Channels Tab

Feature: Acquisitions

The Channels tab collects the controls for the scan phase, the virtual channel display and logging settings, the per-physical-channel acquisition settings, and the assignment of channels to Z depths. In earlier versions of ScanImage these controls were part of the Display tab; they now live on their own tab in the left panel.

Scan Phase Controls

Control	Description
Auto Adjust Line Phase	Automatically detects and corrects the scan phase offset by analysing the channel viewport.
Channel Selection Dropdown	Selects the display channel for line phase adjustment.
Manual Line Phase Adjustment	Spinner control to optionally manually adjust the scan phase. (See Scan Phase Adjustment).

Channels

The Channels panel configures the virtual channels that are received, displayed, and logged.

Tip

Double-click a table column header to bulk-set that column for multiple channels from a dialog. MATLAB syntax may be used in the dialog (e.g. 1:4 to set channels 1 through 4).

Column	Description
Name	The channel name. Defaults to the channel index and may be edited.
Receive	Toggles display of image data on the associated channel in the viewport.
Save	Toggles whether or not the image data associated with this channel is saved when file logging is enabled.
τ [s]	The time constant, in seconds, for exponential smoothing (rolling frame average) of the channel’s image data. Set to 0 to disable averaging.
Log τ	Toggles whether the exponential smoothing is also applied to the logged (saved) data. When off, smoothing affects only the live display.

Physical Channel Settings

The Physical Channel Settings panel configures the analog acquisition settings for each physical input channel (e.g. AI0, AI1 …).

Column	Description
	The physical analog input channel the row applies to (e.g. AI0).
Input Range	A dropdown indicating the voltage range mapping analog values to the digital range on the associated channel.
Invert	Toggles whether high digital values indicate black pixels or white pixels.
Subtract Offset	Toggles whether or not to apply the value in the Offset field.
Offset	Applies an offset to all PMT values for the associated physical channel. (See PMT Calibration)

Control	Description
Measure Offsets	Measures the channel offsets (dark value) for each physical channel. (See PMT Calibration)
Auto Measure Offsets	When enabled, the channel offsets are measured automatically at the start of each acquisition.

Channel to Z Assignment

The Channel to Z Assignment panel maps virtual channels to Z depths or fast Z devices using a translator. This is used by multiplexed acquisition modes such as Light Beads, where each virtual channel corresponds to a different depth in the sample.

Control	Description
Translator	Selects the translator that defines how virtual channels are assigned. The table contents change to match the selected translator (e.g. a Z offset per channel, or a fast Z device per channel).
Assignment Table	Maps each virtual channel to its Z offset or fast Z device. Double-click a column header to bulk-set the values from a dialog using MATLAB syntax (e.g. 0 : 20 : 30 * 20).
Save | Load	Saves/Loads the current translator configuration to/from a JSON file using the header buttons.