Launch of Miniscope DAQ Software v2
|link=|alt=]]Miniscope DAQ Software v2.0: One App for Windows, Linux, and macOS
Today we released version 2.0.0 of the Miniscope DAQ software — the desktop application used to configure, stream, and record from Miniscopes and behavior cameras. This is the largest update in the project's history: the application moved from Qt 5 to Qt 6, gained a completely redesigned interface, and — for the first time — ships as packaged, ready-to-run builds for Windows, Linux, and macOS from a single release.
Until now the packaged software was Windows-only. With v2.0, macOS users on Apple Silicon get a full native port (bench-validated on real Miniscope V4 hardware) and Linux users get an AppImage — no building from source required on any platform.
Downloads
All builds are on the v2.0.0 release page:
- Windows — installer (
Setup.exe) or portable zip - Linux — AppImage (x86_64)
- macOS — DMG (Apple Silicon)
On every platform, your configs and recordings now live in Documents/Miniscope, so they survive upgrades and uninstalls.
An All-New Interface
The interface has been rewritten from the ground up as a single-window application with two modes — Setup and Acquire — so switching configs no longer requires restarting the program.
- A form-based config editor replaces the old JSON tree: cards for General, Recording, Devices, Trace display, Behavior tracker, and Commutator, with device-catalog-driven dropdowns for gain, frame rate, and codec. A raw-JSON tab remains for anything not surfaced in the form.
- Dockable video panes: device streams and the trace display arrange in a resizable grid; any pane can pop out to a floating window and dock back. Layouts persist per config file, so a rig's arrangement comes back on every run.
- A session bar puts record/stop transport, a live clock, note logging, disk-free warnings, and per-device FPS / dropped-frame / buffer chips in one place.
- Redesigned video windows keep sensor values (LED, gain, focus…) glanceable in always-visible chips, with display controls in an auto-hiding side rail — so controls stop eating your video space.
New Hardware Integrations
- Open Ephys commutator control is built in. The software can drive an Open Ephys commutator directly over USB serial: a V4 Miniscope's live BNO head orientation is converted to motor turns so the tether unwinds as the animal turns — no separate Bonsai workflow required.
- MiniCAM support on macOS: a MiniCAM now streams at its native 1024x768 on the new macOS port.
Recordings You Can Trust
A major focus of this release is making sure a recording either works or tells you loudly that it doesn't:
- Recording fails loudly: every file the recorder creates is verified, a disk-space guard refuses to start (and stops cleanly, data preserved) before the disk fills, and the record button reports an error instead of pretending to record.
- Miniscope
timeStamps.csvfiles gain a DAQ Frame Number column — the DAQ hardware's own frame counter, logged per saved frame. A jump in it is on-disk evidence of dropped frames, and it lets recordings be aligned to the DAQ's per-frame TTL output post-hoc. - Frame timestamps now come from a monotonic clock, so an NTP sync or DST change mid-recording can no longer corrupt inter-frame intervals.
- Stopping a recording drains the ring buffer first, so the last frames of a session are saved instead of silently dropped.
Easier, Safer Configs
User configs now have a real JSON Schema and are validated at load — wrong types and out-of-range values are reported with their exact location instead of being silently replaced by defaults. Editing a config in VS Code gives live validation and autocomplete. The bundled examples were replaced with six ready-to-run configs (Miniscope V4, V4 + webcams, webcam-only, V4 + commutator, MiniCAM) that work as shipped, plus an annotated reference file documenting every key.
Looking Ahead
This is one final major release of the Qt desktop software before it is superseded long-term by the miniscope-io SDK. The v2.0 application is what we recommend for acquisition today, and this release puts it on a foundation — Qt 6, CMake, CI-built packages for all three platforms, and a unit-test suite run on every pull request — that we can maintain for the years that transition will take.
Feedback and Bug Reports
If you hit a problem, we want to hear about it — especially on the newly supported platforms. See The hows and whys of submitting an issue, and note the new file-logging support (MINISCOPE_LOG_FILE) for capturing field problems.