1.18. PCOCamera

Summary:

DLL for PCO-Cameras

Type:

DataIO

License:

LGPL / copyright of the external DLLs belongs to PCO

Platforms:

Windows

Devices:

PCO Cameras supported by the pco.sdk

Author:

W. Lyda, C. Lingel, M. Gronle, ITO, University Stuttgart

1.18.1. Overview

The PCOCamera is a plugin to access PCO.XXXX, e.g. PCO.1300 or PCO.2000, with itom. It uses the SDK pco.sdk from PCO AG, Germany. The plugin has mainly been developed and tested using the cameras PCO.1200s, PCO.1300, PCO.2000 and PCO.edge USB3.

The camera is always operated in a software trigger mode with a standard image size (no extended image size).

1.18.2. Initialization

The following parameters are mandatory or optional for initializing an instance of this plugin:

1.18.3. Parameters

These parameters are available and can be used to configure the PCOCamera instance. Many of them are directly initialized by the parameters of the constructor. During the runtime of an instance, the value of these parameters is obtained by the method getParam, writeable parameters can be changed using setParam.

name: {str}, read-only

name of the plugin (PCOCamera)

camera_name: {str}, read-only

device name of camera

interface: {str}, read-only

name of the interface (eithernet, USB, cameralink…)

x0, x1: {int}

first and last column (zero-based) of a software region of interest. The real camera image can be cropped to a region of interest, the corresponding horizontal boundaries are given by x0 and x1, whereas the current width is obtained by sizex.

y0, y1: {int}

the same than above but first and last row (related to the height of the ROI).

sizex, sizey: {int}, read-only

width and height of the region of interest or the full camera size (default)

bpp: {int}

bit depth, bits per pixel (usually not adjustable)

temperatures: {double}, read-only

list containing the current CCD, camera and power supply temperatures in degree celcius

coolingSetPointTemperature: {int}

set point for the CCD cooling control in degree celcius (only available if supported with this camera)

IRSensitivity: {bool} [0,1]

enables (True, 1) or disables (False, 0) the IR sensitivity of the image sensor, parameter is set to read-only if not available for the specific camera

pixelrate: {int}

Transer pixelrate for data from the camera in MHz.

conversionFactor: {double}

conversion factor in electrons/count

binning: {int}

Horizontal and vertical binning. The value is obtained by horizontal * 100 + vertical. Therefore, no binning corresponds to 101. Some cameras accepts a linear range of binning values [1,2,…max], others only allow a binary range [1,2,4,8,..max]. If the binning is changed, the region of interest is adapted as well to a suitable value.

gain: {double}, read-only

not available

offset: {double}, read-only

not available

Most parameters not only have a minimum and maximum value but also a step size.

Note

Please consider that the parameters defining the region of interest may change if the binning is changed, since an increased binning value decreases the available image size.

1.18.4. Compilation

For compiling this plugin, download the latest pco.sdk (pco Software-Development-Toolkit) from http://www.pco.de and install it on your computer. Then set the CMake variable PCO_SDK_DIR* to the base directory of the pco.sdk. In addition to the SDK from PCO, you need to install necessary drivers for operating your framegrabber board, the GigE connection etc. If you can open the camera in the tool CamWare from PCO, you should also be able to open it in itom. For GigE cameras you also need to install the PCO GigE driver and make sure that the connection is properly configured.

1.18.5. Changelog

  • itom setup 1.2.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.17.0.632

  • itom setup 1.3.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.17.0.632

  • itom setup 1.4.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.17.0.632

  • itom setup 2.0.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.17.0.632

  • itom setup 2.1.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.17.0.632

  • itom setup 2.2.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.18.0.000

  • itom setup 3.0.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.18.0.000

  • itom setup 3.1.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.23.0.000

  • itom setup 3.2.1: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.24

  • itom setup 4.0.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.25

  • itom setup 4.1.0: This plugin has been compiled using pco.sdk 1.25