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Keo Synopticx User Manual

1. H9 Schedule EWPEPBHD Schedule Rd 15 A EE 5 woa o Mr n A A MECA RIDE EJEJEJEJE 30 IT a En oo an Bir o ro Figure 39 Acquisition Schedule Dialog Free Run Mode Figure 40 Acquisition Schedule Dialog Synchronized Mode 7 6 2 Dark Frame Capture At the top right corner of the Acquisition Schedule dialog you will find the dark frame capture options A dark frame is data captured with the same settings as regular data but the capping shutter is held closed for the duration of the exposure When dark frames are captured they are captured sequentially by filter 1 2 3 and do not adhere to the acquisition schedule After dark frame capture is complete the regular schedule will resume There are three options for when to capture dark frames any combination of the three can be selected At the beginning of every night When this option is selected a dark frame will be captured for every filter whenever the acquisition schedule is restarted after the ephemeris transition from out of range to in range See Section 4 1 1 for more information on what happens at this transition This option will also cause dark frames to be captured when you initially start a Schedule Mode acquisition Every hour This option will force the system to capture a dark frame for each filter at the start of every hour After capturing the dark frames the system will wait until the start of the
2. Keo Synopticx Data Acquisition software User Manual Version 1 2b November 2015 Copyright 2004 2015 Keo Scientific Ltd Suite 404 1300 8 St SW Calgary Alberta Canada T2R 1B2 TEL 1 403 452 7222 FAX 1 403 206 7680 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of Keo Scientific Ltd Printed in Canada PVCAM is a registered trademark of Roper Scientific Ltd Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation The information in this publication is believed to be accurate as of the publication date However Keo ocientific Ltd does not assume any responsibility for any consequences including damages resulting from the use thereof The information contained herein is subject to change without notice Revision of this publication may be issued to incorporate such change Table of Contents ii Table of Contents EN too o a a Y MESE quis ose mee 7 1 2 Changes from Previous Versions ccoocccccncoccnococnncononanonnnnnonnncnnrrnnanrnnnnnnnnrnnanrnnrnnnarrnnaninns 8 2 dyStemitsegule mellis ua Nep MP MR PME haw bean aaa ieee 12 2 Software REQUIEM 12 22 GOmputer Requira mentar 12 2 3 INSTUMENE Compatibilty 5 o ted on 13 gt A aaO aea a 14 o4 3neralliid SVMODUCK arranca oia aan 14 32 REMOVING OVODUCX ss svi cia Rea a dv eh a SEV ru MEX EX A TAE MEX PER TR TAa VET PA HA TA E VERA ad da PS RAE 14 39 Upgrading SYNODU isimin
3. e Added support for the Athena temperature controller which should now provide compatibility for any legacy Keo Scientific Sentry imager and many Keo Consultants imagers 10 years old e Further refinements to the Instrument Settings dialog to support new instrument configurations e Light sensor state at start time of exposure is now saved into image metadata e Changed installation systems Upgrades can now be installed without first uninstalling the previous version e Fixed bug where PIXIS CCDs with only one Readout Port would display no Readout Amplifier options laum ESO US This version of Synopticx introduces support for the Keo Arges VF photometer system Many other small changes were also made including e Anew data display mode has been added to display a 2D line plot of the acquired data e The Instrument Settings dialog has been redesigned to allow for instrument type selection and to provide versatility in the future for more customizable configuration e Airglow and Aurora schedule modes have been renamed to Free Run and Synchronized 1 2 8 version 1 1 91 Fixed a bug with instrument auto detection and added detection of FATAL filterwheel error A schedule mode acquisition will abort upon receiving this error code 1 24 Version Tels Fixed a bug where opening a project files would crash the Imaging Schedule dialog docu EGO Tult This version fixes a bug with Princeton Instruments CCDs timing out on exposures lon
4. 6 t 2000 ms Cadence s Figure 41 Mouse over Desired Filter Available filters When to capture dark frames At the beginning of every night Every hour Y At the end of every night X 557 7 nm t 2000 ms Cadence s Cadence s A 589 3 nm t 5000 ms A 630 0 nm t 3000 ms X 777 4 nm t 1000 ms Cadence s X 840 0 nm t 4000 ms Cadence s t 2000 ms X 848 5 nm Cadence s Figure 43 Selecting a Timeslot Cadence s Available filters When to capture dark frames At the beginning of every night Every hour V At the end of every night t 5000 ms Cadence s A 588 3 nm A 630 0 nm t 3000 ms Cadence s Cadence s X7774nm t 1000 ms X 557 7 nm 2000 ms Cad J 3500 t 4000 ms Cadence s Cadence s t 2000 ms A 846 5 nm When to capture dark frames At the beginning of every night Every hour At the end of every night Cadence s A 589 3 nm t 5000 ms A 630 0 nm t 3000 ms Cadence s Cadence s t 1000 ms k 777 4 nm A Cadence s BH A 840 0 nm t 4000 ms Cadence s A 846 5 nm t 2000 ms Cadence s Figure 44 Scheduled Filter When the schedule is in Synchronized mode there is one additional step you must take before placing a filter you must f
5. Gg IDE ATA ATAPI gt M Intel R Centrino R WiMAX J M libusb win32 devices CB855 01 gt ES PCMCIA gt USB Appendix A Device Driver Installation es A7 Samsung SLA 12240 Zoom Lens The Keo Arges VF Photometer instrument uses a Samsung zoom lens to achieve variable field of views This zoom lens is controlled with a USB zoom lens controller that is integrated into the Keo Arges VF Photometer Controller This zoom lens controller has an integrated FTDI USB to Serial adaptor Please follow the instructions in Section A2 to install this device Once properly installed this device will appear as a virtual COM port on your computer 78 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Appendix B SYNDAI File Specification When your instrument has a counting unit instead of a camera the data that is collected has no spatial dimension to it This data is displayed in the user interface as a line plot and saved to disk in a custom format as specified here Important Information All byte values in this section are shown with hexadecimal representation B1 File Structure The SYNDAT file format is an ASCII readable file with a specific format The SYNDAT file consists of 4 chunks of data the file signature the header version the header and then the data Details on the size and format of each of these chunks follows B2 File Signature The first nine 9 bytes of the file make up the SYNDAT signature The hexadecimal values o
6. Select an Instrument Version Type COM1 NO AVAILABLE SETTINGS Select One 3 Temperature Control None COM1 250 E Select an Operating Mod Figure 55 Instrument Settings Dialog 1 First click on the Auto Detect Instrument button located at the top left corner of the dialog This will launch a secondary dialog which will display the current operation of finding the attached instrument Searching for multi filter instruments COMI Done Figure 56 Auto Detect Instrument Dialog After the Auto Detect Instrument routine is completed click the Done button to close the dialog The auto detected settings should now have populated the dialog 2 Verify that the Number of Filter Positions is correct The Auto Detect Instrument function should have automatically selected 6 This corresponds to the 6 physical slots in the filter wheel 64 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 3 Verify that the Setpoint has been set to 25 0 The filters provided with our instruments are all designed to be operated at this temperature 4 Verify that the correct Camera Type was selected It should be set to Princeton Instruments PIXIS 5 Click on the Refresh button to query the system for all installed cameras Since we only have the one camera installed it will be selected and the system will query it for valid options The dialog should then automatically populate with the options available to the camera 6 Sele
7. 3 Moon Elevation 24 6 Moon Phase 11 2 System Temperatures Camera Filter Wheel Filter 5 OXY3 Fitter 6 EMPTY 777 0 nm 1800 ms 0 0 nm 400 ms 1x1 Binning x1 Binni Figure 3 Main User Interface 5 1 Region 1 The Ribbon Toolbar The ribbon toolbar provides access to system operation controls configuration settings and image data display options Further information about the different tab groups and buttons can be found in Section 6 9 2 Region 2 General Information This region provides the user with a few pieces of information pertinent to the current operation of the system At the top the current Coordinated Universal Time UTC is displayed This value is synchronized to the system clock so it is only as accurate as the system it is running on See the note in Section 4 1 on using a NTP server for precisely synchronizing your system clock Below the UTC display is the Site Information panel This is the information that has been entered into the oite Setup dialog found on the Setup tab See Section 7 2 for more information Section 5 User Interface Overview 25 The Sun Moon Position panel uses the information entered in the Site Setup dialog to calculate the current position of the sun and moon The System Temperatures panel will display the current temperature of the CCD and filterwheel if the system has one Note that these controls will remain greyed out until Synopticx connects to the respective devi
8. 3iq 4B e Alo 29 6 3 1 Tnelmagentormaton Display CIO Dissert iaa 29 Do RL SA PE uS DINAR A A A M EINE 31 Bu WIS SEIS CHOTA o ene 32 o The Image Display Group dese QU tite ee che cee dette at teles it aan chs 33 ES IOS TAO Sot etrons o o r rr r 36 FA APOIAN Setn Loses ts rs oS ee ML MEM M LM 36 TON gt in e o E o ogni aaa igen as 37 132 TOU MELO OI MT 37 fd ras e eco ventana FeO Or TING d Nevssct moti A ca 37 LA OEO UDs a a a a a A 38 Lo Jnpstrument SOMINGS didas 39 fos E amer ol MOL A ne r ddnde acid ntes bed cU ES TU aL P osa DE 39 e Elterwnecl Shutter Controller sss ede tva at 40 La TEMPE ALIS leia 40 a Additional SEU O it A A A ER esa E v Y Uit End Uia 41 a Data OPUS eot ebd tr E vA Cae ete piene capt eA M cepi abu elo 46 C O E AA 47 Lion PICO sioe A A 48 7 5 2 Filter Setup Arges VF PNOTO MESS ia aa ead tiostea sate with amneaee temataeantan 48 TO ACOUISMOMN SCMOGUIC nsa aa a aa aaa e ta 49 7 6 1 SeneQquing MOGO TL 49 7 6 2 Bda cio AA A 50 POS TRES SCA E 51 7 7 Continuous and Acquire Mode Acquisition Configuration ccoocccocnccocncconccncncnarnnnanonas 52 1 1 1 Camera gt Si ea diads 53 A e a o A E ROO O OO A O re M f M EINE 54 CAS Alert ECT a 59 O AVanced ODICS iia 58 Table of Contents V 8 1 Automatically Run Schedule Mode Acquisition eeeeenn me 58 8 1 1 Windows
9. Exposure 5000 e Binning 1x1 e CCD Gain 3 e You can also give the filter a description 2 Click OK to close the dialog This will add the filter to the list Wavelength nm Exposure ms Binning CCD Gain unum 3000 Figure 60 Filter Setup Dialog Filter 1 Configured 3 Click the Add Filter button again This will open the Add Filter dialog Enter the below parameters e Filter Label 6300 e Wavelength 630 0 e Exposure 10000 e Binning 1x1 e CCD Gain 3 e You can also give the filter a description 4 Click OK to close the dialog This will add the filter to the list Wavelength nm Exposure ms Binning CCD Gain 557 7 5000 1x1 cl 10000 o HL u L L L L Figure 61 Filter Setup Dialog Filter 2 Configured Section 9 Tutorial 67 5 Click OK to close the filter setup dialog After you have finished this step you can use the Continuous and Acquire modes of acquisition Continue to the next step for an example of this or jump to Step 8 to continue setting up for a Schedule Mode acquisition otep 7 Starting a Continuous Mode acquisition At this point you have entered enough data to successfully run a Continuous or Acquire Mode acquisition First though save your project file see Step 9 for more details Now click on the Connect button on the Home tab This will use the settings you previously configured to connect to the instrument and CCD camera We are doing this because we want to be
10. Figure 38 Arges VF Filter Dialog Filter Label This label is used throughout the application as a way to refer to the filter It is also used in the naming of the data files produced from this filter This label can be up to 32 characters long and contain any character that is valid in a filename Best practice is to use letters a z A Z numbers 0 9 and a few select special characters Description This field is reproduced within the metadata of the data produced Any text entered here will be also attached to each data file Wavelength This is the wavelength for the filter and is used for reference purposes only no calculations are done with it This value will show up in several places in the user interface as well as in the metadata for the data Gate Time Select a gate time setting for this filter Number of Gates the number of gates to capture for this filter Total exposure time will be Gate Time x Number of Gates For example with a Gate Time of 100ms and Number of Gates of 10 the total effective data acquisition time will be 1000ms FoV The field of view to use for this filter Select one of the available options FoV will default to the one specified in Instrument Settings unless the Override Default FoV option is also selected Override Default FoV Use this option to specify a FoV for this filter that is different from the one defined in Instrument Settings 7 6 Acquisition Schedule The Acquisition Sched
11. If your filters are in the wrong order simply use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to move the selected filter up and down the list Editing and existing filter can be done with the Edit Filter button or by double clicking on the desired filter 48 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 7 5 1 Her Setup Sentry Imagers When the instrument is a Sentry imager each filter can be configured with a Filter Label Description Wavelength Exposure Binning CCD Gain and EM Gain if camera is an EMCCD Descriptive Parameters Filter Label EFFES Description Label Wavelength nm Exposure ms Binning CCD Gain 1 5577L1441254262 1 557 7 60000 1x1 2 5893L1441354251 1 589 3 90000 1x1 Edit Filter 3 63001 1441454265 1 60000 1x1 4 7774 1441554234 1 60000 ixi Delete Filter Add Filter Acquisition Parameters 5 8400L1441654316 1 120000 Move Up 6 8465L1441754250 1 120000 Wavelength nm 557 7 Move Down ox carcel Figure 35 Filter Setup Dialog Sentry Imager Exposure ms 60000 Binning 1x1 Figure 36 Sentry Filter Dialog Filter Label This label is used throughout the application as a way to refer to the filter It is also used in the naming of the data files produced from this filter This label can be up to 32 characters long and contain any character that is valid in a filename Best practice is to use letters a z A Z numbers 0 9 and a few select special characters
12. Settings dialog see oection 7 3 If you will be performing further acquisitions without modifying the Instrument Settings it is not necessary to disconnect first Application settings site setup data output filter setup and the acquisition schedule can all be configured with the system in the connected state The Disconnect button on the Home tab can be used to manually shut down and disconnect from the instrument After successfully disconnecting the Disconnect button will appear in the pressed state see Section 6 1 2 Closing the Synopticx application will also automatically disconnect from the instrument 24 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 5 User Interface Overview The main graphical user interface GUI can be broken down into five different sub regions as shown below in Figure 3 Each of these regions purpose is briefly explained below al lle Setup New Project 7 Al Save Project As Save Open Project Project Image Display O Connect Disconnect serz A i d WD Ru Run top Continuous Acquire R78 07 8 76 7 78 an ela UTC Time 28 Sep 2011 20 27 05 Site Information Site ID CALGARY Latitude 51 050 Longitude 114 Filter 1 OXY1 Filter 2 CONTROL Elevation 343 557 7 nm 1800 ms 572 0 nm 1800 ms Pressure 1000 mb 1x1 Binning 1x1 Binning Temperature 13 0 Sun Moon Position Sun Elevation 35
13. The format of the variables is as follows items in are optional o flags width specifier flags O Left pads the number with zeroes O instead of spaces width A number specifying the minimum number of characters to display for the value e g 4 would specify that the number 21 be printed as 21 two spaces followed by 21 specifier a inserts the Acquisition Number parameter This parameter is incremented each time an acquire mode acquisition finishes T inserts the current exposure frame number 0 indexed This parameter is incremented after each exposure in an acquire mode acquisition and is reset to O after the acquisition is completed Example Assuming the Acquire Mode acquisition is set up to capture 5 exposures Number of Exposures 5 the Current Acquisition Number is 6 and we want a filename that looks like Image xxx yyy png where xxx is the current acquisition number and yyy is the frame number We would enter a filename of Image 9603a 9603f After the acquisition is complete we will observe the following filenames in the root directory path e Image 006 000 png e Image 006 001 png e Image 006 002 png e Image 006 003 png e Image 006 004 png e Image 006 005 png oection 7 oettings Dialogs 57 If we were to then immediately run another Acquire Mode acquisition without editing the Acquisition Configuration settings the following six images would be created
