HP ACC2 Aurora User manual

UNIS/UIO CAMERA
ACC2
Aurora camera control
program
USER's MANUAL
Version 2.1
Last updated: 2/7/02
Bjørn Lybekk, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway

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UPDATES:
Jan 15. 1999:
Added point 9) in «Chapter 16 Possible errors». The addition was made due to problems with the HP SureStore T4 backup
device. (Espen)
Jan 23. 1999:
UNIS/UiO camera no2 updated with Network Time Server, replacing GPS time. Changes are mainly reflected in Chapter 13.
(Espen)
Jan 23. 1999:
Handwritten notes (by Bjørn?)in the previous manuals Chapter 2, about scaling, is added. (Espen)
Jan 24. 1999:
A simple Y2K test was performed. The automatic time update was switched off, and the computers date and time was set to
1999.12.31 23:50:00. The Acc program was then run for 20 minutes. There was no indication that the new century will
cause any problem to this computer!
Document Version number upgraded to 2.1.(Espen)
This file is: C:\ACC\DOC\ACC2_USER.DOC (on Camera PC 2)

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TABLE OF CONTENT:
UPDATES:.................................................................................................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENT: .................................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1 PRECAUTIONS: ........................................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2 STARTING THE CAMERA:..........................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3 STOPPING THE CAMERA:..........................................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 4 OVERVIEW OF THE ACC PROGRAM:...........................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 5 THE ACC2 CONTROL FILES: ....................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 6 IMAGE FILE NAMES:...............................................................................................................................14
CHAPTER 7 THE IMAGE FORMAT: .............................................................................................................................16
CHAPTER 8 COPYING IMAGES TO A NETWORK DISK:.................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 9 CONFIGURATION FILE:...........................................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 10 SAVING DATA AT DAT STORAGE MEDIA:................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 11 SAVING DATA AT PINNACLE APEX 2 X 2GB OPTICAL DISK:.....................................................................23
CHAPTER 12 USING THE HP SURE STORE T4i STREAMER: ..........................................................................................24
CHAPTER 13 AUTOMATIC UPDATE OF PC CLOCK:.......................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 14 CAMERA SETUP:...................................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 15 FOCUSING:..........................................................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 16 POSSIBLE ERRORS: ..............................................................................................................................32

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CHAPTER 1 PRECAUTIONS:
•The camera contains a light sensitive image intensifier and
is easily damaged by to much light. It has to be operated in
darkness.
•When mounting / removing the camera the shorting plug must
immediately be added to the backside of the camera, when the
thick cable to the camera is removed.
•The user should read the first 7 pages (i.e. until hardware
overview) of the document : "All-Sky Imaging System for
University of Oslo", Keo Consultants, 12/5/95.
•The PC clock is automatically updated every 5 minutes by the
Norwegian Polar Research Institutes Network Time Server. The
Tardis95 program must be running in the background. The
program starts automatically when Windows starts, and a icon
is shown on the toolbar. The ACC2 program has also support
for a GPS clock. If the Garmin GPS 12XL Receiver is used the
date and time is received from this device. If not the date
and time is captured from the PC clock. If either the Network
Time Server or the GPS receiver is available, the PC clock
must manually be corrected to UTC time every day.
•The data is stored at x:\data\images directory. This
directory must exist, (x: is d: at the Unis/UiO camera no 1.)

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CHAPTER 2 STARTING THE CAMERA:
Turn on the PC.
(If the Garmin GPS 12 XL Receiver is used: Turn the receiver
on, (the small red button with a drawing of a light bulb).) The
Network Time Server is the preferred time source.
Shut down all light in the camera hut.
Remove the lens cover at the camera unit.
Turn on the power on the backside of the camera, and on the
camera control unit.
On the PC, start the PMIS program. Verify the RS-232
communication with the "User->COMOPEN 1" , (Press User in the
menubar, and the parameter is 1) . If the camera does not
answer with "HOME:1" restart the computer.
Then when "User->COMOPEN 1" replies with "HOME:1" the
communication with the camera is working.
Close the communication with "User->COMCLOSE"
Close the two windows: SI 512 camera and the one with 8x16 icon
buttons.
In the PMIS Window:
Image -> NewImage
A new black image window appears.
Press the ACC2 icon. Now the ACC2 window appears.
The UT time is shown in upper right corner of the ACC2 window.
It should show UT and have the format:
yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
Mark: It is important that the time has exactly this format,
not . or , instead of the - and : ‘s.
If necessary (and the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver is not used)
correct the time with the Windows95 Control Panel Date/Time.
In the ACC window: Press OpenCom
Then when the "HOME:1" shows up in the PMIS window
press the Start button in the ACC2 window.
Now if the run file, the timer file and the sequence file

