Table of Contents

Starting the IOC Panels

Can also see these commands with "caget -tS RIX:VLS:CAM:01:LAUNCH_EDM" and "camViewer -c VLS -m".  "camViewer -l will give you a list of cameras"

• TMO: /cds/group/pcds/epics/ioc/common/andorCam/R1.01.1/children/build/iocBoot/ioc-tmo-andor1/edm-ioc-tmo-andor1.cmd
• RIX: /cds/group/pcds/epics/ioc/common/andorCam/R1.01.1/children/build/iocBoot/ioc-rix-dir-andor/edm-ioc-rix-dir-andor.cmd
                /cds/group/pcds/epics/ioc/common/andorCam/R1.01.1/children/build/iocBoot/ioc-rix-vls-andor/edm-ioc-rix-vls-andor.cmd
         /cds/group/pcds/epics/ioc/common/andorCam/R1.01.1/children/build/iocBoot/ioc-rix-norm-andor/edm-ioc-rix-norm-andor.cmd

...

NOTE: one can look at the EVR screen by clicking on the EVR button on the top right on main andor window

Slow Full-Frame Tuning vs. 120Hz Full Vertical Binning with DAQ

LCLS2 Timing Panel

Image Added

Mike Browne writes:  The "Rate Mode" can be Fixed, AC, or Seq.  Fixed gives you one choice of rates, AC another.  Seq gives you two fields to program... and Matt better knows what values to use here than I.  Destination for now should be "Don't Care".

Slow Full-Frame Tuning vs. 120Hz Full Vertical Binning with DAQ

Many experiments tune the position of the beam on the camera with a slow full-frame image then, after tuning is complete, run fast 120Hz data acquisition in "full vertical binning" (FVB) mode.  To do this, we recommend that users use the IOC's "python viewer" for the full-frame viewing/tuning (without running the DAQ) then switch to FVB for 120Hz DAQ operation.Many experiments tune the position of the beam on the camera with a slow full-frame image then, after tuning is complete, run fast 120Hz data acquisition in "full vertical binning" (FVB) mode.  To do this, we recommend that users use the IOC's "python viewer" for the full-frame viewing/tuning (without running the DAQ) then switch to FVB for 120Hz DAQ operation.

The steps below refer to two IOC panels.  Here are two screen shots of a working Andor.  The first image is the main panel, and the second image is a "detail" subpanel.  It is accessed from the lower box labelled "NewtonD0940P" on the middle-left of the main panel:

...

NOTE: when changing running modes, always disable acquisition by hitting the "Stop" button in the "Image Collection" section of the main IOC window, then "Start" after all changes have been made.

The You can turn on crop from the expert screen setting "crop mode" to enable.  The underlying PV for turning this mode on/off is:  RIXRIX:DIR:CAM:01:AndorIsolatedCropMode

...

Miscellaneous Thoughts on running the Newton Camera

(courtesy of Dan Damiani)

Combining Crop Mode and Partial Vertical Binning

May 8, 2023.  Following a request from Kristjan Kunnus, Dan and Kristjan tried running the andor with a combination of crop mode and partial vertical binning with these settings.  It appeared to work and run at 10Hz, but it needs to be tested with x-rays on the detector to verify that it works.

Image Added

Miscellaneous Thoughts on running the Newton Camera

(courtesy of Dan Damiani)

• Camera "Software Development Kit" (SDK) manual can be Camera "Software Development Kit" (SDK) manual can be found here: Andor CCD
• Do not set the exposure time to 5 ms: 2ms is the max exposure time for 120 hz, it takes 5+ ms for the readout so you are dropping every other event (with autocorrect at 120Hz).  A too-large setting will be seen in the main IOC panel with the "sync status" oscillating between locked/unlocked.
• Also they have the evr delay set to zero, but with a large enough window that might be okay
  • Looks like the last time they ran the VLS at SXR the evr delay was 0.00085 s and the width was 1e-5 seconds
• The IOC shutter settings do not matter: they are only to control an external shutter (which we don't have in TMO)
• you can also try to experiment with toggling TMO:VLS:CAM:01:AndorKeepClean to see what effect that has (use Stop-Acquire before changing this setting).  use the pvget/pvput commands to modify the value.
• use the "python viewer" at the top of the IOC screen to view images.  the edm viewer is broken.
• we recommend tuning the full-frame image without running the DAQ using the python-viewer, then putting the camera into Full Vertical Binning (FVB) mode using the IOC window for 120Hz line-out running
• the event code set in the IOC window should match the event code used in the DAQ readout group (in the "timing" system configuration).
• ioc "autosave" files can be found here: /cds/data/iocData/ioc-tmo-andor1/autosave/. (you can look at the various autoSettings.sav* files)

• As far as I can tell there are only a few PVs that actually matter for the temp:
  TMO:VLS:CAM:01:Temperature_RBV # readback of the actual setpoint temp. I am not sure this one works
TMO:VLS:CAM:01:Temperature # get/put the temperature setpoint (edited) 

  # turn on/off the cooling
  TMO:VLS:CAM:01:AndorCooler
  # readback the on/off state
  TMO:VLS:CAM:01:AndorCooler_RBV
  # string "status" message about the cooling state
  TMO:VLS:CAM:01:AndorTempStatus_RBV
• TMO:VLS:CAM:01:TemperatureActual is supposedly the temperature readback

...

