dial controller and also with the LAS core software but I don’t have the special software module that allows me to execute an automated Z-stack. The perfect solution would be to gain access to the Z-motor using Micro-Manager.
It is unfamiliar territory for me, but I’ll explore whether I can find .NET API information for the M205A.
No I haven’t worked with Micromanager. I’ve worked with Zeiss & Olympus microscopes. Automating both with .NET approach. Which was easier with Zeiss compared to Olympus due to the MTB API being well documented. From my understanding you would have to create a new plugin for micromanager maybe ask this question on image.sc as well since more people view that forum. If you want to automate windows be sure to get inspect.exe which is useful in seeing what elements the program has.