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About the SciMeasure CCD Camera

The CCD chip itself is covered by a thin piece of glass. Breaking the glass will DESTROY the CCD chip. Be Careful.

Cables

The cables between the CCD camera and the control module should NEVER be plugged or unplugged while the power is on. The multi-pin connectors (non-BNC type) have locking mechanisms. Make sure that they are properly locked; you can give a gentle pull on them to check.

Unexpected Results

Occasionally  the camera will get in a strange mode and the images and values will be unexpected. (This probably results from an IDL memory leak.) First, try the "Reset the Camera" widget on the right column of the Acquire window. Next, try exiting IDL and restarting NeuroPlex. If that doesn't solve the problem, try rebooting the PC and cycling the camera power. If it is convenient you might start each recording session with a PC reboot. Restarting Neuroplex is recommended whenever the program behaves in an unexpected manner.

Operating the camera in low rates:

Users who would like to use "added frame interval" to slow down the camera below a frame rate of 7Hz should make sure the model number of of their system control box (MSTB010...) ends  with "CIC-B-C02". With older control boxes (like the ones ending with "CIC-B"), the camera and  BNC recording  may not be synchronized at such low frequencies. RedShirtImaging will upgrade your control box on demand.

Recording at high BNC/Optical ratios:

Users who would like to record the electircal input at the higher possible BNC/CCD rate ratios (2⁴-2⁵ or 16-32) should make sure the model number of  their system control box ends with "CIC-B-C02". The model number can be found in the back of the box where the cable connector is. If the box model number ends with "CIC-B" the highest BNC/CCD rate ratio to use is 2³=8; The camera and  BNC recording  may not be synchronized at higher ratios. RedShirtImaging will upgrade your control box on demand.

Interference from other programs/Network Activity on the Computer 

Users are strongly encouraged to designate the system computer as a task-oriented device for data acquisition and avoid loading it with any additional software. Glitches in acquisition caused by interaction with other programs are very hard to troubleshoot and the process is time consuming. Do not enable Multi Core Support in computer system setup since it may interfere with high-frame-rate acquisition.

The following information relates only to systems bought before 2008 :

Interaction with a network can cause several problems in data acquisition. One type of problem is misregistration of the camera frame and BNC inputs. A second problem is occasional scrambled frames (e.g. the outer sides of a frame appear in the middle or dark frames appear in arbitrary positions occasionally). These problems are computer dependent. Some of the Dell computers we have shipped seem to have no problems, others do; the problems are not correlated with CPU speed.

Two kinds of solutions have worked. One solution is to unplug the ethernet cable during data acquisition. This solved a scrambled frames problem. Another solution is to disable the TCP/IP Service and the WINS Client (TCP/IP) on a NT computer. This solved a misregistration problem.

(On a WinXP PC this can be done as follows:

>> Settings >> Control Panel >>Network Connection>>
Right click on CONNECTION>>Left click on DISABLE.

On a WinNT PC this can be done as follows:

>> Settings >> Control Panel >> Devices >> Wins Client (TCP/IP)
>> Startup >> Manual >> OK >> HW Profiles >> Disable >> OK
>> TCP/IP Service >> Startup >> Manual >> OK >> HW Profiles
>> Disable >> OK >> REBOOT.

On a Win2000 PC this can be done as follows:

>> Settings >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tool>> Computer Management>>Device Manager. Right click>>Property >> Disable

Alternatively : Start>>Setting>>Network and Dialup Connection, RIGHT CLICK on Local Connection and then Disable.
At the end of an experiment the ethernet cable can be plugged in or the services restarted. This can be done by, e.g.:

>> Settings >> Control Panel >> Devices >> TCP/IP Service
>> HW Profiles >> Enable >> OK >> Start >> Close

and now ping and ftp will work.)