Pixelman - ISISComputingGroup/ibex_developers_manual GitHub Wiki

Wiki > The Backend System > Specific Device IOC > Imaging Cameras > Pixelman

IOC

This IOC runs on a separate computer, not on NDXIMAT.

The computer's name is IMAT-UCB, the password is listed on the passwords page. The PV Prefix is MO:IMAT-MCP.

To launch Pixelman you have to run a special batch script in C:\Instrument\Apps\EPICS\support\pixelman\master\run. The file is run_pixelman.bat You should see some log entries in the camera software and the Pixelman GUI will start itself as it loads the EPICS plugins. If the .exe is just double-clicked the camera software will look like it loaded OK but not publish any PVs. If you get a message box suggesting you remove a line from a file, please click "NO"

For more information see the README file in C:\Instrument\Apps\EPICS\support\pixelman\master\run

Setup

The PC is set up and looked after by FIT and the instrument scientists. The person from Berkley set up the camera software and network card; the scientists may have instructions about how to restart various components.

We installed the IBEX server 32-bit into c:\instrument\apps\epics using the normal installer but for 32-bit (we literally only installed the server, no git, client, SQL or config). The server does not run, we just use the two programs detailed in IOC section.

To help with this we created two shortcuts on the desktop to start Pixelman and gateways as above.

Troubleshooting

If you see errors on the IMAT screen from scripts that say things like connection failed to IMAT:...:SP: you may need to start the EPICS gateway. To do this type C:\Instrument\Apps\EPICS\gateway\start_gateways.bat. You may also need to restart the Pixelman software.

It seems that if the contents of ShutterValues.txt are not liked by Pixelman, then the program will not start with EPICS support and you either get nothing or a Microsoft C++ error box. If you run pixelman.exe and dismiss the errors about not being able to load epics.dll then Pixelman will start, but you have no EPICS PVs. If you use the desktop shortcut run_pixelman.bat it fails as described. The EPICS DLL does not read ShutterValues.txt so I am unsure of the reason behind this, we do not have the source code for Pixelman so I cannot debug this.

UPDATE: after investigation by camera developer, it looks like the maximum number of time slices is now lower than it used to be (now ~2900, previously 3100), which means previous working ShutterValues.txt files may fail. At the moment it is unclear what has caused this.