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are correct, the camera should operate. If the current
time is within a start and stop time in the sequence file, the
sequence is executed.
The default is to use dynamic scaling of the data. The operator
can set the scaling to «fixed».
In the Image_1 window:
Display -> Scaling
¤Fixed Min/Max 0 1500 (is useful settings.)
This settings do not affect the data saved to disk. The
datarange is 12 bit. The operator can move the cursor around in
the image. In the lower left corner of the Image_1 window is
displayed:
X .# Y .# I .#
I is the data value [0 - 4095].
The name of the data files are diplayed in the Aurora Camera
Control window:
e.g. 06:50:50 File name: C:\data\images\981215\06\98121506.33G
The extention 33 is a hex number (starts on 00 every hour) and
G indicates that this image is taken with a green filter (R
indicates red filter).

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CHAPTER 3 STOPPING THE CAMERA:
In the ACC window.
Press the Stop button and the Exit button.
Press the upper right cross to terminate the PMIS program.
Answer No to save the image and No to save the Program state .
Turn off the power at the backside of the camera unit
and the camera control unit.
Put the lens cover on the camera unit.
Shut off the Garmin GPS 12XL receiver by pressing the red
button for about 3 seconds. (If wanted the Garmin GPS 12XL
receiver can run all the time during the observation season.)
(If necessary do the move the recorded image files to tape or
optical diskette, see below).
Shut down Windows 95 and turn off the PC power.

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CHAPTER 4 OVERVIEW OF THE ACC PROGRAM:
Figure 1: Overview of the camera computer system. The Garmin
GPS receiver is optional. By the time, a Network Time Server is
used instead of the GPS. The Time Server communicates via the
LAN.
ACC 2
Visual Basic 5
PMIS ver.. 3.5
SMARTMR
DDE
Dynamic
Data
Exchange
RS-232
COM1:
RS-232
COM2:
Photmetrics
CH200
CCD camera
Smartmtr
electronics
RUN file
SEQUENCE file
TIMER file
I/O from
AT200
PC board
Garmin GPS
receiver

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The filter wheel, the intensifier and the shutter is
controlled by the SMARTMTR program. The SMARTMTR
program in use is called Norway.prg. The CCD camera is
controlled by the PMIS program. The PMIS program also
cover the RS-232 communication (thin cable) to the
SMARTMTR program. This is done via the RS-232 COM1: port.
When inspecting the camera system the operator should also
watch the PMIS window.
The ACC2 program is a Visual Basic 5 program. It communicate
with the PMIS program. The task of the ACC2 program is
to determine the times the camera should operate and what
it should do when it operates.
VisualBasic(ACC2)--> PMIS(macros)--> SMARTMTR(Norway.prg)
The information from the ACC2 program is written in the
upper text panel in the ACC2 window. Every line starts with the
time when the message is written. The last line written in the
ACC2 text panel is the top line.
The highly unstable PC clock is corrected by the Garmin GPS
12XL receiver. This is done via a RS-232 cable on the COM2:
port. The messages from the part of the program handling the
GPS interface is shown in the lower text panel in the ACC2
window. The program checks every other minute if the PC clock
should be corrected. The communication to the GPS receiver is
handled by Visual Basic Communication control , MSComm .
The communication between the ACC2 program and the PMIS program
is handled with DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) protocol. The
middle text panel in the ACC2 window is used as a DDE
communication buffer.

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CHAPTER 5 THE ACC2 CONTROL FILES:
The control files for the ACC2 program is located at the
C:\acc\seq directory. The ACC2 program uses 3 control files:
The run file, the timer file and the sequence file.
The operator should write these three files. The recommended
editor is the Windows 95 notepad program. EDIT in DOS can also
be used. The format of the control files has to be DOS ASCII.
(MARK: Then do not use Word, Word Pad etc. ..)
1) The run file:
-----------------
The run file is named RUN.ACC .
The RUN.ACC file contains 1 executable line.
Lines starting with # in first column are comment lines.
When the first line in the RUN.ACC line has the content:
RUN <filename>
The <filename> is the full path of the timer file the camera
should run.
Example:
RUN c:\acc\seq\timer_2.fil
2) The TIMER file:
--------------------
The current timer file is the filename after the RUN in run
file. In the Example above the current timer file is named
"timer_2.fil" in c:\acc\seq\ directory. It is recommended the
operator uses DOS compatible file names when he creates new
timer files.
The timer file defines the intervals when the camera
should run.
The timer file has the format:
start yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss stop yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss <filename>
The <filename> is the full path of a sequence file.
Note: The sequence file name can be different at
different lines in the timer file.
Example:
start 1997-11-12 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-12 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_a.seq
start 1997-11-13 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-13 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_b.seq
start 1997-11-14 06:36:30 stop 1997-11-14 22:38:00 c:\acc\seq\test_a.seq