14. You can find the device driver on the included Documentation and Utilities CD in the Drivers FTDI Virtual COM Port folder or you can download the latest version from the internet http www ftdichip com Drivers VCP htm A3 Princeton Instruments PIXIS and ProEM Cameras These instructions apply to the Princeton Instruments PIXIS CCD and ProEM EMCCD line of cameras only There are many different models of these cameras and they are all fully supported by Synopticx Important Information Do not attach the camera to the computer until after you have completed the following driver installation Failure to do so may cause problems with properly detecting the camera If you think you are encountering this problem please see the troubleshooting section for ways of fixing driver installation Issues AG 1 Install PVOAM PVCAM is the software library used by Synopticx to interface with Princeton Instruments cameras Although the required libraries are included in the Synopticx installation the utility to register the camera with the system is not redistributable and must be installed by installing PVCAM Installing PVCAM will also install the device drivers for your Princeton Instruments camera 1 Insert the Synopticx installation CD into your computer and navigate to the PVCam folder Important Information If your Synopticx installation CD does not have a PVCam folder you can download the latest version of PVCAM from the Princeton Instrume
15. be re opened by Synopticx to reload the settings they contain You may have several project files you use to test various settings and then upon deciding on optimal settings you will have a project file that contains these settings With Synopticx it is very easy to save and load these project files it is done in the same way as most Windows applications Simply use the New Save Save As and Open buttons to manage your project files see Section 6 1 1 for details on these buttons The very first time Synopticx is opened it will start with a blank project From here you can start configuring the system as described in the following sections If instead you want to start a new project based on a current one use the Save As option to create a copy of the currently open project and then continue to modify your project settings as required Important Information Synopticx does not auto save the project file so it is important that you regularly use the Save option to save your settings 4 3 Application Settings There are a few settings that are Synopticx specific and not project specific These settings will persist between different projects and can be modified using the Application Settings dialog see Section 7 1 oection 4 Operational Overview 19 If you are having technical problems with Synopticx please change the Logging Level setting to Debug and then reproduce the error or problem you were seeing This will produce extr
16. e Image 007 000 png e Image 007 001 png e Image 007 002 png e Image 007 003 png e Image 007 004 png e Image 007 005 png Note that the Acquisition Number 03a part of the filename has now been incremented by one This happens automatically after each Acquire Mode acquisition finishes Acquisition Number This allows you to manually set the Acquisition Number variable used in file names After each Acquire Mode acquisition completes this value will automatically increment by one 1 Changing the filename template will automatically reset this value to zero 0 Overwrite Prompt When enabled this option will warn you if you will be overwriting any files that already exist 58 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 3 Advanced ODICS This section provides information on advanced topics 8 1 Automatically Run Schedule Mode Acquisition Synopticx provides the ability to automatically start a Schedule Mode acquisition when the application is started This can be used to automatically start Synopticx when the computer is powered on or as a way to automate when Synopticx should start Important Information This feature will only work if the Application Settings have been configured to Load last loaded project upon startup See oection 7 1 2 for details A Schedule Mode acquisition can be automatically started after Synopticx loads by specifying the run switch on the command line This can be accomplished in 2 w
17. finished choosing a name simply click Done and your camera will be ready for use with Synopticx Important Information The name you choose for your camera will be the same one you use in Synopticx to select your camera RSConfig v2 7 4 Names Style Camera 1 Pisis Pl Style USB2 PIXIS Camera 2 Camera 3 Camera 4 Camera 5 Camera B Camera Camera 8 Figure 63 RSConfig Dialog Box A4 Andor iXon Camera These instructions apply to the Andor iXon DU 888 CCD camera only Other models of the iXon may work but are not officially supported by Keo Synopticx at this time Important Information These instructions assume that you have already installed the Andor PCI card in your computer and have connected the camera to the PCI card with the provided cable The device drivers required for the Andor iXon camera are included on the Andor Driver CD 1 Insert the Andor Driver CD into your computer 2 Install the Andor Drivers Important Information Please refer to your iXon user manual for more details on the installation of the device drivers and troubleshooting installation problems 16 AS Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Hamamatsu H7421 Photon Counting Head This device does not directly interface with Synopticx so there are no device drivers needed All counting is performed with the Hamamatsu C8855 Counting Unit AO Hamamatsu C8855 Counting Unit The Hamamatsu counter that i
18. found in Section 4 1 3 Section 1 Introduction 11 e Pre Connect This feature allows you to connect to the Imager before starting any acquisitions After connecting to the Imager in this fashion Synopticx will not disconnect from the Imager upon completing an acquisition This allows you to immediately start another acquisition without having to wait for Synopticx to re connect to the Imager More information on this new feature can be found in Section 6 1 2 e Image Display Options Many new features were added that enable you to interact with the displayed images These include o Showing the image histogram Showing the image cross section at the selected point Zooming in and out of the image Showing information about the selected point And Equalizing and or 5 95 cropping the displayed image as well as optionally the thumbnails O O O up Full details on these new image display options can be found in Section 6 3 e Operating Status The operating status log window now scrolls and each entry has a timestamp on it Bugs fixed e Stop button now properly stops operation at any time e PNG image metadata now saved properly Preamp gain and Readout Speed were incorrectly being saved Tae eS Tu This was the first major release of Synopticx that wasn t considered BETA It serves as the baseline version to which all later versions improve upon 12 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 2 System Requirements 2 1 Sof
19. install them We have replicated that information here for convenience Use the table below to quickly find the instructions for the device drivers you wish to install Device See Section On Page Keo Scientific Filterwheel Shutter Controller Al 73 FTDI USB to Serial Device A2 T3 Princeton Instruments PIXIS and ProEM Cameras A3 va Andor iXon Camera A4 5 Hamamatsu H7741 Photon Counting Head A5 76 Hamamatsu C8855 Counting Unit AG 76 Samsung SLA 12240 Zoom Lens A7 T A1 Keo Scientific Filterwheel Shutter Controller The Keo Scientific Filterwheel and Shutter Controller use an RS 232 serial communication interface e f you are using built in RS 232 ports then install the drivers for the RS 232 device in your computer e lf you are using the provided USB to Serial adaptors then proceed to Section A2 A2 FTDI USB to Serial Device FIDI is a company that makes a popular chipset for providing virtual COM ports on your computer Keo Scientific provides USB to Serial dongles with all instruments that require serial RS 232 connections If your computer is connected to the internet and is running Windows 7 or newer then simply attach the adaptors to the PC and the drivers should automatically install These devices will show up as virtual COM ports when installed correctly If the automatic driver installation fails you are using Windows XP or you do not have access to the internet then you will have to manually install the device driver
20. next minute to resume operation At the end of every night When this option is selected a dark frame will be captured for each filter whenever the ephemeris transition from in range to out of range It will also cause dark frames to be captured when you manually stop a Schedule Mode acquisition Section 7 oettings Dialogs 76 3 The Schedule To create an acquisition schedule you will drag and drop filters from the Available Filters section to the Schedule section 91 To drag and drop a filter simply position the mouse cursor over the colored square corresponding to the filter you wish to place Figure 41 press and hold the left mouse button and start dragging Figure 42 drag it down to the schedule and position it over the timeslot you want it to occupy Figure 43 and then release the mouse button to drop it in place Figure 44 Repeat this procedure for the remaining filters you wish to place To remove an already placed filter from the schedule click the Q icon on the filter you wish to remove Schedule options Mode Free Run Available filters When to capture dark frames At the beginning of every night X 557 7 nm t 2000 ms Cadence s Every hour At the end of every night 7 530 0 nm t 3000 ms Cadence s Cadence s A 588 3 nm t 5000 ms X 777 4 nm t 1000 ms A 840 0 nm t 4000 ms El Cadence s Cadence s A 848 5 nm
21. saved as PNG will have embedded header information containing the following specifics of that image Site Information Site ID latitude longitude time Filter Information Imager filter number filter wavelength filter label filter description Camera Information Exposure binning readout speed image bit depth pre amp gain EM gain if applicable CCD temperature filter wheel temperature if applicable shutter open closed This file is provided on its own CD with your Synopticx installation Contact Keo Scientific for a copy of this file if you have misplaced the one that shipped with your instrument oection 7 oettings Dialogs 4T Important Information For a quick way of viewing embedded header information Keo Scientific recommends using TweakPNG http entropymine com ason tweakpng Simply open the saved PNG files in TweakPNG and it will show you all the saved metadata If you wish to develop your own custom routine for reading this data information on the structure of a PNG file can be found here http www libpng org pub png spec 1 2 PNG Structure html Chunk layout 4 1 2 Count Data Count data is saved in a proprietary SYNDAT format in folders organized by year month day within the Root Directory specified See Appendix B for the specifications of the SYNDAT file format For quick review of the data you can open a SYNDAT file in any text editor to view the contents The SYNDAT file format i
22. start Menu startup Fold rt asa 59 Sule WINGOWS Task Sonata liado 59 SU Uo er TTE 60 LO TOMES eii 70 10 1 My CCD camera is not detected in SYNOP ICX ccceccceesseceeseeeeeeseueeeeseueneuseeeneesaeenass 70 TOTA Remstalati n oO RDSvVICS Driver Si SA 70 10 2 My instrument is not being automatically detected ccoccccccocicccconiconnonocaninconanonns 70 13 MESA CAS a EU MC 12 Appendix A Device Driver InstallatiOD o ococcnnonncnnnnnocininnnronnnnnronincnroninanroninaoronans 13 A1 Keo Scientific Filterwheel Shutter Controller eeeeeeeeeenennn 73 AZ ETDUSB lt tO Senal Devi ascii 73 A3 Princeton Instruments PIXIS and ProEM Cameras eene 74 A3 1 Jac Qu cM 74 A3 2 mises tine Cano OI CT DODENUS 14 Ad Ando bon Candia 75 A5 Hamamatsu H7421 Photon Counting Head ccoocccccnccncncccnnnncncnncnnnancnncnnnancnnnncnanonnnncnas 76 A6 Hamamatsu C8855 Counting Unit coocccooccnocacnconcncnnacoconcnconannonnroconnnnenaroconrnrenarnnnnons 76 AT Samsung 9bA 12240 Zoomi LAS usines xa On adi ea v cv ac Rb n eere 77 Appendix b SYNDAT Fl Spec CANON ii dei tuts tus 78 A a 78 B2 AS Sinaloa 78 BS Header role t 78 Bd nee M 78 AB cem 79 B5 1 Data Timestamp Format asrasin as antes at un aa toS Cent ba ubl aat De a uw ru DUE UNT Cia duce can e aU 19 B5 2 Data Vale FOLE tortillas 9 Section 1 Introduction 7 Introductio
23. the crash and can be used to determine the part of the application that caused the crash e oynopticx registry settings e Acrash report file containing information about the crash e Ascreenshot showing the Synopticx interface at the time of the crash Note Only the area of your screen containing the main Synopticx window is included in the screenshot All other areas are blacked out to protect your privacy 1 2 15 Version 1 1 19 Version 1 1 1 These versions did not add any new functionality to Synopticx They are purely bug fixes See the application changelog for details on the bugs fixed 1 2 16 Version 1 1 0 Version 1 1 0 represents a major improvement in the overall functionality of Synopticx Two new imaging modes were added along with a plethora of on screen image display options to allow better visualization of the data being captured New features include e Continuous Mode Sometimes referred to as focus mode this mode will continuously capture images until stopped Note that no data is saved to disk when using this mode This mode is most commonly used for focusing an imager or quickly acquiring an image while testing different settings More information on this mode can be found in Section 4 1 2 e Acquire Mode This mode allows you to capture the same data as continuous mode but it will also let you save the images acquired The number of images to acquire is completely configurable More information on this mode can be
24. value is positive 4 Enter 15 67 for Longitude e Since this is an eastern longitude between O and 180 this value is positive 5 Enter 100 for Elevation 6 Enter 1020 for Pressure Enter 15 for Temperature Now we need to enter values for the sun and moon ephemerides to automatically start and stop imaging For the purposes of this tutorial we will use 12 for the sun elevation and we will be ignoring the moon 8 Enter 12 for Max Solar Elevation 9 Check the gnore Lunar Position 10 At this point your dialog box should look like the one in Figure 54 Site Identification Site ID Imager ID IMAGER 1 Geographic Parameters Latitude 73 200 Longitude 15 670 Elevation ft 100 Pressure mb Temperature C Sun and Moon Ephemeris Limits Max Solar Elevation deg 12 00 Ignore Lunar Position tion idegi 0 00 Figure 54 Completed Site Parameters 11 Click OK to close the site parameters dialog Section 9 Tutorial 63 otep 4 Setting up the instrument The next step is to configure Synopticx to talk to your instrument and CCD camera To get started click on the Instrument Settings button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar This will open the instrument settings dialog as shown in Figure 55 Auto Detect Instrument 1 Instrument Selection Model Select an Instrument Model Configuration Select an Instrument Configuration Version
25. 00 ms Cadence s Figure 62 Completed Acquisition Schedule Dialog 6 Click OK to close the schedule configuration dialog otep 9 Saving your project file It is now time to save your project file This will save all of your project settings into an XML formatted file that can be reloaded at any time and save you having to reenter all of the settings 1 Click the Save Project button on the Home tab of the ribbon toolbar 2 Navigate to the C Synopticx Project Files folder and enter a filename 3 Click Save to save the file otep 10 Starting a schedule mode acquisition Now that all of the settings have been set you will notice that the Run Schedule button on the Home tab of the ribbon toolbar has become activated This means that you are ready to start an automated data acquisition sequence oimply press the Run Schedule button and the system will start The sequence of events that will happen is shown below if you have connected to the imager already using the Connect button the first 3 items below will be skipped Section 9 Tutorial 69 10 jn 12 The cameras cooler will be enabled This starts the camera cooling to its operational temperature The instrument will be reset If you have a multi filter imager the filter wheel will be attempting to find the home position After the home position is found the system will wait until the camera is at operating temperature before proceeding Now the instrum
