# Triggering CoolLEDs with HamFusion BNC cable - in Zen

**URL:** <https://forum.microlist.org/t/triggering-coolleds-with-hamfusion-bnc-cable-in-zen/2030>\
**Category:** Hardware\
**Created:** [January 12, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/triggering-coolleds-with-hamfusion-bnc-cable-in-zen/2030 "2023-01-12T13:05:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Thomson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Darren\_Thomson](https://forum.microlist.org/u/Darren_Thomson)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/triggering-coolleds-with-hamfusion-bnc-cable-in-zen/2030/1 "2023-01-12T13:05:31Z")

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Hi All,

I have a Zeiss AxioObserver with CoolLED LEDS. Zen doesn’t talk to CoolLEDs, and I rely on having the LEDs ON all the time and using the shutter to expose the sample.  
In an effort to do away with the shutter and gain some speed, I was told I can trigger the pe300 LEDs with our Hamamatsu Fusion camera with a BNC-SMA cable.  
My question is what to do next, does anyone have experience of this in Zen (3.2) ? Do I need to identify anything in the MTB (device manager).

Note: I did get a CoolLED Colibri bridge working, kindly provided by CoolLED, but it seems to time out over long acqiusitions.

Any help would be great!

Best,

Darren

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**Author:** ![VoxylMicroscopes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.microlist.org/voxylmicroscopes/32/868_2.png) [@VoxylMicroscopes](https://forum.microlist.org/u/VoxylMicroscopes)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/triggering-coolleds-with-hamfusion-bnc-cable-in-zen/2030/2 "2023-01-17T18:41:11Z")

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Hi Darren,

I was going to suggest the CoolLED bridge. I have had similar issues with long experiments and I never did get an answer as to why it would time out. The pE-300 does have a sequence mode that you can setup and trigger with the Fusion. You can also use this new universal translator to operate the pE-300 through Zen: [https://advancedresearch-consulting.com/product/universal-translator/](https://advancedresearch-consulting.com/product/universal-translator/).

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Thomson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Darren\_Thomson](https://forum.microlist.org/u/Darren_Thomson)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://forum.microlist.org/t/triggering-coolleds-with-hamfusion-bnc-cable-in-zen/2030/3 "2023-01-18T12:30:25Z")

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I can report back that it ‘just worked’ in Zen. I needed to do nothing except connect the CoolLED SMA - BNC port “trigger 1” on the Hamamatsu camera.

It then simply turned on the CoolLEDs by clicking live, snap or START. What I did do in Zen is make sure the fluorescence shutters was open for all the channels (there is an advanced tab that allows you to dictate what happens after acquisition - here is where the shutter needs to stay open, else it will keep closing after acquisition)

Small gains, but it’s great to get rid of the shutter!  
Now I just need to go into everyone’s Zen config!