Frelon camera

../../../_images/FReLoN-2k.jpg

Introduction

The FReLoN camera is a 14 bit dynamic CCD camera, with a 2048*2048 pixel chip. This camera has been developped by the awesome people with the ‘Analog and Transient Electronic’ ESRF group.

Prerequisite

Installation & Module configuration

Follow the generic instructions in Build and Install. If using CMake directly, add the following flag:

-DLIMACAMERA_FRELON=true

For the Tango server installation, refers to PyTango Device Server.

Initialisation and Capabilities

Implementing a new plugin for new detector is driven by the LIMA framework but the developer has some freedoms to choose which standard and specific features will be made available. This section is supposed to give you the correct information regarding how the camera is exported within the LIMA framework.

Camera initialisation

The Frelon plugin provides a helper class FrelonAcq which manages the initialisation sequence with the camera and interface object. An Espia board channel number should be set as the initialisation parameter (default is 0).

frelon = Frelon.FrelonAcq(int(espia_dev_nb))
return frelon.getGlobalControl()

Std capabilites

This plugin has been implemented in respect of the mandatory capabilites but with limitations according due to the detector specific features and with some programmer’s choices. We do not explain here the standard Lima capabilites but you can find in this section the useful information on the Dexela specfic features.

  • HwDetInfo

TODO

  • HwSync

TODO

Optional capabilites

In addition to the standard capabilities, we make the choice to implement some optional capabilities in order to have an improved simulation.

  • HwShutter

TODO

  • HwRoi

TODO

  • HwBin

TODO

Configuration

The main configuration will consist in providing the correct DexelaConfig.cfg file to the detector API. The file has to be provided by the manufacturer with a second file like sensor2923.fmt. The .fmt file contains some calibration data.

How to use

The LimaCCDs tango server provides a complete interface to the dexela plugin so feel free to test.

For a quick test one can use python, this is a short example code:

from Lima import Frelon
from lima import Core
import time

FrelonAcq  = Frelon.FrelonAcq(int(espia_dev_nb))
control = FrelonAcq.getGlobalControl()

acq = control.acquisition()

# setting new file parameters and autosaving mode
saving=control.saving()

pars=saving.getParameters()
pars.directory='/tmp/'
pars.prefix='testfrelon_'
pars.suffix='.edf'
pars.fileFormat=Core.CtSaving.EDF
pars.savingMode=Core.CtSaving.AutoFrame
saving.setParameters(pars)


# now ask for 2 sec. exposure and 10 frames
acq.setAcqExpoTime(2)
acq.setNbImages(10)

acq.prepareAcq()
acq.startAcq()

# wait for last image (#9) ready
lastimg = control.getStatus().ImageCounters.LastImageReady
while lastimg !=9:
  time.sleep(1)
  lastimg = control.getStatus().ImageCounters.LastImageReady

# read the first image
im0 = control.ReadImage(0)