Electrionic Components[]
Electronically, the scanning station is comprised of three major components: the PC, Lego Mindstorms brick, and the Data Acquisition Module.
PC[]
The PC controls the operation of the other two components via USB connectivity. The data acquisition module is a small home-brewed potentiostat[1] which is controlled by a microcontroller which itself controlled via a USB connection by LabVIEW software running on the PC. The Lego Mindstorms NXT brick is, internally, a LabView-compatible processor[2] which also interfaces with the computer via USB.
Lego Mindstorms NXT[]
The Lego Mindstorms NXT brick is responsible for controlling the position of the stepper motors[3], thereby controlling the angle of the mirrors, and thus the position of the laser spot.
Potentiostat[]
The potentiostat[1] is primarily responsible for detecting the current flow between the working and counter electrodes, either with or without a biasing voltage applied. The microcontroller on the potentiostat also controls the on/off cycle of the laser, so that it is active for only a short period while collecting current response for each 'pixel' of data.
Laser[]
The laser is the forward module from a Class IIIa[4] laser pointer, powered by 3v[5] supplied by the potentiostat. The momentary contact switch is permanently switched on through the use of a zip tie (see photo at right[6]), so that on/off control is determined by the presence or absence of a power source.
Software Components[]
ScanStation[]
Lego Drivers[]
Generic LabView Drivers[]
ImageJ[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Is it really? Need input from somebody who knows definitively. Since there's no reference electrode, where's the reference voltage coming from?
- ↑ National Instruments Mindstorms LabVIEW Page
- ↑ Or are they servos? Is there a difference?
- ↑ I just made this up, I don't have the scanning station with me, please correct this...
- ↑ Is this correct? I make this statement based on the fact that it normally runs on two nominally 1.5v AAA batteries
- ↑ Image Needed