26. Description This field is reproduced within the metadata of the images produced Any text entered here will be also attached to each image Wavelength This is the wavelength for the filter and is used for reference purposes only no calculations are done with it This value will show up in several places in the user interface as well as in the metadata for the images Exposure This defines the exposure length for the filter in milliseconds CCD Gain This defines the CCD gain to be used for this filter EM Gain Optional This defines the EM gain to be used for this filter This settings only available for EMCCD type cameras 1 5 2 Filter Setup Arges VF Photometers When the instrument is an Arges VF Photometer each filter can be configured with a Filter Label Description Wavelength Gate Time Number of Gates and FoV oection 7 oettings Dialogs 49 Descriptive Parameters Filter Label HAB Reza Description Label Wavelength nm Gate Time of Gates 1 5577 1441254262 1 TT 100 ms 2 5893L1441354251 1 589 3 100 ms 0 Edit Filter Add Filter 3 6300L1441454265 1 630 0 100 ms 4 7774 1441554234 1 777 4 100 ms Delete Filter 5 8400L1441654316 1 840 0 100 ms 6 8465L1441754250 1 846 5 100 ms Move Up Acquisition Parameters Wavelength nm 777 4 Move Down Number of Gates 10 FoV 5 0 Figure 37 Filter Setup Dialog Arges VF Photometer Override Default FoV Cancel
27. Path DB Synopticx Other VlcCalFile cal Default FoV 2 52 i Hamamatsu C8855 Counter ID Number 1 Figure 34 Arges VF Photometer Additional Settings COM Port The Zoom Lens Controller uses a virtual serial port to communicate Select the correct one here This setting will be automatically configured if the Auto Detect Instrument feature was used FoV Characterization File Path The zoom lens field of view is characterized by Keo Scientific upon assembling the device In order for Synopticx to send the zoom lens to the correct position it needs to know this characterization Enter the path to the provided Z1cCalFile in this field Default FoV After loading the FoV Characterization File you will be able to select a default FoV from the ones available In a Schedule Mode acquisition all filters will use this Default FoV unless you configure them otherwise 4 Data Output Depending on the type of instrument Synopticx will be either collecting images or counts These two types of data are displayed differently on the screen as images and a line plot and they are also saved to disk in different formats The settings to control the output data are configured using the Data Output dialog which is accessed using the Data Output button on the Setup tab 4 1 1 Image Data Image data is saved in the formats specified PNG and or TIFF in folders organized by year month day hour within the Root Directory specified Images
28. The next step is to setup your data output settings This is done by clicking on the Data Output button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar 1 Enter the following Root Directory to save images in F Data e Images will be sorted in this folder by sub folders according to year month day hour e g the path to an image taken on December 9 2010 at 3 42 PM GMT will be F Data 201 O 1 2 09 15 lt Filename gt where Filename is the name of the file 2 Select the types of files you wish to save You must choose at least one of the available options 3 At this point your dialog box should look like the one in Figure 58 Image Saving Options Root Directory File Type s to save PNG TIFF Figure 58 Completed Data Output Settings 4 Click OK to close the project settings dialog Step 6 Setup your installed filters The next step is to configure your installed filters Click on the Filter Setup button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar This will open the Filter Setup dialog Wavelength nm Exposure ms Binning CCD Gain Add Filter Edit Filter Delete Filter Move Up Move Down Figure 59 Filter Setup Dialog 66 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b oince we only have two of the six possible filters installed we only need to add two filters 1 Click the Add Filter button This will open the Add Filter dialog Enter the below parameters e Filter Label 5577 e Wavelength 557 7 e
29. a information in the system log file that can be used to help track down the problem You can submit your system log file to technical support by sending an email to supportOkeoscientific com Please also include a description of the problem and a copy of the project save file 4 4 Project Configuration Before Synopticx can start acquiring data it must be configured to know about the attached instrument and how you would like to acquire data This is done using the various settings dialogs detailed in Section 7 Here we will discuss briefly the different settings that need to be configured before data acquisition can begin 4 4 1 Site Setup Synopticx needs to know where it is geographically so that it can calculate the positions of the sun and moon These calculated positions are used together with the ephemeris limits you define to automatically start and stop Synopticx data acquisition The site location and ephemeris limits are configured in the Site oetup dialog see Section 7 2 The Site Setup dialog also allows for defining a Site ID and Imager ID These values are stored into the metadata of the collected data for use in data post processing 4 4 2 Instrument Settings There are multiple different types of instruments that can be used with Synopticx and each one can have several different configurations Synopticx needs to know what type of instrument it will be used with and the Instrument Settings dialog is where you configure this s
30. able to quickly change acquisition parameters and then immediately start another acquisition If we don t first manually connect we will be forced to wait at the start of every acquisition while the instrument resets itself this can take upwards of 30 seconds See Section 4 5 for more details on the use of the Connect and Disconnect buttons Now that we are connected to the instrument click on the Run Continuous button on the Home tab Since this is the first time we have clicked this button since starting Synopticx it will present the Acquisition Configuration dialog box Simply fill out your desired parameters and click the Save button for more information on what the different settings do see Section 7 7 The Continuous Mode acquisition will start immediately and you will start getting images in the Preview Image Press the Stop button to stop the acquisition Now press the Run Acquire button Once again the Acquisition Configuration dialog box will pop up because this is the first time we have clicked this button since starting Synopticx Fill out the required settings and click Save The Acquire Mode acquisition will start immediately and after acquiring the specified number of images it will automatically stop Now press the Run Continuous button again You will notice that acquisition starts immediately without presenting the Acquisition Configuration dialog This is because we have already used this button and now it will continue to us
31. are then entered into the project configuration and used by Schedule mode to automate data acquisition for several weeks or months at a time 4 1 1 Schedule Mode This is the normal operating mode that is driven by a schedule of exposure events and the sun and moon position While the sun and moon are within the acceptable range as defined in Site Setup see Section 1 21 2 data acquisition will be allowed to run When the moon or sun leave the acceptable range data acquisition is halted and the system enters the Standby state whereby it waits for both the sun and moon to return to the acceptable range When entering the Standby state Synopticx will disable any hardware cooling which allows the hardware to return to ambient temperature Note that some devices e g Princeton Instruments PIXIS have the option of maintaining cooling even while in the standby state See Section 7 3 4 1 for more information After the sun and moon have returned to the acceptable range the system returns to the Running state and hardware cooling is enabled After reaching operating temperature the schedule is restarted and data acquisition will continue until the sun and moon once again leave their acceptable ranges This cycle will continue indefinitely until the user commands the system to stop There are two different schedule modes that can be used to define the data acquisition schedule Free Run and Synchronized 4 1 1 1 Free Hun Mode Free Run i
32. arm environments Enter the desired temperature to stabilize the filters at This will default to 25 C which is ideal for the filters that are provided with our instruments Important Information Although the Setpoint can be set to any value the instrument may not be able to reach the desired temperature Please refer to the instrument user manual for details on acceptable temperature setpoints Operating Mode On instruments with optional cooling set this to Heating amp Cooling otherwise leave it on Heating Cooling will only function if the instrument is equipped with the optional cooling add on 3 4 Additional Settings The right hand portion of the Instrument Settings dialog is dedicated to additional settings for your instrument Depending on the instrument type there will be different options displayed here 3 4 1 Sentry Camera Settings When the instrument model is Sentry Imager this section of the Instrument Settings dialog will allow of selection of the camera in use by the instrument Synopticx currently supports the following cameras e Princeton Instruments PIXIS CCD e Princeton Instruments ProEM EMCCD e Andor iXon EMCCD 42 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 4 Sentry Camera Settings Camera Type Princeton Instruments PIXIS vi Camera Selection Camera Name VirtualCamera Refresh Description PI Virtual Camera ADC Settings Shutter Control Internal Shutter Readout Amplifier Normal i D
33. ave Project As Run Schedule Continuous Acquire Save Open Project Project ous 5 Te T m O 1 1 The Project Group This group allows you to save a project open a project start a new blank project and save your current project under a new name These all perform as they would in any other Windows application New Project Al Save Project As Save Open Project Project Figure 6 Project Group Buttons Section 6 The Ribbon Toolbar 21 6 1 2 The Instrument Connection Group The two buttons found in this group Connect and Disconnect are used to manage the connection to the Instrument See Section 4 5 for more details on when and how to use these buttons J Y Connect Disconnect Figure 7 Imager Connection Group Buttons Pressing either of these buttons will trigger their respective functions to connect or disconnect from the instrument After successfully connecting or disconnecting the buttons will remain selected to indicate the current connection status nne Disconnect Figure 8 Connected Figure 9 Disconnected Important Information Even though the system is Connected the background color of the Operating Status panel will remain red since there is no current acquisition in progress 6 1 3 The Acquisition Group This group is used to start and stop the different acquisition modes see Section 4 1 for more information about the different acquisition modes While the
34. ays 1 Create an application shortcut to Synopticx and add the run switch at the end of the Target path a First navigate to the Synopticx application executable typically C Program Files Keo Scientificisynopticxisynopticx exe b Right click gt Send To gt Desktop create shortcut This places a shortcut to the application on your desktop C Now navigate to the newly created shortcut on your desktop right click and choose Properties d Inthe Target field place your cursor at the very end and add run note the space before the e Click OK Now when you use this shortcut to launch Synopticx it will automatically Connect and Run a Schedule Mode acquisition Using the regular shortcut the one installed by default with Synopticx will not automatically start any acquisitions 2 Start Synopticx from a script or the command line Simply add the run switch after the path to the executable and Synopticx will automatically Connect and Run the schedule mode Either of the two following methods can be used to automatically start Synopticx and run a Schedule Mode acquisition when Windows starts Important Information Windows will only automatically start an application once a user logs into the system If the computer restarts but then stops at the login screen no applications will be started It is recommended that you configure your computer to automatically login to a particular user upon restarting T
35. bon control bar or scroll the window Important Information oince all system events are synchronized to the system clock it is recommended that you use NTP Network Time Protocol htto ntp org to precisely synchronize your system clock with a low stratum time server Ideally a stratum O GPS antenna would be used A Windows version of NTP can be found here http www meinberg de english sw ntp htm Section 2 oystem Requirements 13 2 3 Instrument Compatibility As of the time of writing Keo Synopticx supports the following Keo Scientific instruments Instrument Family Variants Date of Manufacture o Filter Arrangements Single Filter Filter Princeton Instruments PIXIS Keo Sentry Scientific Cameras Princeton Instruments ProEM 2004 Imager Andor iXon DU 888 Omega CNi32 Series Thermal Controllers NE 77 ae 16 Series SM NN Thermal No Thermal Controller Filterwheel Filter Arrangements Single Fit ingle Filter Keo Arges VF g 20154 Photometer Photon Counting Head Hamamatsu H7421 50 Counting Unit Hamamatsu C8855 1 Synopticx can be configured for a Sentry imager that does not have a thermal controller OO Installation In order for Synopticx to function properly the device drivers for the various hardware components that make up your instrument CCD filterwheel counting unit etc must be installed Please refer to Appendix A for instructions for installing your device drivers T
36. ces 0 3 Region 3 Operating Status The Operating Status panel provides insight into what the system is currently doing by displaying messages to the user All messages displayed in this window will have a timestamp associated with them Below is an example of a message that could be displayed in the Operating Status window At any given time a quick glance at this window should be enough to determine what the system is currently doing 2015 11 04 19 40 10 UTC Changing to filter 1 The background color of the Operating Status panel is used to indicate the current system state Background Color Meaning Hed otopped No data acquisition taking place Green Running Data acquisition in progress otandby Sun and Moon are out of range data Orange acquisition has been paused 5 4 Region 4 Preview Thumbnail Depending on the type of data being acquired this will display either an image for instruments with a camera or a 2D line plot for instruments with a counting unit For instruments with a camera the Preview Thumbnail will display the most recently acquired image For instruments with a counting unit the Preview Thumbnail will display a real time readout of the currently acquiring data For example if capturing 20x 100ms gates for a single data acquisition the count for each of the gates will be display as they are acquired For both types of instruments when a thumbnail from region 5 is selected the Preview Thumbna
37. connected to COM1 and COM on the host computer e The installed filters are in slots 1 and 2 e The system will operate in Free Run schedule mode and cycle between the two filters e The system must capture dark frames hourly CCD Camera Type Princeton Instruments PIXIS Host Computer Modern computer running Windows 7 32bit It has a 250GB main operating disk C drive and a 2TB USB external hard drive FA drive This tutorial assumes that you have followed the installation procedure in Section 3 1 and have tested the camera to verify that it is functioning correctly otep 1 Setting up your data storage folders There are three different types of files that Synopticx stores on your hard drive project files data files and system log files Project files which store all your project settings and system log files store events that happen during imaging are relatively small and can be stored on your main operating disk Data files on the other hand will quickly start to add up and require a lot of storage space Important Information otore your project files on your operating disk so that when you swap external hard drives to retrieve data or add more space you don t lose your project save files oteps to setup data storage folders 1 Create a folder on C called Synopticx Project Files 2 Create a folder on FA called Data 3 Create a folder on F called System Logs Section 9 Tutorial 61 otep 2 Sett
