User manual - Camera

This package provides the commands to handle the camera ad readout operation.

TODO:

• Should each interpreter only control one camera, less flexible but means don't have to specify the name of the camera each time ?
• System supports different types of camera ( Astrocam 4100 + Hawaii/Picnic , CCD, Qcam, Test etc ) should it build different packages for each camera containing only subset of functions or should camera be selected at run time.

Hardware

The same camera commands operate independant of the camera hardware. Not all the commands are possible with all cameras since the underlying hardware will support different subsets of function.

Some camera commands address the camera hardware directly, other use a named camera configuration. Typically different regions, or diffeent readout modes are defined as configurations.

Commands

campkg	Status information about camera package and its commands
caminfo	Information about image
camtest	Check camera is powered and on-line return diagnostics
caminit	Hardware initialise controller, reset black level
camgrab	Grab a single data frame
camrum	Take a sequence of images
camstop	Stops camrun
camstatus	Return what camera is doing, number of frames left in sequence
camregion	Manage named regions and readout modes

campkg

This provides information about the status of the camera package. It is similar to the TCL info command but only applies to the camera package.

Caminfo

Returns information about named camera configuration mode

camtest

Check camera is powered and on-line return diagnostics

caminit

Power on and hardware init of controller, reset black level, retrim electronics

camgrab

Single data frame, should this set all options, or use a mode ?

camrun

Take n frames, create a numbered sequence of images given a basename, empty images created in advance. Should return control immediatley and have an option to pause untill finished

camstop

Stops freerun and cleans up unused frames from sequence

camstatus

Return what camera is doing, number of frames left in sequence

camregion

Setup a readout mode, specifying quad/chip, sub region and readout mode

camselect

Select chip and quadrant latch, this could also set default camera

Created from $Id: camera.htm,v 1.1 1997/03/18 15:49:21 optics Exp optics $

Readout modes:

reset - Flush

read - Non destructive read

black - Reset_Read

cycle - Read_Reset_Read

Region: specify start x,y width height in blocks of 8x8 pixels

The other modes, to initialise hardware and select chip/quadrant are not accessed directly