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Re: Microscope (stage) controller and serial communication (Javacomm)

Posted by Vincenzo Della Mea on Mar 28, 2006; 4:16pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Microscope-stage-controller-and-serial-communication-Javacomm-tp3702708p3702718.html

Dear Andy,
We are going to release a new version of the plugin, made for  
controlling a stage through macro, for Prior Optiscan as well as  
Marzhauser LSTEP (I've just put a link on the web site to this, but  
take care, is not really finished - just to give an idea).
I know another ImageJ user is trying to do what you are doing, but it  
seems that the Leica stage is not an LSTEP one, so some modification  
could be needed.  A quick tip: a main difference we found in  
implementing the LSTEP version is that, while Prior most times gives  
a result back, LSTEP does not; so you do not have to wait for a  
string on the Serial connection. Furthermore, LSTEP provides for  two  
language interpreters, so you may loose time in understanding for  
which has been set.
I should say that we are in the middle of a major upgrade, which  
includes also a transition from Javacomm to RxTx. RxTx (http://
www.rxtx.org) is an open source implementation of Javacomm, which  
makes it easier to replicate the setup on different OSes. This will  
be v.2.0,a dn will include also direct communication with serial.  
Unfortunately, ImageJ does not allow to directly return values from a  
plugin, so this could limit applications.

Regards,
Vincenzo

> I am in the process of building an interface for our automated  
> microscope (Leica DM RXA) through the serial port (Linux and  
> Windows). I have downloaded the Prior Optiscan stage controller  
> from: http://mitel.dimi.uniud.it/moss/ijstage.php which I am  
> modifying and extending (for microscope, as well as, stage  
> control). I wonder if anyone has had success with this for a  
> Marzhauser stage and the Leica (DM RXA) microscope? The other  
> method, I guess, is to build a macro with included serial commands  
> via Javacomm included in the system. Does this sounds right? The  
> commands are one liners with a carriage return which will read/
> write to the port. Does anyone have example macros with an included  
> serial communication example? Thanks for your time, Andy