38. ct a Readout Rate of 2 MHz and a Controller Gain of 3 Enter 70 in the camera Setpoint field 8 Verify that the Internal Shutter is set to Disabled Open this is the default e his wil hold the internal shutter open during all imaging Important Information Most of the cameras provided with our instruments do not have an internal shutter installed so it does not actually matter what setting is used here We suggest leaving it at the default Disabled Open setting whether it has an internal shutter or not 9 Verify that the External Shutter Logic is set to Shutter e his wil make the capping shutter at the front of the instrument open and close for every exposure Auto Detect Instrument ro Camera Type Princeton Instruments PIXIS Camera Selection Camera Name Description ADC Settings Shutter Control Internal Shutter 2 Filterwheel Readout Amplifier Normal Disabled O m COM Port COM1 External Shutter Logic Shutter Number of Filter Positions 6 Bit Depth 16 T 3 Temperature Control Camera Temperature Controller Type Omega CNi32 Series Setpoint C 70 0 Never disable cooler COM Port Setpoint C Operating Mode Figure 57 Completed Instrument Settings Section 9 Tutorial 65 10 The Instrument Settings should now look like the ones shown in Figure 57 Click OK to close the Instrument Settings dialog otep 5 Setting up your Data Output settings
39. cursor around the preview image the histogram will jump away This is to let you view the image under the histogram and makes selecting a point easier by not requiring you to first turn off the histogram Important Information The histogram always displays the data distribution of the currently displayed image If you have enabled any image display options that alter the values of the displayed image Equalize and or 5 95 Crop the histogram will be updated to reflect the new adjusted image 6 8 1 2 The Show Image Cross Section Button Enabling this option will plot a 2D graph of the pixel values along each of the yellow selection lines As the image is zoomed and panned these 2D graphs will update to show only the range visible in the image Vertical Cross ER 7 Value 3274 65535 Point 129 131 P Li Section 24 Horizontal Cross Section Jax Value 4 wax Value 7347 meee ae ae a ea em a Figure 17 Image Cross Sections You can highlight the nearest data point by moving your mouse cursor over one of the image cross sections This will highlight the data point with a light green dot and display the value on the top bar of the cross section display Max Value 16383 Highlighted Value 12195 T i i Figure 18 Image Slice with Highlighted Data Point Section 6 The Ribbon Toolbar 31 Important Information The values shown on the cross section graphs are always t
40. dditional information as the system is running and as you interact with it and will be useful in determining the cause of the problem Please recreate the problem after enabling this option and then send the resulting log file to Keo Scientific at supportOkeoscientific com Logging Level This option selects the level of detail to log For normal operation use the Normal option For debugging purposes change this to the Debug option System Log Path System logs will be saved to this path Each time Synopticx is started a new system log file will be created 11 2 Startup Options These settings affect the behavior of Synopticx when it is starting up Show Startup Splash Screen The startup splash screen can be disabled by un checking this option This is purely cosmetic and will have no effect on the startup time of the application On Startup This option defines whether to load the last used project or start a new one when Synopticx starts 1 1 3 Crash Recovery and Reporting By checking the Automatically restart Synopticx after a crash option Synopticx will automatically restart itself in the event of an application crash After selecting this option two additional options become available 1 Crash report delivery options Under normal circumstances if Synopticx crashes the user is presented with an Error Report dialog that allows them to view the automatically collected debugging information before it is sent to Keo Sci
41. e data maximums and no histogram stretching will occur A similar situation occurs with stars in very long exposures of the night sky These stars show up as very bright saturated spots which prevent the Equalize function from working in the same way Cosmic rays can also produce the undesirable hot spots Similarly a cold pixel is one where the pixel is stuck off and will always have a zero count value For low signal applications this could cause a similar problem as a hot pixel whereby the lower bounds of the histogram will be stuck at zero The 5 95 Crop feature can be used to solve both of these problems It will ignore the lower and upper 596 of pixels from the image and then perform the equalization Below is an example of an image with stars that saturate but overall low signal levels Using the normal Equalize option will not help because these bright Section 6 The Ribbon Toolbar 35 spots are detected as the upper limit Enabling 5 95 Crop will ignore those bright spots and equalize the rest of the image Figure 25 Equalized left and 5 95 Cropped right Comparison 6 3 4 5 Ihe Apply to thumbnails Button This button will apply any image display settings Equalize and or 5 95 Crop to the thumbnail images as well as the Preview Thumbnail 36 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b settings Dialogs Synopticx provides several settings dialogs for configuring the system These dialogs are accessed using the button
42. e the last used settings for acquiring To edit the settings press the Stop button to stop the acquisition click the drop down portion of the Run Continuous button and choose Edit Continuous Configuration Now change the settings and click save You will notice that this time image acquisition doesn t automatically start You must press the Run Continuous button to start the acquisition Important Information Using the Connect and Disconnect buttons which keeps Synopticx connected to the imager even after finishing an acquisition reduces the amount of waiting by a large amount It is recommended to always use this option while using the Continuous and Acquire Modes of operation otep 8 Setup the Acquisition Schedule The final step in configuring Synopticx is to define an acquisition schedule This can be done using the Acquisition Schedule dialog accessed by clicking on the Acquisition Schedule button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar 1 Choose Free Run for the Mode 68 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 2 Select the Every Hour check box to enable dark frame capture at the start of every imaging hour 3 Drag and drop filter 1 to the first timeslot 4 Drag and drop filter 2 to the second timeslot 5 he dialog will not look like the one shown in Figure 62 Schedule options When to capture dark frames Mode Free Run _ At the beginning of every night _ At the end of every night x 630 0 ng t 0
43. ed to the camera Disabled Closed The internal shutter is held closed while Synopticx is connected to the camera External Shutter Logic Most Keo instruments have an external capping shutter normally located at the front of the instrument between the front lens and the filterwheel and it is normally controlled by the camera using the External Trigger Cable provided with the instrument see the instrument s user manual for details on this cable and where to connect it When this cable is attached the camera can directly control the capping shutter There are three typical settings that could be used Shutter The capping shutter will open and close for every exposure Logic 1 The capping shutter is held open while Synopticx is connected to the camera Logic 0 The capping shutter is held closed while Synopticx is connected to the camera Important Information When the camera is configured with Logic O for the External Shutter Logic Synopticx will revert to using the filterwheel or shutter controller to control the capping shutter In this mode the capping shutter will operate the same as Logic 1 f 3 4 1 2 Princeton Instruments ProbEM EMCCD Settings The ProEM EMCCD provides the following settings Camera Name This will display all of cameras available for use by Synopticx Any Princeton camera that has been configured with the RSConfig utility see Appendix A3 will be listed here Readout Port The Pr
44. ed with any sort of yellow or red icon it has an error e lf your camera does not have a driver installed for it it will appear under the Other Devices section of the device manager e f either of these is true proceed to reinstallation of device drivers 3 lIfusing a PI PIXIS camera run the RSConfig application as outlined in Section A1 4 Test your camera with the manufacturers provided software WinXTest for Pl Pixis and ProEM systems and Solis for Andor iXon systems 10 1 1 menstalation of Device Drivers Reinstalling your device drivers is necessary if your camera is reporting that its device driver is incorrectly installed or not installed at all 1 Right click on your camera in the device manager and then click Uninstall 2 Check the Delete the driver software for this device option e his wil uninstall the device and remove all existing drivers for it that may be conflicting 3 Unplug your camera from the host computer e The best practice is to install device drivers before attaching the device 4 Install the device drivers for your camera using the instructions in Section O o Plug your camera into the host computer e The host computer should detect the new hardware and proceed to automatically install the device drivers for it 6 Ifthe device is still not installed correctly consult the installation guide provided by the camera manufacturer 10 2 My instrument is not being automatically detected If your instrument is no
45. ee Section 7 3 The easiest way to configure the instrument settings is to use the Auto Detect Instrument button This will automatically scan your system looking for attached devices that are compatible with Synopticx Upon finding attached devices Synopticx will automatically configure the required settings Important Information Older legacy instruments do not have the features required to fully configure Synopticx with the Auto Detect Instrument feature After the auto detect process completes the user will still have to manually enter a few settings After the auto detect process has completed you can then make changes to the settings as required to match your desired experimental parameters All of the settings configured in this dialog will be used as the defaults for your experiment Some of the settings can be changed on a per filter basis using the Filter Setup dialog e g camera CCD gain but most of these settings will persist throughout the experiment ouccessfully configuring the instrument settings will allow access to the Filter Setup dialog Access to this dialog is blocked until Synopticx knows how many filters the instrument has 4 4 3 Data Output While running an acquisition there will be data to save and the details of where and how to save this data can be configured in the Data Output dialog see Section 7 4 Depending on the type of data there will be different options presented 20 Keo Synopticx U
46. eel or shutter controller to control the capping shutter In this mode the capping shutter will operate as Logic 1 oection 7 oettings Dialogs 45 7 3 4 1 3 Andor Kon EMCCD settings The Andor iXon EMCCD provides the following settings Please refer to the camera s user manual for more details on each of these settings Camera Name This will display all of cameras available for use by Synopticx Any installed Andor camera will be listed here Vertical Shift Speed Andor provides the ability to alter the vertical shift speed used when reading out images For most applications this can be left at its default setting Refer to the camera s user manual for more details Vertical Clock Voltage Amplitude The voltage used to clock the vertical shifting can also be adjusted For most applications this can be left at its default setting Refer to the camera s user manual for more details Readout Rate Depending on the Output Amplifier selected there may be multiple different Readout Rates available Generally a faster readout rate will produce higher levels of noise in the data Pre Amplifier Gain Depending on the Output Amplifier selected there may be multiple different Pre Amplifier Gains that can be used Normally the highest gain should be used unless you have too much signal for the higher gains Refer to the camera s user manual for details Output Amplifier The Xon EMCCD has two output amplifiers Electron Multiply
47. ent will switch to the first filter in the schedule Filter 1 in our case An image will be captured for this filter The instrument will switch to the second filter in the schedule Filter 42 in our case An image will be captured for this filter The imaging schedule is repeated until the beginning of the next hour when dark frames are captured on the two filters Steps 4 7 are repeated until the sun rises above 12 at which point the system will transition to the Standby state The instrument is now reset and the camera cooler disabled The system stays in a Standby state until the sun falls below 12 as which point the camera s cooler is enabled and the system waits for it to cool to operational temperature oteps 4 11 will repeat indefinitely until the user presses the Stop button on the Home tab of the ribbon toolbar 70 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 10 irouolesnootina This section contains solutions to common problems that occur while using Synopticx or setting up Synopticx 10 1 My CCD camera is not detected in Synopticx This can be caused by a number of things depending on the type of camera you are using The first step is to verify that the device driver for your camera is properly installed 1 Navigate to the Windows device manager e Right click My Computer click Manage and then click Device Manager 2 Verify that your camera doesn t have any driver errors or conflicts e lf your camera is list
48. entific At this point they can either choose to send the error report or close the program without sending the error report When Synopticx is configured to automatically restart after a crash these settings allow Synopticx to either Automatically send or Do not send the error reports and then restart the application without any user intervention 2 Start a schedule mode acquisition after restarting This option will automatically start a scheduled acquisition after the application restarts This is equivalent to the user clicking the Connect button and then the Run Schedule button The Contact Name and Contact Email fields allow Keo Scientific to contact you regarding any error reports that you send either manually or automatically during a restart Without this information Keo Scientific will not know who sent the error report and be unable to follow up regarding your issues 38 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 7 2 Site Setup The Site Setup dialog contains information pertinent to the location of the imager and can be accessed with the Site Setup button on the Setup tab The Geographic Parameters are extremely important since they are used to calculate the sun and moon positions Site ID and Imager ID are used for your reference only as a way of distinguishing between data collected from multiple Site Identification imagers at the same geographic location Site ID CALGARY As mentioned above the Geographic Paramet
49. ers are used to calculate the current sun and moon ephemeris which are used to determine when to automatically start stop system operation Imager ID PIXIS1 Geographic Parameters Latitude 51 045 Latitudes can be in the range of 90 to 90 negative indicates a southern latitude and longitudes should be entered in the range of 180 to 4 180 negative indicates a Pressure mb western longitude Longitude 114 063 Elevation ft 3438 Temperature C eun and Moon Ephemeris Limits is where you will set your desired ephemeris limits Checking the Ignore Lunar Position checkbox will tell the system to disregard the moon position Max Solar Elevation deg 12 00 parameters and only use the sun s position Sun and Moon Ephemeris Limits Ignore Lunar Position Typical values for Max Solar Elevation are shown below Civil Twilight 6 Max Lunar Phase 0 100 50 00 Nautical Twilight 5 1612 Astronomical Twilight 12 to 18 Max Lunar Elevation deg 12 00 Setting this value to 90 will result in continuous operation Figure 27 Site Setup Dialog Synopticx will automatically stop data acquisition when the following Boolean formula evaluates as TRUE Current Solar Elevation Max Solar Elevation OR Current Lunar Elevation gt Max Lunar Elevation AND Current Lunar Phase gt Max Lunar Phase In other words e When the Ignore Lunar Position option is enabled data acq
50. f It performs a linear stretch of the histogram to fit the raw data to the full dynamic range of your display device Due to the large dynamic range available from the camera typically 16bits it is very common for the signal to be dim under normal display situations Using the equalize option will stretch the image to be displayed using the full available range 34 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Figure 24 Raw left and Equalized right Comparison In the example images above the raw data has a bit depth of 16bits which has a maximum count value of 65 535 but the maximum signal level in the data is only around 16 300 When this data is displayed it appears dim because only 25 of the full range is being used To better visualize this data it can be stretched to fill the full display range Important Information This feature only affects how data is displayed on the screen All data is saved to disk without any modifications 6 9 4 2 The 5 95 Crop Button This button enables a mode where the histogram is cropped at both ends to remove any hot or cold spots also known as salt amp pepper noise This button will be disabled until the Equalize option is enabled A hot pixel is one where the pixel is stuck on at will always have the maximum count value If the rest of your data is well below the saturation of the sensor these hot pixels will prevent the Equalize function from working since they are detected as th
