pymodaq-plugins-hamamatsu 0.3.0

Plugin for Hamamatsu instuments including DCAM-API based cameras and USB mini-spectrometers

PyMoDAQ plugin for Hamamatsu instruments. Currently supports Hamamatsu cameras using DCAM API with PyLabLib (Viewer2D) and Hamamatsu minispectrometers using .NET driver with pythonnet (Viewer1D).

Authors

• Romain Géneaux ([e-mail])

• Bastien Bégon ([e-mail])

Instruments

Below is the list of instruments included in this plugin

Viewer1D

• Mini-spectrometers: USB spectrometers from the Hamamatsu Mini-spectrometers series.

Viewer2D

• Cameras using DCAM-API: Hardware ROI (region of interest) and binning (1x or 2x) are supported. To use ROIs, click on “Show/Hide ROI selection area” in the viewer panel (icon with dashed rectangle). Position the rectangle as you wish, either with mouse or by entering coordinates, then click “Update ROI” button.

Installation instructions

Mini-spectrometers

The specu1b.dll driver (.NET) file only is necessary for interfacing mini-spectrometers. It can be obtained either by installing Tokuspec software (default driver location is in C:\Program Files\Hamamatsu\TokuSpec) or from the originally supplied device CD.

The default driver location is used in this plugin, make sure to update its path in the python wrapper hardware/minispectro.py if you store it somewhere else.

Tested with C10083CA (TM-CCD) and C9913GC (TG-cooled NIR-I) mini-spectrometers with PyMoDAQ 4.4.7 on Windows 11.

Cameras

This part of the plugin is based on pylablib. Here are the installation instructions as explained on the library page:

These cameras require dcamapi.dll, which is installed with most of Hamamatsu software (such as HoKaWo or HiPic), as well as with the freely available DCAM API <https://dcam-api.com/>`__, which also includes all the necessary drivers. Keep in mind, that you also need to install the drivers for required corresponding camera type (USB, Ethernet, IEEE 1394). These drivers are in the same installer, but need to be installed separately. You should also pay attention to the cameras supported by the given DCAM driver version, since newer version do not support older cameras (e.g., ImageEM C9100 cameras are only supported up to version 15). After installation, the DLL is automatically added to the System32 folder, where pylablib looks for it by default.

Currently this plugin will look for the DLL in its default location. Using another location is not implemented yet, but would be straightforward.

Tested with a C11440-36U on PyMoDAQ 3.6.13 on Windows, with DCAM-API v23.6.6644. Achieving frame rates up to 64 FPS in full frame, 200 FPS by restricting the region of interest. The plugin should work on other cameras, see DCAM-API for compatibility information.