andor 1.1

Object-oriented interface for Andor EMCCD cameras

Object-oriented, high-level interface for Andor cameras (SDK2), written in Cython.

Note

• This is not a stand-alone driver. Andor’s proprietary drivers must be installed. The setup script expects to find libandor.so in /usr/local/lib/ (the driver’s default installation directory).

• Andor provides a low-level, ctypes wrapper on their SDK, called atcmd. If available, it will be imported as Andor._sdk.

• This documentation should be read along Andor’s Software Development Kit manual.

• To build the extension:

  $ python2.7 setup_extension.py build_ext --inplace

Warning

This module is not thread-safe. If AcqMode.wait is blocking a background thread, and another function call is made from the main thread, the main thread will block too.

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Usage

The camera is controlled via the top-level class Andor:

>>> from andor2 import Andor
>>> cam = Andor()

The Andor instance is just a container for other objects that control various aspect of the camera:

• Info : camera information and available features

• Temperature : cooler control

• Shutter : shutter control

• EM: electron-multiplying gain control

• Detector: CCD control, including:

  • VSS: vertical shift speed

  • HSS: horizontal shift speed

  • ADC: analog-to-digital converter

  • OutputAmp: the output amplifier

  • PreAmp: pre-amplifier control

• ReadMode: select the CCD read-out mode (full frame, vertical binning, tracks, etc.)

• Acquire <AcqMode>: control the acquisition mode (single shot, video, accumulate, kinetic)

Examples

>>> from andor2 import Andor
>>> cam = Andor()
>>> cam.Temperature.setpoint = -74  # start cooling
>>> cam.Temperature.cooler = True
>>> cam.Detector.OutputAmp(1)       # use conventional CCD amplifier instead of electron multiplying
>>> cam.PreAmp(2)                   # set pre-amplifier gain to 4.9
>>> cam.exposure = 10               # set exposure time to 10 ms
>>> cam.ReadMode.SingleTrack(590,5) # set readout mode: single track, 5 pixels wide, centered at 590 pixels

>>> cam.Acquire.Video()             # set acquisition mode to video (continuous)
>>> data = cam.Acquire.Newest(10)   # collect latest 10 images as numpy array
>>> cam.Acquire.stop()

>>> cam.Acquire.Kinetic(10, 0.1, 5, 0.01)    # set up kinetic sequence of 10 images every 100ms
                                         # with each image being an accumulation of 5 images
                                         # taken 10ms apart
>>> cam.Acquire.start()                      # start acquiring
>>> cam.Acquire.wait()                       # block until acquisition terminates
>>> data = cam.Acquire.GetAcquiredData()     # collect all data