Likely headposition dependent flickering of the miniscope

Latest comment: 04:023 comments2 people in discussion

Hi everyone! We are having a problem with at least two of our miniscopes. When we record activity from mice, we seem to get some flickering in the field of view that likely is related to headposition (as validated with the sensor on the miniscope). What happens is that parts of the field of view become more or less bright. I have attached quite an extreme example from a recording so you can see what I mean. I also have an example where I just put the miniscope into a movable vice and turned it in all directions and a graph measuring the flickering with regards to the position sensor of the miniscope to investigate if it has anything to do with it. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12J5jnukVnmqKUngqKQTjshF9bNojRBEc?usp=sharing

Has anyone seen this issue before? Maybe even successfully corrected for it? I hope that one can recover this data.

Thanks and best,

Florian

Florian Steenbergen (talk) 09:26, 11 November 2026 (PST)Reply

Hey Florian,

Have you checked the CMOS part of the PCB at the top of the scope is properly secured and not moving? I've seen something similar when it was starting to come loose. Re-gluing the PCB to the scope body solved the issue.

Alfredo Alfredo Elhazaz (talk) 00:26, 12 November 2026 (PST)Reply

Hi Alfredo,

thank you so much for your quick reply. I actually checked the CMOS but that was not the issue. I think by now I was able to find the reason of the artifact, it was a moving dichroic mirror (or a moving Emission filter, I glued both, but the mirror is more likely to fit to the artifact). Now that they are permanently glued to the miniscope body, I dont have the flickering anymore.

Currently I am trying to model the effect of a changed illumination to correct for it. I am reasonably hopeful that this actually works. If I get it working, I will update here!

But if anyone has ever done this in the past, I am more than happy to discuss it.

Cheers,

Florian Florian Steenbergen (talk) 04:02, 12 November 2026 (PST)Reply