The attached files were written by Boston University undergraduate Oleg Shatrovoy for Professor Thomas Bifano in the summer of 2006.

The files are used to control DMs and electronics for Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC) 140 actuator DMs (Multi_DM Systems) using LabVIEW software. 

This software is NOT authorized or supported by BMC. It is provided free, and may be freely distributed, as a service to those who want to develop LabVIEW controllers for the BMC device. Use at your own risk. I have made these work, and will be happy to help, at no cost, those who want to do the same. 

The files include two versions: one denoted NI and one denoted MC. The Multi_DM system ships with a digital input output (DIO) card for the PC made by Measurement Computing (MC). The MC designated files will work with that card. Because LaabVIEW is made by National Instruments (NI), Oleg also experimented with writing a driver for an NI DIO. The NI designated files will work with that card. (But you will need to build a cable converter to go from the 50 pin output of the NI DIO to the BMC Driver box to make this work. We can help with this if you call or email me.)

Files:
   Main Modules:
 		[NI/MC] Mirror Driver
 		[NI/MC] Zernike Polynomial GUI
		 	-These are the GUIs to drive the mirror in either
			regular control mode (access to all actuators independently) or 				Zernike control mode. If you're just getting started, you 					probably want to try "MC Mirror Driver" first.

   Sub-modules:
		[NI/MC] Mirror Write Module
		[NI/MC] Mirror Init Module
		Path Verifier
  			-These are processes that the main drivers call so
			make sure they are in the same folder (otherwise
			LabVIEW will ask you to locate them when you run the
			drivers).

   Examples:
		[NI/MC] Simple Example VI
  			-Demonstrate the use of the sub-modules in the
			design of an alternate GUI that controls mirrors.
		[Text/Excel] Voltage Map
  			-Demonstrate format that GUIs expect from voltage
			files made in respective programs. Note that Excel
			must be installed to read .xls files and the first
			time you open one of them it might take a long time
			because your computer has to open Excel to get it to
			interpret its file encoding.

   Others:
		Mirror Array
  			-Address mapping scheme used in above GUIs by default.
			You may use your own maps.

		[NI/MC] Speed Demo
 			 -Simple programs that give you a rough idea of the
			speed of the mirror writes. Enter the number of frames
			and run the program to get execution time. Note that
			the first run is much slower because of the overhead
			so run it a few times to get a good number.

To run the MC board you need to buy the Measurement Computing Universal Library for LabVIEW. You also need to have MC's InstaCal installed so you
can input the board number of the DIO-24 before running the program. (default=0). (This should already be on the computer you got with the BMC system.)

Feel free to contact me with questions.

Thomas Bifano, 617-353-8908
tgb@bu.edu Saturday, December 16, 2006