HP ACC2 User Manual

UNIS/UIO CAMERA
ACC2
Aurora camera control
program
USER's MANUAL
Last updated: 2/7/02
Bjørn Lybekk, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
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UPDATES:
Jan 15. 1999:
Added point 9) in «Chapter 16 Possible errors». The addition was made due to problems with the HP SureStore T4 backup device. (Espen)
Jan 23. 1999: UNIS/UiO camera no2 updated with Network Time Server, replacing GPS time. Changes are mainly reflected in Chapter 13. (Espen)
Jan 23. 1999:
Handwritten notes (by Bjørn?) in the previous manuals Chapter 2, about scaling, is added. (Espen)
Jan 24. 1999:
A simple Y2K test was performed. The automatic time update was switched off, and the computers date and time was set to
1999.12.31 23:50:00. The Acc program was then run for 20 minutes. There was no indication that the new century will cause any problem to this computer! Document Version number upgraded to 2.1. (Espen)
This file is: C:\ ACC\DOC\ACC2_USER.DOC (on Camera PC 2)
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TABLE OF CONTENT:
UPDATES:.................................................................................................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENT: .................................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1 PRECAUTIONS: ........................................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2 STARTING THE CAMERA:..........................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3 STOPPING THE CAMERA:..........................................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 4 OVERVIEW OF THE ACC PROGRAM:...........................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 5 THE ACC2 CONTROL FILES: .................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 6 IMAGE FILE NAMES:...............................................................................................................................14
CHAPTER 7 THE IMAGE FORMAT: .............................................................................................................................16
CHAPTER 8 COPYING IMAGES TO A NETWORK DISK:.................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 9 CONFIGURATION FILE:...........................................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 10 SAVING DATA AT DAT STORAGE MEDIA:................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 11 SAVING DATA AT PINNACLE APEX 2 X 2GB OPTICAL DISK:.....................................................................23
CHAPTER 12 USING THE HP SURE STORE T4i STREAMER: .......................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 13 AUTOMATIC UPDATE OF PC CLOCK:....................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 14 CAMERA SETUP:...................................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 15 FOCUSING:..........................................................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 16 POSSIBLE ERRORS: ..............................................................................................................................32
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CHAPTER 1 PRECAUTIONS:
The camera contains a light sensitive image intensifier and
is easily damaged by to much light. It has to be operated in darkness.
When mounting / removing the camera the shorting plug must
immediately be added to the backside of the camera, when the
thick cable to the camera is removed.
The user should read the first 7 pages (i.e. until hardware
overview) of the document : "All-Sky Imaging System for University of Oslo", Keo Consultants, 12/5/95.
The PC clock is automatically updated every 5 minutes by the
Norwegian Polar Research Institutes Network Time Server. The Tardis95 program must be running in the background. The program starts automatically when Windows starts, and a icon is shown on the toolbar. The ACC2 program has also support for a GPS clock. If the Garmin GPS 12XL Receiver is used the date and time is received from this device. If not the date and time is captured from the PC clock. If either the Network Time Server or the GPS receiver is available, the PC clock must manually be corrected to UTC time every day.
The data is stored at x:\data\images directory. This
directory must exist, (x: is d: at the Unis/UiO camera no 1.)
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CHAPTER 2 STARTING THE CAMERA:
Turn on the PC.
(If the Garmin GPS 12 XL Receiver is used: Turn the receiver on, (the small red button with a drawing of a light bulb).) The Network Time Server is the preferred time source.
Shut down all light in the camera hut.
Remove the lens cover at the camera unit.
Turn on the power on the backside of the camera, and on the camera control unit.
On the PC, start the PMIS program. Verify the RS-232 communication with the "User->COMOPEN 1" , (Press User in the menubar, and the parameter is 1) . If the camera does not answer with "HOME:1" restart the computer.
Then when "User->COMOPEN 1" replies with "HOME:1" the communication with the camera is working.
Close the communication with "User->COMCLOSE"
Close the two windows: SI 512 camera and the one with 8x16 icon buttons.
In the PMIS Window: Image -> NewImage
A new black image window appears.
Press the ACC2 icon. Now the ACC2 window appears.
The UT time is shown in upper right corner of the ACC2 window. It should show UT and have the format:
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
Mark: It is important that the time has exactly this format, not . or , instead of the - and : ‘s.
If necessary (and the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver is not used) correct the time with the Windows95 Control Panel Date/Time.
In the ACC window: Press OpenCom
Then when the "HOME:1" shows up in the PMIS window press the Start button in the ACC2 window.
