2. Prerequisites

Below are the prerequisites to running the project.

Hardware

ASI Stage

• Stage components
  • ASI Stage, model MS2000
  • MS-2000-WK MULTI-AXIS STAGE CONTROLLER

PCO Camera

• Camera components
  • PCO Panda Camera
  • USB Card or USB 3.1 port
• Graphics Card
  • CUDA-capable GPU
• Adapter
  • SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps PCI Express x4 Card
  • Disk reader is useful for driver installation as adapters come with a disk. Else, driver (ASMedia eXtensible Host Controller, ASM3142 model) may be downloaded from here
  • Driver is compatible with 64bit x64 or 32bit x86 systems

Software

Microscope-Cockpit

• Download Python 3.9. Once you installed Python, open the terminal and check if you have the correct version with python –version.
• Install the Python package Microscope-Cockpit by following this documentation: https://microscope-cockpit.org/install.
• Microsoft Windows 10+ is recommended.

ASI Stage

• Install the VCP driver. Windows user should download the CP210x Windows Drivers v6.7. With this driver, your computer will be able to recognize the ASI stage through the USB connection.

PCO Camera

• Install pco library using pip install pco.
• Install the PCO Interface Driver "pco.driver USB3 2.6.0 Windows" from here
• Install the respective camera firmware according to its model on Exceltas' product page and apply it to the camera. For the pco.panda 4.2 bi sCMOS Camera we worked on, the firmware can be found here under the "SOFTWARE" tab.
• (Optional) For personal testing of the camera outside of Cockpit, install the PCO camware to test that software above was installed correctly