RE: Help operating ADHamamatsuDCAM IOC

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

Hi Marco,

 

I suggest setting the region size to the full camera size, 2048, 2048.  Also change the datatype to Int16.

 

Please send screenshots of the following when the camera is acquiring:

• Main ADHamamatsuDCAM screen
• commonPlugins screen showing all plugins
• Enable the Stats5 plugin, set its array source to HAMA1 and send a screen of that plugin.

 

Are you using the CameraLink or USB interface?

 

Mark

 

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces@aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of Marco Filho via Tech-talk
Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2025 6:37 AM
To: EPICS Tech Talk <tech-talk@aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Help operating ADHamamatsuDCAM IOC

 

Good afternoon, all

 

We are trying out the latest version of the ADHamamatsuDCAM EPICS module (https://github.com/areaDetector/ADHamamatsuDCAM) to operate a C13440 model.

Everything seems to work out mostly fine, except we get an empty image no matter how we configure the camera.

 

For now, I tried running the following IOC:

 

epicsEnvSet("PREFIX", "13HAMA1:")

epicsEnvSet("PORT",   "HAMA1")

epicsEnvSet("QSIZE",  "20")

epicsEnvSet("XSIZE",  "1024")

epicsEnvSet("YSIZE",  "1024")

epicsEnvSet("NCHANS", "2048")

epicsEnvSet("CBUFFS", "500")

epicsEnvSet("MAX_THREADS", "8")

epicsEnvSet("EPICS_DB_INCLUDE_PATH", "$(ADCORE)/db")

 

# Create a hamamatsu driver

# hamamatsuConfig(const char *portName, int camIndex, int maxBuffers, int maxMemory, int priority, int stackSize)

hamamatsuConfig("$(PORT)", 0, 0, 0, 99)

# To have the rate calculation use a non-zero smoothing factor use the following line

dbLoadRecords("$(adhamamatsudcam_DB)/hamamatsu.template","P=$(PREFIX),R=cam1:,PORT=$(PORT),ADDR=0,TIMEOUT=1")

 

NDStdArraysConfigure("Image1", 20, 0, "$(PORT)", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5)

dbLoadRecords("NDStdArrays.template", "P=$(PREFIX),R=image1:,PORT=Image1,ADDR=0,TIMEOUT=1,NDARRAY_PORT=$(PORT),TYPE=Int8,FTVL=UCHAR,NELEMENTS=12000000")

 

iocInit

 

dbpf 13HAMA1:image1:EnableCallbacks 1

dbpf 13HAMA1:cam1:HamaRegionReset 1

dbpf 13HAMA1:cam1:AcquirePeriod 1.1

dbpf 13HAMA1:cam1:SizeX 1024
dbpf 13HAMA1:cam1:SizeY 1024

 

 

After that, clicking on acquire start I can see the number of images incrementing both on the driver and on the image plugin, but the image is always empty:

 

> dbgf 13HAMA1:image1:ArrayData

DBF_UCHAR[800]:     0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   

0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0   0 = 0x0 (...)

 

Does anyone have experience with this camera and knows if we are misconfiguring some parameter?

I attach a picture of the operation screen after acquiring  if that is of any help. I noticed the region size X and Y start as 1, so I guessed that putting some bigger value on that would be needed to make the image work...

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

 

Marco