See also: Firmware - Software

Welcome to the NINscope hardware page

1. Wiring: excitation LED and optogenetic connector

2. Connecting the sensor and interface PCBs

3. Cable and yarn for sensor PCB (image board)

4. Wiring: LED to interface PCB

5. Assembling mechanical parts, lenses and filters

6. Making a DAQ cable

7. How to modify the UCLA DAQ for use with NINscope

8. How to make the optogenetic LED probe

9. Mounting a NINscope

Third party providers

• LabMaker sells interface/sensor/exc. LED PCB assemblies, baseplates and a modified DAQ v3.2 that is fully compatible with NINscope (https://www.labmaker.org/collections/neuroscience/products/ninscope).
• OpenEphys sell a new DAQ v3.3. box that is cross-compatible with NINscope, UCLA v3/v4 miniscopes (https://open-ephys.org/ninscope/ninscope-daq).
• Jason Rosenberg provides 3D printed parts (https://www.rosenbergindustries.com).
• 🆕 NEUROGIG will provide NINscope either fully assembled, or as a kit (https://neurogig.com/ninscope).

Parts list

For a parts list with components and links to manufacturers please visit our NINscope parts list spreadsheet. This list will be updated to reflect availability of components. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1j7zTo7a2k-jmMWEIm5uMFHZk3aub0za10LsDC2N34rI

Hardware

Printed circuit boards used in NINscope were designed in KiCAD. Check the Hardware wiki page for more info: https://github.com/ninscope/Hardware/wiki

LabMaker sells the electronics (PCBs,excitation LED print w/ cabling), baseplates and DAQ box for NINscope here.

⚠️ If you want to test the eletronics of the assembled Sensor and Interface PCBs we have a detailed checklist that you can follow to ensure that the product is functional here

Printing material

We have 3D printed the microscope housing using an EnvisionTec Micro Plus Advantage printer with RCP-30 resin (requires coating afterwards) and a Formlabs Form 2 printer using RS-F2-GPBK-04 black resin. Parts for NINscope can be directly order through Jason Rosenberg https://www.rosenbergindustries.com

Assembly of optics

The assembly of optics resembles that of the first-gen. UCLA miniscope, with a few differences. First the excitation, emission and dichroic optical filters are 500 µm (although emission filter can also be 1 mm) and therefore thinner and more fragile. The emission filter is glued on to the plano-convex lens with optical bonding glue (NOA81, Norland Products) and lowered into the lower half of the NINscope housing.

For more details see: https://github.com/ninscope/Hardware/wiki/5.-Mechanical-assembly-NINscope

Cleaning the CMOS sensor

In case of dust particles or other particulates dropping on the CMOS sensor one we recommend the use of 'Sticky Swabs' (ideal-tek, https://www.ideal-tek.com/public/doc/Sticky-swabs-leaflet_Ideal-tek.pdf) to remove them without causing damage to the sensor.

Computer requirements

We recommend using a laptop with SSD drive for respectively mobility and optimal disk write speeds. Despite this we have tested operating NINscope on a variety of systems including a MacBook Pro laptop running MacOS Mojave (R2015, i7, SSD), Mac Mini running MacOS High Sierra (R2014, i5, 5400 rpm HD), Dell PC Z240 running Windows 7(i7, NVMe SSD Samsung MZVLW256), a NUC7i5BNH running Windows 10 (i5, SSD Crucial MX500), a Linux Workstation running Ubuntu 18.04 (Intel Xeon, SSD) and a Dell PC OptiPlex 3050 SFF running Ubuntu 18.04 (i5, SSD) and an HP Zbook Studio G3 laptop running Ubuntu 20.04 (i7, SSD).

Interfacing to a PC

⚠️ A USB 3.0 port (on some PCs indicated by SS, SuperSpeed USB) is required to connect the modified UCLA DAQ (v3.2) to a PC, otherwise NINscope will not be recognized during installation.

Webcams for behavioral monitoring

UVC-compliant USB webcams are supported. We have successfully tested Logitech webcams inlcuding the C920 HD pro cam. PS3 Eye webcams are currently not supported as they are not UVC-compliant.

DAQ trigger and output port cables

SMA to BNC cables can be purchased directly, e.g.: https://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Johnson-Cinch-Connectivity-Solutions/415-0028-048?qs=sGAEpiMZZMufBZYvsU%2Fbe5IX9y1Z%252BxjUbtuL98E%2Fl5g%3D. This allows for triggering the acquisition with an external trigger, or logging the miniscope frames during acquisition.

Note about setting the excitation LED current

⚠️ Care is adviced when setting the curent to the excitation LED. Please note that low curernts (2.38-9.38 mA) provide sufficient light output (0.12-0.46 mW before GRIN objective) to perform imaging (in cortex and striatum respectively). Moreover, it is adviced to stay within the linear range of the LED driver (<35 mA). Be aware that driving a large current to the excitation LED in combination with optogenetic stimulation could lead to unexpected intensity drops during image acquisition. We have been succesful in our experiments using currents to the optogenetic LED of 11-33 mA and 2.38-9.38 mA to the excitation LED.