areaDetector QImaging driver

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Implementation of standard driver parameters
• QImaging specific parameters
• Unsupported standard driver parameters
• Usage
• Configuration
• MEDM screen
• Restrictions

Introduction

This is an EPICS areaDetector driver for CMOS detectors from QImaging Technology . It has been tested on the RETIGA 4000DC camera, but should work with other cameras as well. The driver is supported 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

The driver provides access to essentially all of the features of the QImaging cameras:

• Fixed number of frames or continuous acquisition.
• Multiple accumulations per frame.
• Readout frequency
• Readout mode
• Support for all of the QImaging trigger modes
• Binning and Area Of Interest (AOI) readout
• Set and monitor the camera temperature

This driver inherits from ADDriver. It implements many of the parameters in asynNDArrayDriver.h and in ADArrayDriver.h. It also implements a number of parameters that are specific to the QImaging detectors.

• For integer and float features:
  • What is the valid range of values for the current camera under the current conditions?
• For enum features
  • How many enum choices are there?
  • For each enum choice:
    • What is the string associated with that enum choice?
    • Is that choice implemented for the current camera?
    • If it is implemented, is it valid under the current conditions?
• Ability to register a user-defined C callback function that will be called whenever a feature value changes. These changes can be the indirect result of changing another feature. For example, changing the binning might force the exposure time to change, etc.

The areaDetector driver uses these features. All of the enum menus are built dynamically at iocInit, they are not preset in the template file. This ensures that the enum choices match the actual capabilities of the current camera. Whenever an integer or float parameter is changed it is checked to ensure it is within the current valid bounds for that feature. The feature callback is used to ensure that the current EPICS readback value of that parameter matches the actual camera value, without requiring the driver to poll.

Implementation of standard driver parameters

The following table describes how the QImaging driver implements some of the standard driver parameters.

QImaging specific parameters

The QImaging driver implements the following parameters in addition to those in asynNDArrayDriver.h and ADDriver.h.

Usage

If any of the parameters set are out of range the driver will set them to the minimum or maximum allowed value for that parameter. The _RBV value will indicate the actual value in effect.

Configuration

The QImaging driver is created with the QImageConfig command, either from C/C++ or from the EPICS IOC shell.

int QImageConfig(const char *portName, int cameraId,
                int maxBuffers, size_t maxMemory,
                int priority, int stackSize, int maxFrames)
  

MEDM screen

The following shows the MEDM screen that is used to control the QImage detector.

qimage_base.adl is the main screen used to control the QImaging driver.

qimage_base.adl