Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Folks,

 

R3-0 of ADEiger for the Dectris Eiger detectors is now available.  This is from the release notes:

·         Added support for Eiger2 detectors. These use a different version of the Simplon API (1.8.0) from most Eiger1 detectors which use 1.6.0. However, some Eiger1 detectors do use the 1.8.0 Simplon API. The Eiger2 detectors also have new features such as 2 energy thresholds rather than just 1.

o    The driver automatically detects which version of the API is in use (1.8.0 or 1.6.0) and what Eiger model is being used (Eiger1 or Eiger2).

o    The startup script loads either the eiger1.template or eiger2.template database file. Both of these load eigerBase.template, which contains the records that are common to both models.

o    The following records have been added for both Eiger models:

§  CountrateCorrApplied (enable/disable the countrate correction)

§  PixelMaskApplied (enable/disable the pixel mask)

§  BitDepthImage_RBV (Bit depth for images on the Stream interface)

§  Initialize (initializes the server)

§  AutoSummation (enable/disable autosummation)

o    The following records are present only on the Eiger1:

§  FWClear (erase all files on the server)

§  Link0_RBV, Link1_RBV, Link2_RBV, Link3_RBV (status of the detector links)

§  DCUBufferFree_RBV (number of free buffers on the server)

o    The following records are present only on the Eiger2:

§  CountingMode (sets the counting mode to "normal" or "retrigger")

§  TriggerStartDelay (sets the delay time after a trigger is received)

§  Threshold1Enable (enables the first threshold)

§  Threshold2Energy (energy of the second threshold)

§  Threshold2Enable (enables the second threshold)

§  ThresholdDiffEnable (enables calculation of difference image, threshold1-threshold2)

§  HVResetTime (set the time that the high voltage is off when HVReset is executed)

§  HVReset (resets the high voltage. Meant for use with CdTe models)

§  HVState (the current state of the high voltage)

§  CompressionAlgo has an additional choice, "None", which sends uncompressed arrays over the Stream interface. The stream interface now supports uncompressed arrays.

o    The following records are supported in new Eiger2 firmware that will be released in early 2021, but is currently available for testing. The records are present in ADBase.template or eiger2.template but a flag must be set in the driver to enable the logic for them.

§  TriggerMode has an additional option, ExternalGate.

§  ExtGateMode (selects "Pump & Probe" or "HDR" for high dynamic range)

§  NumExposures (selects the number of exposures per image)

o    Created new top-level medm screen, eiger2Detector.adl, and also the auto-converted OPI screens.

·         Added support for frames with UInt8 datatype. At very high frame rates the Eiger sends 8-bit data, but the driver was not handling this, and would crash.

·         Fixed an issue with acquisition not stopping automatically when TriggerMode=External Series or External Enable.

o    Previously it was necessary to manually set Acquire=0 to stop acquisition in these modes.

o    Now acquisition will automatically stop when the value of NumImagesCounter_RBV equals the expected number of images to be collected, which is NumTriggers_RBV * NumImages_RBV. This mechanism has been tested in both External Series and External Enable mode, with DataSource=Stream or DataSource=FileWriter. It will not work with DataSource=None because then there is nothing updating NumImagesCounter_RBV. In that case manually setting Acquire=0 is still necessary.

·         The PREC fields for a number of records with units of time were decreased, and the OPI screens were changed to use exponential notation, which is easier to read and modify.

·         The enum choices for records that enable/disable a feature were not consistent. Some used Enable/Disable (which is the standard in ADCore), some used Enabled/Disabled, and some used Yes/No. Changed so all records now use Enable/Disable.
Set the disabled (0) state to have NO_ALARM and the enabled state to have MINOR alarm. OPI screens now use alarm color mode, which makes it easier to see the state at a glance. The numeric values associated with the logical states have not changed, 0=Disable, 1=Enable. NOTE: This may break backwards compatibility with clients if they use the strings rather than the numeric value to set the state.

·         Added additional records to the OPI screens that were already present in the template files:

o    FileOwner, FileOwnerGrp, FilePerms

o    DeadTime_RBV

o    StreamHdrDetail

·         Fixed a problem that occurs with 2020.2.2 firmware on the Eiger2.
Changing the TriggerMode to Internal Enable ("inte") or External Enable ("exte") fails if NumImages is not 1. The driver was changed to set NumImages=1 just before changing TriggerMode to either of these values.

·         Improved the layout of eigerDetector.adl, with new widgets and new sub-screens, some of which are common to the Eiger2 and some specific to the Eiger1.

 

Home page: https://github.com/areaDetector/ADEiger/

Release notes: https://github.com/areaDetector/ADEiger/blob/master/RELEASE.md

 

Mark