Andor Solis Cameras

A labscript device for controlling Andor scientific cameras via the Andor SDK3 interface.

Presently, this device is hard-coded for use with the iXon camera. Minor modifications can allow use with other Andor cameras, so long as they are compatible with the Andor SDK3 library.

labscript_devices.AndorSolis.labscript_devices
labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_tabs
labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_workers

Installation

The Andor SDK is available from Andor as a paid product (typically purchased with the camera). It must be installed with the SDK directory added to the system path.

Detailed Documentation

class labscript_devices.AndorSolis.labscript_devices.AndorSolis(name, parent_device, connection, serial_number, orientation=None, pixel_size=[1.0, 1.0], magnification=1.0, trigger_edge_type='rising', trigger_duration=None, minimum_recovery_time=0.0, camera_attributes=None, manual_mode_camera_attributes=None, stop_acquisition_timeout=5.0, exception_on_failed_shot=True, saved_attribute_visibility_level='intermediate', mock=False, **kwargs)

Bases: IMAQdxCamera

A camera to be controlled using NI IMAQdx and triggered with a digital edge.

Parameters:

• name (str) – device name

• parent_device (IntermediateDevice) – Device with digital outputs to be used to trigger acquisition

• connection (str) – Name of digital output port on parent device.

• serial_number (str or int) – string or integer (integer allows entering a hex literal) of the camera’s serial number. This will be used to idenitfy the camera.

• orientation (str, optional) – <name> Description of the camera’s location or orientation. This will be used to determine the location in the shot file where the images will be saved. If not given, the device name will be used instead.

• pixel_size ([float,float], optional) – [1.0, 1.0] The x and y size of the pixels in micrometers. This can be used in setting the scale in the blacs image display as well as extracted in lyse for analysis.

• magnification (float, optional) – 1.0 Imaging system magnification.

• trigger_edge_type (str) – 'rising' The direction of the desired edges to be generated on the parent devices’s digital output used for triggering. Must be ‘rising’ or ‘falling’. Note that this only determines the edges created on the parent device, it does not program the camera to expect this type of edge. If required, one must configure the camera separately via camera_attributes to ensure it expects the type of edge being generated. Default: 'rising'

• trigger_duration (float or None) – None Duration of digital pulses to be generated by the parent device. This can also be specified as an argument to expose() - the value given here will be used only if nothing is passed to expose().

• minimum_recovery_time (float) – 0 Minimum time between frames. This will be used for error checking during compilation.

• camera_attributes (dict, optional) – Dictionary of camera attribute names and values to be programmed into the camera. The meaning of these attributes is model-specific. Attributes will be programmed in the order they appear in this dictionary. This can be important as some attributes may not be settable unless another attrbiute has been set first. After adding this device to your connection table, a dictionary of the camera’s default attributes can be obtained from the BLACS tab, appropriate for copying and pasting into your connection table to customise the ones you are interested in.

• manual_mode_camera_attributes (dict, optional) – Dictionary of attributes that will be programmed into the camera during manual mode, that differ from their values in camera_attributes. This can be useful for example, to have software triggering during manual mode (allowing the acquisition of frames from the BLACS manual mode interface) but hardware triggering during buffered runs. Any attributes in this dictionary must also be present in camera_attributes.

• stop_acquisition_timeout (float) – 5.0 How long, in seconds, to wait during transition_to_buffered for the acquisition of images to complete before giving up. Whilst all triggers should have been received, this can be used to allow for slow image download time.

• exception_on_failed_shot (bool) – True. If acquisition does not complete within the given timeout after the end of a shot, whether to raise an exception. If False, instead prints a warning to stderr (visible in the terminal output pane in the BLACS tab), saves the images acquired so far, and continues. In the case of such a ‘failed shot’, the HDF5 attribute f[‘images’][orientation/name].attrs[‘failed_shot’] will be set to True (otherwise it is set to False). This attribute is acessible in the lyse dataframe as df[orientation/name, 'failed_shot'].

• saved_attribute_visibility_level (str or None) – ‘intermediate’ The detail level of the camera attributes saved to the HDF5 file at the end of each shot. If None, no attributes will be saved. Must be one of 'simple', 'intermediate', 'advanced', or None. If None, no attributes will be saved.

• mock (bool, optional) – False For testing purpses, simulate a camera with fake data instead of communicating with actual hardware.

• **kwargs – Further keyword arguments to be passed to the __init__ method of the parent class (TriggerableDevice).

description = 'Andor scientific camera'

Brief description of the device.

class labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_tabs.AndorSolisTab(notebook, settings, restart=False)

Bases: IMAQdxCameraTab

worker_class = 'labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_workers.AndorSolisWorker'

class labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_workers.AndorCamera

Bases: object

_decode_image_data(img)

abort_acquisition()

close()

configure_acquisition(continuous=False, bufferCount=None)

get_attribute(name)

get_attribute_names(visibility_level, writeable_only=True)

grab()

Grab last/single image

grab_multiple(n_images, images, waitForNextBuffer=True)

Grab n_images into images array during buffered acquistion.

set_attribute(name, value)

set_attributes(attr_dict)

snap()

Acquire a single image and return it

stop_acquisition()

class labscript_devices.AndorSolis.blacs_workers.AndorSolisWorker(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: IMAQdxCameraWorker

get_attributes_as_dict(visibility_level)

Return a dict of the attributes of the camera for the given visibility level

get_camera()

Andor cameras may not be specified by serial numbers

interface_class

alias of AndorCamera