51. f these bytes are 89 53 59 4E 44 41 54 OD OA A valid SYNDAT file will always start with these 9 bytes B3 Header Version The next four 4 bytes of the file form the header version If the size of the header ever changes then this version will be incremented The version is stored as a zero padded two digit number so that it is readable when opening the SYNDAT file in a text editor For example version 1 of the header would be stored in the fle as 30 31 OD OA where 30 is the hexadecimal representation of O and 31 is the hexadecimal representation of 1 B4 Header Immediately following the header version chunk is the header itself This chunk starts with HEADER and ends with DATA The size of the header is determined by the header version and indicates where the Data chunk starts For example a SYNDAT file with a version 1 header will have the data chunk starting at byte 512 Any unused space in the header between the last entry and the DATA entry is filled with zeros Size of Header bytes L3 d eer 1 912 Appendix B SYNDAT File Specification 19 The header itself contains information about the acquisition settings used to capture that data Each entry has a name and value and is terminated with a carriage return line feed pair OD OA For example the filter label would be stored as Filter Label 630011441454265 1 B5 Data The data stored in the file starts at the byte specified by the version of
52. ge positions for the next exposure 7 7 Continuous and Acquire Mode Acquisition Configuration When using Continuous and Acquire modes the settings to use for these acquisitions are configured from the Acquisition Configuration dialog This dialog can be accessed using the drop down portion of the Run Continuous and Run Acquire buttons on the Home tab Run Run Stop Schedule FINA Schedule Continuous Acquire Arquisiti Figure 47 Edit Acquisition Configuration Figure 48 Edit Acquisition Configuration Run Continuous Run Acquire The Acquisition Configuration dialog is used to configure the Continuous and Acquire mode acquisitions Section 7 oettings Dialogs 53 The Acquisition Configuration dialog is organized into three sections 1 Camera Settings 2 Acquisition Settings and 3 File Saving Settings For Continuous mode acquisitions the File Saving Settings will be disabled 1 Camera Settings Camera Selection Description PI Virtual Camera ADC Settings Readout Amplifier Normal Readout Rate 2 MHz Controller Gain 1 Bit Depth 16 Camera Temperature Setpoint 2C 70 0 Never disable cooler 3 File Saving Settings Root Path D 5ynopticxlpata Filename 2 Acquisition Settings Filter 1 5577L1441254262 w Exposure ms 1500 Binning Number of Shutter Control Exposures 10 Internal Shutter Disabled Open 1x1 Sh
53. ger than 200 seconds lod MEN O In this version the dark frame acquisition logic was overhauled to prevent a dark frame sequence from trying to start while another was already underway Also added the keyboard shortcut Ctrl Alt D to manually trigger a crash report This should only be used when advised by Keo Scientific technical support ieee VERSION Tels This version fixes a few problems with logging errors that occur during system operation Section 1 Introduction 9 dace WE SO Tb Updated to the latest PVCAM library which claims to have fixed the ongoing issue of Princeton CCDs getting stuck reading out an image lug Version Ts 1 25 This version fixes a bug introduced in the previous version where changing filter exposure times does not actually update them in the schedule An application crash caused by errors in the filterwheel instrument report was also fixed lest SORSIO Td Version 1 1 24 changed the behavior when editing the filter setup Previously the schedule would be cleared every time the filter setup dialog was closed with the OK button This resulted in having to recreate the schedule frequently when making small changes to the filters As of this version the schedule is only cleared if the changes made to the filter setup would actually invalidate the schedule For example if using an AIRGLOW mode schedule changing filter exposure times in the filter setup dialog will NOT invalidate the schedule In fact the on
54. he Root Directory as configured in Data Output dialog e g D Data lt YEAR gt The year the acquisition started in format YYYY e g 2015 MONTH The month the acquisition started in format MM e g 11 lt DAY gt The day the acquisition started in format DD e g 05 lt SITEID gt The Site ID as configured in Site Setup dialog e g YYC lt DATE gt The date the acquisition started in format YYYYMMDD e g 20151105 TIME The time the acquisition started in format HHmmSS e g 191254 LABEL The Filter Label as configured in Filter Setup e g 6300 DARK Optional DARK will be appended to the filename for all dark frames lt EXT gt The file extension for the datatype as configured in Data Output dialog e g png For example data that was acquired on 2015 11 05 at 19 12 54 with filter 6300 would be stored to D Data 2015 11 05 YYC_ 20151105 191254 6300 syndat 444 FAlter Setup Depending on the type of instrument you may have only one filter or you may have a filterwheel with multiple filters Synopticx allows for you to configure each of these filters with a selection of settings specific to that filter This can be done using the Filter Setup dialog see Section 7 4 Each filter that is installed in the instrument must be added and configured here before it can be added to the acquisition schedule The settings configured here will be used during a Sc
55. he values from the raw image data Any image display options that are enabled that change the display values of the pixels Equalize and or 5 95 Crop will not affect the values displayed on these graphs The scale of the graphs will however be affected 63 2 Ihe Zoom Group This group of buttons is for controlling the level of zoom on the preview image cO e AS Mee Qe a E Zoom Zoom ZoomTo Zoom Zoom In Out Selection To Fit 1 1 Figure 19 Zoom Group Buttons 6 3 2 1 The Zoom In and Zoom Out Buttons These buttons will zoom in or out of the image by a factor of two each time they are clicked Important Information For finer control of the zoom you can use the mouse Simply press and hold both the left and right mouse button and then drag right or left to zoom in or out respectively 6 3 2 2 The Zoom lo Selection Button This button will zoom the preview image to the currently selected region If there is no region currently selected this button will be disabled To select a region simply left click and hold on the first corner of your desired selection drag to the second corner and release This will outline the region in a slowly moving marquee selection Ts LEFT GUGK Figure 20 Selecting a Region 32 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 6 3 2 3 he Zoom lo Fit Button This button will zoom out of the image until it fully fills the preview window 6 3 2 4 he Zoom 1 1 Button This button
56. he instrument settings as previously configured otarting any acquisition by using the Run Schedule Run Continuous or Run Acquire buttons will automatically connect to and configure the instrument before starting the acquisition The Connect button on the Home tab can also be used to manually command the system to connect to and configure the devices without starting an acquisition afterwards After manually connecting to the instrument Synopticx will stay connected until it is commanded to disconnect with the Disconnect button Important Information Upon completing an acquisition Synopticx will always return to its pre acquisition connection state If the system was connected before the user started an acquisition it will remain connected after the acquisition completes Likewise if the system was disconnected before the user started an acquisition it will disconnect automatically upon completing the acquisition oince the connecting process can take 30 seconds or more up to 20 minutes if a device requires cooling it is often desirable to manually connect to the instrument first so that each acquisition does not have to run through the connection process before acquiring data Manually connecting to the instrument before starting an acquisition has several benefits Several of these are listed below e t allows you to see the current camera and filter wheel temperatures before running an acquisition e t prevents Synopticx fr
57. hedule Mode acquisition The other acquisition modes Continuous and Acquire only use the filter labels defined here to provide a means of selecting a filter from the Continuous Acquisition Configuration dialog see Section 7 7 Section 4 Operational Overview 21 Important Information Changing exposure times when using the Synchronized schedule mode see Section 4 1 1 2 will result in the acquisition schedule being invalidated This will require you to re configure the schedule using the Acquisition Schedule dialog ouccessfully configuring the filter settings will allow access to the Acquisition Schedule Setup dialog Access to this dialog is blocked until the filters have been configured 4 45 Acquistion schedule The final piece of information Synopticx needs before being able to run a Schedule Mode acquisition is the order in which to collect data from the filters This can be configured using the Acquisition Schedule Setup dialog see Section O This dialog allows you to configure the schedule mode Free Run or Synchronized when to capture dark data and the actual acquisition schedule Refer to Section 4 1 1 for more information regarding the schedule mode options and Section O for more information about using the Acquisition ochedule Setup dialog 4 5 Connecting Before Synopticx can start collecting data from the instrument it must connect to and configure the various devices that make up the instrument It does this using t
58. his section will only describe the Synopticx installation process 3 1 Installing Synopticx Synopticx is distributed by installation CD as well as digital download from our FTP site The installation procedure is the same for both locate the installation file and then run the installer application Important Information Please ensure you have installed the device drivers for your instrument before installing Synopticx 1 Insert the Synopticx installation CD into your computer or locate the downloaded installer 2 Launch the Synopticx Installer version exe application version will denote the version of the installer e g Synopticx Installer 1 2 1 32 exe 3 The installer will walk you through the installation process By default the installer will add an application shortcut to your desktop that looks like the one to the left There will also be an entry in your Start Menu under Start Menu gt All Programs gt Keo Scientific Ltd gt Synopticx gt Synopticx Either of these can be used to launch the application 3 2 Removing Synopticx Keo Synopticx can be removed using the normal application uninstallation process in Windows Navigate to Add Remove Programs or Programs and Features for newer version of Windows in the Control Panel select Synopticx from the list and choose the Uninstall option from the top menu bar Control Panel Add Remove Programs Or Control Panel Program
59. his will allow Synopticx to automatically start without any user intervention Section 8 Advanced Topics 59 9 1 1 Windows Start Menu Startup Folder The easiest way to configure Windows to automatically start an application after logging in is to place a shortcut to the program you wish to launch in the Startup folder of the Start Menu The path to the startup folder differs depending on your version of Windows In the below paths USERNAME is a placeholder for the user account Synopticx will be run under Windows XP C Documents and Settings SUSERNAMES Start Menu Programs Startup Windows 7 or 8 C Users SUSERNAME AppData Roaming Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs Startup Simply place your modified shortcut the one with the run switch at the end into the Startup folder and Windows will automatically run it when it logs into the current user account 8 1 2 Windows ask Scheduler This is a more advanced method of auto running Synopticx upon user login 1 Open Windows Task Scheduler Windows XP Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Scheduled Tasks Windows 7 8 Start gt Control Panel gt System and Security gt Administrative Tools gt Task Scheduler 2 On the left click on and expand the Task Scheduler Library folder 3 You should now see a list of all the currently scheduled tasks as well as some sub folders for organizing tasks Many Windows programs use the task scheduler to automate vari
60. il will display the data from that thumbnail instead of the latest or currently acquiring data 9 9 Region 5 Thumbnails This region displays the most recently acquired data for each filter installed in the system Selecting one of these thumbnails will load the data into the Preview Thumbnail region 4 and allow for some basic data manipulation from the ribbon toolbar see Section 6 3 for more information The selected data will remain in the Preview Thumbnail until it is deselected by clicking anywhere else on the GUI 26 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b OG ihemniboon loobar The ribbon toolbar is what you use to interact with Synopticx It has three main Tabs and each tab has a variety of different Buttons which are grouped into Groups The application Orb is accessible from any tab and provides easy access to the Project Management group functions The following sections provide details of the functions of each button in each group on each tab Orb Tabs Buttons Setup Image Display Debugging _ New Project d Save Project As Save Open Connect Disconne Run Run Stop Project Project Schedule Continuous Acquire Figure 4 Overview of the Ribbon Toolbar 6 1 The Home lab The Home tab is the default tab where system wide operations can be performed You can work with project files connect or disconnect from the instrument and run stop an acquisition Home Setup Image Display 3 _ New Project S
61. ill automatically connect and run the schedule mode acquisition Using the regular shortcut the one installed by default with Synopticx will not automatically start any acquisitions 2 Start Synopticx from a script or the command line Simply add the run switch after the path to the executable and Synopticx will automatically connect and run the schedule mode 10 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b In addition to the above changes Synopticx will now use an HTTP connection to send the error reports to Keo Scientific When this feature was originally added it was configured to use SMTP email to send the reports but this proved to be unreliable 1 2 18 Version 1 1 21 Version 1 1 21 fixes a bug in the auto detect routine when using an older instrument that used the original instrument report specification 1 2 14 Version 1 1 20 Version 1 1 20 added a new automatic error reporting system When Synopticx crashes the user is presented with an error report and has the option to send it to Keo Scientific or close the application The error report automatically collects various information about the crash and the user s environment and with this information Keo Scientific can easily determine the cause of the crash Information that is included in the error report is e oynopticx system log file e Synopticx project log file e Synopticx project file e Memory mini dump this is a snapshot of the Synopticx system memory at the time of
62. ing and Conventional Changing this option will affect the available options for Readout Rate and Pre Amplifier Gain Setpoint The temperature setpoint controls the operating temperature of the camera Below is a list of default temperatures for the iXon EMCCDs Typical temperatures may be achieved on some but not all devices Table 3 iXon EMCCD Setpoints ProEM Version Default Guaranteed Typical 1024x1024 80 C 80 C 80 C ambient room temperature must be 20 C or less Enable Cooler This option lets you disable the cooler on the camera Synopticx will automatically enable disable the cooler as required Most applications should leave this option enabled Fan Speed The iXon has a multi speed capable fan In Keo instruments it can run at high speed all the time which will produce better cooling performance Low speed can be used for vibration sensitive experiments Enable EM Gain If using the Electron Multiplying Output Amplifier enabling this option will enable the EM gain set in EM Gain Level setting Enable High Gain Levels This option unlocks EM Gain Levels higher than 255 EM Gain Level This sets the amount of EM gain to use 46 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 9 4 2 Arges VF Photometer Additional Settings The Arges VF photometer requires a few additional settings for configuring the zoom lens Zoom Lens Controller COM Port COML w Advanced FoV Characterization File
