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Installing Software
for Windows OS
Software must be installed on your host PC for communicating with and capturing image data from the Axsun Integrated Engine (Laser Engine with an Axsun Ethernet DAQ or PCIe DAQ), including the Hardware Control Tool and the Image Capture Tool GUIs (plus their device drivers and dependencies).
Running the Axsun OCT Tools installer executable (as discussed below) is the easiest way to perform an initial software installation on a new host platform, because required dependencies are installed automatically and the most current feature set is included.
However, if you prefer a manual installation or would like to modify or upgrade an individual Axsun software component, the current released versions and stable pre-release versions of the individual components are available from links on the Software Downloads index page and installation instructions are available in the individual guides for the Hardware Control Tool and Image Capture Tool.
NOTE: Axsun Integrated Engine GUI tool software is compatible with a host PC running Windows 10 or 11. The underlying libraries are also available for integration with Linux OSes, but do not include the extensive Image Capture Tool and Hardware Control Tool GUI applications which demonstrate the library/API functionality in a push-button fashion.
For installation of libraries on Linux OS, see the AxsunOCTControl_LW and AxsunOCTCapture installation pages.
NOTE: Elevated administrator privileges are required to install the software. Software installers should be run with default options selected unless otherwise noted. A Windows OS restart is recommended following the software installation.
NOTE: Your screen may not match exactly with the screen representations shown in this guide, depending on your system configuration and installed firmware/software versions.
- Run the Microsoft Visual C++ Run-Time installer VC_redist.x64.exe located in the extracted archive at
..\AxsunIntegratedEngineComponents\<date>\..
NOTE: This common library likely already exists on your system from installation of an unrelated program or from your original Windows OS installation (depending on the OS version), but reinstalling it now guarantees the up-to-date version and is simpler than troubleshooting later.
- Run the Axsun OCT Tools installer InstallAxsunOCT.exe located in the extracted archive at
..\AxsunIntegratedEngineComponents\<date>\Axsun OCT Tools\Volume\.. - Answer YES if a Microsoft User Account Control pop-up requests permission to make changes to your computer.
- Follow the instructions in the Axsun OCT Tools installer window to proceed with the installation (i.e. select install location if different from the default, read and accept license agreements, etc.)
- Wait for installation to complete, and then restart your computer if prompted.
Installation of particular device drivers and dependencies is optional, and depends on which interface(s) you plan for connection between your host computer and your Axsun Laser Engine and DAQ hardware. Before proceeding with the device driver installation in this section, insure that your Axsun device hardware is physically connected to the desired interfaces and powered-on as described on the Making Connections page.
Prior to USB device driver installation, each connected Axsun USB device (including both Laser Engine and DAQ) will appear in the Windows Device Manager as "Axsun OCT Engine" in the "Other devices" class:
Device Manager with one Axsun device connected via USB (prior to USB device driver installation).
To install the USB device driver:
- In the extracted .zip archive downloaded above, navigate to
..\AxsunIntegratedEngineComponents\<date>\usb_driver\..and run the batch file titled RunMeAsAdministrator.bat by right-clicking on its icon and selecting the Run as administrator menu item. - Answer YES if a Microsoft User Account Control pop-up requests permission to make changes to your computer.
- A cmd terminal window will launch and display the driver installation status. Press any key to close the cmd window once prompted.
Following installation, each connected Axsun USB device will appear in Device Manager as "Axsun OCT USB Device" in the "Axsun OCT Devices" class:
Device Manager with one Axsun device connected via USB (following USB device driver installation).
Prior to PCIe device driver installation, a connected Axsun PCIe DAQ device will appear in the Windows Device Manager as a generic "PCI Memory Controller" in the "Other devices" class:
Device Manager showing a PCIe DAQ prior to PCIe device driver installation.
To install the PCIe device driver:
- In the extracted .zip archive downloaded above, navigate to
..\AxsunIntegratedEngineComponents\<date>\pcie_driver\..and run the batch file titled RunMeAsAdministrator.bat by right-clicking on its icon and selecting the Run as administrator menu item. - Answer YES if a Microsoft User Account Control pop-up requests permission to make changes to your computer.
- A cmd terminal window will launch and display the driver installation status. Press any key to close the cmd window once prompted.
Following installation, a connected Axsun PCIe DAQ will appear in Device Manager as "Axsun OCT PCIe DAQ (xxxx)" in the "Axsun OCT Devices" class:
Device Manager showing a PCIe DAQ following PCIe device driver installation.
Capturing image data via Ethernet requires a library dependency called “pcap”, an industry-standard API for capturing network traffic. In the Unix environment, the standard library is named “libpcap”. In the Windows environment, a ported library named “WinPcap” is used [1]. Additional forks of WinPCap (e.g. “Npcap”, “Win10Pcap”) have been designed to take advantage of more efficient kernel hooks in Windows OS versions later than Windows 7.
The Axsun Ethernet DAQ software works with either WinPcap or its binary-compatible variants. Npcap is preferred, but pay attention to license restrictions. You can download Npcap directly from https://nmap.org/npcap/.
WARNING: As of the time of this note, the current version of Npcap (v1.76) is broken. Download and install v1.75 instead: https://npcap.com/dist/npcap-1.75.exe
To install Npcap, run the downloaded installer and confirm any Windows Security Warning requests. At the Ncpap Installation Options screen, make sure to select the option “Install Npcap in WinPcap API-compatible Mode” as shown:
Npcap installation options: select "Install in WinPcap API-compatible Mode"
[1] WinPcap can be downloaded and installed from http://www.winpcap.org but is also included when installing Wireshark, a handy packet capture GUI based on the pcap library. Wireshark can be downloaded and installed from https://www.wireshark.org/#download if required for system debugging.
The host PC’s network adapter which is connected to the DAQ must be configured for static IP addressing rather than DHCP, which is more typical for connection to a router:
- Open the properties window for the network adapter. Instructions for finding the network adapter properties window are OS-specific and can be found by searching online.
- Change the IP address (IPv4) of the network adapter to be 192.168.10.1 and the subnet mask to be 255.255.255.0 (which is likely the default). Apply and save the new network adapter settings.
- Confirm successful reconfiguration of the network adapter and Ethernet connection to the DAQ board by opening a Windows cmd terminal and executing the command
ping 192.168.10.2 - If connection is established correctly, the DAQ board (with its static IP address of 192.168.10.2) will respond to the ping request. If the ping fails, follow the recommendations in the DAQ Troubleshooting manual.
Congratulations! You've installed the required software for the Axsun Integrated Engine. Additional background information on the Axsun GUI Tools can be found here or in the respective software manuals.
The next page in this guide describes the basic Operation of the Integrated Engine to capture and display OCT images in real-time.
Last modified 2mo ago