Table 1. Parts list for the main components to build the automated home page for self-head-fixation and imaging.
| Component | # | Vendor | Product ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi Model B 2 | 1 | Newark | 38Y6467 |
| 8gb SD card | 1 | Adafruit | 1583 |
| Powered USB hub for hard disk | 1 | Staples | 22316 |
| USB hard disk 2TB | 1 | Seagate | STDR2000100 |
| Raspberry Pi Dish | 1 | Adafruit | 942 |
| L293D | 1 | Adafruit | 807 |
| L298N | 1 | Amazon | B00AJGM37I |
| Pi Cobbler + | 1 | Adafruit | 1989 |
| Water valve solenoid | 1 | Newark | 45M6131 |
| Linear lift electromagnet Solenoid | 2 | Aliexpress | 2026619226 |
| Solenoid (initial design only) | 2 | Planetengineers | S-15-75-28-H |
| RFID Reader ID-12LA (125 kHz) | 1 | Sparkfun | 11827 |
| SparkFun RFID reader breakout | 1 | Sparkfun | 13030 |
| RFID glass capsule (125 kHz) | # of mice | Sparkfun | 9416 |
| RPi camera (F) | 1 | WVShare | RPi camera (F) |
| Chromoly steel (head bar) | 1 | McMaster-Carr | 4468T11 |
| ET525/36m 10 mm filter | 1 | Chroma | ET525/36m |
With the exception of the fluorescence filters that could be substituted with cheaper coloured glass variety, the main components are less than $300 per cage. Example code to run the home-cage system is available at: http://www.neuroscience.ubc.ca/faculty/murphy_software.html. Stl file for 3D printing the head-fixation chamber (printed using Form1+ from Formlabs) is provided at the same location. LED fluorescence excitation was as described previously12.