jClamp for Windows (v. 18.8.0) is a user-friendly whole-cell voltage clamp data acquisition program which features real time monitoring of cell and voltage clamp characteristics. At all times the patch clamper can determine cell status. Data collection is initiated through a rapid parameter directory (RPD) which maintains a list of 18 parameter filenames or script filenames. Either a key press or mouse click begins the predefined voltage or current delivery protocols. Scripts are text files which allow groups of parameter files to be called and run. Most tasks are automated. Some data analysis is available. In addition, automation links with MATLAB, Excel, SigmaPlot and Origin are available



  • jClamp is now FREE to use with the Axon 1200A & 1200B and the old Labmaster DMA!!! Remember the free license is only available when the ini file is set to use the Labmaster board or axdd1200 board (under gain tab). Set the proper address for the Labmaster! The Labmaster board is controlled exclusively through Port I/O witht the jClamp VXD or SYS driver. The only differences with the hardware setup required by pClamp is that the ports A0-A7 should all be configured for output. A7 is scope trigger. See the hardware manusal. B0 is trigger input. C channels are not used. 2-sine protocols are supported. Win 2000/XP Pro performance is superior. The Axon 1200 board needs the DriverLinx installation (NT version for Win2000 and above). Axon supplies the drivers. Email me if you have a problem getting them. Axoscope 9.0.2.05 supports the board, so you must use that program to verify that everything is working before using jClamp. Normally, if there is no hardware license the registration window will appear, indicating that the license is software only or that so many days are left in the hardware fulldemo license. For the free labmaster or Axon 1220 support, there is no license, so the register window will open. If you want to bypass that window you may create a shortcut on the Windows desktop to jclamp32.exe, as you would do for any other program. The shortcut made during jClamp installation cannot be edited, you need to create an editable one by going to the jClamp directory and right ckick over the jClamp32.exe file and send shortcut to the desktop. Then you can edit the new shortcut. In the properties window, target line, you should append the word "skip_reg". For example, <"C:\Program Files\jclamp32\JCLAMP32.EXE" skip_reg> is taken from the target line of a shortcut. It will run jclamp but not display the registration window. You could also specify a particular ini file other than the default jclamp32.ini by doing the following. <"C:\Program Files\jclamp32\JCLAMP32.EXE" my_ini_file.ini skip_reg>. Note there is a space after the executable name and between the ini filename and "skip_reg". See supported hardware for more information Email me so I can keep track of users. Mail
  • Nanion Port-o-Patch support is here!
  • You can see supported hardware info (here).
  • You can see the detrending for CM analysis technical note (here).
  • New Feature Update
  • ·          
    ·         Vista users must disable User Control Account in Users Dialogue!
    ·         CellSeeker and MagicSeal coming soon!
    ·         Automatic offset current cancellation
    ·         User control over audio feedback during seal formation.
    ·         Enhanced P/N subtraction.
    ·          
    ·         Switch polarity for whole cell or inverted patch in CC window.
    ·         Disable dual patch mode in CC for stimulation with channel 0 or 1 D/A while recording from channel 0
    ·          
    ·         Removal of stray capacitance effects on calibration and during cell recording for Cm analysis
    ·         Plots of Real and Imaginary components of raw currents
    ·         Simple way to set angle of dRs/dY-90 or angle of dC/dY in Phase detector Admitance Window, and angle will be used by single sine protocol to get Magnitude at 0 and 90 degree phase for C and R analysis. Note that using Rs compensation (or an Rs dither) and C compensation (or a C dither) for dithering is a poor method for dithering actual Rm and Cm if Rm is not much greater than Rs, or if Rm or Cm changes substantially during your experimental measurements -- the limitations of single sine analysis
    ·         Non-harmoninc two sine stimuli to avoid nonlinear distortion interference with Cm measures.
    ·         Free support for the Axon 1200A and B boards that Axon no longer supports with their new software! See supported hardware for more information.
    ·         Support for the IOtech PersonalDaq.  It is a great board (~ $1,400) with many capabilities, close to the Axon 1440 series.
    ·          
    ·         Detached Telegraph window with only the enabled channels (from 1-4 for each of the two supported amplifiers) displayed.
    ·         Vista support (I think!)
    ·         Detached PDF Help file in addtion to Windows Help file. You can search and print out the help file.
    ·         Separate Audio program (jc_audio.exe)  for recording/playing MS wav audio files, which can be played during script execution now, since Windows Vista does not include one.
    ·         Multiple instances of jClamp can be run, each controlling a different A/D D/A board! Or use another instance to analyze data while the first instance is actively collecting data.
    ·         Frequency analysis can successfully monitor bilayer prep capacitance, making jClamp a good choice for these types of studies
    ·         Cell Censor window provides full cell parameter analysis either in Time or Frequency domain
    ·          
  • Axon Multiclamp telegraph support.
  • User selectable channel input for telegraphs.
  • Real time, scalable plotting of Cm or Im vs time or voltage collected with protocols.
  • Support for Axon 1440 series!
  • Support for National Instruments M series boards. NI 6251-USB and NI PCI-6221, in particular.
  • NI boards that use Ni-daqmx driver (M series and also the PCI-6052E) and Axon's 1320 and 1440 series now can have dual analog output and up to 8 input channels.
  • The NI PCI-6221 board is used by Neobiosystems to control their ( PatchMAX 100A ) and jClamp will work with their system to provide user friendly patch clamp and two electrode voltage clamp solutions.
