Re: ADVimba camera timestamps

[Mark Rivers via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Steve,


> We are interested in getting accurate timestamps per image from the camera. I've set the TimeStampMode PV to Camera. I hope this isn't too simple a question but which PV(s) should show a timestamp derived from the camera in this mode?


If you send the image from the camera to any plugin, then that plugin will have a timestamp PV for each NDArray.  The PV is TimeStamp_RBV.  It is typically the EPICS timestamp that the image was collected as a double.  It is ~microsecond precision.  It can also be a timestamp from the camera, in which case the epoch will be different, perhaps when the camera was last power-cycled, etc.


corvette:~>camonitor -e10 13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:12.677007 9.7337545268e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.351011 9.7337548635e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.420621 9.7337548642e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.486820 9.7337548649e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.554361 9.7337548655e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.625862 9.7337548662e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.685514 9.7337548669e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.755956 9.7337548676e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.821045 9.7337548682e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.888365 9.7337548689e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:46.954892 9.7337548695e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:47.030338 9.7337548702e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:47.085115 9.7337548709e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:47.154083 9.7337548715e+08
13PE1:TIFF1:TimeStamp_RBV      2020-11-04 16:04:47.220255 9.7337548722e+08

Each NDArray also has an epicsTS field which always the EPICS timestamp when the image was collected.  That is not available as a PV (because it is 2 32-bit integers), but it is available in TIFF files, HDF5 files, and netCDF files written by areaDetector.


Mark


________________________________
From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> on behalf of Kinder, Steve (STFC,DL,TECH) via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, November 4, 2020 3:44 PM
To: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: ADVimba camera timestamps

I have a Manta G235-B camera running on a RPi4 using ADVimba. We are interested in getting accurate timestamps per image from the camera. I've set the TimeStampMode PV to Camera. I hope this isn't too simple a question but which PV(s) should show a timestamp derived from the camera in this mode?

I have been trying to get derived ArrayData to have timestamps from the camera. To test this I am just doing:

$ camonitor -# 1 SHK78-TEST-01:CAM1:ArrayData
SHK78-TEST-01:CAM1:ArrayData   2020-11-04 16:23:00.867192 1 59

This is clearly too naive approach as the timestamps are just the system time. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Steve



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