andor_camd interfaces with and wraps Andor USB CCD cameras and exposes them via Pyro.
The cam commandline utility for controlling the cameras is provided by camd-client.
Configuration is read from json files that are installed by default to /etc/camd.
A configuration file is specified when launching the camera server, and the cam frontend will search for files matching the specified camera id when launched.
The configuration options are:
{
"daemon": "onemetre_blue_camera", # Run the camera server as this daemon. Daemon types are registered in `rockit.common.daemons`.
"pipeline_daemon": "onemetre_pipeline", # The daemon that should be notified to hand over newly saved frames for processing.
"pipeline_handover_timeout": 10, # The maximum amount of time to wait for the pipeline daemon to accept a newly saved frame. The exposure sequence is aborted if this is exceeded.
"log_name": "andor_camd@blue", # The name to use when writing messages to the observatory log.
"control_machines": ["OneMetreDome", "OneMetreTCS"], # Machine names that are allowed to control (rather than just query) state. Machine names are registered in `rockit.common.IP`.
"client_commands_module": "rockit.camera.andor2",
"camera_serial": 11575, # Camera serial number. If not known, set a dummy value and look at the list reported when the daemon scans for cameras.
"temperature_setpoint": -30, # Default CCD temperature in celsius.
"temperature_query_delay": 1, # Amount of time in seconds to wait between querying the camera temperature and cooling status.
"gain_index": 0, # Default gain setting.
"horizontal_shift_index": 2, # Default readout speed.
"overscan": [0, 0], # Number of columns to trim from the left and right of the image.
"filter": "BG40", # Value to use for the FILTER fits header keyword.
"header_card_capacity": 144, # Pad the fits header with blank space to fit at least this many cards without reallocation.
"camera_id": "BLUE", # Value to use for the CAMERA fits header keyword.
"output_path": "/var/tmp/", # Path to save temporary output frames before they are handed to the pipeline daemon. This should match the pipeline incoming_data_path setting.
"output_prefix": "blue", # Filename prefix to use for temporary output frames.
"expcount_path": "/var/tmp/blue-counter.json" # Path to the json file that is used to track the continuous frame and shutter numbers.
}The Andor SDK is required for rockit-camera-andor-server, and must be installed separately.
Download the latest SDK version from the Docs repository, extract it, and then install using:
sudo ./install_andor
Select option 5 (All USB Cameras).
The automated packaging scripts will push 4 RPM packages to the observatory package repository:
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
| onemetre-andor-camera-data | Contains the json configuration files for the Warwick One Metre dual-camera instrument. |
| observatory-andor-camera-server | Contains the andor_camd server and systemd service files for the camera server. |
| python3-warwick-andor-camera | Contains the python module with shared code. |
After installing the server package, the systemd service should be enabled:
sudo systemctl enable --now andor2_camd@<config>
where config is blue then red for the two cameras.
Now open a port in the firewall so the TCS and dashboard machines can communicate with the camera server:
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=<port>/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
where port is the port defined in rockit.common.daemons for the daemon specified in the camera config.
New RPM packages are automatically created and pushed to the package repository for each push to the master branch.
These can be upgraded locally using the standard system update procedure:
sudo yum clean expire-cache
sudo yum update
The daemon should then be restarted to use the newly installed code:
sudo systemctl restart andor2_camd@<config>
The camera server and client can be run directly from a git clone:
./andor2_camd blue.json
CAMD_CONFIG_ROOT=. ./cam blue status