63. ing up the Application Settings Enter the Application Settings dialog using the Application Settings button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar 1 Select the Normal option for Logging Level This will log normal system events to the System Log file In the event of technical difficulties change this to the Debug setting to enable extra information to be logged 2 Enter a System Log Path F System Logs This is the directory Synopticx will use to store all oystem Logs 3 The remaining settings in this dialog can be left as is for the purposes of this tutorial system Log Options Logging Level Normal System Log Path F System Logs Startup Options Show Startup Splash Screen On Startup Load last loaded project tl Crash Recovery and Reporting Application restart required to apply Automatically restart Synopticx after a crash Crash report delivery options Automaticall y send d Start a schedule mode acquisition after restarting Contact name Trond Trondsen Contact email support i amp keoscientific com Figure 53 Application Settings otep 3 Setting up your location Now we will setup your site parameters by clicking on the Site Setup button on the Setup tab of the ribbon toolbar 1 Enter LONGYEARBYEN for Site ID 2 Enter IMAGER1 for Imager ID 62 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 3 Enter 78 2 for Latitude e Since this is a northern latitude between O and 90 this
64. irst select a cadence for the filter Cadence s A Bar nm t 2000 ms 10 ha Figure 45 Filter Cadence 52 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b The cadence is the time between exposure start time of the same filter e g a cadence of 20 seconds would indicate that every 20 seconds a new exposure will start on that filter After selecting a cadence the colored square becomes activated and you can now drag and drop as you would in Free Run mode o capture dark frames At the beginning of every night Every hour At the end of every night Available filters Schedule Moan i AECE 1 B Figure 46 Synchronized Acquisition Schedule In the example above a synchronized acquisition schedule has been created with the following filter cadences and start times Filter 1 30s Cadence Os and 30s start time Filter 2 60s Cadence 4s start time Filter 3 30s Cadence 15s and 45s start time Filter 4 30s Cadence 25s and 55s start time Filter 5 60s Cadence 35s start time Filter 6 60s Cadence 20s start time While placing filters in the schedule in Synchronized mode you may notice that the time period allotted for a given filter is larger than the exposure you have configured in the filter settings for example in Figure 46 above filter 2 has a 5000ms exposure time but is allocated 7 seconds of time in the schedule This is to provide time for the filterwheel to chan
65. isabled Open Readout Rate 2 MHz i External Shutter Logic Controller Gain 1 Shutter y Bit Depth 16 Camera Temperature Setpoint C 70 0 Mever disable cooler Figure 33 Sentry Camera Settings Camera Type This specifies the type of camera to use Changing this option will change the options available The Auto Detect Instrument function will automatically populate this setting for newer instruments Legacy instruments will require manual selection of the correct settings Please refer to the camera manufacturer s user manual for detailed information about the different settings available The following sections provide a brief description of the setting and how they affect Synopticx operation 7 3 4 1 1 Princeton Instruments PXIS CCD Settings The PIXIS CCD provides the following settings Camera Name This will display all of cameras available for use by Synopticx Any Princeton camera that has been configured with the RSConfig utility see Appendix As will be listed here Readout Amplifier Some PIXIS CCDs have multiple readout amplifiers e g Normal or Low Noise Select the one to use for all data acquisition here Readout Rate Depending on the Readout Amplifier selected there may be multiple different Readout Rates available Generally a faster readout rate will produce higher levels of noise in the data Controller Gain Depending on the Readout Amplifier selected there may be multiple diffe
66. ivive Foereku Sepe SUM peie vie aaa eed vi a ar Gi aro b o 15 A Opera lona LOVE Wise edicedutetuvetu eddie tina dated editt 16 Al ACQUISIION MODOS iia 16 4 1 1 oeaoiescc T ib 16 4 1 2 Condes VIO en LU EL i E M M Tu Al AU e m 18 4 2 Creating and Managing Projects eseseeeeeeeeeee nennen nennen nnne nnn nnn nnn nnn nnns 18 Z3 Applicaton Settings ias 18 MEN reis COMMGUNATOM DEREN add 19 4 4 1 A TU Tm 19 4 4 2 Ii Strarmme n SOT OS stedetrestda ra bebat i AS 19 4 4 3 aires OO APRA PR MES pe OE O O 19 4 4 4 ASAS AAA ee PP Pon O PO Oo nen ee ene ee ey entero eT 20 AO ACUS Cb US 21 AiO A 21 AO Sanno an Acquisition 22 4 7 Stopping an Acquisition ccooccoocccocccocccanccanocanocoronanonorocronnrnonrrrnrnrrnrnnrrnrrrnrrrnnrrnarenaness 22 AS DISCOS ts Ee 23 S User IMteinace OVE VIEW RENI LINT 24 5 1 Regon t The RIBDON TOOIDSF aia aa 24 IV Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 52 RHegon2 General Ino mal s cest seo asa 24 5 3 Regon 9 Operating Stat siiis ER RC RA RR eU UR Ru HE ERU RH E VR E 25 5 4 Reglon 4 Preview Thumbriallss sse euet EE Eu EXE P YE POTE UE VU UE cO MEE Ee EE dp 25 59 ire ecrs Mano Pe 25 su dslecesBooo pu t dheddantohesoiniehesoa Meco ETETE 26 6 1 WO MOMO A OD 26 6 1 1 ae role Ei 0 0 10 ARO aaa a A 26 62 TmelnstumentSomecio n rosita peo cete ME epis a6 PO epa ds 21 Oso Wl ACCUM SIUIO FN OUD at oil co ats 2f ble WMG GUD TaD ean 28 ero MEEIQ
67. ly thing that will invalidate an AIRGLOW mode schedule is deleting a filter from the setup In AURORA mode increasing the length of an exposure will invalidate the schedule but decreasing one will not Tad VES daos Fixes a bug where exposure times greater than 65 535ms in the continuous acquire mode dialogs would not be saved correctly used o a s Version 1 1 22 adds support for automatically restarting Synopticx after an application crash as well as automatically starting a scheduled acquisition upon starting or restarting See Section 7 1 3 for full details on the automatic restart options available and Section 8 1 for details on automating Synopticx A schedule mode acquisition can be automatically started after Synopticx loads by specifying the run switch on the command line This can be accomplished in 2 ways 1 Create an application shortcut to Synopticx and add the run switch at the end of the Target path a First navigate to the Synopticx application executable typically C Program Files Keo Scientificisynopticxisynopticx exe b Right click gt Send To gt Desktop create shortcut This places a shortcut to the application on your desktop C Now navigate to the newly created shortcut on your desktop right click and choose Properties d Inthe Target field place your cursor at the very end and add run note the space before the e Click OK Now when you use this shortcut to launch Synopticx it w
68. n Thank you for purchasing Keo Synopticx for use with your Keo Scientific instrumentation As of the time of writing Keo Synopticx supports the Keo Sentry scientific imager and the Keo Arges VF photometer systems When used together Synopticx and instrumentation system they form an easy to use highly versatile data acquisition system Through an intuitive graphical user interface GUI Synopticx allows you to define an imaging schedule which will be used for automated capture of data This involves coordinating the selection of the proper filter setting the proper exposure settings and shutter operation Optionally the positions of the Sun and Moon can be used to automatically start and stop data acquisition when certain position thresholds are exceeded If at any point you have a question about Synopticx or need technical support to resolve an issue please don t hesitate to contact us using the contact information found in Section 11 1 1 Terminology Throughout this user manual many different terms are used to describe different parts of your Keo Instrumentation System These are defined in this section Camera The CCD or EMCCD camera that is integrated into your Instrument There are several different tyoes of cameras used on Keo Instruments and not all Instruments have a Camera Ephemeris The positions of the sun and moon that are used by the schedule mode of operation to automatically start and stop image acquisition Exter
69. n and close for every exposure Disabled Open The internal shutter is held open while Synopticx is connected to the camera Disabled Closed The internal shutter is held closed while Synopticx is connected to the camera External Shutter Logic Most Keo instruments have an external capping shutter normally located at the front of the instrument between the front lens and the filterwheel and it is normally controlled by the camera using the External Trigger Cable provided with the instrument see the instrument s user manual for details on this cable and where to connect it When this cable is attached the camera can directly control the capping shutter There are two typical settings that could be used Shutter The capping shutter will open and close for every exposure Logic 1 The capping shutter is held open while Synopticx is connected to the camera Invert External Shutter Logic The ProEM EMCCD does not have a Logic 0 option for External Shutter Logic Instead an option is provided to invert the External Shutter Logic This option should be used when it is desired to have the External Shutter Logic be Logic O To do this set the External Shutter Logic setting to Logic 1 and then enable the Invert External Shutter Logic option Important Information When the camera is configured with Logic 1 for the External Shutter Logic and the Invert External Shutter Logic option enabled Synopticx will revert to using the filterwh
70. nal Shutter The Keo capping shutter typically located at the front of the device before the Filterwheel Note that not all Keo instruments have External Shutters Filterwheel The part of the instrument that selects which filter is currently inserted in the optical path This includes the wheel itself as well as any attached electronics Front Lens The lens located on the front of your imager There are several different lenses available ranging from all sky to narrow field of views Some Keo instruments may not have a Front Lens Imaging Optics The Keo designed optics that link the Camera Filter Wheel and Front Lens together Instrument This refers to your complete Keo System including the Camera Filter Wheel Imaging Optics and any other components that make up the system Internal Shutter This is the shutter that is built into your Camera Note that not all Cameras have an internal shutter and not all Keo Instruments have a Camera 8 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 1 2 Changes from Previous Versions Changes from previous versions are briefly described here from newest to oldest release For a full listing of revisions refer to the changelog txt file found on our FTP site lud werom 2a Version 1 2 1 further refines the features added in version 1 2 0 and fixes a few bugs Notable changes include e Removed Project Log All logging is now done to the System Log which is configured through the Application Settings dialog
71. napshot of what is currently happening 18 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Important Information This mode does not save any data to disk All acquired data is streamed to the preview display thumbnail and then discarded Data acquisition will occur at as fast of a rate the camera or instrument will allow based on the settings configured in the Continuous Acquisition Settings dialog The maximum frame rate that is achievable is dependent on the capabilities of the instrument Important Information Synopticx is not designed for the video frame rates some cameras can achieve using a smaller region of interest Only full sensor readout is supported 4 1 3 Acquire Mode Acquire mode is similar to continuous mode with the exception that it allows you to save the acquired data to disk and only capture a pre defined amount of data after which point acquisition is halted This mode is commonly used during initial experimentation while trying to determine the optimal acquisition settings to use for each filter You can define those settings and run an acquisition for several frames then tweak your settings and run it again You will very quickly be able to determine the ideal acquisition settings to use for ochedule mode 4 2 Creating and Managing Projects Synopticx uses an XML based configuration file project file to store the various settings that have been configured These project files have a syn file extension and can
72. ncludes a header that contains the following specifics of the data contained in the file Site Information Site ID latitude longitude Filter Information Filter number filter wavelength filter label filter description Acquisition Information Gate time number of gates field of view and shutter open closed When running in Schedule Mode data for each filter is saved to its own SYNDAT file Additionally each hour of observation will be stored into a new SYNDAT file For example if acquiring with all 6 filters then you will get 6 SYNDAT files created per hour one per filter Dark data is also saved independently from normal data so you will get additional SYNDAT files for each filter for each dark data collection See Section 7 6 2 for more details on dark data capture 7 5 Filter Setup The Filter Setup dialog is accessed with the Filter Setup button on the Setup tab and is where you will configure each of the filters you have installed in your filter wheel or if using a single filter system just the one The filter number first column on the left corresponds to the physical location in the filter wheel These filter settings will be used when data is acquired for each filter during a Schedule Mode acquisition Depending on your type of instrument the settings available for each filter will differ To add a filter click the Add Filter button This will open the Add a New Filter dialog where you can enter the relevant parameters
73. nopticx will result in the Acquisition Configuration dialog being shown Any further presses of this button will immediately start an acquisition using the previously used settings To access the Acquisition Configuration dialog to change your acquisition settings select the lower drop down portion of the button and select the Edit Acquisition Configuration button Run Run iun Schedule Continuous Acquire Figure 12 Edit Acquisition Configuration See Section 7 7 for more information on the Acquisition Configuration dialog 6 1 5 4 The Stop Button This button will stop any currently running acquisition and return Synopticx to the Stopped state If data is currently being acquired the current acquisition will be completed before the system is stopped 6 2 The Setup Tab The Setup tab is where the various operational parameters of Synopticx can be modified It is broken into two groups System and Project Settings System settings are persistent between different projects while the settings found in the Project Settings group are saved into the project XML file and are unique to an individual project Home Setup Image Display WA p wal x 10 3 Application Site Instrument Data Filter Acquisition Settings i Settings Output Setup Schedule Figure 13 The Setup Tab Section 6 The Ribbon Toolbar 29 Each of the buttons in these groups launches a corresponding dialog box where you can edit the various settings Details
74. nter the desired exposure time for the acquisition Binning Enter the desired camera binning for the acquisition Number of Exposures Acquire Mode only Enter the number of exposures to capture before ending the Acquire Mode acquisition This setting is not available for Continuous Mode acquisitions Shutter Enter the shutter mode to use for the acquisition Normal The shutter will be opened and closed for each exposure This setting will override any External Shutter Logic settings that try to force the shutter closed Disabled Open The shutter will be held open for the duration of the acquisition Disabled Closed The shutter will be held closed for the duration of the acquisition oection 7 oettings Dialogs DO 2 2 Arges VF Photometer Acquisition Settings When the instrument is configured as an Arges VF Photometer the settings presented will be as shown below 2 Acquisition Settings Filter i 5577L1441254962 Y Field of View 5 0 T Gate Time 100 ms tl Number of Gates 10 T Shutter Normal i Figure 51 Arges VF Photometer Acquisition Settings Filter Select the filter to acquire data with The list of filters is created using the information entered in the Filter Setup dialog Field of View Select the desired field of view for the acquisition Gate Time Select the desired gate time for the acquisition Number of Gates Acquire Mode only Enter the number of gates to capture before ending the Acq
