ICIMACS for ANDICAM: Software Notes
7/27/99 : JAM
Disk Synchronization
Users occasionally note that they are having difficulty getting the data disks between
the WC and IC or IR to synchronize on startup (symptom: prospero reports "-Synch" in its
status screen and reports errors after running startup). If full reboots are not solving
the problem, you can attempt to force synchronization of the disks manually:
Check the WC status screen. Near the middle of the screen is a box with disk synchronization
information. If any of the machines' names are followed by the word "-SYNCH", follow the
directions below.
- CB -SYNCH:
- Make sure that caliban is running on the sparc station, then type
>WC REQ INITDISK
in the caliban console window.
- IC -SYNCH:
- On the WC keyboard, type
>IC REQ INITDISK
- IR -SYNCH:
- On the WC keyboard, type
>IR REQ INITDISK
Note: If the instructions above don't help, then it may be the case that the WC was not able to detect the IC or IR disks
on startup. The only fix for this is to turn the WC off and then back on again.
If even this fails, turn the power off on all three PCs (WC,IR and IC) and turn
them all back on again at the same time.
Readout Amplifier(s) Selection
ICIMACS supports 3 readout modes of the CCD in ANDICAM: readout of the entire device through
the BR amplifier, through the BL amplifier, or using both amplifiers to reduce the readout time.
Selection of the amplifer(s) used is through the READOUT command:
- READOUT br
- selects the BR amplifier
- READOUT bl
- selects the BL amplifier
- READOUT brl
- reads out using both BR and BL.
Focus Frames
A primitive method for producing focus frames is now included in the ANDICAM IC code.
The example below produces a multiple exposure of six images of the same star at six
different focus settings:
- Acquire a bright star
- Set the starting focus
- Select image type FOCUS using the FOCUS command and give the object name:
- FOCUS a bright star
- Set the exposure time to be used for each exposure:
- EXP n
- Enter the filename to be used for the resulting image:
- FILENAME ccdfocus.001
- Start readout mode and erase the CCD:
- GO
- Open the shutter and take the first exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Offset the telescope to move the star
- Change the focus setting
- Open the shutter and take the next exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Offset the telescope to move the star
- Change the focus setting
- Open the shutter and take the next exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Offset the telescope to move the star
- Change the focus setting
- Open the shutter and take the next exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Offset the telescope to move the star
- Change the focus setting
- Open the shutter and take the next exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Offset the telescope to move the star
- Change the focus setting
- Open the shutter and take the next exposure:
- SHOPEN
- Readout the array and save the image to the current mount point:
- RESUME
Region-of-Interest
There is at present no region-of-interest selection with the ANDICAM detector. The
ROI command has no effect on readout with this instrument
Imaging Sciences Laboratory
Revised: July 27, 1999 [jam]