A home-built microscope allows researchers to tailor the rig to their specific needs and also provides substantial cost savings. As a consequence, investigators can easily build their own microscope from commonly available components and control the acquisition with open-source software.
The optical path of a two-photon microscope is relatively simple and doesn't have strict alignment tolerances. Two-photon microscopy, has gained great popularity in over the last 20 years for both functional, and structural, studies. Our “OpenStage” controller is sufficiently flexible that it could be used to drive other devices, such as micro-manipulators, with minimal modifications.
In addition, the system can be controlled from a PC serial port. A hand-held control-pad allows the user to direct stage motion precisely over a wide range of speeds ( to ), rapidly store and return to different locations, and execute “jumps” of a fixed size. We obtain positioning repeatability of the order of in X/Y and in Z.
Here we describe assembly of the system and quantify the positioning accuracy of all three axes. Electronics are assembled from commonly available hobby components, which are easy to work with. Hardware costs are kept low by replacing linear actuators with high quality stepper motors. The cost of the controller and motorization hardware are under $1000. Here we describe an open-source motorization solution that is simple to construct, yet far cheaper and more customizable than commercial offerings. Furthermore, the firmware on commercial motor controllers cannot easily be altered and is not usually designed with a microscope stage in mind. For many imaging applications a 3-axis motorized stage is critical, but commercially available motorization hardware (motorized translators, controller boxes, etc) are often very expensive. Home-built multiphoton microscopes are easy to build, highly customizable, and cost effective. Recent progress in intracellular calcium sensors and other fluorophores has promoted the widespread adoption of functional optical imaging in the life sciences.
0 kommentar(er)