75. nternal Shutter 2 Filterwheel Readout Amplifier Normal Disabled Open ort acum Readout Rate 2 MHz COM Port COM1 Advanced External Shutter Logic Controller Gain Shutter Number of Filter Positions 6 Bit Depth 3 Temperature Control pe Camera Temperature Controller Type Omega CNi32 Series Setpoint 27 70 0 _ Never disable cooler COM Port COM2 Advanced Setpoint C 25 0 PES Operating Mode Heating Figure 28 Instrument Settings Dialog Sentry Imager 1 3 1 Instrument selection In this section the Model Configuration and Version of your Keo instrument should be configured In most situations these will be automatically populated using the Auto Detect Instrument button at the very top This button will launch the Auto Detect wizard which will search for any attached instruments Upon finding an instrument it will automatically configure most of the settings 1 Instrument Selection Model Sentry Imager he Configuration Mylti Position d Version Standard Us Figure 29 Instrument Selection Section of Instrument Settings Dialog 40 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Important Information Older legacy instruments do not have the features required to fully configure Synopticx with the Auto Detect Instrument feature After the auto detect process completes the user will still have to manually enter a few settings If the Auto Detect Instrument feature d
76. nts FTP server at ftp ftp princetoninstruments com Public Software Official PVCAM 2 Install PVCAM A3 2 Register the camera Synopticx won t be able to detect and use your camera until it has been registered with the system 1 Start the Rsconfig utility lt can be found in Start Menu gt All Programs gt Princeton Instruments gt Hsconfig Alternatively it can be found in the program files for Princeton Instruments located at C Program Files Princeton Instruments Nrsconfig exe Important Information If you are running Microsoft Windows Vista or 7 you must run RSConfig as an administrator to give it write permissions for your system directory This can be accomplished by right clicking on the application and selecting Run as Administrator If the Run as Administrator option is not available choose Properties and then the Compatibility tab Under the Privilege Level section check the Run this program as an administrator box and then click OK Then just start the application as you would normally and it will automatically be run with administrator privileges Appendix A Device Driver Installation fe 2 The RSConfig utility is shown in Figure 63 below If your camera s drivers have been properly installed and the camera is plugged in and turned on it will show up under the list of cameras Feel free to keep the default name Camera1 or change it to something of your choosing After you are
77. oEM EMCCD normally has two readout ports Multiplying and Conventional Select the one to use for all data acquisition here Readout Rate Depending on the Readout Port selected there may be multiple different Readout Rates available Generally a faster readout rate will produce higher levels of noise in the data Controller Gain Depending on the Readout Amplifier selected there may be multiple different Controller Gains that can be used Normally the highest gain should be used unless you have too much signal for the higher gains Refer to the camera s user manual for details Readout Mode The ProEM EMCCD can operate in one of two readout modes Full Frame or Frame Transfer Refer to the camera s user manual for details on these different modes Setpoint The temperature setpoint controls the operating temperature of the camera Below is a list of default temperatures for the different ProEM EMCCDs Typical temperatures may be achieved on some but not all devices Table 2 ProEM EMCCD Setpoints ProEM Version Default Guaranteed Typical 1024x1024 55 C 556407 65 C ambient room temperature must be 20 C or less Internal Shutter This option specifies the behavior of the shutter that is installed in the front of the ProEM EMCCD unit This setting should be Disabled Open for most if not all instrument configurations Below is a brief description of each option Normal The internal shutter will ope
78. oes not work then the settings can be manually configured Model Synopticx currently supports the following models of instrument e Keo Sentry Scientific Imager e Keo Arges VF Photometer Configuration Each model of instrument can have the option of having a single filter or a multi filter filterwheel Version New versions of our instruments can bring new functionality that Synopticx needs to know about oelect the version of your instrument here As each of the above settings are changed the rest of the dialog sections will update to present the options for the instrument 7 3 2 Hiterwheel Shutter Controller Depending on whether your instrument Configuration is Single or Multi Position this section will provide different settings as shown below Filterwheel Shutter Controller COM Port COM1 v Advanced COM Port COM1 v Advanced Number of Filter Positions amp v 1 Figure 30 Filterwheel Section of Figure 31 Shutter Controller Section of Instrument Settings Dialog Instrument Settings Dialog COM Port This is the serial port to use for communications with the device The Auto Detect Instrument function will automatically configure this upon detecting the instrument Number of Filter Positions The number of physical filter positions on the instrument The Auto Detect Instrument function will automatically configure this provided the instrument is not considered legacy Otherwise manually select the number of filter
79. om issuing a filter wheel reset before starting every acquisition If you are using the continuous and acquire modes of operation waiting 30 seconds before every acquisition quickly becomes a waste of time 22 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b e t provides an easy way to check if your instrument connection settings are correct The connection process will fail and provide an error if the settings are not correct When Synopticx connects to the instrument it performs the following steps 1 Synopticx opens a connection to each of the devices that make up the instrument 2 The instrument is configured using the instrument settings see Section 7 3 for more information on instrument settings 3 Any devices requiring cooling have their coolers enabled At this point they will start cooling to their operational temperature 4 Ifthe instrument has a filter wheel it will now perform a homing cycle whereby it searches for the home position This can take up to 30 seconds to complete After the homing cycle is complete the system is considered connected This is indicated by the Connect button appearing in the pressed state see Section 6 1 2 Important Information Even though the system is connected the background color of the Operating Status window will remain red since there is no current acquisition in progress 4 6 Starting an Acquisition There are three different acquisition modes available in Synoptic
80. on each of the settings dialogs can be found in Section 7 6 3 he Image Display lab The Image Display tab allows you to manipulate the Preview Thumbnail to better visualize the data being displayed This buttons on this tab are organized into four functional groups which are detailed in the following sections Home Setup Image Display x dex NERIS A TE m d a aia Aet i VN Show Image Show Image Zoom Zoom ZoomTo Zoom Zoom Show Clear Center on Equalize 5 95 Apply to Histogram Cross Section In Out Selection ToFit 1 1 Information Selection Selection Crop Thumbnails Figure 14 The Image Display Tab ln j Important Information The Image Display tab will only be visible when your instrument has a camera used to capture images 6 3 1 he Image Information Display Group The two buttons in this group toggle the display of two different visualizing tools a A Show Image Show Image Histogram Cross Section Figure 15 Image Information Display Group Buttons 6 3 1 1 The Show Image Histogram Button This button toggles the image histogram on or off This histogram is a representation of the distribution of data values of the currently displayed image As you use the various image display controls the histogram will update to reflect the distribution of new displayed image Histogram Figure 16 Histogram Display 30 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b As you move your
81. ous features auto updates etc so you will likely see many tasks already defined 4 Now click on Create Basic Task in the right Actions panel This will open the Create Basic Task Wizard 5 Give your task a name and click Next For example you might choose Synopticx Auto Run 6 Now choose when you want your task to start We want it to start when you log on so choose the When log on option and click Next Important Information Despite there being a When the computer starts option this will not behave as we want Synopticx will not start properly without the user being logged on first Choose the Start a program option and click Next 8 Now browse for the Synopticx exe executable file This should typically be C Program Files Keo Scientific Synopticx Synopticx exe 9 Inthe Add arguments box enter run and click Next 10 Now you will see a summary screen and can click Finish 11 You should now see your new task listed with the other tasks 60 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 9 Iiutonal This section will provide a tutorial on configuring Synopticx to be used in the following scenario Location Longyearbyen Svalbard Norway Latitude 78 12 North Longitude 15 40 East Elevation 100 feet Temperature 15 C Pressure 1020 mb Instrument Details e Sentry3 manufactured in November 2015 with 6 filter slots of which only 2 are occupied e The instrument is
82. positions in the instrument For Single Position instruments this option will be disabled Important Information Number of Filter Positions is not necessarily the same as the number of installed filters It is common that filterwheels not be fully filled with filters f 3 G Temperature Control Synopticx supports several different temperature controllers and this section allows for configuring which type to control oection 7 oettings Dialogs 41 3 Temperature Control Controller Type Omega CNi32 Series vi COM Port COM2 i Advanced Setpoint C 25 0 T Operating Mode Heating ag Figure 32 Temperature Control Section of Instrument Settings Dialog Controller Type This is the type of controller to use All currently produced instruments use the Omega CNI32 Series temperature controllers Only select the Athena Legacy 16 Series option if you have a very old instrument The Auto Detect Instrument function will automatically detect connected temperature controllers including the Athena type so it is rare that this setting should be changed manually COM Port This is the serial port to use for communications with the temperature controller The Auto Detect Instrument function will automatically configure this upon detecting the instrument Setpoint All Keo Scientific multi filter instruments provide resistive heating to thermally stabilize the filters Some newer models also provide cooling capabilities for use in w
83. rent Controller Gains that can be used Normally the highest gain should be used unless you have too much signal for the higher gains Refer to the camera s user manual for details Setpoint The temperature setpoint controls the operating temperature of the camera Below is a list of default temperatures for the different PIXIS CCDs Typical temperatures may be achieved on some but not all devices oection 7 oettings Dialogs 43 Table 1 PIXIS CCD Setpoints PIXIS Version Default Guaranteed Typical 1024x1024 70 C 70 C 80 C 2048x2048 55 C 55 C 65 C ambient room temperature must be 20 C or less Never disable cooler Select this option to keep the CCD at setpoint temperature at all times This will eliminate the delay waiting to cool the CCD at the start of an acquisition Under normal situations with this option not enabled the CCD will be allowed to warm to ambient temperature when Synopticx enters Standby mode or whenever it disconnects from the instrument Internal Shutter This option specifies the behavior of the shutter that is sometimes installed in the front of the CCD unit Most Keo instruments do not have this shutter installed This setting should be Disabled Open for most if not all instrument configurations Below is a brief description of each option Normal The internal shutter will open and close for every exposure Disabled Open The internal shutter is held open while Synopticx is connect
84. s and Features The latest version of Synopticx can be downloaded from our FTP site ftp ftp keoscientific com using the credentials provided by Keo Scientific at the time of purchase If you have misplaced these credentials please contact support to retrieve them Section 3 Installation T5 3 3 Upgrading Synopticx Your installation of Synopticx can be upgraded to a newer version by running the new installer application The old version will be upgraded automatically as part of the installation process Important Information Your project file will be automatically upgraded if necessary upon launching the new version of Synopticx 16 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 4 Operational Overview After the system has been initially configured Synopticx can run unattended for weeks or even months at a time autonomously acquiring data It will automatically start and stop each night as the sun and moon enter and leave the configured acceptable ranges This section provides a general overview of how to use Synopticx 4 1 Acquisition Modes Synopticx has three acquisition modes Schedule Mode Continuous Mode and Acquire Mode These modes are used to accomplish different tasks Commonly Continuous and Acquire mode are used while determining the settings to use for your imaging schedule exposures These modes provide a very quick and easy way to test many different settings to find the ideal exposure parameters These ideal parameters
85. s integrated into the Arges photometer system requires a USB driver to function properly You can install this driver by following the steps below 1 10 Ensure the counter is powered ON and is connected to the PC via the provided USB cable Upon connecting the counter to the PC you will see a message about the device failing to install correctly This is normal and we will fix this in the next steps Insert the provided Documentation and Utilities CD into your PC and navigate to the DriversNC8855 01 Counter folder Run Device Manager on your PC Navigate to Control Panel gt System gt Device Manager Find the C8855 device in the Other Devices section of Device Manager Double click on the C8855 device to open the Properties page for this device Navigate to the Driver tab and then click the Update Driver button Choose to Browse my computer for driver software and then select the DriversNC8855 01 Counter folder from the Documentation and Utilities CD Click the Next button to install the driver After installation is complete you can verify that the driver installed correctly by looking in Device Manager There should now be a C8855 01 device in the libusb win32 devices section as shown below If the driver did not install correctly disconnect the USB cable and AC adaptor from the counter and then restart these instructions eg EJ H o i E yE a 2l E33410 4047M gt Bluetooth gt x DVD CD ROM gt
86. s provided on the ribbon toolbar Clicking on any button will open the respective settings dialog 7 1 Application Settings The Application Settings dialog can be accessed using the Application Settings button on the Setup tab There are several application settings that can be modified to affect the operation of Synopticx These settings are stored in the Windows Registry rather than in the project file so they are independent of the currently loaded project System Log Options Logging Level Normal System Log Path D System Logs Startup Options Show Startup Splash Screen On Startup Load last loaded project Crash Recovery and Reporting Application restart required to apply Automatically restart Synopticx after a crash Crash report delivery options Automatically send v Start a schedule mode acquisition after restarting Contact name Trond Trondsen Contact email supportikeoscientific com Figure 26 Application Settings Dialog oection 7 oettings Dialogs 37 7 1 7 System Log Options The System Log is provided as a way of logging system operations This can be useful for verifying that there were no errors during a night s acquisitions or as a general way to check up on system operation The System Log can also help Keo Scientific debug any problems you are having with Synopticx If you are encountering any issues in the operation of Synopticx change the Logging Level option to be Debug This will log a
87. s the simpler of the two schedule driven modes In it you simply define the order in which to cycle through the filters As soon as one exposure is complete the filter is changed and the next exposure is started See Section O for more information on setting up the data acquisition schedule in this mode sme some soe a nei noe Figure 1 Example Free Run Acquisition Schedule Section 4 Operational Overview 17 4 1 1 2 Synchronized Mode Synchronized mode is more complex than Free Run mode in that you define the precise start time of each exposure within a one minute period The start times are defined using a cadence for each filter which is simply the period in seconds between exposures of the same filter See Section 7 6 3 for more information on setting up the data acquisition schedule in this mode As an example of this refer to the figure below Filter Cadence Start Times 1 20s Os 20s 40s 2 20s Ds 25S 45s 3 60s 10s 4 60s 13s 5 20s 15s 35s 55s 6 60s 50s 0 sec 5 sec 20 sec 45 sec 50 sec 55 sec Figure 2 Example Synchronized Acquisition Schedule 4 1 2 Qontinuous Mode Continuous mode also commonly referred to as focus mode allows you to continuously capture data using constant exposure and filter settings This mode is most commonly used for focusing an imager since it allows you to get a continuous stream of images in the preview image window It also serves as a quick way to see a s
