Summary of the content on the page No. 1
UNIS/UIO CAMERA
ACC2
Aurora camera control
program
USER's MANUAL
Version 2.1
Last updated: 2/7/02
Bjørn Lybekk, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
Summary of the content on the page No. 2
2 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 up
Summary of the content on the page No. 3
3 TABLE OF CONTENT: UPDATES:.................................................................................................................................................................2 TABLE OF CONTENT: .................................................................................................................................................3 CHAPTER 1 PRECAUTIONS: .................................................................................................................
Summary of the content on the page No. 4
4 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
Summary of the content on the page No. 5
5 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
Summary of the content on the page No. 6
6 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 le
Summary of the content on the page No. 7
7 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 th
Summary of the content on the page No. 8
8 CHAPTER 4 OVERVIEW OF THE ACC PROGRAM: RUN file ACC 2 TIMER file SEQUENCE file Visual Basic 5 DDE RS-232 Dynamic COM2: Data Exchange PMIS ver.. 3.5 RS-232 COM1: I/O from AT200 PC board SMARTMR Photmetrics Smartmtr Garmin GPS CH200 electronics receiver CCD camera Figure 1: Overview of the camera computer system. The Garmin GPS receiver is optional. By the time, a Network Time S
Summary of the content on the page No. 9
9 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 prog
Summary of the content on the page No. 10
10 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
Summary of the content on the page No. 11
11 The line executed in the timer file is the line where the current time is within the listed interval. The operator writing a new timer file must follow this format exactly. The format of the sequence file name can be different, i.e. it can be at another hard-disk and in another directory. The current version of the ACC2 program can accept maximum 100 lines from the timer file. Note: In order for the ACC2 program to read the correct date and time format the Wind
Summary of the content on the page No. 12
12 running in burst mode. The default is normal mode, but the operator can change to burst mode by pressing the Burst option button in the ACC2 window. When ACC_USE_CONTROL_SEC is 1 in the configuration file : When composing the sequence file the operator must allow the program to read the run file and the timer file or the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver. This is done the ACC_CONTROL_SEC second specified in the configuration file. The ACC2 program needs about 2 seconds to perform these t
Summary of the content on the page No. 13
13 filters should be 630.0 nm (f1) and 557.7 nm (f2). The gain is set to 3 (maximum) for the 630.0 nm filter and 2 for the 557.7 nm filter respectively (g$). The exposure times should be 2000 and 1000 milliseconds (e$), and all images are stored at the harddisk (s1). At the start of the minute the image is also copied to network disk (u1). If the ACC_USE_CONTROL_SEC is 2 in the configuration file the program read the run file and the timer file or the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver. This is d
Summary of the content on the page No. 14
14 CHAPTER 6 IMAGE FILE NAMES: The image ACC2 program stores images at directory: x:\data\images (Note: x: is d: for the Unis/UiO camera no 1.) Then after a backup the operator can remove all subdirectories at x:\data\images . (Or he can remove the images directory. Afterwards he the has to create the images directory again.) If the Windows95 "Recycle Bin" is used the files has to be emptied from the "Recycle Bin" afterwards. The DOS command DELTREE can be used, (e.g. in DOS
Summary of the content on the page No. 15
15 The filter code '&' is: "r" for the filter no 1, 630.0 nm "s" "t" "u" "v" "g" for the filter no 2, 577.7 nm "h" "i" "j" "k" "b" for the filter no 3, 427.8 nm "c" "d" "e" "f" The explanation of this is. The ACC2 program creates a new directory for each hour. Each image is stored in one file. Normally "r" is the filter code for the 630.0 nm filter no 1. However, if more than 256 (00 to FF Hex) images for filter no 1 are stored at
Summary of the content on the page No. 16
16 CHAPTER 7 THE IMAGE FORMAT: The image format is the PMIS version 3.5 image format. It is described in the PMIS User's manual, Version 3.5 at page 243. It contains an header and then a 513x512x16 bits image. The ACC2 program uses the 100 character image header comment part for storing information about the camera system. The camera delivers 12 bit data, but the PMIS software stores 16 bit data. An example of the start of such a comment is: D1997-12-07_14:51:29W557.7nmF2G0
Summary of the content on the page No. 17
17 CHAPTER 8 COPYING IMAGES TO A NETWORK DISK: The ACC2 program can save the image on a network disk. Here it can be read by «another program» which can process and display the on-line image data at e.g. the World Wide Web. The «another program» is not a part of the ACC2 program and can not be run on the camera PC. (The Geomapper program written by Dagfinn Opsvik can be used as the «another program».) The settings in the configuration file (see below) must then be: ACC_NET_IMAGE_A
Summary of the content on the page No. 18
18 The ACC2 program copies the image from the harddisk to the network disk. In this case the s0 u1 line in the sequence file will not work.
Summary of the content on the page No. 19
19 CHAPTER 9 CONFIGURATION FILE: The configuration file is named c:\acc\config\config.acc . This file must exist. The file contains comments which explains the file. When the user knows the setup of the camera he can fill inn the correct parameters in this file. Because the upper case characters "A" - "Z" are used as comment identifier, these characters should not be used. Here is an example of a configuration file: # #### #### # # ##### # ####
Summary of the content on the page No. 20
20 # ACC_MACROS c:\pmis\Macros\Norway # # # Location of the image storage media top directory: ACC_STORAGE_MEDIA_DIR # (when s1 is set in sequence files) # MARK: This directory must exist # The images are stored in this directory tree. # ACC_STORAGE_MEDIA_DIR c:\data\images # # # Type image file name created: ACC_LONG_IMAGENAME # When LONG_IMAGENAME is 1 the long version of the file names are used # When LONG_IMAGENAME is 0 the short version of the file names are used # # M
