Compatiable with Open-ephys

[Jon]

Dear there,

It's great to see the V4, serval questions:

1. From the early twitter by Daniel, the V4 comes with dual-color mode, but it seems not, and does it supports optogenetics?

2. Without using the miniscope-daq，is the V4 compatible with open-ephys next-generation acquisition system for now?  and how is the Bonsai used for the DAQ?

3. Some part number of e-components in the BOM is not clear

Thanks for your team's great work!

Best,

Jon

[Federico Sangiuliano]

Hello Jon. 

1) The released version of the v4 miniscope is single color. The dual color version will come out later

2) It will be compatible with Open Ephys next gen DAQ. As for Bonsai support I cannot answer that because we didn't use it yet

3) Could you point out witch components are not clear?

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Jon,

Let me flesh out Federico's post a bit:

1. From the early twitter by Daniel, the V4 comes with dual-color mode, but it seems not, and does it supports optogenetics?

The V4 has a modular design where certain components can be swapped for other components depending on experimental requirements. While the base V4 platform is configured for single channel fluorescence imaging, we are developing other modules to add additional capabilities to the system. One of these is a dual-color modular which will be capable of 2 channel imaging as well as single channel imaging with optogenetics. We are still prototyping this design but hope to have it out later in the year.

2. Without using the miniscope-daq，is the V4 compatible with open-ephys next-generation acquisition system for now?  and how is the Bonsai used for the DAQ?

From what I understand, the next gen PCIe Open Ephys DAQ should be able to handle the standard V4 Miniscope but I am not sure of the current status of this. You can reach out to Open Ephys with question on this.

3. Some part number of e-components in the BOM is not clear

I just updated the iBOM.html file in the BOM directory of the Miniscope Rigid-Flex PCB project. For the most accurate and detailed BOM of the PCB look in the Output/BOM folder which contains a .csv file generated by KiCad. 

[kaizh...@gmail.com]

One of these is a dual-color modular which will be capable of 2 channel imaging as well as single channel imaging with optogenetics. We are still prototyping this design but hope to have it out later in the year.

When this would be in the market?  

[Daniel Aharoni]

Not really sure yet. We are still tweaking the design and then will need to validate it in a few experiments... Hopefully within the next 6 months or so.

[peti....@gmail.com]

Hi Daniel,

We have a similar question regarding the dual color v4 camera. If we purchase now the single color base v4 miniscope(from OpenEphys), will there be an "upgrade module" to buy later on to modify the miniscope at our lab? Or this is the way you planning it to be modular?

Best regads,

Peter

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Peter,

Good question. The dual color V4 Miniscope likely will end up sharing the same objective and emission modules as well as the same set of lenses. It will require a new PCB (not a new DAQ), a new filter set, and a new excitation module. 

So it will be theoretically possible for people to swap out these components from a standard V4 to make a 2 color V4. That being said, it will mostly be up to places like OEPS as to exactly what combination of parts/kits they want to sell. I am sure they would like to carry a conversion kit in the future but I imagine it will depend on what they think the demand will be and if they have the staffing resources to manage an additional product line.

[Naoki Tomita]

Hi Daniel,

I have a few questions about the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope.

1) Is there any information (such as on the V4 wiki) available on the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope?

2) How is the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope structured to perform two-color imaging?

3) Is there a specific wavelength of the light source used?

4) When will it be available on the market?

Thank you very much for your time.

Naoki

2021年6月8日火曜日 4:56:07 UTC+9 dbah...@gmail.com:

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Naoki,

1) Is there any information (such as on the V4 wiki) available on the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope?

Not currently. It basically is just slightly modified V4 optics and housing along with a new generation of PCB for dual excitation.

2) How is the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope structured to perform two-color imaging?

It uses color sequential imaging. 2 excitation LEDs and 1 CMOS image sensor where the excitation LEDs can be toggled on/off synced with the exposure of the image sensor.

3) Is there a specific wavelength of the light source used?

This can be adjusted by the end user by swapping out LEDs or filter sets.

4) When will it be available on the market?

Not sure. I think we have finalized the overall design and validated that our approach works well. We are now at the final steps of validating it across multiple in vivo combinations of fluorophores. 

[Naoki Tomita]

Dear Daniel,

Thank you so much for your kind concern and valuable information.

In the old DAQ software (MiniscopeController), there was a color conversion function.

Would you please tell me why the Dual Color V4 Mini Scope uses a monochrome sensor for two-color imaging instead of a color sensor?

Thank you very much for your time.

Naoki

2021年10月14日木曜日 8:16:21 UTC+9 dbah...@gmail.com:

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi Naoki,

A color image sensor uses a Bayer pattern of red, green, and blue filters on top of the pixels. These filters have very large spectra that they pass through and therefore do not do a great job of actually filtering between green and red fluorescence. That said, in some cases an RGB Bayer filter can be helpful in combination with some modulation of excitation wavelengths or off-line processing.

For our dual color Miniscope currently under development, we have chosen a color sequential imaging approach with monochrome image sensor instead of relying on an RGB Bayer pattern.