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[Miniscope V4 Wiki] [Miniscope DAQ Software Wiki] [Miniscope DAQ Firmware Wiki] [2021 Virtual Miniscope Workshop Videos]
The goal of this Wiki, and the Miniscope project in general, is to help advance and disseminate miniature microscopy technology to the neuroscience community. While the Miniscope platform described here is not an off-the-shelf commercial solution, we have focused on making it as easy as possible for any neuroscience lab to build, use, and modify, requiring no soldering and only simple hands-on assembly. The Miniscope project, Miniscope repositories, and Miniscope.org are ongoing projects and will be routinely updated over the coming months and years.
The V4 Miniscope is a significant advancement over our previously released systems and will serve as the base Miniscope platform for years to come. Our Features page outlines in detail some of the unique capabilities of this system and we have also outlined some of them below:
- 1mm diameter field of view or greater
- ~1mm working distance
- +/-200um electronic focal adjustment
- All achromatic optics
- 2.6 grams
- 22mm tall
- Absolute head orientation sensor
- Requires ~1/5th the excitation power of previous systems
- No more soldering!
- Still uses only a single coaxial cable (down to 0.3mm in diameter) for power, communication, and data.
- New DAQ software
The V4 Miniscope is the head-mounted miniature microscope part of the UCLA Miniscope imaging platform. The V4 Miniscope interfaces to a Miniscope DAQ Box through a thin, flexible 50Ohm coaxial cable. The Miniscope DAQ Box needs to be programmed with the V4 Miniscope DAQ firmware which can be found in the Built_Firmware folder of the Miniscope DAQ Firmware repository. The DAQ Box then connects to a Windows computer over USB3 and the computer needs to be running the Miniscope DAQ Software.
The V4 Miniscope platform consists of 1) the head-mounted V4 Miniscope, 2) Miniscope DAQ Software, and a 3) Miniscope DAQ box running 4) Miniscope DAQ Firmware. Below is how we suggest you get familiar with these projects and links to everything you need to get up and running:
- Visit the Parts List page to understand what the V4 is built from.
- Visit the Miniscope Part Procurement and Buyer's Guide pages for some suggested ways of procuring the necessary parts to build a V4 Miniscope. Much of the Miniscope is constructed from off the shelf parts and optics but there are some custom components, namely the Miniscope body parts and the Miniscope Rigid-Flex PCB. This repository provides everything you need to fabricate these custom components yourself but we are also working with open-source distribution companies to try and make these custom components available from multiple sources at affordable pricing.
- Visit the Assembly guide to understand how to assemble a V4 Miniscope.
- Visit the Initial Testing of Assembled Miniscope to read how to validate your system before imaging in animals.
- For additional questions and help, visit the Getting Help page.
- Visit the Miniscope DAQ Software Repository,
- Visit the Miniscope DAQ Software Wiki
- Visit the Miniscope DAQ Software Releases Page
The V4 Miniscope works with all previously released Miniscope DAQ Boxes and PCBs. All you need to do is make sure the DAQ Box's firmware is up-to-date with the newest Miniscope DAQ Firmware.
- Information on the Miniscope DAQ Box can be found at the Miniscope DAQ Hardware page on this Wiki as well as on Miniscope.org here. Just make sure to use the newer V4 Miniscope Firmware.
Video recordings of our latest 2021 Virtual Miniscope Workshop.
Additional information, including surgical procedures, workshop materials, and previous Miniscope versions can be found at Miniscope.org.
To stay up-to-date on the Miniscope project consider following Daniel Aharoni and the Miniscope Team on Twitter.
THANKS!
