User manual

RS170/PAL

Operation

Both CoolSNAP

and CoolSNAP

offer monochrome video output on the

back of the PCI card, selectable between NTSC and PAL. The video signal is

derived from the digital data being transferred from the camera through the

PCI interface card. Thus, simultaneous video output and data transfer is

accomplished. If the image resolution is greater than the video format

(640x480 for RS170) then the 0,0 to 640,480 region is displayed. For image sizes

less than the video format, the entire region is displayed. Finally, since video

output comes from raw data, the signal is monochrome only.

Application

Examples

Example 1

"I have a CoolSNAP

and want to operate the camera in the most sensitive

setting for taking high-resolution, single images."

For this application, the camera should be operated in "alternate normal"

mode to provide the best quantum efficiency. Furthermore, the readout speed

of the camera should be set to 10 MHz to reduce the read noise. Finally, the

camera gain should be set to 2. These settings will operate the camera in its

most sensitive mode.

Example 2 "I would like to acquire sequences of images with a CoolSNAP

to study

time-correlated phenomena. My light level is fairly high and I want to

optimize the acquisition rate of the camera."

First, the camera speed should be set to 20 MHz. In addition, the camera

should be put into "normal" mode to take advantage of the overlapping of the

readout with the integration time. Finally, the "clearing" mode of the camera

should be set to "clear pre-sequence" to remove the clearing overhead

between frames. Of course, reducing the region of interest and increasing

binning will always increase the frame rate further.

Example 3 "I would like to use either a CoolSNAP

or a CoolSNAP

to study the

immediate response of a specimen to an electrical stimulus."

The camera should be set up as in Example 2 for optimum time resolution.

Furthermore, the camera should be set to "Trigger-first" mode. The same TTL

signal that is providing the electrical stimulus should be sent to pin number 1

on the I/O port on the back of the camera.

12 CoolSNAP

/CoolSNAP

User Manual