ASI TPX driver¶

author:: Xiaoqiang Wang

Introduction¶

This is an EPICS areaDetector driver for Amsterdam Scientific Instruments hybrid pixel detectors using the Serval HTTP API.

ADASItpx specific parameters¶

The ADASItpx driver implements the following parameters in addition to those in ADDriver. The records are in asiTpx.template.

Detector settings¶

EPICS record name	EPICS record type	Description
TDC n (n = 0, 1) recording
$(P)$(R)TDC n Enable, $(P)$(R)TDC n Enable_RBV	bo, bi	Enable TDC n recording
$(P)$(R)TDC n Edge, $(P)$(R)TDC n Edge_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Record TDC n edge, Rising Falling Both
$(P)$(R)TDC n Output, $(P)$(R)TDC n Output_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Record TDC n channels, All channels Channel 0 Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3

Data output settings¶

The server supports three output channels,

Raw - Unprocessed data straight from the detector in tpx3 format.
Image - Two-dimensional images at detector acquisition framerate, in TIFF format for file scheme and jsonimage format for tcp scheme.
Preview - Two-dimensional images at preview framerate.

The output scheme of each channel can be one of the following:

A physical file path on the server host, e.g. “/tmp”.
For Image and Preview outputs, an HTTP host URL, e.g. “http://localhost:8080”. In such a case the image is accessible via URL “http://localhost:8080/measurement/image”.
A TCP address,
- “tcp://listen@localhost:1234”. Server opens a socket at the specified port at the start of a measurement. The client can connect to this TCP address and start listening for data.
- “tcp://connect@localhost:1234”. The client opens a TCP socket at the specified address and port. On starting the measurement the server will connect to the client socket.

Note

In this driver, the Preview output is fixed to the server host URL. The driver polls this URL and read into NDArrays.

Warning

Because only one http scheme output can be configured, the Image output can only use file or tcp scheme.

EPICS record name	EPICS record type	Description
$(P)$(R)RawEnable, $(P)$(R)RawEnable_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Enable raw data output
$(P)$(R)RawFilePath, $(P)$(R)RawFilePath_RBV	waveform	raw data output path
$(P)$(R)RawFileTemplate, $(P)$(R)RawFileTemplate_RBV	waveform	raw data output file name prefix
$(P)$(R)ImageEnable, $(P)$(R)ImageEnable_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Enable image output
$(P)$(R)PixelMode, $(P)$(R)PixelMode_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Pixel mode for image output
$(P)$(R)ImageFilePath, $(P)$(R)ImageFilePath_RBV	waveform	image output path
$(P)$(R)ImageFileTemplate, $(P)$(R)ImageFileTemplate_RBV	waveform	image output file name prefix
$(P)$(R)PreviewEnable, $(P)$(R)PreviewEnable_RBV	mbbo, mbbi	Enable preview image output.

Trigger settings¶

The detector supports 8 trigger modes, which are configured by a combination of 3 EPICS records.

Native TriggerMode	$(P)$(R)TriggerMode	$(P)$(R)ExposureMode	$(P)$(R)TriggerPolarity	Description
PEXSTART_NEXSTOP	External	Gated	Positive	Acq. is started by positive edge external trigger input, stopped by negative edge
NEXSTART_PEXSTOP	External	Gated	Negative	Acq. is started by negative edge external trigger input, stopped by positive edge
PEXSTART_TIMERSTOP	External	Timed	Positive	Acq. is started by positive edge external trigger input, stopped by HW timer
NEXSTART_TIMERSTOP	External	Timed	Negative	Acq. is started by negative edge external trigger input, stopped by HW timer
AUTOTRIGSTART_TIMERSTOP	Internal	Timed	-	Acq. is started by trigger from HW, stopped by HW timer
CONTINUOUS	Internal	Gated	-	Acq. is started by software, stopped by software
AUTOTRIGSTART_TIMERSTOP	Software	Timed	-	Acq. is started by writting 1 to $(P)$(R)TriggerSoftware, stopped by HW timer
SOFTWARESTART_SOFTWARESTOP	Software	Gated	-	Acq. is started by writting 1 to $(P)$(R)TriggerSoftware, stopped by writting 0 to $(P)$(R)TriggerSoftware

Configuration¶

The command to configure an ASItpx detector in the startup script is:

asiTpxConfig(const char *portName, const char *configFile,
                 int maxBuffers, int maxMemory, int priority, int stackSize)

The configFile is a json file, which specifies the server address and detector DACS and BPC file path, e.g.

{
    "Server": {
        "Address": "http://localhost:8080"
    },
    "Detector": {
        "Config": {
            "PixelConfig": "/home/scratch/asi_tpx3/asi-server-300-tpx3/examples/tpx3/tpx3-demo.bpc",
            "DACS": "/home/scratch/asi_tpx3/asi-server-300-tpx3/examples/tpx3/tpx3-demo.dacs"
        }
    }
}

MEDM screen¶