Power cycle procedure for camera/USB fiber extender

NOTE: This may not be necessary if one uses Dan's ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh script described below.

Occasionally after power Occasionally after power cycling the camera or everything if there was a power outage the USB fiber extender will come back in a bad state where it won't communicate with the camera. One time we saw these errors in /var/log/messages when the VLS camera broke:

...

1. Power off the camera (NOTE: to do this I believe you have unplug the power supply, since the power supply just has a rocker switch which I think selects between standard-cooling/deep-cooling?).  The only LED that gives any indication of power is a green one inside the power supply, visible only if you put your eye somewhere near the deep-cooling ("||") side of the rocker switch at a specific angle.
2. Power off the camera side of the extender
3. Unplug the server-side extender USB cable from daq-rix-andor-01. The DIR andor extender has the black USB cable (top USB port) and the VLS andor extender is the silver cable (bottom USB port).
4. Re-plug the server-side extender USB cable into daq-rix-andor-01.
5. Power on the camera side of the extender. You should see the link led turn on on the extender, and the host led blink slowly.
6. Power on the camera. The host led on the camera side extender show turn on solid now, and the activity led should blink intermittently.
7. Restart the IOC (the existing IOC process my be locked up and may need to be kill -9 to die) or alternatively just reboot daq-rix-andor-01.

Remote Power Cycling of Cameras

As of Nov. 17, 2023 rix now has a control panel to remotely power cycle andor cameras:

Image Added

Debugging

You can see log files for the IOC here:  /cds/data/iocData/ioc-rix-dir-andor/iocInfo/.

...

daq-rix-andor-01:~$ lsusb | grep Andor
Bus 001 Device 071: ID 136e:0005 Andor Technology Ltd. 
Bus 001 Device 063: ID 136e:0005 Andor Technology Ltd. 
daq-rix-andor-01:~$ 

EVR Issues

Workaround for RIX ANDOR-DIR hang

This is for when the camera is visible with "lsusb | grep Andor" (note uppercase "A") but the camera isn't communicating:

...

Other debugging techniques:

• telnet to the ioc and restart
  • when restarting, ioc connects to all the cameras to see if it's the right one
• Sometimes have to reset all usb hubs/bridges like this:

bash-4.2# ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh 3-2
bash-4.2# ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh 3-2.4
bash-4.2# ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh

...

 3-2

...

.4.4
bash-4.2# ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh 3-2.4.4.1
bash-4.2# 

Workaround for RIX ANDOR-DIR hang

NOTE: We have seen cases where this does not work and we are forced to power cycle daq-rix-andor-01 to recover.

This is for when the camera is visible with "lsusb | grep Andor" (note uppercase "A") but the camera isn't communicating:

• Execute the following command on daq-rix-andor-01 as superuser: ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh 1-2
• Restart one IOC (e.g. DIR), wait for it to finish
• Restart the second IOC, wait for it to finish

At the moment there is no way to know which camera is which, except for unplugging them one at a time.

The argument to the script ("1-2") can change, in principle but should do so rarely.  The “1-2” is coming from the USB bus and port enumerations from the operating system:
 
ddamiani@daq-rix-andor-01:~$ egrep 136e /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/idVendor
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3.1/idVendor:136e

The argument to the script ("1-2") can change, in principle but should do so rarely.  The “1-2” is coming from the USB bus and port enumerations from the operating system:
 
ddamiani@daq-rix-andor-01:~$ egrep 136e /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/idVendor
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.3.1/idVendor:136e
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4.1/idVendor:136e
 
The first part of the for X-Y.blah bit which is 1-2 currently.

...

/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2.4.1/idVendor:136e
 
The first part of the for X-Y.blah bit which is 1-2 currently.

drivers/usb/unbind
echo "${1}" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind
[root@daq-rix-andor-01 cpo]# more ~ddamiani/reset_andor.sh
#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Usage $0 <device>"
    exit 1
fi

echo "${1}" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind
echo "${1}" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind
[root@daq-rix-andor-01 cpo]# 

EVR Issues

On two occasions we have seen the EVR go into a bad state (click on the "EVR" button in upper right of the andor ioc window) cause some camera to not trigger at all and one camera to glitch between a "locked" and "unlocked" state.  The fiducial-rate turns red and fluctuates away from 360Hz:

Image Added

We tried recovering from this by rebooting the IOC and it worked for some minutes, but in the end in both cases we had to power cycle the node.

USB Extender

http://www.icron.com/products/icron-brand/usb-extenders/fiber/usb-2-0-ranger-2324/

...