  • User choice of Dual frequency Cm calulation from f1, f2, or aveage of both.
  • Phase Sensitive Detector (PSD) exposed for phase analysis.
  • Automatic fusion event analysis.
  • Easy capacitance measures – new method based on actual angle of dY/dCm – perfect at last!!.
  • Average after all episodes are run or average each episode before continuing to the next episode..
  • Smart averaging – only average as many runs as required to reach a desired signal to noise ratio!.
  • More flexible delivery of frequency stimuli.
  • Axon 1322A support.
  • Storage view in Analysis mode – view two data file plots simultaneously (previously opened and current) .
  • Independent analysis and data collection CM calibrations file loading.
  • Streamlined generation of command protocols from ABF data files .
  • User choice of detrending of raw data prior to CM analysis (Technical Note released) .
  • NI PCI-MIO-16E-1, NI PCI-MIO-16E-4 support.
  • Fitting with user supplied equations.
  • Now measure capacitance with either 2-Sine analysis or Phase tracking.
  • Very detailed information for all files in data directory in data load window when info button is pressed.
  • IV plot window calculates reversal potential, and slope resistance; multiple I-v plots for comparison.
  • Quick notes window allows button click insertion of pre assembled, often used notes into the log file.
  • Conditional scripting with parameters from Cell Censor. For example, wait for membrane resistance to reach a certain value before running a protocol.
  • DCM files are only saved when enabled in ini file under History tab.
  • CED Power 1401 support. Four DAC outputs; control four patch clamp amplifiers. Channel watch channels moved from 2-5 to 4-7 for all boards. Shell out (from Data Load window) to Adobe Acrobat or reader to look at lab notebooks. I suggest that you scan in your hand written notebooks as an image and place a PDF conversion into each day's data directory for viewing. NT and 2000 support for Labmaster DMA and Daqp 308 boards. jClamp for the old Labmaster DMA board is FREE!!! No license needed. Great for student labs!!!! Break out those old boards and put them in some new, fast and cheap computers.
  • jClamp for the Labmaster DMA is free -- no license required. Remember the free license is only available when the ini file is set to use the Labmaster board (under gain tab). Set the proper address! The Labmaster board is controlled exclusively through Port I/O witht the jClamp VXD or SYS driver. The only differences with the hardware setup required by pClamp is that the ports A0-A7 should all be configured for output. A7 is scope trigger. See the hardware manusal. B0 is trigger input. C channels are not used. Cm tracking and gap-free are functional only in Win 95/98, althought 2-sine command protocols are supported. Win 2000 performance is superior. Normally, if there is no hardware license the registration window will appear, indicating that the license is software only or that so many days are left in the hardware fulldemo license. For the free labmaster support, there is no license, so the register window will open. If you want to bypass that window you may create a shortcut on the Windows desktop to jclamp32.exe, as you would do for any other program. In the properties window, target line, you should append the word "skip_reg". For example, <"C:\Program Files\jclamp32\JCLAMP32.EXE" skip_reg> is taken from the target line of a shortcut. It will run jclamp but not display the registration window. You could also specify a particular ini file other than the default jclamp32.ini by doing the following. <"C:\Program Files\jclamp32\JCLAMP32.EXE" my_ini_file.ini skip_reg>. Note there is a space after the executable name and between the ini filename and "skip_reg".
  • Multiple stopwatches.
  • Streaming video capture and playback; record video during data collections; control through script or via Look! video window. Screen shots available from scripts.
  • CM calibration changed to provide more resolutions. accalib.prm and accalibi.prm are revised. Please recalibrate to use extra resolutions. Remember to check proper function with electrical model!!!!!
  • Channel watch is functional (if enabled) even when CC is not running.
  • Conditional scripting. Continue scripting after switch from/to current/voltage mode or based on values obtained from analog Channel Watch (e.g. based on temperature change reading).
  • Ability to transfer voltage clamp holding current to current clamp upon mode switch. Also, current clamp membrane potential to voltage clamp.
  • Ability to set all partition start voltages/currents to holding level in Command Build Utility. Useful when passing hold from Cell Censor to protocol.
  • Better memory management in Win 98. IniEditor can now be opened from within jClamp without "out of memory" error. Tested with 128 Meg memory system.
  • Automation link with SigmaPlot 2000, Excel 9, MATLAB 5.3 and Origin 6. Rapid data transfer and plot generation. May work with some earlier versions. Enable use for each program seperately in jclamp ini file. Scripting of application commands in jClamp analysis scripts.
  • Two sine FFT based CM tracking now supported under current clamp.
  • Ability to use data file (abf) traces as commands in Command Build utility. Automatic generation of command parameter files from abf data files. For example, immediately stimulate cells in current clamp with currents obtained under voltage clamp. Also, FFT can now be computed on any portion of data trace with automatic zero padding.
  • Support for the National Instruments PCI-MIO-16EX-10 (10 usec) and PCI-6052E (3 usec) boards, 16 bit A/D, D/A-- boards with breakout about $2K.
  • Support for the IOtech daq2000 PCI board. 16 bit A/D, D/A @ 100kHz -- board is $500! Cabling and breakout extra. Important -- contact me before getting one (there is a glitch on analog out).
  • High time and magnitude resolution capacitance measures during episodic protocols! Measure capacitance, Rs, Rm simultaneous with your favorite step, ramp or AC protocols. Automatic analysis. Episode length up to 1 million pts for Axon boards and IOtech daq2000 -- measure voltage induced capacitance changes up to 10 seconds per episode (@ 10 us clock)! 10 million pts for National Instruments boards!
  •  

