Linux Upgrade of CCD UCSD Readout
We had to replace the SUN computer controlling our UCSD controller
by a LINUX PC . This was long and painful!
After several unfruitful e-mail exchanges with primary
and secondary sources of information, our 56K expert (JFH) has tested
and compared hardware and software bugs occuring between our Linux PC's
and our UCSD interface, only to conclude to the absence of reliable PCI-DMA
protocol to read the video card.
We developped two ways around:
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Following Armin Karcher's tip: we exhumed, among old discharged
PC's, a old model "DELL optiplex GX1" which is compatible with the DMA
controller of our UCSD PCI interface. This is the basis of the layout presented
hereafter.
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Using our new hardware: we took our C&S ASIC and our
1RG video board for CCD video readout (UCSD used for clocking only): cf. New LabView DAQ
In both cases exposure control is deported inside the
LabView monitoring and control program inside the on-line Windows machine.
An exposure server (Xctrl), which is a slave of the Labview program inside
the Linux machine, controls the CCD through Voodoo Java commands.
A file server system (FS) stores image files inside LabView's machine and/or
the Supernovae group server. Similarly a sensor Status Server (StS) inside
LabView's machine yields status parameters for an auxiliary data acquisition
(i.e. the DSA GigaSample/s digitizer, used for digital signal analysis,
which has its own Labview DAQ running on a dedicated portable PC).
Owing to LabView's WWW-server feature, it is possible
to operate the system from any browser connected to the intranet and by
extension from home.
Image readout
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Webcam ("ToUcam" situated in CCD focal plane) uses Philips firmware (windows or Linux) Ex: star (id.fits), flat, fringe
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UCSD Linux readout
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UCSD-PCI interface problems (comparison of "UCSD standard" and "detcom" by JFH)
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"standard" DSP code for LBNL-CCD (courtesy Armin Karcher)
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special DSP codes for C&S ASIC test (e.g. several versions of 100 µs/pixel CCD drift-scan by JFH)
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First image (reconstitued
from images taken with red, green, and blue lighting)
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Claire Juramy Last modified: July 08, 2004 &EB
21/11