Now if the run file, the timer file and the sequence file
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are correct, the camera should operate. If the current time is within a start and stop time in the sequence file, the sequence is executed.
The default is to use dynamic scaling of the data. The operator can set the scaling to «fixed».
In the Image_1 window:
Display -> Scaling ¤ Fixed Min/Max 0 1500 (is useful settings.)
This settings do not affect the data saved to disk. The datarange is 12 bit. The operator can move the cursor around in the image. In the lower left corner of the Image_1 window is displayed:
X .# Y .# I .#
I is the data value [0 - 4095].
The name of the data files are diplayed in the Aurora Camera Control window: e.g. 06:50:50 File name: C:\data\images\981215\06\98121506.33G
The extention 33 is a hex number (starts on 00 every hour) and G indicates that this image is taken with a green filter (R indicates red filter).
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CHAPTER 3 STOPPING THE CAMERA:
In the ACC window. Press the Stop button and the Exit button.
Press the upper right cross to terminate the PMIS program. Answer No to save the image and No to save the Program state .
Turn off the power at the backside of the camera unit and the camera control unit.
Put the lens cover on the camera unit.
Shut off the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver by pressing the red button for about 3 seconds. (If wanted the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver can run all the time during the observation season.)
(If necessary do the move the recorded image files to tape or optical diskette, see below).
Shut down Windows 95 and turn off the PC power.
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CHAPTER 4 OVERVIEW OF THE ACC PROGRAM:
ACC 2
Visual Basic 5
DDE Dynamic Data Exchange
RS-232 COM2:
PMIS ver.. 3.5
I/O from AT200 PC board
RS-232 COM1:
SMARTMR
Photmetrics CH200 CCD camera
Smartmtr electronics
Figure 1: Overview of the camera computer system. The Garmin GPS receiver is optional. By the time, a Network Time Server is used instead of the GPS. The Time Server communicates via the LAN.
RUN file
TIMER file
SEQUENCE file
Garmin GPS receiver
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The filter wheel, the intensifier and the shutter is controlled by the SMARTMTR program. The SMARTMTR program in use is called Norway.prg. The CCD camera is controlled by the PMIS program. The PMIS program also cover the RS-232 communication (thin cable) to the SMARTMTR program. This is done via the RS-232 COM1: port.
When inspecting the camera system the operator should also watch the PMIS window.
The ACC2 program is a Visual Basic 5 program. It communicate with the PMIS program. The task of the ACC2 program is to determine the times the camera should operate and what it should do when it operates.
VisualBasic(ACC2)--> PMIS(macros)--> SMARTMTR(Norway.prg)
The information from the ACC2 program is written in the upper text panel in the ACC2 window. Every line starts with the time when the message is written. The last line written in the ACC2 text panel is the top line.
The highly unstable PC clock is corrected by the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver. This is done via a RS-232 cable on the COM2: port. The messages from the part of the program handling the GPS interface is shown in the lower text panel in the ACC2 window. The program checks every other minute if the PC clock should be corrected. The communication to the GPS receiver is handled by Visual Basic Communication control , MSComm .
The communication between the ACC2 program and the PMIS program is handled with DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) protocol. The middle text panel in the ACC2 window is used as a DDE communication buffer.
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CHAPTER 5 THE ACC2 CONTROL FILES:
The control files for the ACC2 program is located at the C:\acc\seq directory. The ACC2 program uses 3 control files: The run file, the timer file and the sequence file. The operator should write these three files. The recommended editor is the Windows 95 notepad program. EDIT in DOS can also be used. The format of the control files has to be DOS ASCII. (MARK: Then do not use Word, Word Pad etc. ..)
1) The run file:
-----------------
The run file is named RUN.ACC . The RUN.ACC file contains 1 executable line. Lines starting with # in first column are comment lines.
When the first line in the RUN.ACC line has the content:
RUN <filename>
The <filename> is the full path of the timer file the camera should run.
Example:
RUN c:\acc\seq\timer_2.fil
2) The TIMER file:
--------------------
The current timer file is the filename after the RUN in run file. In the Example above the current timer file is named "timer_2.fil" in c:\acc\seq\ directory. It is recommended the operator uses DOS compatible file names when he creates new timer files.
The timer file defines the intervals when the camera should run.
The timer file has the format:
start yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss stop yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss <filename>
The <filename> is the full path of a sequence file.
Note: The sequence file name can be different at different lines in the timer file.
Example:
start 1997-11-12 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-12 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_a.seq start 1997-11-13 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-13 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_b.seq start 1997-11-14 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-14 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_a.seq
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