    jClamp Features

     

    Files may be downloaded for a trial examination.

    Mail email me for a username and password; please include your affiliation, operating system and hardware.

    I suggest a fast computer (>1GHz), at least 512 Meg memory, and fast video! jClamp is a large program. It works best in Win NT, 2000, XP, or Vista - for those boards which can work in these environments. Cm tracking with the Axon 1200 board has problems in Win NT if run from Cell Censor but not within command protocols. All will work in W95/98, however.

     

    Name

    Last Modified

    Size

    Description

    jClamp Help file 10-May-2008 1.8M jClamp Help file (jclamp32.chm); to view you may need to unblock in the security tab of the file properties
    INSTALL.TXT 1-Jan-2008 5K install information
    getting_started.htm 1-Jan-2008 1K Getting started and Labmaster DMA support
    jc18800.exe 24-Sep-2009 22M New 32 bit (v 18.8.0) version setup files [make sure to check below for an updated jc_exe.exe]. For the Axon 1320 boards their new driver is necessary (Check to see that channels 8-15 are correctly working in Axoscope, I have had a problem but you may not; get the Axoscope update at http://www.axon.com/cn_Axoscope_Update.html[remember to turn off/on the 1322 and reboot]). The new jClamp version will work in Win Vista/XP/NT/2000/Me and /98 (I hope with no problems!!!). Versions above 6 do not supply any board drivers; they should be installed from the board manufacturer. In particular, the Axon 1200 drivers (DrvLnx95.exe and DrvLnxNT.exe) and the 1440/1320 series drivers should be installed before jClamp. jClamp will not overwrite them. See below for a list of files that should be deleted before installing the 1200 drivers, so that the Axon versions are installed. For the 1320 series, the driver (AxDD132x.dll [no more Axoutils32.dll to worry about]) found under the Axon directory should be copied into the jclamp32 directory for the boards to work with jClamp. See above for features. Per-machine license required. Software demo license included. Time-limited hardware license see below. Read install info.
    jc_exe.exe Whenever 1.1M New 32 bit executable (do not use with previous versions before the latest posted full install - look here for newer executables - the link will be empty if no update exists). Place in jclamp32 directory, double-click to extract jclamp32.exe and select overwite to replace the old version. No need for full install if posted full version was installed.
    ax_driv.TXT 23-Oct-2000 1K installed Axon driver files
    fulldemo.lic Monday 1K 30 day hardware license for evaluation (jClamp version 16.0 and above). Rename to jclamp32.lic and replace the software-only license file in the jclamp32 directory.
    detrending 14 Feb 2003 500K Technical Note on detrending data before FFTing for CM analysis. User can now choose whether to use detrending.

    Connect to Axon Instruments  to download Axoscope and the Digidata drivers for Win95/98 and WinNT

    Copyright © 1996-2009 J. Santos-Sacchi [SciSoft]
    Last modified: Aug 25, 2009

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