Imaging and Running PFE Jeol from a remote computer using TeamViewer

[Dan MacDonald]

Good morning, everyone:

I'm not sure that this post belongs in this category alone, but here goes.  I have tried running PFE for Jeol using TeamViewer, and was able to acquire images using "Digitize" in the Automate! window - I was only working with standard mounts in the probe itself, so the images I was acquiring weren't supercritical, as they were taken on stored positions.  Is it possible to acquire a continuous, "live-time" image in PFE that I can actively navigate the way I would if using our JXA-8200 directly?  One of the reasons I ask about this is because in order to use the probe remotely, especially in the case where a user wants to do recon work on a whole slide without having digitized a scan of the slide, a user may want to have a live image to travel across the slide.  Thanks very much for any  help you can provide.

Best regards

Dan MacDonald (Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, N.S.)

"Quando omni flunkus moritati"

[John Donovan]

I'm not sure that this post belongs in this category alone, but here goes.  I have tried running PFE for Jeol using TeamViewer, and was able to acquire images using "Digitize" in the Automate! window - I was only working with standard mounts in the probe itself, so the images I was acquiring weren't supercritical, as they were taken on stored positions.  Is it possible to acquire a continuous, "live-time" image in PFE that I can actively navigate the way I would if using our JXA-8200 directly?  One of the reasons I ask about this is because in order to use the probe remotely, especially in the case where a user wants to do recon work on a whole slide without having digitized a scan of the slide, a user may want to have a live image to travel across the slide.  Thanks very much for any  help you can provide.

Hi Dan,
Unfortunately the JEOL imaging function is not TV rate imaging so that will not work.

What I would do (and have done in my lab for my Cameca SX100) is to buy a scan convertor/video server box and split the signal going to your live video display in the JEOL console and host it on the video server.  It's probably a Japanese PAL signal. The Cameca video is European PAL, but most scan convertors can handle many different video signal types.

That will work.
john

[Probeman]

Here is an example of how we've set up our lab for remote access:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=581.0

john

[Dan MacDonald]

Hi John:

Thanks very much for your advice and helpful link.  When I used to work at Acadia University some years back, we had a similar project going for our JSM-5900LV SEM, and we used an Axis video server, if I remember correctly. I just wasn't sure if I had missed an easier solution in the PFE software in my beginner's ignorance.  Thanks once again!

Best regards

Dan

[Dan MacDonald]

Hi again!

Upon further thought, I remember using some sort of signal converter with the JSM 5900LV to take the video from the imaging screen and make it compatible with live streaming through the Axis video server, but I don't recall the name or make/manufacturer - it was a clear, green plastic box with a multi-switch on top and several inputs and outputs on the side so one could mix and match signal types to convert them.  If anyone has seen anything like this, please let me know.  In the meantime, I will check my notes to see if I can recover the name of the converter box, and report back if I find it.


Best regards

Dan MacDonald
Dalhousie Univ (Halifax, N.S., Canada)

"Keep yer stick on the ice..."

[Dan MacDonald]

Good morning, John, and everyone:

After some digging around on the net, i used the Google search term "vga to tv video signal converter box for pc computer", and a plethora of possibilities came up, so it does indeed look like I can generate a "tv" signal.

John - Does having a tv signal to work with make it possible for you to use that signal in  the PFE software for a live image scan utility/app/function?  Thanks once again for all your kind help, I genuinely appreciate it.

Best regards

Dan MacDonald (Dalhousie Univ, Halifax, N.S. (non-smoker), Canada)

[Probeman]

After some digging around on the net, i used the Google search term "vga to tv video signal converter box for pc computer", and a plethora of possibilities came up, so it does indeed look like I can generate a "tv" signal.

John - Does having a tv signal to work with make it possible for you to use that signal in  the PFE software for a live image scan utility/app/function?  Thanks once again for all your kind help, I genuinely appreciate it.

Hi Dan,
That's an interesting idea, but no, on our remote PC we usually just have one VNC window for the PFE/PI applications and also a web browser window displaying the axis video server page with the optical and electron image monitors for stage focussing and BSE navigation.
john

[Dan MacDonald]

Hi John:

That reminds me of another related question.  When you are doing the manual focusing remotely (and therefore not using Autofocus), do you adjust the optical focus using the Z-axis Adjust under in the Move Motors and Change Crystals window? (i'm hoping to arrange training with Gareth next week, sometime, but I am playing around more with the software so as to have lots of questions to ask). 

Also on a related topic, when using Autofocus, I notice that the light level on the optical monitor automatically drops by about half (e.g., from '110' on the Jeol OM monitor to about '63'). Is one able to adjust this automatic level up somewhat in the PFE software, somehow?

Thanks very much once again for all your kind help.

Best regards

Dan

[Probeman]

That reminds me of another related question.  When you are doing the manual focusing remotely (and therefore not using Autofocus), do you adjust the optical focus using the Z-axis Adjust under in the Move Motors and Change Crystals window? (i'm hoping to arrange training with Gareth next week, sometime, but I am playing around more with the software so as to have lots of questions to ask). 

Hi Dan,
Yes, you can do it there.

Also on a related topic, when using Autofocus, I notice that the light level on the optical monitor automatically drops by about half (e.g., from '110' on the Jeol OM monitor to about '63'). Is one able to adjust this automatic level up somewhat in the PFE software, somehow?

You can adjust the reflected and transmitted light brightness in the StageMap window as described here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=42.msg4617#msg4617

But the default light brightness in PFE (on startup) is set in the Probewin.ini file under the [hardware] section using these keywords:

ReflectedLightIntensity=63
TransmittedLightIntensity=63

Just edit those to the values you prefer.
john