There is a Micro-manager plugin to control the diSPIM. It is part of the standard Micro-Manager build under Plugins → Device Control → ASIdiSPIM.

Details about the plugin operation can be found in the manual section of this website in the section "Micro-manager diSPIM Plugin". There is also a brief overview is on its Micro-manager wiki page. Please see that manual for information about using the plugin.

Currently the diSPIM plugin is supported in 1.4.x only, although there have been some efforts to port it to 2.0. At some point after the official release of Micro-manager 2.0, development on the 1.4.x plugin will slow and eventually stop and at that point only 2.0 will be supported. But that's all in the future as of July 2017 since 2.0 hasn't been released yet.

You can download the nightly builds of Micro-manager 1.4 for Windows here; the date is encoded in the file name and the latest date is at the top of the page. Make sure to get the appropriate 32bit or 64bit depending on your computer.

The first step is to check and see if your problem has already been fixed by using a recent nightly build of Micro-Manager (Windows and Mac). If your firmware is very old it wouldn't hurt to update it; instructions and firmware files are on this wiki filed under hardware > controller > firmware.

If the bug still happens, is helpful to generate a problem report using “Help” → “Report Problem…” in the main Micro-Manager window. It will prompt you to reproduce the problem, for example if you are having a problem during diSPIM acquisition then run an acquisition and verify that the bug is manifest. After clicking “Done” do not submit the report the usual way, instead click “View Report”, save the text as a file, and then email that file directly to the plugin developers. If you cannot reproduce the problem in order to generate a bug report, then an alternative is to enable debug logging in “Tools” → “Options…” and then when the problem happens send the developers the core log file being written to at the time (find the logs in the Core Logs directory located inside the Micro-manager install directory, e.g. C:/Program Files/Micro-Manager-1.4/Core Logs and then log files named by the launch time).

You can see recent changes to the plugin code by searching the Micro-manager code timeline for ASIdiSPIM. Sometimes changes to the ASI Tiger device adapter also affect the plugin operation ( Micro-manager code timeline for ASITiger).

Add the following lines to your MMStartup.bsh script (or create the file if it doesn't exist). The startup script lives in the root MM folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Micro-Manager-1.4) and is automatically executed when Micro-Manager launches.

import org.micromanager.asidispim.ASIdiSPIM;
ASIdiSPIM plugin = new ASIdiSPIM();
plugin.setApp(gui);

The Micro-Manager plugin has an API that allows most of its functionality to be accessed via Beanshell scripts run from within Micro-Manager. This allows users to orchestrate complex acquisitions and even use the plugin for adaptive microscopy where automated image analysis guides acquisition. The best way to see what functionality is exposed via the API is to look at the source code of the Java interface which defines the API. The API includes are methods to get and set the most commonly changed settings within the plugin, launch acquisitions, move the microscope, and more. The API can be augmented if needed but every effort is made not to change the documented functionality. Furthermore there is support for Java RMI which allows the plugin API to be access from a completely separate Java VM.

Here is a bare-bones example script:

// required imports
import org.micromanager.asidispim.api.ASIdiSPIMInterface;
import org.micromanager.asidispim.api.ASIdiSPIMImplementation;

// get a reference to the plugin; use this to call the plugin's API methods
// API documented in ASIdiSPIMInterface.java in source code 
//   (https://valelab4.ucsf.edu/trac/micromanager/browser/plugins/ASIdiSPIM/src/org/micromanager/asidispim/api/ASIdiSPIMInterface.java)
// note that the plugin must be launched for this to work
ASIdiSPIMInterface diSPIM = new ASIdiSPIMImplementation();

// use the plugin's API to do whatever you like
diSPIM.runAcquisition(); // or other API methods in ASIdiSPIMInterface

Here are some example scripts:

// This script changes channels in the middle of a multi-timepoint acquistion.  It actually runs two separate acquisitions and changes the channel between them.

import org.micromanager.asidispim.api.ASIdiSPIMInterface;
import org.micromanager.asidispim.api.ASIdiSPIMImplementation;

// change these constants for your use
int timepointIntervalSec = 100;
int numTimepointsFirst = 100;
int numTimepointsSecond = 50;
String channelToRemove = "561";
String channelToAdd_1 = "405";
String channelToAdd_2 = "637";


// gets a reference to the plugin; use this to call the plugin's API methods
// API documented in ASIdiSPIMInterface.java in source code 
//   (https://valelab4.ucsf.edu/trac/micromanager/browser/plugins/ASIdiSPIM/src/org/micromanager/asidispim/api/ASIdiSPIMInterface.java)
// note that the plugin must be launched
ASIdiSPIMInterface diSPIM = new ASIdiSPIMImplementation();

// script uses existing settings except for the number of timepoints and time point interval which are controlled by the script
// NB: the channels for the first portion of acquisition should be configured correctly
diSPIM.setTimepointInterval(timepointIntervalSec);
diSPIM.setsetTimepointsNumber(numTimepointsFirst);

// launch the acquisition with current settings, will block until acquisition is done
diSPIM.runAcquisitionBlocking();

// pause script to attempt to simulate the interval between timepoints (really it will take a few seconds longer, could try to compensate if it matters)
Thread.sleep(1000*(timepointIntervalSec));

// remove and add the requested channels (here one subtration and 2 additions are hardcoded)
diSPIM.setChannelEnabled(channelToRemove, false);
diSPIM.setChannelEnabled(channelToAdd_1, true);
diSPIM.setChannelEnabled(channelToAdd_2, true);

// change the number of timepoints
diSPIM.setsetTimepointsNumber(numTimepointsSecond);

// launch the acquisition with current settings, will block until acquisition is done
diSPIM.runAcquisitionBlocking();