88. sed to read the image out of the CCD Refer to your CCD s documentation for more information on the bit depths available This value is useful for determining if the selected pixel is close to saturation or not Typical values for this are 16bit 65535 14bit 16383 12bit 4095 Section 6 The Ribbon Toolbar 33 Important Information The Value displayed here is always the value of the raw pixel data If you have enabled any image adjustments that modify the displayed data values e g Equalize and or 5 95 Crop this value will not change 6 3 3 2 The Clear Selection Button This button will clear the currently selected data point It also has the effect of clearing the image cross section displays since a point is no longer selected and hiding the data point information display This button will be disabled if there isn t a currently selected data point 6 3 3 3 The Center on Selection Button This button will shift the image display to center it on the currently selected data point Important Information You can also move around the image by holding down the right mouse button and moving it left right up down 6 3 4 Ihe Image Display Group This group of buttons alters the displayed image to enable better visualization of the data abu u Equalize 5 95 Apply to Crop Thumbnails Figure 23 The Image Display Group Buttons 6 3 4 1 The Equalize button This button toggles the histogram equalization function on and of
89. ser Manual Version 1 2b 4 4 3 1 Image Data Image data will be stored as follows EROOT gt N EY YY Y gt lt MMAN lt DD gt A lt HH gt N lt SLITELD gt lt DATE gt lt TIME gt LABEL DARK lt EXT gt where lt ROOT gt The Root Directory as configured in Data Output dialog e g D Data lt YYYY gt The year the acquisition started in format YYYY e g 2015 MM The month the acquisition started in format MM e g 11 lt DD gt The day the acquisition started in format DD e g 05 HH The hour the acquisition started in format HH e g 19 lt SITEID gt The Site ID as configured in Site Setup dialog e g YYC lt DATE gt The date the acquisition started in format YYYYMMDD e g 20151105 TIME The time the acquisition started in format HHmmSS e g 191254 LABEL The Filter Label as configured in Filter Setup e g 6300 DARK Optional DARK will be appended to the filename for all dark frames lt EXT gt The file extension for the datatype as configured in Data Output dialog e g png For example an image that was acquired on 2015 11 05 at 19 12 54 with filter 6300 would be stored to D Data 2015 11 05 19 YYC_ 20151105 191254 6300 png 4 4 3 2 Count Data Count data will be stored as follows lt ROOT gt lt YYYY gt lt MM gt lt DD gt lt SITELD gt DATES TIME lt LABEL gt DARK lt EXI gt where lt ROOT gt T
90. system is running in any of the three acquisition modes all of the buttons except for the Stop button will be disabled 22297 AH H Run Run Run Schedule Continuous Acquire Figure 10 Acquisition Group Buttons 6 1 5 1 The Run Schedule Button The Run Schedule button starts a regular Schedule Mode acquisition This mode is driven by the schedule and settings defined on the Setup tab Important Information This acquisition mode is disabled until a valid acquisition schedule has been defined 28 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 6 1 3 2 The Run Continuous Button This button starts a continuous mode focus mode acquisition After starting Synopticx the first time you press this button the Acquisition Configuration dialog is presented for you to enter the acquisition settings to use Any further presses of this button will skip the dialog and immediately start imaging with the last used settings To access the Acquisition Configuration dialog to change your acquisition settings select the lower drop down portion of the button and select the Edit Continuous Configuration button ES Run Run Schedule Continu Figure 11 Edit Continuous Configuration See Section 7 7 for more information on the Acquisition Configuration dialog 6 1 3 8 The Run Acquire Button This button starts an acquire mode acquisition As with the Run Continuous button the first time you press this button after starting Sy
91. t being detected by the Auto Detect Instrument feature on the Instrument Settings dialog then it is probably a connection issue 1 Check all physical connections to the instrument to ensure they are properly connected and that there is no damage to any cables Refer to the instrument s setup guide for details 2 Cycle power on the instrument Upon applying power the filter wheel should automatically start searching for the home position oection 10 Troubleshooting 3 After the home position is found use the included SenTest application to test the instrument to ensure it is operating correctly 11 12 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 11 lechnical Support In the event that you need technical support to troubleshoot a problem with Synopticx please don t hesitate to contact us at support keoscientific com If at any point during your Synopticx experience you feel like there is something that could be improved please let us know and we ll see what we can do to incorporate your suggestions into our product Appendix A Device Driver Installation 13 Appendix A Device Driver Installation Before installing Keo Synopticx it is important that you install all of the necessary device drivers for your instrument These device drivers are used by Synopticx to communicate and control the various components of the instrument The user manual for your instrument should indicate which device drivers you need to install as well as how to
92. the header For example a version 1 header would result in the data starting at byte 512 of the file assuming byte O is the first byte in the file The data is stored as ASCII readable text to allow the user to easily view the data in any text editor Each data entry contains a timestamp and data value and is terminated with a carriage return line feed pair 0D OA The timestamp and the data value are delimited with a space 20 character 55 1 Data limestamp Format The timestamps are formatted according to the ISO 8601 international standard for combined date and time formatting This format is date T time where date is a complete date expression T is a delimiter and time is a valid time expression An example of such a timestamp would be LLO A dq VELO LOLI The date is of the format YYYY MM DD and the time is of the format hh mm ss sssZ where Z is the zone designator for zero UTC offset or Zulu time as it is known All timestamps will be with zero UTC offset 559 2 Data Value Format The actual data value is stored in its ASCII representation with no zero padding or other formatting For example the number 42039 would be stored as the ASCII string 42039
93. tware Requirements Keo Synopticx is a Microsoft Windows based application that will run on any 32 bit version of Windows provided it is newer than Windows 2000 This includes Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 and Windows 8 8 1 Important Information Keo Synopticx only support 32 bit versions of Windows at this time This is a limitation of the device drivers available for several of the devices used in our instruments It is also required that you install the device drivers for your instrument prior to using Keo Synopticx Please refer to Section 3 for detailed instructions on installing Synopticx and the required drivers 2 2 Computer Requirements Any modern computer system that meets the software requirements will be sufficient for running Keo Synopticx software As a general recommendation Keo Scientific suggests a computer with an Intel Core i5 series processor or better with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD hard drive Additionally a larger storage drive is recommended for the data acquired by the system Important Information Computers and operating systems all undergo frequent revision The following information only gives the minimum computer requirements Please contact Keo Scientific to assess your specific needs It is recommended that the computer have a minimum vertical display resolution of 800 pixels e g 1280x800 This will allow you to interact with the entire Synopticx interface without having to minimize the rib
94. uire Mode acquisition This setting is not available for Continuous Mode acquisitions Shutter Enter the shutter mode to use for the acquisition Normal The shutter will be opened and closed for each exposure This setting will override any External Shutter Logic settings that try to force the shutter closed Disabled Open The shutter will be held open for the duration of the acquisition Disabled Closed The shutter will be held closed for the duration of the acquisition 1 1 3 He saving Settings These settings are only available when running an Acquire Mode acquisition All data collected in Acquire Mode will be saved to the hard disk according to the setting specified here 56 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 3 Hle Saving Settings Root Path D ISynopticx Otherl Ey Filename Image _ 03a_ 03f Variable Formatting fags width specifier Flags Specifiers 0 Left pads the number with f Frame number zeroes 0 instead of spaces a Acquisition number Sample Filename Image 014 000 pmg Acquisition Number 9 Overwrite Prompt Figure 52 Acquire Mode File Saving Settings Root Path Enter the root folder to store data in All collected data will be stored in this folder with no subfolders Filename This setting defines a file name template used to save your files There are two valid parameters that you can insert into the filename field that will automatically be incremented as acquisition occurs
95. uisition will stop when the sun rises above the Max Solar Elevation value e When the Ignore Lunar Position option is not enabled data acquisition will stop if either of these two conditions are met 1 The sun rises above the Max Solar Elevation angle or 2 The moon rises above the Max Lunar Elevation angle and at the same time has a phase greater than the Max Lunar Phase This allows for data acquisition to continue no matter the elevation of the moon as long as the lunar phase is less than the Max Lunar Phase setting oection 7 oettings Dialogs 39 7 3 Instrument Settings The Instrument Settings dialog contains all the various settings needed for Synopticx to connect to and configure your instrument This dialog can be accessed with the Instrument Settings button on the Setup tab There are four main sections to this dialog Instrument Selection top left Filterwheel Shutter Controller center left Temperature Control bottom left and Additional Settings right For instruments with a camera Additional Settings will display camera settings Other instruments will display additional settings here for the particular instrument pog cs ee 4 Sentry Camera Settings 1 Instrument Selection Camera Type Princeton Instruments PIXIS Model Sentry Imager Camera Selection Camera Name VirtualCamera Refresh Configuration Multi Position Description PI Virtual Camera Version Standard ADC Settings Shutter Control I
96. ule dialog is used to define a data acquisition schedule for use in a Schedule Mode acquisition This dialog can be accessed using the Acquisition Schedule button on the Setup tab The acquisition schedule can operate in two different modes Free Run and Synchronized and features an intuitive drag and drop interface for placing filters in the schedule 7 6 1 Scheduling Mode There are two different options for the scheduling mode Free Run and Synchronized See Section 4 1 1 for more details on the different modes 50 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b Free Run Use this mode when you want to simply cycle through all the filters or a subset of them in a particular order Synchronized Use this mode when you want to prescribe a cadence for each filter and have each exposure start at a prescribed second in the minute After selecting the mode the schedule will change to reflect the mode of operation In Free Run mode the number of timeslots will be equal to the number of installed filters while in Synchronized mode there will be 60 timeslots corresponding to each second of a minute See Figure 39 and Figure 40 for a depiction of the different scheduling modes When to capture dark frames At the beginning of every night o capture dark frames At the beginning of every night Every hour At the end of every night Je Available filters Available filters
97. utter External Shutter Logic Shutter Image_ 03a_ 03f Variable Formatting amp flags width specifier Flags O Left pads the number with zeroes 0 instead of spaces Sample Filename e Acquisition Number 0 Overwrite Prompt Image 014 000 png Specfiers f Frame number a Acquisition number 7 1 Camera Settings Figure 49 Acquisition Configuration Dialog The camera settings found in this dialog function the same as the ones found in the Instrument Settings dialog except that these settings will only apply to the Continuous or Acquire mode acquisition For instruments that don t have a camera this section of the dialog will be display NO AVAILABLE SETTINGS 54 Keo Synopticx User Manual Version 1 2b 1 7 2 Acquisition settings Use the acquisition settings to define the current acquisition Different options will be presented here depending on the type of instrument attached 1 1 2 1 Sentry Imager Acquisition Settings When the instrument is configured as a Sentry Imager the settings presented here will be as shown below 2 Acquisition Settings Filter 1 557711441254262 w Exposure ms 1500 Binning 1x1 Number of 10 m Exposures Shutter Normal Figure 50 Sentry Imager Acquisition Settings Filter Select the filter to acquire data with The list of filters is created using the information entered in the Filter Setup dialog Exposure E
98. will zoom the image so that there is a one to one mapping of image pixels to display pixels This ensures that the displayed image is not being interpolated for display on your screen which can sometimes produce aliased patterns in your images which could be mistaken as actual data 6 33 The Selection Group This group of buttons allows you to do a few things with the currently selected data point oW X Show Clear Center on Information Selection Selection Figure 21 The Selection Group Buttons A data point can be selected by simply left mouse clicking anywhere on the Preview Thumbnail This will display the image slice lines intersecting at the selected point Important Information You can quickly and easily change the currently selected data point by using the arrow keys on your keyboard 6 3 3 1 The Show Information Button This button toggles the selected point information display on and off This button will be disabled if there isn t a data point currently selected This informative display shows three key pieces of information 1 Ihe value of the selected pixel 2 The maximum possible value of a pixel in the image and 3 The x and y coordinates of the selected pixel the origin is the top right corner of the image Value 3993 65535 Point 373 186 Figure 22 Selection Information Display Item 2 the maximum possible value of a pixel in the image is based on the bit depth of the output amplifier u
99. x These are explained in detail in Section 4 1 These acquisition modes can be started using the Run Schedule Run Continuous or Run Acquire buttons found on the Home tab 4 Stopping an Acquisition When any acquisition is currently running the Stop button on the Home tab can be used to abort the acquisition and return the system to the Stopped state Under normal conditions this button is used to stop a running schedule mode acquisition to allow changes to be made or to stop a continuous mode acquisition will normally run continuously until manually stopped Acquire mode acquisitions will stop automatically upon completing the defined acquisition see Section 7 7 for details on configuring an acquire mode acquisition Important Information When an acquisition is commanded to stop the currently acquiring data will complete before the system returns to the Stopped state When running in Schedule Mode stopping an acquisition will trigger the At the end of every night dark frame collection to run if it has been selected in the Acquisition Schedule Setup dialog To cancel running the dark frame collection click the Stop button a second time and it will immediately stop the acquisition oection 4 Operational Overview 29 4 8 Disconnecting There are two situations when you might want to disconnect from the instrument when shutting down the system or when modifying any instrument settings the settings found in the Instrument

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