areaDetector: EPICS software for area detectors

Module Owner: Mark Rivers: University of Chicago

This page is the home of areaDetector, an application for controlling area (2-D) detectors, including CCDs, pixel array detectors, and online imaging plates.

NOTE: This module replaces the ccd and pilatusROI modules. These older modules will no longer be supported, and users are encouraged to convert to this new areaDetector software.

Devices supported in areaDetector include:

From Dectris

From Prosilica

From ADSC

From MAR

From Roper

From Bruker

From Point Grey Research

Please email any comments and bug reports to Mark Rivers who is responsible for coordinating development and releases.

Where to find it

The areaDetector module is in the EPICS Applications SVN repository on SourceForge. Persons wishing to collaborate on this project can contact Mark Rivers to get write access to this application there.

You can download the software from the links in the table below. The software is available both in source code form, and in pre-built form so that it can be used without an EPICS build system. The pre-built form includes binaries for linux-x86, win32-x86, solaris-sparc and some vxWorks archtectures.

Module Version Release Date Source Code Filename Pre-built Filename Documentation Release Notes Known Problems
1-4 30-Jan-2009 areaDetectorR1-4.tgz areaDetectorPrebuilt_R1-4.tgz areaDetectorDoc Release notes See release notes
1-3 24-Nov-2008 areaDetectorR1-3.tgz areaDetectorPrebuilt_R1-3.tgz areaDetectorDoc Release notes See release notes
1-2 24-Oct-2008 areaDetectorR1-2.tgz N.A. areaDetectorDoc Release notes See release notes
1-1 10-May-2008 areaDetectorR1-1.tgz N.A. areaDetectorDoc Release notes See release notes
1-0 11-Apr-2008 areaDetectorR1-0.tgz N.A. areaDetectorDoc Release notes See release notes

Required Modules

Module Version Requires module Release needed Required for
1-4 EPICS base 3.14.10 Base support
asyn 4-10 Socket and interface support
busy 1-1 busy record. This was formerly included in sscan, but now has its own support module.
calc 2-7 scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan 2-6-3 sscan record
mca 6-10 mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave 4-5 Save/restore
1-3 EPICS base 3.14.10 Base support. 3.14.8.2 also works, but the bug in epicsRingPointer can be a problem on multi-processor Linux systems.
asyn 4-10 Socket and interface support
calc 2-6-7 scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan 2-6-2 sscan and busy records
mca 6-10 mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave 4-4 Save/restore
1-2 EPICS base 3.14.10 Base support. 3.14.8.2 also works, but the bug in epicsRingPointer can be a problem on multi-processor Linux systems.
asyn 4-10 Socket and interface support
calc 2-6-5 scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan 2-5-6 Busy record
mca 6-10 mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave 4-3 Save/restore
1-1 EPICS base 3.14.8.2 Base support
asyn 4-10 Socket and interface support
sscan 2-5-6 Busy record
autosave 4-3 Save/restore
1-0 EPICS base 3.14.8.2 Base support
asyn 4-10 Socket and interface support
sscan 2-5-6 Busy record
autosave 4-3 Save/restore

Installation and Building

Source code version

After obtaining a copy of the distribution, it must be installed and built for use at your site. These steps only need to be performed once for the site (unless versions of the module running under different releases of EPICS and/or the other required modules are needed).

  1. Create an installation directory for the module, usually this will end with

    .../support/
  2. Place the distribution file in this directory. Then issue the commands (Unix style)
    tar xvzf areaDetectorRX-Y.tgz
    
    
    where X-Y is the release.
  3. This creates a <top> application.
    .../support/areaDetectorRX-Y
    
  4. Edit the configure/RELEASE file and set the paths to your installation of EPICS base and to your versions of supporting modules.
  5. Run gnumake in the top level directory and check for any compilation errors.

Prebuilt version

  1. Create an installation directory for the module.
  2. Place the distribution file in this directory. Then issue the commands (Unix style)
    tar xvzf areaDetectorPrebuiltRX-Y.tgz
  3. In the iocBoot directory make a copy of the example ioxXXX directory for the detector you are using and give it a new local name. By doing this you will be able to update to later versions of areaDetector without overwriting modifications you make in the iocXXX directory.
  4. In the new iocXXX directory you just created edit st.cmd to change the PV prefix $(P) to one that is unique to your site. PV prefixes must be unique on the subnet, and if you use the default prefix there could be a conflict with other detectors of the same type.
  5. In the same iocXXX directory edit the file envPaths to point to the locations of all of the support modules on your system. Normally this is handled by the EPICS build system, but when using the prebuilt version this must be manually edited. Do not worry about the path to EPICS_BASE, it is not required.

Please email  Mark Rivers  so that a record can be kept of which sites are using this software.

In Use

This software was originally developed by Mark Rivers.