The Nanoscale World

SAM with Nanoscope IV

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cemig posted on Thu, Sep 29 2011 7:44 PM

Is there any magic to hooking up the original signal access module with the nanoscope IV?  I have it hooked up via the standard configuration:

NSIV -> SAM -> Bioscope

I can't seem to get any signals for the stepper motor or the low voltage piezo signals.  Ideally I would like to control both the stepper and the piezos from an external source.

Any help is much appreciated.

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I will send you the manual offline. Check out p15 which reviews how to connect the SAM, and the signal out's. Verify that the you can run the microscope and post if you still have a problem.

Steve

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The stepper motor on the original BioScope and BioScope SZ was controlled via serial communication to a stepper motor driver in the electronics box that sits immediately adjacent to the microscope. The stepper motor drive signals are not accessible through the SAM. Only the MultiMode (and old AFM/LFM models) uses motor drive signals on the main 37-pin cable.

It's also important to understand what access the SAM provides to the piezo drives. The high voltages drives are accessible, either to monitor the signals (in output mode) or to inject your own external high voltage signals (in input mode). It is not possible to inject low-voltage signals into the SAM and have them "loop back" through the controller, get amplified, and drive the XY piezo. In fact there are no low voltage XY signals at all on the SAM even to monitor those signals. The situation is a little different with Z. Like XY, you have full access to the high voltage Z signal. But there is also a BNC that provides access to the low-voltage Z drive. However this signal does not loop back into the controller, so again you cannot control Z by putting an input on low voltage Z. This signal is only useful for monitoring the relative position of Z. The one possible workaround to get some control of Z is to use the "ZMod" signal, which is also found on the SAM. This signal was originally intended to introduce a TappingMode drive for fluid tapping by superimposing a small sine drive on main Z piezo. As far as I remember, there was a parameter in software to enable the Z mod drive. On some controllers it was possible to insert a drive on the ZMod input of the SAM and this would go back to the controller. But I'm afraid I don't remember all of the details or if this was still the case on the NSIV. It was always an obscure case and wasn't intended for this use.

I know that there are users who have taken full control of old Dimension/BioScope heads for custom experiments. If you send me an email (ben.ohler[at]bruker-nano.com) I'll be happy to put you in contact with one of them.

Regards,

-Ben

 

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