ADQImaging 

author:: Arthur Glowacki (Argonne National Lab)

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.

Implementation of Parameters in asynNDArrayDriver.h and ADDriver.h, and EPICS Record Definitions in ADBase.template and NDFile.template
Parameter index variable	EPICS record name	Description
ADTriggerMode	$(P)$(R)TriggerMode, $(P)$(R)TriggerMode_RBV	Sets the trigger mode for the detector. Options for the Neo are: Internal Software External External Start External Exposure Advanced
ADImageMode	$(P)$(R)ImageMode, $(P)$(R)ImageMode_RBV	Sets the image mode for the detector. Options are: Fixed Continuous Fixed counts collects NumImages images, continuous acquires continuously until acquisition is stopped.
ADNumExposures	$(P)$(R)NumExposures, $(P)$(R)NumExposures_RBV	Sets the number of accumulations per image.
ADNumImages	$(P)$(R)NumImages, $(P)$(R)NumImages_RBV	Sets the number of images to take when ImageMode=Fixed.
ADAcquirePeriod	$(P)$(R)AcquirePeriod, $(P)$(R)AcquirePeriod_RBV	Sets the FrameRate (=1./AcquirePeriod). The FrameRate can also be set directly. The minimum AcquirePeriod (maximum FrameRate) depends on a number of other parameters, including the A3Binning, SizeX, SizeY, ReadoutRate, A3ShutterMode, PixelEncoding, and Overlap.
NDDataType	$(P)$(R)DataType, $(P)$(R)DataType_RBV	The data type for the image data. Allowed values are: UInt16 UInt32 The DataType is selected automatically, based upon the PixelEncoding record. The data type will be UInt32 if PixelEncoding is Mono32, and UInt16 for all other values of PixelEncoding. PixelEncoding=Mono32 can be used when A3Binning > 1x1, or when multiple accumulations (NumExposures > 1) could cause 16-bit overflow.
ADTemperature	$(P)$(R)Temperature, $(P)$(R)Temperature_RBV	Sets the setpoint temperature of the camera.
ADTemperatureActual	$(P)$(R)TemperatureActual	Reads the actual temperature of the camera.

QImaging specific parameters 

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

Parameter Definitions in QImaging.h and EPICS Record Definitions in qimaging.template
Parameter index variable	asyn interface	Access	Description	drvInfo string	EPICS record name	EPICS record type
Version information
qSerialNumberRBVString	asynOctet	R/O	Camera serial number	SERIAL_NUMBER_RBV	SerialNumber	stringin
qMaxBitDepthRBVString	asynInt32	R/O	Max bit depth	MAX_BIT_DEPTH_RBV	MaxBitDepth	stringin
qUniqueIdRBVString	asynOctet	R/O	Unique ID	UNIQUE_ID_RBV	UniqueId	stringin
qCcdTypeRBVString	asynOctet	R/O	CCD Type	CCD_TYPE_RBV	CCDType	stringin
Cooling control and status
qCooledRBVString	asynInt32	R/W	Turn the sensor cooler on and off	COOLED_RBV	Cooled, Cooled_RBV	bo, bi
qRegulatedCoolingRBVString	asynInt32	R/O	Regulated cooling	REGULATED_COOLING_RBV	RegulatedCooling_RBV	bo, bi
qFanControlRBVString	asynInt32	R/W	Fan Control	FAN_CONTROL_RBV	FanControl	mbbo, mbbi
qHighSensitivityModeRBVString	asynInt32	R/W	High sensitivity mode	HIGH_SENSITIVITY_MODE_RBV	HighSensitivityMode_RBV	mbbo, mbbi
Readout control and status
qBlackoutModeRBVString	asynOctet	R/O	Blackout mode	BLACK_OUT_MODE_RBV	BlackOutMode_RBV	stringin
qAsymmetricalBinningRBVString	asynFloat64	R/W		ASYMMETRICAL_BINNING_RBV	AsymetricalBinning_RBV	ao, ai
qCoolerActiveString	asynFloat64	R/O		COOLER_ACTIVE	CoolerActive	ai
qReadoutSpeedString	asynInt32	R/W		READOUT_SPEED	ReadoutSpeed, ReadoutSpeed_RBV	mbbo, mbbi
qOffsetString	asynInt32	R/W		OFFSET	Offset, Offset_RBV	mbbo, mbbi
qImageFormatString	asynInt32	R/W		IMAGE_FORMAT	ImageFormat, ImageFormat_RBV	mbbo, mbbi
qAcquireTimeRBVString	asynFloat64	R/O		ACQUIRE_TIME_RBV	AquireTime_RBV	ai
qMinXRBVString	asynInt32	R/W		MIN_X_RBV	MinX_RBV	bo, bi
qMinYRBVString	asynInt32	R/W		MIN_Y_RBV	MinY_RBV	bo, bi
Trigger control
qSizeXRBVString	asynInt32	R/W		SIZE_X_RBV	SizeX_RBV	bo
Area-Of-Interest (AOI) Control
qSizeYRBVString	asynInt32	R/O		SIZE_Y_RBV	SizeY_RBV	bi
qTriggerModeRBVString	asynInt32	R/W		TRIGGER_MODE_RBV	TriggerMode_RBV	mbbo, mbbi

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)